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 October 1 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 October 2 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

[Sue]

FFS.

I've stayed in today for three parcels, all despatched at the same time, all supposed to be being delivered by Royal Mail today, all quite large.

One arrived this morning.

 I said to the postie that I was expecting three. 

He said he only had one, and were they all this big? 🤣

Now I've had three separate texts from Royal Mail, each saying they were unable to deliver my parcel today, and the tracking info says they were "unable to attempt delivery".

I haven't got the will to check them  all to see if one of these texts relates to the parcel which actually was delivered 🙄

[Kathleen Olander]

We haven't had any letters for weeks, we still receive some parcels.  I am sick of it and don't have the energy to start another complaints process, it's a waste of time.  A single First class stamp has gone up by 30p this week to £1.65, what a joke.

[Sue]

I saw somewhere, maybe in another thread on here, that a postie told someone that Helen Hayes had visited the sorting office very recently to find out just what was going on.

They may have got the name wrong, as to the best of my recollection Helen is no longer involved with any of the areas our delivery office covers?

[Dulwich dweller]

I have been waiting for a particular letter for five working days now. Annoyingly it's my new pin number for my bank card but still no sign of it. Im just by the Gardens and have only seen the postman once this week. I spoke to him to find out why we see very little of them, get no deliveries for a week then all of a sudden a pile of letters drop through the letterbox on a Sunday afternoon. Some of that post is weeks old going by the dates on the letters.

The postman informed me that this particular round- Gardens, kelmore, Oakhurst etc is really messed up mate and we're really only doing parcels now and don't really do letters. That pissed me off a bit so i asked him do the PO no longer deem letters as important or indeed worthy of posting anymore? I'm again informed that it's a mess mate and that he'd have a look in the sorting office and drop my post in if he finds anything.

I have zero hope or faith in getting my delivery unless i contact my bank and ask them to resend my A4 sheet of paper but this time in a huge bloody box. Their attitude suggested that they don't give a flying,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and that i'm some sort of lunatic for expecting a  postman to be delivering,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,letters. I reckon he'd have been less offended if i'd asked him to lend me £300.

 

 

Edited October 12 by Dulwich dweller

[first mate]

I believe Royal Mail or International Distribution Services PLC, has recently been sold to a Czech billionaire. It is alleged by some that there is an intention to asset strip the company. If there was a law firm brave enough and enough disgruntled users came forward, perhaps ED residents could take out something like a class action. I think it needs something of that magnitude to effect any kind of change.

[Sue]

4 hours ago, Dulwich dweller said:

I have been waiting for a particular letter for five working days now. Annoyingly it's my new pin number for my bank card but still no sign of it. Im just by the Gardens and have only seen the postman once this week. I spoke to him to find out why we see very little of them, get no deliveries for a week then all of a sudden a pile of letters drop through the letterbox on a Sunday afternoon. Some of that post is weeks old going by the dates on the letters.

The postman informed me that this particular round- Gardens, kelmore, Oakhurst etc is really messed up mate and we're really only doing parcels now and don't really do letters. That pissed me off a bit so i asked him do the PO no longer deem letters as important or indeed worthy of posting anymore? I'm again informed that it's a mess mate and that he'd have a look in the sorting office and drop my post in if he finds anything.

I have zero hope or faith in getting my delivery unless i contact my bank and ask them to resend my A4 sheet of paper but this time in a huge bloody box. Their attitude suggested that they don't give a flying,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and that i'm some sort of lunatic for expecting a  postman to be delivering,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,letters. I reckon he'd have been less offended if i'd asked him to lend me £300.

 

 

I have found in the past that phoning the complaints department actually does work.

Not, obviously, to change the whole of Royal Mail, but in specific cases.

You could try that.

Also, you could see if your bank would send the letter tracked? What a pain.

Finally, in view of what your postie said, you could write to the CEO quoting this, and copy it to your MP. And maybe the local and national press might be interested, as well.

Of course the postie might be wrong and it's just general inefficiency at the delivery office, not a deliberate intention not to deliver letters on a particular round.

Edited October 12 by Sue

[Happyme5]

I was expecting 2 very important letters and neither have arrived yet.  Someone who works at the post office told me that parcels are the priority because they will be fined if they are delivered late but normal post isn't tracked so no fines occur.  Does anyone know where our local sorting office is please

[Kathleen Olander]

33 minutes ago, Happyme5 said:

I was expecting 2 very important letters and neither have arrived yet.  Someone who works at the post office told me that parcels are the priority because they will be fined if they are delivered late but normal post isn't tracked so no fines occur.  Does anyone know where our local sorting office is please

Yes, I understood that to be the case as well.  The 24 and 48 hour tracked are always delivered on time.

