kitwhitfield

We have a music-loving little boy and would really like to find him a Saturday or Sunday class he could go to. He's three years old, but he's also autistic - fairly high-functioning as these things go and a friendly fellow, but he has some language delay and he can need a little patience. We were looking at Monkey Music, but they only run classes during the week and it's weekends we need to occupy. Can anyone suggest anything?

Hi, I'm the mother of a friendly fourteen-month-old little boy who is, bless him, making it all but impossible to work from home. I'm looking for someone in a similar situation with a view to taking turns to look after each others' kids for a morning or afternoon while we get stuff done. I previously did this with a friend from antenatal class, who can be contacted for a reference, but she's now gone back to working full days and has hired a childminder. Ideally I'd be looking for someone to swap with two mornings/afternoons a week each, but can be flexible on that. Can offer a non-smoking house with home-made cooking, sing-songs, a garden, park visits if your child is either walking or sling-able, and change either disposable or washable nappies. Can also offer a study-shed space with electricity and Internet access if you wanted to work within reach of your child. If anyone's interested, please get in touch and we can meet and see if we think we'd get on. I wouldn't be able to start for a few weeks as I'm in the third week of nursing a broken arm, but hopefully will be back at full capacity soon! Please e-mail me on the forum or call Kit Whitfield on 07761 913518.

Bad news on that front: the council are now thinking of bulldozing them to re-design the whole pavement area! There's a petition to save them in the Co-op - everyone please sign it. Also please write to the council and protest at this e-mail: csc@southwark.gov.uk.

I'm giving birth shortly and my best friend loaned me her inflatable birthing pool, but unfortunately it turns out to have some leaks in it. If anyone has one of their own they'd be willing to lend (subject to me providing a disposable sheet, of course) or sell, I'd be very interested to hear from them!

Hi there, Glad to hear I'm not the only one who's gone dappy since getting pregnant! I can do more or less any day, as I work from home and have pretty much put myself on maternity leave (I'm 38 weeks on Friday, so not exactly at my most dazzling) - when would suit you? Good luck at the antenatal classes...

Hello, I'm new to this thread but due (my first baby) in a couple of weeks and would love to meet other local mums/dads - mind if I introduce myself? I'm free on Wednesday evenings, if that helps... :-) Kit

Thanks for the info, everyone! Hope you all have a good time...

Hello everyone I live just near Peckham Rye and am expecting my first baby in the next couple of weeks, and would very much like to meet other local mums! Should I keep an eye on this thread for when the littlun's ready for a first outing? :-) Kit

The article in the Southwark News is out today, I believe. Everyone get a copy!

Good to hear that parcels are starting to arrive. :-) I've been speaking to a journalist on the local paper, and he's going to be doing an article about it soon, so let's keep the stories coming!

I did worry that I might be subject to some kind of postal vengeance for complaining, but thinking about it logically, knowing that I'm a complainer who makes a fuss when the parcels don't arrive, and that it's a crime to tamper with post, they'd stand to lose far more than I did if anybody did get a vindictive urge. I might lose a parcel, but they'd lose their jobs; those aren't odds anyone sensible would play. Also I doubt most people are that vindictive; mostly they just want to do their jobs and go home. Complaining hopefully ups the chances that they can't go home till they've done the job properly, but doesn't provoke counter-attacks.

Interestingly, having spent the last week complaining to MPs, journalists, complaints lines, Postwatch and this place, I suddenly got an avalanche of long-awaited parcels on my doormat today - in fact, the postmen came round twice. It might be coincidence, but I'm inclined to suspect that the complaints might have had something to do with it...

I have the strong impression that the posties and desk staff are doing their best in the face of bad orders from higher up the chain. Probably they're also getting the most abuse from irritated customers as well, even though it's not their fault. I think the higher-ups are giving a raw deal to post workers and customers both.

