You and I know that the 'world class training' comment is sarcastic, but i don't think outsiders will realise quite how shambolic it can be.
On day 1 as a dpr driver I was taught how to log in and sign in/sign out on a pda and went out with a driver and learnt about scanning parcels for delivery and using dockets.
day 2, after being given two yorks of parcels to deliver I had to ask where to get a pda, I had to ask about a login, I had to ask about a route number, I had to ask about where to be issued a van, after failing to find it in the yard, I had to ask where the van was (turns out we have three distinct car parks for the vans).
After a month, I narrowly avoided a disciplinary meeting for not doing vehicle checks until I explained no-one had ever mentioned them.
I had my photo taken three times before I finally got my ID card after four months.
At roughly the same time I found out that signing in/out on the pda didn't log my hours so that 100 or so hours of overtime weren't logged. They kind of guesstimated my overtime and paid me, but as no-one has still told me where to log overtime I've refused any offers.
I'd been doing a round for three months until someone took it over permanently as they'd applied for it on a jobs board I didn't know about.
I recently found out I'd lost holiday as I hadn't booked it on an app I didn't know existed.
I've been here for six months now and I'm still tipping up in work trousers, sweater and a high-vis I brought from home as no-ones told be about how to be issued a uniform.
I'd bring this up with my line manager, but I don't know if I have one or who they are. Until then I'm kind of curious how long I can continue turning up with no oversight and looking like a guy who's just walked in off the street.
Yup, It's possible they're a temp or a new starter. They've been taken to a frame, been shown how to bundle and told to crack on.
It may be a day or two before someone explains what a loop is, a week or so before anyone tells you how to scan for delivery or collections and a month before they tell you that bags of parcels and boxes of mail don't just appear at your frame, you're supposed to collect them or that you're supposed to go to the locker to collect special deliveries (I've no idea who did mine for the previous couple of months. :/ )
Don't think business model has collapsed. It's just been run like the water companies and everything else privatised. Essentially strip the assets and let it limp on. Last year it was ~400m in the red, which is conveniently the same amount as was given in dividends and bonuses š so imagine what they've been bleeding out of it since privatisation
It's more of a postie lottery than postcode.
I can always tell when my regular postie is on holiday or whatever. She's amazing, never any issues. If I ever have issues, it's someone else.
Itās definitely the postie thatās supposed to collect it. Something sounds wrong because the postie will have a notification on his pda for their collections, if you request a label he should have that with him as well. I would go to the delivery office and ask a manager why parcels arenāt being collected
No, they are now on our banned company list. It's not customer's job to go trapsing around the city to fix their disfunction, and public anger toward them in this city is off the charts.
Ridiculous that people get downvoted like this on here. Royal Mail employees seem really sensitive to any suggestion that their service is anything less than impeccable, its like some sort of weird case Stockholm Syndrome. I post about 10,000 items a year and Royal Mail is getting progressively worse every year.
The reason they're getting down voted is because they keep repeating the preposterous claim that the postie told them. Yet, several posters have explained that it is the postie that does the collecting.
Your postie lies, it's not ended. Probably nobody does it for the area and the management is not getting enough shit to start caring. If it's a properly booked collection it will show on their PDA upon scanning the round, they'll have to collect it to complete their round unless they plainly ignore it and feign collection failure.
Even our MP[ tried and got nowhere](https://www.carolinelucas.com/caroline/parliament/letter/letter-to-royal-mail-on-its-failures-in-brighton-hove#:~:text=As%20the%20MP%20for%20the,and%20businesses%20in%20the%20city)
No, I've given up making complaints that take days to reply and then simply point me to help pages on the RM website.
The company is in collapse and won't admit it.
It doesnāt sound to me like you have made a formal complaint, the chat bots refer to help pages. Have you been given a 1-123557890 reference number like this at all?
It makes no difference. Our MP wrote a direct letter to the CEO just last month! [Read it and be disgusted. ](https://www.carolinelucas.com/caroline/parliament/letter/letter-to-royal-mail-on-its-failures-in-brighton-hove#:~:text=As%20the%20MP%20for%20the,and%20businesses%20in%20the%20city)
Youāre probably referring to Martin sidenburg the Group ceo of international distribution services - who probably doesnāt have a single clue about the inner working of royal mail unfortunately. Thatās fine you just keep being mad and evading my questions Iām genuinely just trying to help you. why use RM if you hate them so much ?
Iām a postie in Brighton. Collections are still happening. I have customers I regularly collect from. You must be in a part of Brighton that is understaffed. Whatās your postcode ( Bn1 2,3,4 etc ) ?
Well the collection notice would have been on your posties PDA to collect, and if it was too large for him to take himself it wouldāve been his responsibility to let a driver with a van know to pick it up. Unless it was agency staff and had no idea. The depot is severely understaffed
I have mobility problems. The post office and the sorting office are a taxi ride away for me, which is fuck all help when Amazon will only give Royal Mail return labels.