Sorting office is Highshore Road, Peckham.

[Sally Eva]

I went in the Peckham Office yesterday (same problem) i was missing about two weeks of post including this important letter. Opening hours greatly reduced. 8-10 only. I tried to pick up my missing post. Woman on the desk told me she would give me what she could find (!). She gave me "what had been sorted" ie two letters including one sent that day. The rest, she implied was unsorted. No staff to sort it or deliver it.

[Happyme5]

I just called and they lodged a complaint as Sue on this forum suggested.  So I hope I might get some post soon

[Sue]

I have just complained as well.

Complaints number is 03457 740 740

To speak to a person I think you have to choose "something else" in the menu, at least I did.

Otherwise if memory serves you just have to key in a tracking number and get some automated response.

I'm absolutely fuming.

Yesterday I got one of the three tracked parcels supposed to be delivered yesterday. Then I got THREE notifications that delivery would be "attempted" on the next working day - but I'd already had one of the parcels.

The "next working day" from yesterday is today. I was suspicious about this "attempt" thing, so thought I'd check out what was going on 

Then when I phoned I was told  that delivery "could not be attempted" today. Though nobody had actually notified me of that.

This "service" is an absolute joke.

I've arranged redelivery over the phone for a day when I will be here, but I'm not holding my breath.

45 minutes ago, Kathleen Olander said:

Yes, I understood that to be the case as well.  The 24 and 48 hour tracked are always delivered on time.

Well that is clearly untrue, because 2 of my  3 48 hour tracked items due to be delivered yesterday have not been delivered.

And I'm told that delivery was not even attempted. On 2 days running 

If this is due to staff shortages, why don't they expletive deleted employ some  expletive deleted staff?

I'm pretty sure there must be  lots of unemployed people signing on in Peckham 🤬 

Surely they can't all be unsuitable to be posties?

Edited October 12 by Sue

[Dulwich dweller]

On 12/10/2024 at 09:14, Sue said:

I have found in the past that phoning the complaints department actually does work.

Not, obviously, to change the whole of Royal Mail, but in specific cases.

You could try that.

Also, you could see if your bank would send the letter tracked? What a pain.

Finally, in view of what your postie said, you could write to the CEO quoting this, and copy it to your MP. And maybe the local and national press might be interested, as well.

Of course the postie might be wrong and it's just general inefficiency at the delivery office, not a deliberate intention not to deliver letters on a particular round.

I actually got into an argument with out postman yesterday after having the cheek to ask him did he have any post for me. The argument culminated in me being told that he'll never have to deliver to my address again. I pointed out that it's been the case for some time now anyway 😁

 

Thanks for your suggestions!!

[Happyme5]

On 12/10/2024 at 11:33, Sue said:

I have just complained as well.

Complaints number is 03457 740 740

To speak to a person I think you have to choose "something else" in the menu, at least I did.

Otherwise if memory serves you just have to key in a tracking number and get some automated response.

I'm absolutely fuming.

Yesterday I got one of the three tracked parcels supposed to be delivered yesterday. Then I got THREE notifications that delivery would be "attempted" on the next working day - but I'd already had one of the parcels.

The "next working day" from yesterday is today. I was suspicious about this "attempt" thing, so thought I'd check out what was going on 

Then when I phoned I was told  that delivery "could not be attempted" today. Though nobody had actually notified me of that.

This "service" is an absolute joke.

I've arranged redelivery over the phone for a day when I will be here, but I'm not holding my breath.

Well that is clearly untrue, because 2 of my  3 48 hour tracked items due to be delivered yesterday have not been delivered.

And I'm told that delivery was not even attempted.

🤬

The post office is lying - as they are telling you that couldn't deliver.  This means that they will avoid a fine for late delivery.  I would be fuming too.   But Thanks again I have complained maybe my mail could arrive B4 Christmas 🎄 🎁 not a parcel but a letter.  I sent a letter that was important 1st class recorded delivery it cost me nearly £10.00 it was very important so I had to pay up.

We could all go to the sorting office and sort our own mail. It would probably be quicker and more efficient.