Royal Mail discussion

[johncrossley]

Passports are normally sent by courier. I believe DX Secure is a common one used.

Are passport deliveries trackable? What happens if you are not in? It would still be good if you could pick them up, taking the delivery uncertainty out of the equation.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That depends on where you live. They use DX Secure in what they class as high risk areas, other standard couriers if it is low risk.

Either way they're sent by courier and you don't have to go to the passport office to collect one, nor do they generally use Royal Mail (though if they did it'd be Special Delivery which is a guaranteed service and wouldn't be accepted if the SLA couldn't be met).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Nov 2022 ==

Are passport deliveries trackable? What happens if you are not in? It would still be good if you could pick them up, taking the delivery uncertainty out of the equation.

They are posted through your door, with photographs of this taking place. DX Secure were the first to do this, everyone else followed during COVID.

 

[jfollows]

Are passport deliveries trackable? What happens if you are not in? It would still be good if you could pick them up, taking the delivery uncertainty out of the equation.

Especially given my experience of having a neighbour's new passport posted through my front door, nobody rang the bell, just shoved it in and ran off. Correctly addressed but not to me. Clearly a passport from the package. Of course I took it round to the neighbour and handed it to her in person. But not good enough. It wasn't the Post Office, though, so not really relevant to this thread .... other than to say that if it had been sent by "normal" post or one of the "enhanced" services offered by the Post Office it would have been delivered properly.

 

[najaB]

It would still be good if you could pick them up, taking the delivery uncertainty out of the equation.

That is an option. You can pay for the Online Premium service and collect your passport on the same day as your appointment.

 

[gswindale]

Especially given my experience of having a neighbour's new passport posted through my front door, nobody rang the bell, just shoved it in and ran off. Correctly addressed but not to me. Clearly a passport from the package. Of course I took it round to the neighbour and handed it to her in person. But not good enough. It wasn't the Post Office, though, so not really relevant to this thread .... other than to say that if it had been sent by "normal" post or one of the "enhanced" services offered by the Post Office it would have been delivered properly.

That last statement is a bit of an exaggeration isn't it?

We have, on numerous occasions received post for neighbours which has been correctly addressed to their house, but posted through our door by the postie.

Don't get that with other delivery firms...

 

[skyhigh]

Parking shysters are parking shysters, they're incorrigible, though I find it hard to have sympathy with people who get them as it's really easy not to - park legally and always read signs. OK, everyone makes an occasional mistake and there's the odd ANPR failure, but getting more than one or two in a lifetime just means you're being negligent.

Going off topic but I firmly disagree with this. Bit of an unusual set of circumstances I admit, but I had an unfortunate situation not that long ago. My car was driven into when parked, so my insurance company sorted me out with a hire car via one of the big national firms. My work car park was managed by one of the parking cowboy companies. I correctly registered the hire car via their system to avoid penalties and got a confirmation email with the correct registration and vehicle listed.

Unfortunately, they made an error and still issued me with a penalty charge notice for every single day I parked in the car park. It took a while to filter through, as they took a week or so to issue the PCN, which got sent to the hire company, who then forwarded it onto me. In total I was issued with 13 PCNs before the first one reached me. Every single one was £100 discounted to £50 if I paid within 14 days. Every single one had the standard hire company £50 admin charge added on. Effectively (given the delay meant I'd missed the 14 day deadline) I was issued with a bill for £1500. The company immediately cancelled all the PCNs as they admitted they were incorrectly issued, but the hire company refused to cancel any of the admin charges as even though the PCNs were cancelled they'd still incurred their 'admin fees'. This left me with a bill for £650 that the parking cowboys only eventually paid after legal threats.

It's entirely possible to get stung and suffer consequential losses due to no fault of your own!

 

[Iskra]

Royal Mail have decided that they are taking back the holiday allowance that is no longer being accrued due to strike days. So an average striking postie will also lose 2 days paid holiday allowance.

While legal, I’ve never heard of this before, it comes across a bit desperate.

 

[londonbridge]

They are now saying the last recommended posting date for 2nd class is 12th December (was 19th December) and first class 16th December (was 21st December).

Meanwhile they’re (presumably) back at work today but needless to say I’ve had no delivery. I’ve actually got a friend from one of my previous jobs who works for Royal Mail, I messaged him about Tuesday and he said he’d had a look when he finished his round and apparently I have four letters, so what are they doing sitting in the office, why aren’t they doing their bloody job and delivering them?? One of which is no doubt my aforementioned newspaper vouchers, meanwhile I’m having to buy my paper at cover price when I’ve already paid the newspaper subscription rate because Royal Mail can’t or won’t deliver my post. One delivery in two and a half weeks, which is basically what I’ve had, isn’t acceptable. I wouldn’t mind betting I won’t get any delivery tomorrow or Monday either, I’m becoming inclined to get on to my MP now as something needs to be done.