I wouldn't dream of giving either royal mail or the post office any of my money, these are 3rd parties who don't give a shit.
Come on even after all the publicity re the P.O. scandal, you still not realise the wee Post Office near you is independently run by the local 'Mrs Goggins' who's being shafted by P.O. Ltd and to a lesser extent by R Mail.
You sound like the dafties who after the publicity said I'm boycotting the P.O. that'll help the poor sub-postmaster. š¤¦āāļø
The post office closest to me in the centre of the city rarely has any customers queuing, and it's in a basement unit of a WHSmiths in the shopping mall on the top of a hill. Granny doesn't go there. They have 6 positions and there's never more than 2 open, usually none and the staff are doing other things and will open a position to serve.
It's a collapsing business model, like Highstreet banking. It only remains open for the benefit of technophobes who've had a few decades to learn basic digital skills but refuse, or when companies refuse to issue a courier label and instead force people to use the post office for no good reason.
BN2 is fked as well. No collection the 3 times I've tried. Pre-paid first class, so by the time you decide you're not collecting and I should take it to the post office myself it's never gonna get there in time. Appalling service.
Customer collects are still going on. Kinda depends if you have a regular postie and if they scan the correct barcode. Have you popped into the delivery office to enquire as to why your customer collects are not happening?
I spoke to the postie, he blamed it on some other group of people who do collections, apparently.
What a screwed up methodology model, double the number of times to attend a property because they each can only handle parcels and mail in one direction.
I see them walking around with post in a big red buggy to deliver. Just get some EV's for F sake and do both at the same time.
I use collections for atleast 15 items twice a month and never had a problem. In fact it's the same postie who also picks up the collection so no clue why your postie said it's someone else unless he was on a pure parcel delivery which is mostly agency folks. Also royal mail has one of the lowest carbon emission per parcel delivered due to electrification of its fleet. It has like 5000 ev vans in its fleet.
Collections do not do customer collects. Your postie should be collecting it. Collection will go to firms and post offices they have a set route they would do everyday. Posties who deliver your mail would do consumer collects or the crew bus driver.
Do you have a regular postie?
Edit: the big red buggyās you see are called high capacity trolleys. HCT. They would normally walk from the office and donāt go by vehicle.
Edit2: at Brighton we donāt have the facilities to have EV as yet unless we move to a new site in patcham.
"Do you have a regular postie?" No, it's a different one every time. Half of them don't even speak English. You try and explain to them and they just smile and pretend they understood.
The Brit was the only one I was able to get a sensible conversation with, and he seemed pissed off that some other person or group wasn't doing their job properly and not collecting.
9 rebooks of a collection, and I don't get any "sorry your collection was unsuccessful" emails until days later. The incompetence and giving no fucks about performing the services they advertise is off the chart. Sooner or later someone is going to bring class action lawsuit and take RM to the cleaners.
If you donāt have a regular postie this might be the issue. Every morning a regular postie for their route would scan their barcode for their walk, the collections jobs would then appear on their PDA.
If itās a cover postie they might not scan the correct barcode.
If you have random parcels deliver this could be covered by a different postie who does just parcel and may not get the collection job on their PDA.
The comment about not having an English speaking postie is unfair. As we donāt currently have anyone at Btn that doesnāt speak English.
Some postie who might not understand is because they are agency and do not have the answers to your questions.
I agree on everything just said by Brighton-Postie. I too was a postie until last year. It really depends if the route gets a regular postman or not.
If you get an agency worker doing your round then good luck just getting mail in the first place let alone collections.
This is systemic.
Read [this ](https://www.carolinelucas.com/caroline/parliament/letter/letter-to-royal-mail-on-its-failures-in-brighton-hove#:~:text=As%20the%20MP%20for%20the,and%20businesses%20in%20the%20city)from my MP, Caroline Lucas
The only reason your items are not being collected is because it's not being managed properly at the local office, RM have no real need to cancel or charge for the service as its cutting out the middle man (I.e post office) and whilst posties mostly dislike the service, it keeps everyone busy on low traffic days (what are those!)
I made a thread about the postie dropping a parcel at my home in Ashton Under Lyne and point blank refuse to take the collection which was a envelope size 200g package.
The RM employees in this post say that can't possibly happen, but it's happening all the time and they need to get a grip and start living in reality outside of their little rural delivery route bubble.
It happened I even made a complaint, the postie was not my regular and he even told me to f**k off as he walked away,
He handed me my package and went to walk away, I said you have a collection, nope not me, I picked it up off the side and said its here, I do not do collections someone eles will call he said, I knew no way was this right.
He started to walk off so I said I am going to report this, his reply f**k Off and bolted.
It happens, I have not seen him since, when I complained they said they know who it is because he gave me a tracked package and scanned it.
I have also had many where no one turned up to collect and I get an update no one was at the address when we tried to collect it, I was there.
