Royal Mail delivery

[heartblock]

I'm not a very Christmassy person and meet many friends online, as well as having my lovely partner. I imagine for any elderly people living on their own, having Christmas cards from friends and family at this time of year is a comfort and a welcome joy. I certainly haven't had any of the cards I usually receive. It's sad the PO is struggling - it was great to be able to walk to the sorting office in Sylvester and the guys were very helpful.

1. Safely visit your elderly neighbours and wish them a Merry Christmas

2. Vote wisely so that we can have the postal service back into national ownership with proper funding

3. Hope that one of your missing letters isn't a one time offer to win a billion :)

[sue k]

my hubby is also missing his Xmas Private Eye... and other cards/presents that have been sent to me,, gutted!

Thankyou to James and Helen for picking this up... Royal Mail must sort this out.

[first mate]

Also loads of missing deliveries. Once has been cancelled and resent three times, the last allegedly next day with signature...it has not arrived.

The service is diabolical.

[Drxyster]

Forty-Eight hour tracked signed for package, sent from Manchester area. On checking the tracking number, it informs me that is was deposited at the post office at 17:24 on November 30, 2021 and that Royal mail have the package.

They forgot to add, we will be keeping it !!

Only three posted Christmas cards received very early December, normally receive about thirty by now. Also expecting Visa Card statement, will probably have late payment fee and interest to pay when it arrives and this is caused by Royal Mail.

What chance have I to claim these charges from Royal Mail?

Should the government or Her Majesty instruct Royal Mail to remove the word Royal, from Royal Mail. The insulting delivery problems should force them to remove Royal, this is an embarrassment This is a private / public company, nothing to do with Royal. Rant over!!

[redjam]

We?ve had no post for over a week. We?re missing Christmas presents for the kids and a birthday present for my daughter which was posted at the end of November! It?s an absolute disgrace.

[lindylou]

Yes. You have nailed it.never mind about your cards, think of lonely pensioners who did not understand what is going on. Also, think once again of the homeless.

[Pugwash]

Posted card to Grandson in Harlow 3 weeks ago and he still has not got it. No post in Barry Road for almost 3 weeks.

[suecharlie@btinterne]

I have also like James received complaints about the lack of cards and letters being delivered in the East Dulwich area. I spent almost 30 minutes on the phone to Highshore Road being played music before I gave up. As I couldn?t get a reply I went down to the sorting office on Highshore Road on Christmas Eve afternoon. I was told a majority of staff were off sick with COVID or were isolating. I asked why Casuals were not being used to fill in the staffing gaps. I was told they had taken on a small band of Casuals but they were being let go that evening (Friday). There was a very large amount of unprocessed mail waiting to be sorted. It was hoped some members of staff will return after the Christmas break to deal with the backlog.

It was interesting during the run up to Christmas to see the parcels side to the Royal Mail were working flat out. I wonder if there is more profit in parcels delivery rather than cards and letters.

Residents of East Dulwich have been let down badly by the Royal Mail. We should expect a much better service than this. We should also receive an apology and an explanation why the service has failed so badly. There may well be grounds for compensation payments for those who may have lost out financially where payments have been missed and penalties incurred. Your local Councillors and Member of Parliament will be pursuing this matter on behalf of local residents and will come back with answers. After all, who wants to receive Christmas cards in the first week in January?

Yours Sincerely

Councillor Charlie Smith

Goose Green Ward Member

[Penguin68]

It was interesting during the run up to Christmas to see the parcels side to the Royal Mail were working flat out. I wonder if there is more profit in parcels delivery rather than cards and letters.

These is the small package element of Royal Mail (large packages are Parcelforce). I imagine they thought that just before Christmas, parcels (which would have presents in them, or which would then be given as presents) and, in particular, Lateral Flow Covid test kits were of higher priority than Christmas Cards and bills, if a choice had to be made. I wouldn't, personally, disagree with this prioritisation. Clearly Covid itself has eaten into their available workforce, but this position is exacerbated by not filling quite many (I believe) vacancies at Peckham.