 

[Dai Corner]

They are now saying the last recommended posting date for 2nd class is 12th December (was 19th December) and first class 16th December (was 21st December).

Meanwhile they’re (presumably) back at work today but needless to say I’ve had no delivery. I’ve actually got a friend from one of my previous jobs who works for Royal Mail, I messaged him about Tuesday and he said he’d had a look when he finished his round and apparently I have four letters, so what are they doing sitting in the office, why aren’t they doing their bloody job and delivering them?? One of which is no doubt my aforementioned newspaper vouchers, meanwhile I’m having to buy my paper at cover price when I’ve already paid the newspaper subscription rate because Royal Mail can’t or won’t deliver my post. One delivery in two and a half weeks, which is basically what I’ve had, isn’t acceptable. I wouldn’t mind betting I won’t get any delivery tomorrow or Monday either, I’m becoming inclined to get on to my MP now as something needs to be done.

Perhaps it's time for your newspaper to start emailing your vouchers? Or for those who can't / won't use email they could send them to the newsagent with the papers?

 

[Iskra]

I unexpectedly did receive some post today

 

[gswindale]

Emailing the vouchers is a good option, but then you've got to print them out.

Sending them to the newsagent would cause problems if you go away and still want your paper like my parents do.

Maybe your newspaper could deliver them via Evri. More likely to receive them that way than relying on Royal No Mail today.

 

[Dai Corner]

Emailing the vouchers is a good option, but then you've got to print them out.

Sending them to the newsagent would cause problems if you go away and still want your paper like my parents do.

Maybe your newspaper could deliver them via Evri. More likely to receive them that way than relying on Royal No Mail today.

Show them on a mobile device like a railway e-ticket?

What do they do if they're away when the postman delivers the vouchers?

Royal Mail's letter services do appear to be the least reliable at the moment.

 

[Kite159]

They must have been back working around here, for I got the usual unaddressed junk mail which went straight into the recycling bin along with the monthly letter from one of my credit cards offering a special deal on a balance transfer.

 

[londonbridge]

How would e-vouchers work when the customer exchanges the voucher for a copy of the paper and the retailer is then supposed to send the vouchers to the wholesaler (Smiths News, Menzies, etc) in order to receive payment?

 

[Iskra]

They must have been back working around here, for I got the usual unaddressed junk mail which went straight into the recycling bin along with the monthly letter from one of my credit cards offering a special deal on a balance transfer.

Isn’t it about time such advertising was banned for environmental reasons?

 

[telstarbox]

They are now saying the last recommended posting date for 2nd class is 12th December (was 19th December) and first class 16th December (was 21st December).

Meanwhile they’re (presumably) back at work today but needless to say I’ve had no delivery. I’ve actually got a friend from one of my previous jobs who works for Royal Mail, I messaged him about Tuesday and he said he’d had a look when he finished his round and apparently I have four letters, so what are they doing sitting in the office, why aren’t they doing their bloody job and delivering them?? One of which is no doubt my aforementioned newspaper vouchers, meanwhile I’m having to buy my paper at cover price when I’ve already paid the newspaper subscription rate because Royal Mail can’t or won’t deliver my post. One delivery in two and a half weeks, which is basically what I’ve had, isn’t acceptable. I wouldn’t mind betting I won’t get any delivery tomorrow or Monday either, I’m becoming inclined to get on to my MP now as something needs to be done.

Out of interest which newspaper is it?

 

[Dai Corner]

How would e-vouchers work when the customer exchanges the voucher for a copy of the paper and the retailer is then supposed to send the vouchers to the wholesaler (Smiths News, Menzies, etc) in order to receive payment?

Scan them at the point of sale and update a central database so the voucher can't be reused and the retailer can be reimbursed. I've never used them, but wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't already happen. Surely they don't have clerks counting bits of paper and issuing cheques?

 

[E27007]

For comparison, how recently was it - if at all - that being paid weekly was abolished on the railways?

BR employment contracts for new hires from the late 1980s were four-weekly pay and to a bank account, you could not be paid in cash.
I'm paid weekly for the last 3 years, I used to be four-weekly on BR, management wanted to change from four-weekly, 13 paydays per annum , to monthly 12 paydays per annum.
Union rejected the change and suggested weekly pay, management accepted!
Going to weekly pay is a delight!
1) When payroll make mistakes (used to be a frequent occurance), it is corrected very quickly and the missing pay is in the bank with only a 7 day wait, (the next weekly payday), not several weeks to wait
2) Paid four weekly, for my whole working life, always in pay arrears of four weeks, weekly only one week in arrears, and the transition week 4 to weekly was a catch up, bank account swelled, a manna from heaven moment.
3) Weekly pay, now payroll make fewer mistakes compared to four weekly.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Dec 2022 ==

95p is decent value to send a card to the outer hebrides though isn't it?