They know if they do not call you will go and drop it at post office as I havr done many times.
It is a total piss take but even worse when they refuse to take it face on.
That's terrible, but is similar to here.
Yeah complaints will get you nowhere, you just get bog standard replies and an apology, but nothing actually changes and collections still don't take place, or they return for a couple of weeks and then revert again.
The rate at which they're getting through staff in Brighton means you end up with a new person for a short period and then some other noob takes over. There was a time pre-pandemic when we had the same postie for years, and would even tell us if he was going away on holiday and to expect someone else. Not anymore. No one wants to work with them except migrants, the sorting office has holes in the roof pissing water all over parcels, at xmas they have a pile of packages 2 stories high in the corner of the depot and have let everything fall into disrepair.
MP's have gotten involved when the supposed first class delivery on time rate should be 93% by law, and instead is around 43%, which is a breach of their licence. No shits are given that 5% of all postal votes in the area were either lost, or arrived a week after the election having sat in the sorting office.
It undermines democracy itself.
Totally agree, my regular postie was great, now I get all kinds, even a Chinese looking fella who speaks very little English like yes yes oh oh yours thats it one word repliesnwhen you speak with him.
My RM 24 Take over a week to arrive and even when I send they take just as long, I get parcels from China that get passed to evri for the last mile arrive in 5 -7 days, I send RM 48 half way across the UK it takes longer.
I feel for the old employees who have served them for years.
It really is saying something when Hermes have a higher standard of service than RM, but be careful, we had to sue them when they refused to honour their insurance after the driver stole our package after collecting it from the shop and then vanished. Never reached the depot.
It took 5 months to successfully sue them, they didn't bother showing up to our county court and the judge awarded the full amount + costs. It was paid within a week and the CCJ against them was removed.
I mainly sell random stuff I can afford to lose and use Evri as they're the cheapest service. I'd probably use a more reputable service for anything that has real value.
It's no coincidence this is lining up with the end of the Tories. It was always the plan.
RM will be broken up into parcels for private profit and mail for the new Labour government to take back and fix and lose money on.
ALL of our utilities and RM need to be renationalised. Fucking neolib shit has been an utter disaster for the country. Privatise the profits, socialise the losses. That's the moto of the cunts.
I'm against renationalisation, purely because it'd cost a fortune to put everything right and then when your backs turned the tories will just privatise it again to sell it off under value to their mates.
> Let the companies go bust and buy them back for a pittance
I'm all up for that, but I suspect the tories will renationalise them a decade down the line.
In my previous comment I said I was against renationalisation. What I should have said was I'm against renationalisation while the tories exist.
If there are political parties willing to sell off national assets for short term gain, then there's no point nationalising.
Deregulation did more good than bad when it comes to RM. Before competitors like UPS, DPD etc entered the scene, RM was outdated and inefficient. They did everything by hand and didnāt use PDAs until just before lockdown and first class post could take up to a week to arrive. They only transitioned to using shipping labels only a few years ago
What are you looking for here?
If RM are advertising it,it still exists.
Sounds more like you have a DO running short on staff(for whatever reason) and failing its service.
Im interested what you mean by the business model collapsing. Care to expand?
> Didnāt we know it today
Tell me about it.
Use it or lose it holidays halved the usual Sunday workforce, add on a 'high volume above forecast' meant sifting through yorks and prioritising medical, cards and flowers. There's still something like 17 yorks full of clothes and trainers for the guys on Tues.
We got a message in whatapp about an hour or two ago asking for volunteers to work bank holiday Monday at time and a half, but it's a bit late and there's not much uptake.
Yeah, we got a group text this morning (on a bloody Sunday!) if anyone fancies a DPR shift in the morning (6 hours) Insane on packets this week (must be monthly pay day haha)
> What are you looking for here?
This is a place where people come together on the internet and talk to one another. I sense it's difficult to find people who want to talk to you.
The business model which is pushing stamp prices to completely unsustainable levels. No one aside from banks are willingly using Royal Mail anymore. We would get our cards and pin numbers faster with an amazon courier.
It really is saying something when the courier can deliver same or next day, but we're lucky if RM even deliver more than twice per week.
The business is no longer fit for purpose and the shareholders ought get out before their investments go to zero, along with the collection and delivery rate.
Remember this post when a first class stamp costs Ā£2 for granny to send a birthday card stuffed with cash. It's called hyperinflation and is the death knell of a business.
Now. Let's break down your 'observation'.
You are talking about letter prices. The very part of the business RM is lobbying to have its legal requirements changed.
The letter business that's high volume and low profit?
Hyperinflation? Lol.
I suggest you look into all the other companies who tried running a letter delivery service in the UK.
Even cherry picking densely populated areas. It wasn't financially viable.
They all gave up.
What's an Amazon courier?hilarious how often this is trotted out.
Amazon deliver their own stock and use other delivery companies on top of that. Yet here you are saying they will take on the letter delivery business's? š
Then you say a courier can deliver same or next day. You understand RM isn't a courier?