Once items have been posted, whenever delivered, the revenue has already been received, so probably profitability isn't an issue here. And all items will eventually have to be delivered. The overall staffing position clearly may be an issue of profitability - but this would be outwith any prioritisation between delivery item types.

[Moovart]

Profitability is an issue because of competition. There are many companies competing to deliver parcels and royal mail is competing to keep their share of the market.

There is no competition for delivery of letters and so letters and cards can be sidelined to focus staff on parcel delivery.

You may believe that everything has to be delivered eventually but this is not the case as, in my personal experience, a significant amount of post never reaches its destination.

I try to avoid posting letters and parcels with royal mail as much as possible because it is just not reliable.

[Jenijenjen]

? I try to avoid posting letters and parcels with royal mail as much as possible because it is just not reliable.?

And ordering goods online that use Royal Mail to deliver

[yeknomyeknom]

We have had no post for 3 weeks and we usually see our postie every day. We even bought him some Quality Street to give at Xmas. But it?s been so long we have eaten them. We have 5 key Xmas presents for our child that didn?t turn up even though they were ordered late November to early December. Tracking shows they were handed to Royal Mail but never reached the 2nd of 4 stages ?in transit?. Over ?200 worth of product. Our kid is still going stuff will arrive in the new year. The postie really will be like Santa then.

[jazzer]

Moovart "There is no competition for delivery of letters and so letters and cards can be sidelined to focus staff on parcel delivery".

There is competition at least with Whistl who I understand handle post as well.

[Lynne]

3 cards in over in two deliveries in two weeks.

I spite of all the criticism, Hermes delivered Ok.

[Bic Basher]

It's always disappointing when I order from Amazon that they decide to send it via the Royal Mail as it's a guess if they'll deliver it on time or not.

Yet as mentioned, the courier companies and Amazon themselves have proven that with the right logistics, they can provide a decent parcel delivery service.

[intexasatthe moment]

Have people been successful in calling at Highshore Road and asking staff to look for their mail ?

I'm wondering about going down there .

[Loz334]

I asked the postman last week if I could go to the sorting office as have a number of presents missing- he said you can go but you won?t get it as it?s all in huge crates waiting to be sorted.

[intexasatthe moment]

I wonder if cards/letters might be sorted and could be collected ?

[Rockets]

It's getting beyond a joke now. It's worse than it has ever been, it's as if they have just given up delivering letters.

We haven't had any for a couple of weeks now and we know that come the second week of Jan a huge bundle of letters will drop through the door, many of which were supposed to be delivered during December.

I thought councillors and MPs were supposed to have already intervened some months ago to get this resolved?

[sandyman]

Just adding to this that we've not received a single Christmas card in the post this year.

Maybe the people we sent cards to didn't get theirs either - when i went to post cards in the letterbox outside small Sainsburys a week before Christmas it was so full you couldn't get any letters in.

[vic.ham]

I posted my goddaughters birthday card and Christmas card on December 1st(and other cards) She messaged me to thank me for them, they both arrived Christmas Eve, her birthday is the 10th. I also haven't received any Christmas cards this year from friends and family. Absolutely shambolic service by Royal Mail,

[vic.ham]

I posted my goddaughters birthday card and Christmas card on December 1st(and other cards) She messaged me to thank me for them, they both arrived Christmas Eve, her birthday is the 10th. I also haven't received any Christmas cards this year from friends and family. Absolutely shambolic service by Royal Mail,

[Amyeastdulwich]

Just to add I haven?t had any post from normal post service (Royal Mail) I didn?t receive Christmas cards & feel bad as people have made them. I?m on Barry Rd. Do you think this post will turn up eventually? I don?t blame the lovely post people obviously- more I think the problems come with privatisation. Also the post people may well be sick.

[Lynne]

I think there should be some sort of high level official inquiry into the Royal Mail. It's obviously not fit for purpose since it was privatised.

It's been creaky all year, post has been slow, but this Christmas has been even worse than last year's fiasco

[sandyman]

a few christmas cards trickled in this morning - one posted on December 10, one on December 12, but i imagine others can beat that delay!