Christmas Card and general postal deliveries...a query raised.

[Gloster]

Has the matter of the Christmas Mail fiasco been raised by MP's of any political party in the House of Commons?

It has been raised in the Lords and probably in the Commons as well, but that is not likley to be of much import, except allowing a load of posturing and windbaggery. Royal Mail, which is now called International Distribution Services and only uses Royal Mail as a trading name, is a plc and so the government has effectively no influence over it.

 

[Steddenm]

A card sent from Belfast on November 24th finally arrived today in Haywards Heath - it was sent first class. Yet another card sent in Dublin to Brighton still hasn't arrived.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Apparently the cyber attackers have taken down the tracking system.

I am guessing Royal Mail would prefer to wait until it's back up rather than have to fork out to refund everything that's been posted to go overseas by a tracked means...

I think there is probably more to this than meets the eye, but the Royal Mail issue is affecting mail leaving the UK - they say incoming mail might be slighlty delayed but its outgoing mail that's suspended.

Curiouser and curiouser. If the "problem/issue" is just with tracking, how does this then affect untracked items, such as ordinary letters sent by air mail?

 

[Typhoon]

Someone has clearly anticipated Royal Mail delays and sent me a birthday card (2nd class) - it arrived over two weeks early!!

 

[DannyMich2018]

My mum's Christmas card which I posted about 10 days before Christmas finally arrived yesterday!! I posted 3 cards together around the 16th Dec to the same town 30 miles away, one arrived a few days before Christmas, one last week and last one as stated above arrived yesterday.

 

[zero]

I sell on ebay and most of my sales are dropped into the postbox untracked (occasionally with a Signed For label to keep buyers honest, but that can backfire if the postman doesn't scan it). Nobody has complained of not receiving any item over the entire strike period, and based on the buyers who leave feedback, sometimes they have been getting it the next day.

But in the other direction, over the past 2 months the postman has only been by 6 times. Under normal circumstances I would be expecting to receive something at least 4 times a week. Everything that arrives was posted 2-4 weeks in the past.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Curiouser and curiouser. If the "problem/issue" is just with tracking, how does this then affect untracked items, such as ordinary letters sent by air mail?

Update: they are now saying "...the same system is used to prepare letters for overseas despatch..."

This sounds to me like they use it to count and sort items as well as to scan trackable ones.

 

[DelW]

I received in today's post a letter from a finance company, dated 25th November. Fortunately it was only notifying me of some transactions and didn't need any action from me.

Normally these arrive within a couple of days of their issue date, and I've already received several others dated up to and including 29th December.

 

[gswindale]

Yesterday we received our credit card bill dated 9th December!

Fortunately we pay in full by Direct debit, but I'm not sure what the credit card companies reaction would be if bills aren't paid because Royal No Mail Today can't be bothered delivering in a timely fashion?

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

Several sources now pointing to a Russian linked cyber attack on Royal Mail.

A Russia-linked ransomware gang was behind the Royal Mail cyber attack that forced it to suspend international postal deliveries leaving more than half a million parcels and letters stuck in limbo, The Telegraph can disclose....

Russia-linked hackers behind Royal Mail cyber attack

Lockbit’s ransomware scrambled software on machines used to send international post

www.telegraph.co.uk

More fool Russia if true, don't they know the service was already crippled before?!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

More fool Russia if true, don't they know the service was already crippled before?!

The letter telling them probably got lost in the post...

 

[43096]

Several sources now pointing to a Russian linked cyber attack on Royal Mail.

More fool Russia if true, don't they know the service was already crippled before?!

Matt in The Telegraph is suggesting something different!
(Cartoon of a dog typing on the computer with owners watching and caption of “He'll do anything to torment the postman. Now he's launching a cyber-attack on the Royal Mail.”)

 

[londonbridge]

Further to my earlier post, one of the items I ordered on January 4th was an eBay purchase which arrived on the 7th. I’ve just had an email from eBay asking whether I received it as the tracking says it hasn’t been delivered. I’d already left positive feedback for the seller so they know I got it okay…..