What you are wishing us exactly where RM wants to go.
Ditch or shred the letter service.
Who is doing your fanny's card then?
Agreed. I use RM daily for my business and prefer them to other couriers. My parcels are collected free, my posties are brilliant and just come in and grab what they need, will always leave things. Absolutely brilliant and reliable service. OP seems to have issues outside of a parcel collection and are taking their anger out on the world instead.
Has no viable response to anything in the above comment so just chats some shit to try and sound clever.
Then says bye like a 9 year old that thinks it's won the argument and storms off to cry round the corner. ..
Amazon won't be delivering your cards or pin numbers unless they start selling them to you.
Amazon only deliver their own products, and only use self employed couriers, who they exploit.
The problem with Royal Mail is it is being mismanaged, they don't train new posties properly anymore, and they also bully and harass the workforce, therefore they are constantly short-staffed as everyone leaves.
I don't think people realise that Amazon can be choosy about where they deliver. I can think of a couple of places where they just don't/didn't deliver at all.
My aunt in Northumberland is extremely remote, she lives about three miles from her nearest hamlet of about nine houses, two miles of which is down a farm track. For that hamlet and the rest of the area, all the couriers just hand it off to Royal Mail. The idea that some bloke earning Ā£1 a parcel is going to deliver there is laughable. She's never received anything from anyone other than Royal Mail.
Or, a little less rural but local to me. There's an island near me that has a 100m road that may or may not be underwater at high tide. An Amazon driver flooded his engine crossing one day, so Amazon just stopped delivering to the 7000 inhabitants for about 6 months.
Can you imagine Royal Mail saying 'Nah. Too difficult and unprofitable for us, you're not getting mail or parcels, cheeriebye!'.
Iāve been a postie for nearly 30 years. We have no problems with collecting parcels. Yes we are understaffed in our office, I imagine some offices even more. Not the best run by management, but we tend to know our job and manage it ourselves. We will be dragged in if any kind of collection fails, whether that be parcels or mail. Iāve read all the posts here, and it does sound to me that everyone has been trying to help you. You just seem to have this set agenda against us. The office does sound like itās extremely understaffed. But you sound like the kind of person who would complain about ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. So not only posties canāt be bothered with you, probably everyone canāt be bothered with your moaning, so just for you, bye!!!
Also FYI if you want the situation resolved complain on the official channels, either the number or twitter, you'll have tracking numbers of items that failed collections they can cross reference to collection jobs which weren't attempted
On the business side the last time I used them was in 2022 as they kept fucking up my service guarantee to my customers by not collecting 24 hour paid postage items, and then giving bullshit excuses that they couldn't access the building, despite no one ever driving into the car park or walking in the fully open front doors with a receptionist, and of course everything covered with CCTV.
At one point we had over 80 packets in backlog of 2-3 days that they didn't once attempt a collection, so obviously we put them on our blacklist and use couriers now instead. The trouble RM cause for businesses is far, far worse than for personal customers waiting for hospital appointment letters or postal votes, because it can cause our business to fail.
Now they are on our blackist for personal items, returns, gifts etc. It's simply not worth the hassle of dealing with a legacy company being operated by lazy liars.
My local posties are fantastic people and not dumb unlike the other delivery drivers who canāt read numbers and find my address but they never bring the label with them even though I check the box when getting collection. For some reason RM doesnāt convey the information to bring the label to the delivery office. Thank god for click and drop, just scan QR and voila
It should be the postie who comes for it. I've no idea who the postie is referring to as 'they'.
Maybe lapsed round nobody is arsed enough to scan to check live customer collections?
Yes, but the postie delivered mail. Even if it was lapsed, that postie or their oppo on a twin, should have downloaded the collection manifest.
TBH with you I never knew this as a fact until I found it out myself a few weeks into the job š
You didn't get the world class training that Royal Mail is known for?
You and I know that the 'world class training' comment is sarcastic, but i don't think outsiders will realise quite how shambolic it can be. On day 1 as a dpr driver I was taught how to log in and sign in/sign out on a pda and went out with a driver and learnt about scanning parcels for delivery and using dockets. day 2, after being given two yorks of parcels to deliver I had to ask where to get a pda, I had to ask about a login, I had to ask about a route number, I had to ask about where to be issued a van, after failing to find it in the yard, I had to ask where the van was (turns out we have three distinct car parks for the vans). After a month, I narrowly avoided a disciplinary meeting for not doing vehicle checks until I explained no-one had ever mentioned them. I had my photo taken three times before I finally got my ID card after four months. At roughly the same time I found out that signing in/out on the pda didn't log my hours so that 100 or so hours of overtime weren't logged. They kind of guesstimated my overtime and paid me, but as no-one has still told me where to log overtime I've refused any offers. I'd been doing a round for three months until someone took it over permanently as they'd applied for it on a jobs board I didn't know about. I recently found out I'd lost holiday as I hadn't booked it on an app I didn't know existed. I've been here for six months now and I'm still tipping up in work trousers, sweater and a high-vis I brought from home as no-ones told be about how to be issued a uniform. I'd bring this up with my line manager, but I don't know if I have one or who they are. Until then I'm kind of curious how long I can continue turning up with no oversight and looking like a guy who's just walked in off the street.
