Is the Royal Mail 'fit for purpose'?

I think the post is shocking. Since moving from a place where deliveries were good and reasonably early 10.30ish we now recieve our post at any time between 12.30pm and 4.30pm. It varies so much and for that reason I consider it unreasonable and unreliable. I like to have a bath mid afternoon and get into PJ's (see previous post on PJ's) and I can't do that and then answer the door, I prefer to be fully dressed for the postman! It is very inconvenient.

What I think most people have forgotten is that we used to get post twice a day, now I have trouble getting the first, and only, post before 4.30pm! It has all gone to crap...

The local post office is in a small store and they are very good and lovely too.

The issue with the card and pendant was likely the thickness of the envelope rather than the weight - an envelope does not have to be very thick to require a large letter stamp instead of a standard stamp. I always take anything that is not a flat card or letter to the post office to check the width of the item - or put a large letter stamp on the item to be on the safe side.

Some of you seem to be confusing Royal Mail with Post Office Counters - they are two separate companies and have been for decades (I should know, I've worked for both in the past). Our local post offices are great and we have a fantastic postman - poor guy is taking an extra two hours a day to do his round with all the extra Christmas post. Those moaning about late post should remember their postie starts work as early as 5am and cannot go home until their round is finished (they have to sort their mail before they set off).People may not be sending as many letters and cards as they used to but there has been a huge increase in online shopping and the postman has to deliver the packets and smaller items as part of their normal round.

Those who have had major issues with delivery should contact Royal Mail via their website to complain.

But it isn't just the Royal Mail. Things are late or disappear all time via the various courier services. Yodel are awful - my husband was constantly on the phone to them about a parcel which, according to their tracking info, was always "out for delivery" or "back at the depot" but never arrived. It seemed that they regularly took it for a ride down our street and then took it home! We never did get it.

Parcel2go took 8 days to manage a "next day collection" for the Xmas presents we were sending to the US.

A fortnight ago, I bought a chess set for my husband for Xmas. The seller sent it with a courier I hadn't heard of - I think it was called Hermes - and I had tracking info that didn't work. The courier admitted they'd lost it. When I contacted the vendor for a refund, he said they'd lost 320 of his parcels over the past 2 weeks!

I've no problem with our two usual posties, polite and friendly and sometime stopping for a quick chat. But, the thing that gets to me is the price of posting. Sent a parcel last week that cost 13 pounds, cost more than the contents.

card and pendant 'which weighed no more than a gram'

I sent a small 3" x 3" card with a 1st class stamp, and I enclosed a small pendant which weighed . My OH posted it in the post box (because there was a parking place) instead of taking it to the post office in town. Of course the inevitable happened, it went missing. As there was no proof of posting on it they said it was my fault and I would not be able to claim anything. The post lady (who is very nice) said they didn't empty the box that was done by a man in a van from the next town. When he collects the mail it goes to a sorting office and they have a gadget with slits in it and a pair of scales. If it will not go through the slits, or if it weighs more than a first class stamp's worth it will be put in to a box with other undelivered mail and it will sit there until full. To cut a long story short, the little card arrived 3 weeks later, but my son got a card through the door saying he had to go to the post office to collect it and pay £1 for Admin fees and 50p for extra postage.

My view on this is that the post office these days is a rip off. If they can deliver a card they could have delivered the card, but they say their postmen cannot be responsible for cash. Not like the old days is it?

I wouldn't mind, but we take in post office parcels for the whole street as they are usually out when the post arrives! Our sorting office is 10 miles away so it would mean a 20 mile journey if they missed their parcels.

I know exactly what you mean Anya My three DGC love getting letters and cards through the post too.

And the main point is my fish is still festering in Edinburgh, where it arrived last Monday from South Uist.

I was posting the local ones because the grandchildren love to get things through the post. The sorting office for our area is just a mile away. And the point was one got there next day. One is still missing.

The local post office close to where my dad lives has been integrated into a local spar type shop. The assistants in the shop are notoriously well known in the area. Don't want to go into too much detail but surface to say you wouldn't trust them an inch. Surprisingly it is these same assistants that pop behind the counter at the post office whenever necessary. I cannot believe that the post office don't carry out checks on their employees?