 

[crablab]

If the "problem/issue" is just with tracking, how does this then affect untracked items, such as ordinary letters sent by air mail?

It's not really to do with tracking. The system handles electronic customs and export paperwork.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 13 Jan 2023 ==

This sounds to me like they use it to count and sort items

Yes, the majority of all Royal Mail operations use automated ILSMs (Integrated Letter Sorting Machine) or PSMs (Parcel Sorting Machine). The exceptions tend to be things like Atherstone Peak MC which is handsorted because it's in a rented warehouse and only used at Peak (November - January). As a result all the mail is rather "well packed" into Yorks and is an absolute nightmare to put through automation at other Mail Centres.

HWDC (Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre) is entirely automated and it's a lot more complicated than "counting"!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Jan 2023 ==

For those wondering, there's a good video of what HWDC looks like inside here:

Bear in mind that this is from 6 years ago.

 

[Typhoon]

Further to my earlier post, one of the items I ordered on January 4th was an eBay purchase which arrived on the 7th. I’ve just had an email from eBay asking whether I received it as the tracking says it hasn’t been delivered. I’d already left positive feedback for the seller so they know I got it okay…..

Similar experience. Item sent to me on 27th Dec, received, feedback left. 6th Jan e-mail from eBay, probably same as yours 'Our tracking shows that your item hasn’t been delivered, so we wanted to let you know that you can contact the seller and ask for an update.' I checked with seller - knew nothing about it, confirmed feedback left. I contacted eBay, they claim to do this regularly - news to me, and the seller. May just be because of industrial action, in case people were thinking of moving to a different platform.
Not sure what the 'tracking' is - the item cost a few quid and went by conventional mail, easily went through the letter box. Maybe there had been issues with post from that sorting office?

 

[Western Lord]

Yesterday (Friday the 13th!) we received a Christmas card from my brother and his wife postmarked December 8th. Worcestershire to Essex in five weeks.

 

[Darandio]

Going back to Evri (well discussed earlier in the thread) and they are really excelling this week. I'm currently awaiting a total of four parcels from them which are all now grouped together and all updates for them are the same.....

Jan 12

05:16 - Your parcel is at the delivery depot and we'll let you know when it's out for delivery
07:39 - On its way to the courier
10:53 - Your parcel is on it's way to you today
11:07 - Your local courier* will deliver your parcel between 12:00 and 14:00 today

*The driver assigned had 'New To Evri' under his length of service, always makes things interesting

Typically nothing arrived and the tracking didn't update again that day.

Jan 13

10:37 - Don't worry, we will send you a message on Saturday 14 January 2023 regarding your delivery.

Okay, I won't worry and I fully believe you have it all completely under control. But wait.....

10:38 - Due to be delivered today

I'd better stay in then but of course nothing arrives.

Jan 14

07:21 - On its way to the courier
10:51 - Due to be delivered today
13:11 - Due to be delivered today

They are so confident it will be delivered today they've told me twice. But then....

13:31 - Delay due to major event

I can only assume the major event is their realisation of how incompetent they really can be.

I realise others in the thread have had good service from Hermes/Evri and I have also had timely deliveries from them many times. But i've also had some utterly terrible experiences with them and they didn't earn their reputation for nothing. I receive multiple deliveries every week from multiple carriers, they are by far the worst as i'm sure @Bletchleyite agrees.

 

[DelW]

Going back to Evri (well discussed earlier in the thread) and they are really excelling this week. I'm currently awaiting a total of four parcels from them which are all now grouped together and all updates for them are the same.....

I realise others in the thread have had good service from Hermes/Evri and I have also had timely deliveries from them many times. But i've also had some utterly terrible experiences with them and they didn't earn their reputation for nothing. I receive multiple deliveries every week from multiple carriers, they are by far the worst as i'm sure @Bletchleyite agrees.

I've had a similar experience to yours above, when I ended up waiting at home for a couple of days for a delivery predicted first on a Tuesday, then Wednesday, then finally arrived at midday on Thursday.