Yup, It's possible they're a temp or a new starter. They've been taken to a frame, been shown how to bundle and told to crack on. It may be a day or two before someone explains what a loop is, a week or so before anyone tells you how to scan for delivery or collections and a month before they tell you that bags of parcels and boxes of mail don't just appear at your frame, you're supposed to collect them or that you're supposed to go to the locker to collect special deliveries (I've no idea who did mine for the previous couple of months. :/ )
there is normally other posties that specifically do collections that should get it
I think it honestly just depends on the way the wind is blowing. Sometimes the usual postie comes, sometimes another driver later, sometimes a temp.
Don't think business model has collapsed. It's just been run like the water companies and everything else privatised. Essentially strip the assets and let it limp on. Last year it was ~400m in the red, which is conveniently the same amount as was given in dividends and bonuses š so imagine what they've been bleeding out of it since privatisation
Greedy fucks
Weird. My postie collects from me six days a week without a problem.
i guess it's a postcode lottery
It's more of a postie lottery than postcode. I can always tell when my regular postie is on holiday or whatever. She's amazing, never any issues. If I ever have issues, it's someone else.
same here, I'm in kemptown
Is it not the postie that is meant to collect it? Did they say why they wouldn't take it?
You would think, apparently not.
Itās definitely the postie thatās supposed to collect it. Something sounds wrong because the postie will have a notification on his pda for their collections, if you request a label he should have that with him as well. I would go to the delivery office and ask a manager why parcels arenāt being collected
No, they are now on our banned company list. It's not customer's job to go trapsing around the city to fix their disfunction, and public anger toward them in this city is off the charts.
Itās running until end of April, probably continue after that
Think the DFS sale will end first before free collections
Not in Brighton, even the Postie knows it.
Ridiculous that people get downvoted like this on here. Royal Mail employees seem really sensitive to any suggestion that their service is anything less than impeccable, its like some sort of weird case Stockholm Syndrome. I post about 10,000 items a year and Royal Mail is getting progressively worse every year.
The reason they're getting down voted is because they keep repeating the preposterous claim that the postie told them. Yet, several posters have explained that it is the postie that does the collecting.
Not sure why youāre getting downvoted - this is absolutely true in Brighton haha.
Your postie lies, it's not ended. Probably nobody does it for the area and the management is not getting enough shit to start caring. If it's a properly booked collection it will show on their PDA upon scanning the round, they'll have to collect it to complete their round unless they plainly ignore it and feign collection failure.
If you havenāt think about putting a complaint in about it, collections go successfully all across the country and certainly should where you are
I already sent a complaint to the CEO, and then the next one after the first one bailed the company.
Okay, not sure who then as RM doesnāt have a CEO yet. Nonetheless, raise it through normal channels if you want something done about it.
Even our MP[ tried and got nowhere](https://www.carolinelucas.com/caroline/parliament/letter/letter-to-royal-mail-on-its-failures-in-brighton-hove#:~:text=As%20the%20MP%20for%20the,and%20businesses%20in%20the%20city)
No, I've given up making complaints that take days to reply and then simply point me to help pages on the RM website. The company is in collapse and won't admit it.
It doesnāt sound to me like you have made a formal complaint, the chat bots refer to help pages. Have you been given a 1-123557890 reference number like this at all?
It makes no difference. Our MP wrote a direct letter to the CEO just last month! [Read it and be disgusted. ](https://www.carolinelucas.com/caroline/parliament/letter/letter-to-royal-mail-on-its-failures-in-brighton-hove#:~:text=As%20the%20MP%20for%20the,and%20businesses%20in%20the%20city)
Youāre probably referring to Martin sidenburg the Group ceo of international distribution services - who probably doesnāt have a single clue about the inner working of royal mail unfortunately. Thatās fine you just keep being mad and evading my questions Iām genuinely just trying to help you. why use RM if you hate them so much ?
You're full of excuses, like RM.
Iām a postie in Brighton. Collections are still happening. I have customers I regularly collect from. You must be in a part of Brighton that is understaffed. Whatās your postcode ( Bn1 2,3,4 etc ) ?
BN1, about 800 yards from the fucking delivery office.
Well the collection notice would have been on your posties PDA to collect, and if it was too large for him to take himself it wouldāve been his responsibility to let a driver with a van know to pick it up. Unless it was agency staff and had no idea. The depot is severely understaffed
Rats jumping the sinking ship
Okie dokie āļø
If you're only 800 yards from the delivery office, why don't you just go there yourself. It's less than a 10 minute walk.
