Royal Mail Late Deliveries and the price we have to pay

[Sue]

I had post this morning.

[another annie]

Thanks  for the reminder nellie. Have today received two letters dated February 2024. Heading down to Highshore Road tomorrow to see if there's anything for us.

I'm getting obsessive about missing/late arriving bills since having our phone and broadband cut off when we hadn't received (so hadn't paid) a bill from BT that had been posted to us. I now keep a note in my diary of when the various utility bills are expected, and phoning them when I think something is due, invariably they say the bill has been sent out. It shouldn't be so hard.

Edited June 7 by another annie
adding info

[Cyclemonkey]

Wouldn't it be easier to get the bills emailed to you or use direct debit?

[Spartacus]

Whilst Another Annie could even pay all bills by direct debit, the point is that it shouldn't be that hard to get post delivered and what other important documentation is going missing ? 

[Sue]

Off topic but I don't want to start another thread.

I just had a Royal Mail delivery of a parcel.

The postman ignored a large sign on the door asking people to ring the bell, and just rattled the letterbox, which luckily I heard.

When I opened the door, I found the parcel on my doorstep in full view of passers by, and the postman getting into his van a few houses down.

I then received an email informing me that my parcel had been delivered to my "safe place", an "enclosed porch".

I don't have a safe place, and my porch is not enclosed, it is basically a doorstep to a terraced house .

I know posties have a lot to do, but I find things like this really annoying.

[malumbu]

Most of the delivery companies do this to us so you not just RM! 

[Sue]

Just had through the door a letter from King's offering me  an appointment last Friday.

Lucky we have phones, emails and texts, isn't it? The appointment was originally made by phone.

The letter was dated 6 June, the envelope is stamped 11 June,  the appointment was on 14 June, and today is 17 June.

🙄

 

[malumbu]

Ideally NHS should let us opt out of hard copy.  In deed, I get texts and have the NHS app.  And always good to have a calender in your kitchen to write out down too.

[Sue]

1 hour ago, malumbu said:

Ideally NHS should let us opt out of hard copy.  In deed, I get texts and have the NHS app.  And always good to have a calender in your kitchen to write out down too.

I do all that, I wasn't expecting a hard copy as well, I'm just annoyed at the delay.

And I'm concerned in case my postal vote is equally delayed. I can't remember why I have one, unless I applied during the Covid era.

[lbanks]

Not had post for a couple of weeks now and getting a bit worried our postal vote won’t arrive in time. What is the recourse for this? Feels very wrong that the poor state of the postal system might prevent us from voting!

[Sue]

2 hours ago, lbanks said:

Not had post for a couple of weeks now and getting a bit worried our postal vote won’t arrive in time. What is the recourse for this? Feels very wrong that the poor state of the postal system might prevent us from voting!

I got my postal vote in good time and posted it back on Friday.

There is a number you can phone if it hasn't arrived. I don't think I  still have it, but I'm sure someone on here will and can post it on here!

[lbanks]

Interesting to see it does appear to be a wider issue:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c849w09535ko.amp

[peggoula]

have not received a poll card or any post for the last 2 weeks!! I am on Crystal palace road.

what is going on???

[Burbage]

2 hours ago, peggoula said:

what is going on???

What's going on is that Royal Mail's being prepared for a flog-and-scarper operation on behalf of an offshore billionaire.

East Dulwich was a pilot attempt at that, with the local delivery office being offloaded onto the property market, and "operations" euphemistically relocated to Peckham. Which means that our post, if it doesn't hit landfill first, now gets sent to languish in a bunker off the Highshore Road until someone chooses to destroy, deliver or steal it. Delivery is probably the least likely outcome, probably because not hiring people to deliver post has landed the manager with some toppy KPIs and they've rightly calculated that the pitch-fork wielders of Dulwich won't be bothered to walk that far, while the peeved of Peckham are only a half-brick's throw away.

That has had two effects. One is that we tend not to get post any more. The other is that the tireless Helen Hayes has spent a tireless six or seven years tirelessly telling us how tireless she's been. Which is great if that's your jam, but it's neither buttered any parsnips nor delivered any post. Though it has got her picture in the local papers, and sometimes the BBC, so it's not been as entirely wasted an effort as a cynic might suggest.

The official view, as is usual for corporate and political communications, is a steaming pack of thieving lies, so there's nothing to be had from that. Moreover, although a great deal of post has gone reportedly missing, that's never been properly followed up, mostly because it's very hard to prove an absence, only senders can do the complaining and the most you'll get for your effort is a passive-aggressive non-apology and, in exceptional cases, a stamp. Which, given that Royal Mail's own stamps have been bouncing, is a self-servingly poisoned chalice.

To sum up, if you're in a position to invest in cleft sticks or urchins, I wouldn't wait much longer. The rest of us, however, remain stuffed, and will be further stuffed in five year's time when we have to bail the buffers out. But never mind. If five years seems too long to wait, we''ll have Thames Water to bail out before that.

[tiddles]

Well I think I have a new record - package of documents (thick A4 envelope) sent to East Africa June 2022. Was sent tracked and appeared to disappear into a warehouse in South Africa …. It was finally delivered last week … 🙂 I don’t actually think Royal Mail were the culprits for once!

Edited yesterday at 07:15 by tiddles