Since I regularly buy from a clothing supplier which delivers via Evri, my solution now is to choose the option of delivery to an "Evri Parcel Shop", which in my case is a local shop just round the corner from my house. Rather than wait in, or even tracking the delivery, I just wait until I get a text or email that it's been delivered there, then pop round and collect it. Thus far at least, that's always worked successfully for me.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Not sure what the 'tracking' is - the item cost a few quid and went by conventional mail, easily went through the letter box. Maybe there had been issues with post from that sorting office?

The eBay system assumes a tracked delivery even if no tracking number is entered in the system. It then flags it up if there is no delivery date recorded against that - regardless of whether or not a tracking number has been entered or if feedback has been left.

 

[londonbridge]

And still not here today, although I did get a letter from my energy supplier dated December 19th…… today I’ve posted a birthday card to a friend in Kentucky, whose birthday is Jan 8th, I usually post it in between Christmas and New Year, we’ll see when it turns up as the last one I sent (posted at the end of ‘21) turned up nine days late.

Emailed her yesterday, she still hasn’t got her birthday card (mailed December 29). Given her Christmas card arrived Jan 9th after posting it in early December, maybe I should have just sent both together….

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Emailed her yesterday, she still hasn’t got her birthday card (mailed December 29). Given her Christmas card arrived Jan 9th after posting it in early December, maybe I should have just sent both together….

My youngest brother's birthday is 20th December and I have always sent his Christmas Card and Birthday Card together. This year, mainly to ensure that I used up all the old-style 1st class stamps, all the cards were sent out during the last week of November.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Some discussion here in a BBC News article following a House of Commons Business Committee meeting.

Royal Mail accused of prioritising parcels over letters​

By Zoe Conway
Employment correspondent

Royal Mail has been accused by a senior MP of breaching its legal obligations by prioritising parcels over letters.
Business Committee chair Darren Jones said a poster in a delivery office sent to him by a whistle-blower had told workers to favour delivering parcels.
He showed it to Royal Mail chief executive Simon Thompson who was giving evidence to the committee.
Mr Thompson said he was aware of the sign but that it was "absolutely not our policy".
Showing Mr Thompson the poster, Mr Jones said "you are unilaterally only delivering on 50% of the USO (Universal Service Obligation)" and asked him if the poster represented Royal Mail policy.
Under the Universal Service Obligation, Royal Mail is legally required to deliver letters to every address in the UK, six days a week, at a uniform price, and parcels five days a week.
Mr Thompson denied that the message on the poster was company policy, adding that the poster was a "local action" and that it had been "dealt with".
But the committee chair sounded unconvinced by what he heard. "I'd remind you Mr Thompson that misleading Parliament is not something that we appreciate here on the committee.'' And he asked the chief executive to write to the committee to ''prove'' that this was not Royal Mail policy.
David Bharrat, a postal worker who is also a branch secretary for the Communication Workers Union, says the poster was displayed in a delivery office in the Harrow and District area.
He said the sign appeared in August last year and told the BBC: "We feel depressed. We're leaving mail behind and that's not what we're about, postmen regard all mail as important."
Mr Bharrat said that letters at his delivery office regularly sat in sorting devices known as "frames"' for four days at a time.
He said that the poster would not have been put up on the wall without the permission of a senior manager. "Local managers do not do anything without getting advice from senior management."
Earlier in the hearing, the Conservative MP for Rushcliffe, Ruth Edwards, said that postal workers from across the country had contacted her to say that they had specifically been told to prioritise parcels.
Mr Thompson said that letters and parcels were given equal importance by the company. "We've been very, very clear that there is no difference between the two. We've written to our teams on a regular basis, I remember in my first year I wrote to every postal worker reminding them of the importance of letters."

Copy of unofficial poster referred to in the article:

 

[zero]

This morning I asked the current postman, who was delivering SD, when my letters would be arriving and he said 'maybe next week'. (Haven't seen the regular guy since Christmas, this current one has been doing the rounds most days this year.)

