Post Office - going downhill already?

I'm still waiting for stuff I ordered over a week ago.

As has been pointed out, not the postie's fault, I think they are under immense pressure.

The last time I ordered something from Amazon, about a week ago now, there was a big note saying to use the Standard Delivery option (3 to 5 working days) if you want it in time for Christmas, but when I went to confirm the order it said Royal Mail First Class was 1 to 2 working days, so I chose that. In hindsight Amazon were probably warning us that Royal Mail can't be relied upon, whereas if you choose the theoretically slower 'Standard Delivery', it usually comes by another courier, and is likely to arrive.

As it stands at the moment its chaos in my house too, as I now have parcels arriving in dribs and drabs totally out of sync from when I ordered them, all intended to be pressies for different people. I don't keep records (other than the email confirmations) because I usually order some stuff, know what I'm expecting and when, and then a couple of days later when the expected packages arrive, I don't have to work out what they are or if I've received everything I ordered. This time I'm going to have to wait til one evening when the kids are asleep in their beds, then sort through everything in the hideout and work out what's what.

 

I got a letter today from RM, seems a bit delayed, says you can post parcels cheaper now over the Christmas, not sure if it lasts after Christmas.
Wonder if they have realise they shot themselves in the foot with the recent massive price rise, bearing in mind lots of others are now providing a good parcel delivery service much cheaper and more reliable.

 

They've also had an advertising campaign flagging up how cheap their parcel service is. Only if you send something flat in an A4 envelope though.

 

They ain't much better to be fair. I got a deliver from MyHermes while I was out which was slid under the back gate and then also found they had delivered someone else's package through my door as well.

 

I miss read that as MyHerpes

 

Our service from RM is really good, but it's down to the individual postie who now does our village. The previous 6 have been rubbish, delivering at up to 5:30 pm and missing some days completely. Before those idiots we had another really good postie. The good ones never had to jog to get things done on time, but 6 out of 8 were incapable of doing the job properly.

 

Had some inportant papers though post that had to be sign for, met postie in my drive and he said it's been signed for, i asked who sign it, ME (postie), so i had a word about the legal side of it to him, and he has never done it again but he has now moved on, and the new postie is even better

 

This was covered in one of our lectures a couple of years ago: the targets set for the postal deliveries are becoming so constrained, the lecturer (read that word carefully @Zigs ) suggested that the only people capable of being a postal deliver worker nowadays would need to move like Sir Roger Bannister back in '54!

 

Post is fine here as well , 11 in the morning on the dot . Parcels are delivered or left with neighbours , not one problem with late delivery . If the parcel is to big I can collect from sorting office from 7am on the way to work , no queues (Saturday morning is a different story ! ). Looks like the Post Office is fine , just that you lot live in the wrong place !
Seriously though all countries postal services are going through big changes . Canada is stopping all deliveries of post and you need to go to a collection office. Lots of Ebay sellers will not ship to Italy as the delivery is so bad.

 

Targets and metrics all the time . For the post office some jumped up efficiency expert decreed that poor posties should average 4 mph on their rounds !!! When I exercised on a running machine 4mph is a very very brisk walking speed . Like M said you need to be and athlete to maintain this.

 

Well they are pretty good around hear.

They have just obtained a 9% pay rise over three years backdated to last April.
A Christmas bonus and a sizeable amount of shares.
Can't be bad...............
Good luck to them.

 

If nobody's in and no neighbours are at home, our posties leave parcels at the village post office so only a 5 minute walk to collect rather than a 26 mile round trip to the sorting office.

 

I'm the same ... but I get caught out (not being able to accurately remember) when I order several things from different suppliers ...

My solution is to have a folder in Outlook for "Awaited" and I just drag any Order Confirmations into that, and then periodically check them and delete / move to another folder if they have arrived. Still needs checking, but its easier when things go wrong to already have the Confirmations all in one place.

 

Small Packet has recently been changed from a pathetically small size, and awkward shape used by none I reckon, to something nearer to the size of a shoebox. For anyone using Post Office to send a packet that must represent a decent saving.