The post office in my village is changing soon.
At the moment it is in the newsagents. The post office wants it to be open until 9.00p.m. and the newsagent refuses to stay open that late, as he thinks it will cost more in staff and heating, etc., than he will take in the extra hours. So it will be moving into the Spar shop.
Of course, those who work in it will only get shopworkers rates of pay instead of post office rates. As long as they can sell us lots of insurance, that'll be okay.

Baggage handlers at quite a few airports are going on strike late next week and pilots ,can't remember which airline on strike , over Christmas

Oh, OK, thanks.

Five days next week, Jalima, but it's only the crown post offices. It's to do with the post office management doing away with the final salary pension scheme.

Yes, Iswym and we would normally go round when we go out to do our shopping.
They may not even get there now, we put 2nd class stamps on and someone muttered something about a strike.

Our sorting office has two slots in the wall outside, one for local post, one for everything else.

We do occasionally get wrongly delivered letters but on the whole I'm pleased with the Royal Mail. There is no other service to compare it with anyway because other postal services can pick and choose where they deliver, which the Royal Mail can't do. It's unfair competition and that must impact upon the service.

Yes, that's why I asked Anya why she was posting the local ones.
Someone on the radio this morning said that people often write local on them still, expecting it to make a difference. It doesn't. A local one might have even further to go because it has to go to a sorting office and back, compared to one that is sent to somewhere closer to the sorting office - if you see what I mean.

Oh dear, I did a Xmas post round when I was 17. So did my DH, who was already my significant other. He was allocated the very flat area round his mum's house, popped in there for teabreaks and to warm up and was finished by midday. I was given two rounds in the hilliest, most exposed area in the district, staggered round on the ice gripping onto walls to keep my balance, and finished at six once I'd shoved all the post I had left into the last few houses I got to and taken to my heels before anybody realised and shouted after me. I'm sure there were complaints galore.

To add to my woes, I earned half what DH did because I was under 18 and - shock, horror - female

We normally deliver a lot by hand but, both feeling ill these week, stuck stamps on all the cards except immediate neighbours and DH managed to drive to the post box today.

Perhaps people who are not feeling up to the mark for whatever reason find it easier to let Royal Mail do the deliveries.

Our usual postman is great, but when he is not on the round for whatever reason, we often get wrong post delivered here.

Anya, why did you put cards in the postbox to be delivered within a mile of you? Isn't it quicker to just deliver them yourself?
All post goes to a central sorting office in an area. I know the one in York was closed, so if you sent a letter from York to York, it had to go to Leeds to be sorted.

Lucky you whitewave - I certainly don't want this issue either.

Some of you seem quite unlucky. We've always had brilliant service from our postman, nothing has ever got lost, nor have we had stuff delayed. So I am afraid I don't recognize any of the complaints above.

I am very happy with our Royal Mail service, We have a lovely post lady who will go out of her way to help in any way she can and always has a cheery word for everyone.

I can't complain about our deliveries at work as they are normally fine. Recently however I have noticed that the postman looks like a vagabond. Completely scruffy, unshaven, filthy shirt with buttons missing (belly on show) and dinner slops down it and I am not exaggerating! He was so bad yesterday I asked him (jokingly, but not, if you know what I mean) whether he had slept in his clothes and he laughed and said "Filthy clothes? I don't even bother getting washed Monday-Saturday... ha ha ha"

I kind of already guessed that!

I never see our home postman as normally at work.

Staff at our post office counter could do with a mega training session in "how to talk to customers" they are rude and even nasty. I avoid it like the plague but have to go in occasionally for work related matters. A few weeks ago I was sending a parcel. Not valuable as such but would make life difficult if it were lost. I popped it on the scales and was told the price, then she added (with the usual charm) "if you want to make sure it gets there you should pay an extra £5.75" Why? I asked, are you planning on losing it? "well the post office won't be responsible if it gets lost". I questioned this and almost got the impression that It WOULD get lost if I didn't pay the extra money. Surely the fact that I haver handed it over at a post office counter should mean that IT WILL be safe and arrive at its destination?

Another time the queue was almost out of the door and they closed the entire post office counter and proceeded to wipe the keyboards down with wet wipes. This took a few minutes and they happily chatted between themselves as they did it ! a lady in front of me asked "if they were for real" and she was treat to a mouthful and told "if she didn't like it the post office in the next town was available to use" You couldn't make it up !