I've had a reply from Tessa Jowell, saying she's been looking into the postal problems since as early as October, and she'll keep looking into them; she's acknowledged that the problems are worse than the strike would seem to justify. This seems to be good news. She also forwarded me a letter dated October 29th, in which a Royal Mail staffer assures her that they're looking into the problem. This staffer cites the word of Tony Phelan by way of explaining what's going on at street level; as Mr Phelan is the one who decided the dishonest 'you were out' card system should be used in the first place, I'm not sure his word is completely trustworthy. I've written back to her pointing that out, and I've also sent her a copy of our Postwatch complaint letter detailing exactly what happened when, so she can have a clear idea of the problem from the customers' point of view. If anyone else has time to send Ms Jowell a detailed account, it might help her get an accurate picture, factoring in the customers' side of the story as well as the post workers, when she looks into this. I'd personally be willing to pay more for better service; the service before the post office was privatised was much better, for a pretty similar price to now. What I resent is paying a fair amount for no service at all. It's hardly 'going out of your way' to deliver parcels to the houses they're addressed to.

Something I've found is that if you call the complaints line, about the first six times, you'll get put through to an answering machine and then automatically be cut off. If you persist enough times, they'll finally put you on hold and you'll eventually get to speak to somebody. As the article says, 'it's no mean feat to get through to customer services' (which somewhat belies the promise of their name, you'd think.) Still, it's worth persisting, if the article is to be believed - the more complaints we manage to grapple through the system, the less they can pretend nothing's wrong. So if you get put through to an answerphone, keep trying: it's there to deter people from making complaints, but you can get past it given a little patience.

I've e-mailed Tessa Jowell the following message: Dear Tessa Jowell, Since the Royal Mail strike ended, many of us in your constituency have still been failing to get parcels delivered. The sorting offices are using a variety of methods to deal with the backlog, all of which fall on the customer. These include two varieties of non-delivery: - Putting 'you were out' cards through the letterbox when we're in, when the postmen don't actually have the parcels to deliver. Customers are being lied to and expected to pick up parcels they've paid to have sent to their door. - Not delivering parcels at all so they return to senders. In addition, hurried post means letters are frequently delivered to the wrong houses, postmen sometimes don't wait for signatures on registered parcels, and sometimes don't bother ringing the bell to make their rounds go faster. I'd like to call your attention to the discussion on this forum: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,67406 - a thread you can also search under the title 'the parcel sorters are lying to us' - where you can hear the complaints of a lot of people who are not getting the service they paid for. We understand the strike has caused a backlog, but that is an industry dispute that should not penalise the customers. We understand from today's South London Press (page 7) that the sorting office in Streatham, SW16, hired a private firm called CTC Couriers to clear the backlog, and we would like to request most strongly that a similar measure is taken here. The backlog is evidently massive, and chipping away at it with ordinary measures is only going to prolong the crisis. Many of us have valuable parcels in transit and are concerned that we may never receive them; in addition, our valuable time is being wasted by being dragged out to collect parcels. The problem is urgent, and we would appreciate your urgent attention. Thank you for considering this issue. Yours sincerely, Kit Whitfield You can also contact her through this site: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/tessa_jowell/dulwich_and_west_norwood The more of us contact her, the more likely she is to listen to our complaints, so everyone who's had a problem, please e-mail her telling her the problems you've had in your own words as soon as you have time.

Has anyone else seen South London Press today? Page 7 talks about how Streatham hired a private company to work flat-out till the backlog was sorted. According to the article, they seem to have resolved the problem now. I think we should insist we get the same thing done here. I asked the council but they said they couldn't help; is anyone interested in joining in campaigning to get it? I'm not quite sure how it would be done - some sort of petition, perhaps? - so any suggestions would be great.