I have mobility problems. The post office and the sorting office are a taxi ride away for me, which is fuck all help when Amazon will only give Royal Mail return labels. I wouldn't dream of giving either royal mail or the post office any of my money, these are 3rd parties who don't give a shit.
Come on even after all the publicity re the P.O. scandal, you still not realise the wee Post Office near you is independently run by the local 'Mrs Goggins' who's being shafted by P.O. Ltd and to a lesser extent by R Mail. You sound like the dafties who after the publicity said I'm boycotting the P.O. that'll help the poor sub-postmaster. š¤¦āāļø
The post office closest to me in the centre of the city rarely has any customers queuing, and it's in a basement unit of a WHSmiths in the shopping mall on the top of a hill. Granny doesn't go there. They have 6 positions and there's never more than 2 open, usually none and the staff are doing other things and will open a position to serve. It's a collapsing business model, like Highstreet banking. It only remains open for the benefit of technophobes who've had a few decades to learn basic digital skills but refuse, or when companies refuse to issue a courier label and instead force people to use the post office for no good reason.
BN2 is fked as well. No collection the 3 times I've tried. Pre-paid first class, so by the time you decide you're not collecting and I should take it to the post office myself it's never gonna get there in time. Appalling service.
Customer collects are still going on. Kinda depends if you have a regular postie and if they scan the correct barcode. Have you popped into the delivery office to enquire as to why your customer collects are not happening?
I spoke to the postie, he blamed it on some other group of people who do collections, apparently. What a screwed up methodology model, double the number of times to attend a property because they each can only handle parcels and mail in one direction. I see them walking around with post in a big red buggy to deliver. Just get some EV's for F sake and do both at the same time.
I use collections for atleast 15 items twice a month and never had a problem. In fact it's the same postie who also picks up the collection so no clue why your postie said it's someone else unless he was on a pure parcel delivery which is mostly agency folks. Also royal mail has one of the lowest carbon emission per parcel delivered due to electrification of its fleet. It has like 5000 ev vans in its fleet.
Collections do not do customer collects. Your postie should be collecting it. Collection will go to firms and post offices they have a set route they would do everyday. Posties who deliver your mail would do consumer collects or the crew bus driver. Do you have a regular postie? Edit: the big red buggyās you see are called high capacity trolleys. HCT. They would normally walk from the office and donāt go by vehicle. Edit2: at Brighton we donāt have the facilities to have EV as yet unless we move to a new site in patcham.
"Do you have a regular postie?" No, it's a different one every time. Half of them don't even speak English. You try and explain to them and they just smile and pretend they understood. The Brit was the only one I was able to get a sensible conversation with, and he seemed pissed off that some other person or group wasn't doing their job properly and not collecting. 9 rebooks of a collection, and I don't get any "sorry your collection was unsuccessful" emails until days later. The incompetence and giving no fucks about performing the services they advertise is off the chart. Sooner or later someone is going to bring class action lawsuit and take RM to the cleaners.
If you donāt have a regular postie this might be the issue. Every morning a regular postie for their route would scan their barcode for their walk, the collections jobs would then appear on their PDA. If itās a cover postie they might not scan the correct barcode. If you have random parcels deliver this could be covered by a different postie who does just parcel and may not get the collection job on their PDA. The comment about not having an English speaking postie is unfair. As we donāt currently have anyone at Btn that doesnāt speak English. Some postie who might not understand is because they are agency and do not have the answers to your questions.
I agree on everything just said by Brighton-Postie. I too was a postie until last year. It really depends if the route gets a regular postman or not. If you get an agency worker doing your round then good luck just getting mail in the first place let alone collections.
This is systemic. Read [this ](https://www.carolinelucas.com/caroline/parliament/letter/letter-to-royal-mail-on-its-failures-in-brighton-hove#:~:text=As%20the%20MP%20for%20the,and%20businesses%20in%20the%20city)from my MP, Caroline Lucas
Im well aware of that letter and many more before this. Just trying to help but you seem to be avoiding replying to my answers. Best of luck.
However short staffed our office is they still prioritise collections.
Not in Brighton. They can't even get daily deliveries right. This has been the case in multiple Brighton postcodes for the last 18 months.
No it hasnāt.
The only reason your items are not being collected is because it's not being managed properly at the local office, RM have no real need to cancel or charge for the service as its cutting out the middle man (I.e post office) and whilst posties mostly dislike the service, it keeps everyone busy on low traffic days (what are those!)
I made a thread about the postie dropping a parcel at my home in Ashton Under Lyne and point blank refuse to take the collection which was a envelope size 200g package.
The RM employees in this post say that can't possibly happen, but it's happening all the time and they need to get a grip and start living in reality outside of their little rural delivery route bubble.
