Royal Mail - late deliveries - what is happening?

[Borderlands]

I've looked through previous posts about this and realise how lucky we've been up until. now. But has anyone got advice about dealing with the very poor service from Royal Mail in the last few of weeks?

Last week after days and days without anything, including circulars (which we didn't miss), some post eventually arrived at about 4.30pm, with one or two envelopes pushed the letter box every 10 minutes or so over the course of about half an hour. Bizarre time to deliver and a bizarre way to deliver.

We can follow tracked items online, of course, but repeatedly Royal Mail claiming in the report that we are "inaccessible". This is completely untrue and each time this report has been made no body has tried to deliver, no postie could be seen in the street all morning, and at the time of the report is updated to 'inaccesible" somebody has always been in.

This morning I kept an eye on the front door at the same time as following an item out for special delivery which is supposed to before 1pm. As usual the item was marked as in transit (also presumably nonsense) all morning. No postie in street at all at any time this morning, and at 12.55pm the tracking info was updated to 'inaccessible".  Not true again. I was watching/listening out for the delivery all morning.

Any advice? Is there any point in leaving a complaint using Royal Mail's awful website? Or is it best to contact the possible delivery office?

Thanks

[Nigello]

Write to your MP (including address, phone, email info) with concrete examples and request his/her input. 

[Sue]

I've found phoning them to be effective.

The central complaints people,  not the delivery office.

They investigated and got back to me.

I wouldn't think your MP would be too happy if you hadn't gone down the Royal Mail complaints route first.

Edited Tuesday at 21:07 by Sue

[Borderlands]

13 hours ago, Sue said:

I've found phoning them to be effective.

The central complaints people,  not the delivery office.

They investigated and got back to me.

I wouldn't think your MP would be too happy if you hadn't gone down the Royal Mail complaints route first.

Hi

Thanks for this. I did ring up the complaints people and that was fine. Just gathering facts together. But I was told by them that they would not get back to me following their investigation. I will try and follow this up nonetheless.

[Azalea]

Can someone please give me the tel no of the complaints people? Thank you.

[Sue]

2 hours ago, Borderlands said:

Hi

Thanks for this. I did ring up the complaints people and that was fine. Just gathering facts together. But I was told by them that they would not get back to me following their investigation. I will try and follow this up nonetheless.

That's a bit odd. 

Did they say that to you before or after the investigation?

56 minutes ago, Azalea said:

Can someone please give me the tel no of the complaints people? Thank you.

A very quick Google brought up the attached, which gives the phone number🙄

Edited Wednesday at 13:37 by Sue

[Borderlands]

17 minutes ago, Sue said:

That's a bit odd. 

Did they say that to you before or after the investigation?

A very quick Google brought up the attached, which gives the phone number🙄

I just used 03457 740740 and worked through the menu of options. I think there are five and then held on for about 10-15 minutes until I spoke to someone who noted down the complaint. Obviously it is easier for them to handle if this is related to a tracked item or special delivery, but I just used that as the basis for a request for someone to investigate the relevant depot for our area as very poor practise seems to be set to become the norm.

[Azalea]

Thanks for the number.

[Sue]

3 hours ago, Borderlands said:

I just used 03457 740740 and worked through the menu of options. I think there are five and then held on for about 10-15 minutes until I spoke to someone who noted down the complaint. Obviously it is easier for them to handle if this is related to a tracked item or special delivery, but I just used that as the basis for a request for someone to investigate the relevant depot for our area as very poor practise seems to be set to become the norm.

When I complained, it was about a specific instance. I can't remember the exact details, but it was investigated and rectified, and I was kept in touch with what they had found out.

Unfortunately, general complaints about the Peckham delivery office have been being made ever since the Sylvester Road office was closed, and despite our then MP Helen Hayes doing her best, things seem to improve for a bit then deteriorate again.

[Castleton]

I think the 'inaccessible' excuse is a temporary measure used to allay the poor delivery rates. It probably makes the problems with deliveries not seem very bad by the regulators. 

This has happened so many times, next time I'm definitely using the complaint number 

[Happyme5]

Post that isn't tracked won't be a priority.  There are no fines issued to the postal service for failing to deliver ordinary letters.  So until the policy changes general letters will be late.  Post office staff are not being given great contracts anymore and they often being pushed to the maximum for not a great deal.   But getting letters late does cause issues.  

[hfoster]

Ofcom does charge Royal Mail for not delivering First and Second class mail on time, but it's done by metrics and not individual cases. They fined them £5.6m last year.

Saying that, it's probably cheaper for Royal Mail to take the fine than to hire more carriers. I can see the industry moving towards a gig economy style thing in the future, akin to Amazon Flex