But at 4pm another postman who I've never seen before, came by with some letters which had been posted around 3rd Jan. My previous letter delivery was last Wednesday.

Still waiting for letters posted to me between 5 and 13 Jan.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Finally, all my normal monthly mail from large organisations all arrived when expected over the last few days, so hopefully the backlog seems to be clearing.

 

[Darandio]

Pah, you're all complaining about delays of a few weeks. This one was 30 years late!

Letter from Somerset arrives in Northumberland almost 30 years later

The letter sent from Somerset in the 1990s has finally reached its destination in Northumberland.

www.bbc.co.uk

A letter that was posted nearly 30 years ago has finally reached its destination.
John Rainbow was "shocked" to get the letter from 1995 through his door in Wylam, Northumberland, after it was posted in Bridgwater, Somerset.
Mr Rainbow, 60, said: "We opened the letter, had a look at it and thought, 'Blimey, this is a bit strange'.
"It was for a previous resident of the house, they must've lived here at least 12 to 15 years ago."
The envelope has a Royal Mail first-class postage stamp and was franked in Bridgwater in 1995.
On the back is a 1995 franking stamp from Alnwick in Northumberland.
"It is in perfect condition, it's not like it's been lying around, it just looks old," Mr Rainbow said.
Mr Rainbow, who is retired and has lived in Wylam with his wife since 2015, said the letter was about family stories dating back to the 1880s, containing childhood memories, and how the writer's children had grown.
He said the letter came through the door with some other post and he did not think much of it at first.
"I thought, 'Ah, it is a Christmas card.' Then I noticed it was a letter and how old it is," he said.
"It is very strange, we have no connection to the person that was here."
Mr Rainbow explained the intended recipient, Valerie Jarvis-Read, lived at his property until about 2010 and the home had passed through several hands since.
Mr Rainbow said a neighbour had told him Mrs Jarvis-Read was a navigator for her husband who was in the armed forces in Le Mans, sometime after World War One.
The letter was sent by Somerset farmer Patrick Daniel, who has since died.
His son, Richard, told BBC Radio Newcastle the emergence of the late delivery was "bizarre" and he believed his father was replying to a letter from Mrs Jarvis-Read enquiring whether their families may be related.
"I think Valerie must've written a long letter to my father because she thought she might be related to us several generations back.
"My father said he enjoyed hearing about her far-flung family and that he thought he'd better tell her about his.
"This was my father's response. The tragedy is it never reached her."
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: "Incidents like this happen very occasionally, and we are uncertain what happened to cause this incident in this instance.
"We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused."

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Always wonder when stories like that in post #145 appear in a news story, from time to time, whether someone has just found and re-posted a random old letter.

 

[zero]

In 2019 I received an ebay item which I bought (and got a refund for non receipt) in 2017. It was in a regular envelope with a 2nd large stamp. By that time the seller had been kicked off ebay though.

 

[DelayRepay]

Pah, you're all complaining about delays of a few weeks. This one was 30 years late!

I keep getting cards for someone who hasn't lived at my address for at least 30 years. As the sender only signs their first name, I cannot return them. I thought a previous resident must have forgotten to pass on their new address, but maybe these cards are just very delayed.

 

[Typhoon]

One of the first deliveries after Christmas included a leaflet 'NHS Prescriptions delivered to you door pain free'. Given that this is #149 and the industrial action is still on-going (and Pharmacy2U's track record on data), I don't think I'll be availing myself of this service!

 

[londonbridge]

Another one I had was when I posted a letter to the states sone years back, took around a year and a half for it to come back through my letter box as undeliverable (forget the reason).

Also had a letter turn up addressed to elsewhere in the country, looked it up then wrote “please re deliver to (correct address), put it back in a pillar box, came back through my letter box two days later, underlined what I’d written, sent it off again, it came back again, third time of asking I managed to get rid of it.

Plus I ordered an online item which was faulty, so I wrote “return to sender”, sent it off, that also came back to me twice before my regular postie came back from holiday, found it in his round ready to deliver to me again, recognised my writing and realised what was happening before turning it around and sending it back.