I did actually suggest to Lee Cooper that they sent cards out explaining the situation rather than lying; I wouldn't have minded at all picking up parcels if it wasn't for the deceit involved. He said angrily 'I'm not filling out two thousand forms!'. Everyone else in the office was excellent, but he was very clear it was my problem, not his. The other staff were very helpful. The thing is, I've found today it's not just 'you were out' cards. An ebay seller I bought something from has just had that parcel returned, marked 'unable to deliver/refused'. I've been home all the time, and I never refused it. Based on my earlier experiences, I can only conclude that the sorters are not only clearing the backlog by sending out 'you were out' forms, but by not bothering to even notify customers about some parcel arrivals. Now if I want the parcel resent, I'll have to pay for postage twice. I'm keeping up the complaints; the complaints line agree that this won't do, and say London in general is still having a problem.

It's not my intention to insult Mr Cooper personally; he didn't handle the situation well, but neither did he create it. The worst you can say about him is that he's a cog in a machine who isn't making the situation better, but he's not the main culprit, and I don't think mocking him is constructive. It's a waste of energy that could be spent confronting the actual villains.

They keep leaving 'you were out so we couldn't deliver' cards when we were in. As I said on another thread, I recently caught a postman doing it and found he didn't even have the parcel; they're trying to clear the backlog by making US pick the parcels up. Angry letters to Postwatch are flying even as we speak. see other thread This thread locked as there are two others about the postal service at the moment. Here's the main one The Administrator

Well, I've written an angry letter to Postwatch, mentioning both Lee Cooper and Tony Phelan by name; I'll try to keep you posted on what answer I get. I'd suggest that everyone keeps an ear out for the post and complains whenever they get cards when they were in; I, from now on, am going to have to assume that every 'you were out' thing I get is a dodge unless I actually was out. Though Lee Cooper was rude, the responsibility for the decision goes higher up the chain, and keeping after him personally wouldn't really achieve anything. However, I've had a journalist from South London Press contact me saying a piece she's doing comes out tomorrow, which talks about similar problems going on in Lambeth. All of which makes me think it's a general policy over a wide area, possibly even nationally, rather than the odd incompetent employee. I'm going to wait to see what Postwatch says, and if their answer isn't satisfactory, consumer watchdogs would probably be the next step. I'm also wondering whether contacting our local MP might do some good...

I started a new thread about this because I've got some new information and it's a slightly different subject, but currenly there's a policy of giving customers 'you were out' cards without trying to deliver the parcels at all, in an attempt to clear the backlog. As this comes under the heading of 'lying to customers', I'm complaining strenuously about it and I suggest others do the same.

Have you been getting forms through your door saying 'You were out so we couldn't deliver this parcel, come and pick it up' when you weren't actually out? We have, and we've been chasing up why. The Sylvester Road sorting office is dealing with a backlog by sending out these forms as if they were letters, without actually trying to deliver the parcels at all. We caught a postman putting one of the forms through our door, and he didn't even have the parcel on him! We went to complain, and the staff told us that their manager, Lee Cooper, had told them to do this in order to sort out a backlog. We complained to him a couple of days later - he was very surly and rude - and he told us that the order had come from the area manager, Tony Phelan. I've sent a complaint to Postwatch, and I urge other customers to do the same. Because I work from home, I've been suspicious for some time of just how often I've had cards saying 'you were out' when I wasn't, and now I have the feeling that the office is in the habit of palming off the work of getting the parcels to their paying customers. They're lying to us and not giving us the service we pay for. In passing, I'd like to say that the staff on Saturday were polite and helpful, but when we pointed out to Lee Cooper that his dishonest practices put additional stress on them - we were by no means the only cross customers they'd had that day - he said callously, 'They get paid to deal with complaints'. It's not the fault of the guys at the desk, but I feel bad for them having to work for someone with that attitude. If this has happened to you, please join us in complaining as much as possible about it. It's becoming seriously inconvenient only getting parcels two times out of three, and the attitude seems so entrenched, based on Lee Cooper at least, that I don't think the problem will go away unless we make it as clear as possible how annoying it is.