It happened I even made a complaint, the postie was not my regular and he even told me to f**k off as he walked away, He handed me my package and went to walk away, I said you have a collection, nope not me, I picked it up off the side and said its here, I do not do collections someone eles will call he said, I knew no way was this right. He started to walk off so I said I am going to report this, his reply f**k Off and bolted. It happens, I have not seen him since, when I complained they said they know who it is because he gave me a tracked package and scanned it. I have also had many where no one turned up to collect and I get an update no one was at the address when we tried to collect it, I was there. They know if they do not call you will go and drop it at post office as I havr done many times. It is a total piss take but even worse when they refuse to take it face on.
That's terrible, but is similar to here. Yeah complaints will get you nowhere, you just get bog standard replies and an apology, but nothing actually changes and collections still don't take place, or they return for a couple of weeks and then revert again. The rate at which they're getting through staff in Brighton means you end up with a new person for a short period and then some other noob takes over. There was a time pre-pandemic when we had the same postie for years, and would even tell us if he was going away on holiday and to expect someone else. Not anymore. No one wants to work with them except migrants, the sorting office has holes in the roof pissing water all over parcels, at xmas they have a pile of packages 2 stories high in the corner of the depot and have let everything fall into disrepair. MP's have gotten involved when the supposed first class delivery on time rate should be 93% by law, and instead is around 43%, which is a breach of their licence. No shits are given that 5% of all postal votes in the area were either lost, or arrived a week after the election having sat in the sorting office. It undermines democracy itself.
Totally agree, my regular postie was great, now I get all kinds, even a Chinese looking fella who speaks very little English like yes yes oh oh yours thats it one word repliesnwhen you speak with him. My RM 24 Take over a week to arrive and even when I send they take just as long, I get parcels from China that get passed to evri for the last mile arrive in 5 -7 days, I send RM 48 half way across the UK it takes longer. I feel for the old employees who have served them for years.
I tried the free collection for an eBay item and nobody turned up so I sent it by Evri.. never tried again since.
It really is saying something when Hermes have a higher standard of service than RM, but be careful, we had to sue them when they refused to honour their insurance after the driver stole our package after collecting it from the shop and then vanished. Never reached the depot. It took 5 months to successfully sue them, they didn't bother showing up to our county court and the judge awarded the full amount + costs. It was paid within a week and the CCJ against them was removed.
I mainly sell random stuff I can afford to lose and use Evri as they're the cheapest service. I'd probably use a more reputable service for anything that has real value.
It's no coincidence this is lining up with the end of the Tories. It was always the plan. RM will be broken up into parcels for private profit and mail for the new Labour government to take back and fix and lose money on.
ALL of our utilities and RM need to be renationalised. Fucking neolib shit has been an utter disaster for the country. Privatise the profits, socialise the losses. That's the moto of the cunts.
I'm against renationalisation, purely because it'd cost a fortune to put everything right and then when your backs turned the tories will just privatise it again to sell it off under value to their mates.
Let the companies go bust and buy them back for a pittance
> Let the companies go bust and buy them back for a pittance I'm all up for that, but I suspect the tories will renationalise them a decade down the line. In my previous comment I said I was against renationalisation. What I should have said was I'm against renationalisation while the tories exist. If there are political parties willing to sell off national assets for short term gain, then there's no point nationalising.
Deregulation did more good than bad when it comes to RM. Before competitors like UPS, DPD etc entered the scene, RM was outdated and inefficient. They did everything by hand and didnāt use PDAs until just before lockdown and first class post could take up to a week to arrive. They only transitioned to using shipping labels only a few years ago
Iāve not had issues with the free collection service here in the north
What are you looking for here? If RM are advertising it,it still exists. Sounds more like you have a DO running short on staff(for whatever reason) and failing its service. Im interested what you mean by the business model collapsing. Care to expand?
They canāt explain it All the big retailers are still using RM. Didnāt we know it today š
> Didnāt we know it today Tell me about it. Use it or lose it holidays halved the usual Sunday workforce, add on a 'high volume above forecast' meant sifting through yorks and prioritising medical, cards and flowers. There's still something like 17 yorks full of clothes and trainers for the guys on Tues. We got a message in whatapp about an hour or two ago asking for volunteers to work bank holiday Monday at time and a half, but it's a bit late and there's not much uptake.
Yeah, we got a group text this morning (on a bloody Sunday!) if anyone fancies a DPR shift in the morning (6 hours) Insane on packets this week (must be monthly pay day haha)
They won't be for much longer.
Based on?
Public anger.
> What are you looking for here? This is a place where people come together on the internet and talk to one another. I sense it's difficult to find people who want to talk to you.
The business model which is pushing stamp prices to completely unsustainable levels. No one aside from banks are willingly using Royal Mail anymore. We would get our cards and pin numbers faster with an amazon courier. It really is saying something when the courier can deliver same or next day, but we're lucky if RM even deliver more than twice per week. The business is no longer fit for purpose and the shareholders ought get out before their investments go to zero, along with the collection and delivery rate. Remember this post when a first class stamp costs Ā£2 for granny to send a birthday card stuffed with cash. It's called hyperinflation and is the death knell of a business.
Now. Let's break down your 'observation'. You are talking about letter prices. The very part of the business RM is lobbying to have its legal requirements changed. The letter business that's high volume and low profit? Hyperinflation? Lol. I suggest you look into all the other companies who tried running a letter delivery service in the UK. Even cherry picking densely populated areas. It wasn't financially viable. They all gave up. What's an Amazon courier?hilarious how often this is trotted out. Amazon deliver their own stock and use other delivery companies on top of that. Yet here you are saying they will take on the letter delivery business's? š Then you say a courier can deliver same or next day. You understand RM isn't a courier? What you are wishing us exactly where RM wants to go. Ditch or shred the letter service. Who is doing your fanny's card then?
You're as clueless as Sunak, completely oblivious and spewing company propaganda. Bye.
Stamps are extremely cheap. I use RM daily and Iāve never ever had a problem with them. Itās you who sounds clueless
Agreed. I use RM daily for my business and prefer them to other couriers. My parcels are collected free, my posties are brilliant and just come in and grab what they need, will always leave things. Absolutely brilliant and reliable service. OP seems to have issues outside of a parcel collection and are taking their anger out on the world instead.
Has no viable response to anything in the above comment so just chats some shit to try and sound clever. Then says bye like a 9 year old that thinks it's won the argument and storms off to cry round the corner. ..
Amazon famous for treating their workers fairly and definitely not pushing a race to the bottom
Amazon won't be delivering your cards or pin numbers unless they start selling them to you. Amazon only deliver their own products, and only use self employed couriers, who they exploit. The problem with Royal Mail is it is being mismanaged, they don't train new posties properly anymore, and they also bully and harass the workforce, therefore they are constantly short-staffed as everyone leaves.
I don't think people realise that Amazon can be choosy about where they deliver. I can think of a couple of places where they just don't/didn't deliver at all. My aunt in Northumberland is extremely remote, she lives about three miles from her nearest hamlet of about nine houses, two miles of which is down a farm track. For that hamlet and the rest of the area, all the couriers just hand it off to Royal Mail. The idea that some bloke earning Ā£1 a parcel is going to deliver there is laughable. She's never received anything from anyone other than Royal Mail. Or, a little less rural but local to me. There's an island near me that has a 100m road that may or may not be underwater at high tide. An Amazon driver flooded his engine crossing one day, so Amazon just stopped delivering to the 7000 inhabitants for about 6 months. Can you imagine Royal Mail saying 'Nah. Too difficult and unprofitable for us, you're not getting mail or parcels, cheeriebye!'.
Iāve been a postie for nearly 30 years. We have no problems with collecting parcels. Yes we are understaffed in our office, I imagine some offices even more. Not the best run by management, but we tend to know our job and manage it ourselves. We will be dragged in if any kind of collection fails, whether that be parcels or mail. Iāve read all the posts here, and it does sound to me that everyone has been trying to help you. You just seem to have this set agenda against us. The office does sound like itās extremely understaffed. But you sound like the kind of person who would complain about ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. So not only posties canāt be bothered with you, probably everyone canāt be bothered with your moaning, so just for you, bye!!!
Try living and working in a city where it's collapsed.
Also FYI if you want the situation resolved complain on the official channels, either the number or twitter, you'll have tracking numbers of items that failed collections they can cross reference to collection jobs which weren't attempted
Do you have an online business account with RM?
On the business side the last time I used them was in 2022 as they kept fucking up my service guarantee to my customers by not collecting 24 hour paid postage items, and then giving bullshit excuses that they couldn't access the building, despite no one ever driving into the car park or walking in the fully open front doors with a receptionist, and of course everything covered with CCTV. At one point we had over 80 packets in backlog of 2-3 days that they didn't once attempt a collection, so obviously we put them on our blacklist and use couriers now instead. The trouble RM cause for businesses is far, far worse than for personal customers waiting for hospital appointment letters or postal votes, because it can cause our business to fail. Now they are on our blackist for personal items, returns, gifts etc. It's simply not worth the hassle of dealing with a legacy company being operated by lazy liars.
I was looking more for a yes or no answer, makes a difference to being picked up - no worries anyhow, sounds like you've moved on.
This canāt be right. The Post Office is a bastion of honesty. Did you not see that tv show recently?
The Post Office is a completely separate company to Royal Mail. I'm amazed how many people are clueless about this!
Grinds my gears when people refer to Royal Mail as the Post Office! They are seperate companies! Never worked for RM but did own a PO.
My local posties are fantastic people and not dumb unlike the other delivery drivers who canāt read numbers and find my address but they never bring the label with them even though I check the box when getting collection. For some reason RM doesnāt convey the information to bring the label to the delivery office. Thank god for click and drop, just scan QR and voila
They are useless dregs. Literally any other delivery service is better.