Just watch, if the USO goes then that will cost at least £9.50 (which will still be good value)

I think the problem for Royal Mail is they are a common carrier and cannot reject unprofitable business.
The private delivery services can cherry pick the market leaving the Royal Mail to pick up the leftovers.

 

[gswindale]

BR employment contracts for new hires from the late 1980s were four-weekly pay and to a bank account, you could not be paid in cash.
I'm paid weekly for the last 3 years, I used to be four-weekly on BR, management wanted to change from four-weekly, 13 paydays per annum , to monthly 12 paydays per annum.
Union rejected the change and suggested weekly pay, management accepted!
Going to weekly pay is a delight!
1) When payroll make mistakes (used to be a frequent occurance), it is corrected very quickly and the missing pay is in the bank with only a 7 day wait, (the next weekly payday), not several weeks to wait
2) Paid four weekly, for my whole working life, always in pay arrears of four weeks, weekly only one week in arrears, and the transition week 4 to weekly was a catch up, bank account swelled, a manna from heaven moment.
3) Weekly pay, now payroll make fewer mistakes compared to four weekly.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Dec 2022 ==


I think the problem for Royal Mail is they are a common carrier and cannot reject unprofitable business.
The private delivery services can cherry pick the market leaving the Royal Mail to pick up the leftovers.

We're getting off topic, but having been paid monthly for the last 20 years, there has only been one payroll issue in that time which resulted in us being paid a day late.

I would suggest that it isn't the payment frequency that affects the amoof errors, but the competency of the payroll team. In addition weekly pay will be more costly to the employer (52×20p per employee as opposed to 12 or 13 x 20p per employee based on our bank charges for a faster payment).

 

[E27007]

We're getting off topic, but having been paid monthly for the last 20 years, there has only been one payroll issue in that time which resulted in us being paid a day late.

I would suggest that it isn't the payment frequency that affects the amoof errors, but the competency of the payroll team. In addition weekly pay will be more costly to the employer (52×20p per employee as opposed to 12 or 13 x 20p per employee based on our bank charges for a faster payment).

You may suggest that, my empirical evidence is that payroll errors declined to near-zero, the system of weekly pay smoothed and unified the workflow of payroll, every week became the same workflow process, enter pay for the week, and run a relatively simple weekly bank consolidation process, contrast with the previous payroll cycle of 3 weeks of entering pay, then the anomaly of the final week of entering pay plus a monthly / four weekly complex consolidation for the bank process of paying the wage to the employee.
As for a 20p overhead for a wage payment, in the scale of a pay cheque, neither here nor there!

 

[XAM2175]

Meanwhile they’re (presumably) back at work today but needless to say I’ve had no delivery. I’ve actually got a friend from one of my previous jobs who works for Royal Mail, I messaged him about Tuesday and he said he’d had a look when he finished his round and apparently I have four letters, so what are they doing sitting in the office, why aren’t they doing their bloody job and delivering them??

I had a delivery today.

BR employment contracts for new hires from the late 1980s were four-weekly pay and to a bank account, you could not be paid in cash.
I'm paid weekly for the last 3 years, I used to be four-weekly on BR, management wanted to change from four-weekly, 13 paydays per annum , to monthly 12 paydays per annum.
Union rejected the change and suggested weekly pay, management accepted!

Hah, that's a win!

 

[londonbridge]

Out of interest which newspaper is it?

Times

 

[gswindale]

So, Currys have abandoned Royal Mail.

Currys drops Royal Mail due to strike action

The electronics retailer has switched to alternative delivery firms for the time being.

www.bbc.co.uk

Personally I suspect many others may follow suit.

 

[najaB]

So, Currys have abandoned Royal Mail.

Currys drops Royal Mail due to strike action

The electronics retailer has switched to alternative delivery firms for the time being.

www.bbc.co.uk

Personally I suspect many others may follow suit.

My suspicion is that this will focus the attention of management on finding a way to improve the offer on the table.

 

[Bletchleyite]

So, Currys have abandoned Royal Mail.

Currys drops Royal Mail due to strike action

The electronics retailer has switched to alternative delivery firms for the time being.

www.bbc.co.uk

Personally I suspect many others may follow suit.

I'd stop using Currys then, unless they've switched to DPD.

With RM it will arrive late at present, but at least it will arrive, unlike Hermes.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Did Curry's sell all that many washing machines and microwaves which were then delivered by Royal Mail?

 

[Darandio]

Did Curry's sell all that many washing machines and microwaves which were then delivered by Royal Mail?

They only used Royal Mail for smaller items. The chief exec said it was only a small number that was sent with them anyway, it's not the huge story that's being reported.

 

[najaB]

They only used Royal Mail for smaller items. The chief exec said it was only a small number that was sent with them anyway, it's not the huge story that's being reported.

It's not. But once one company jumps there's more chance that others will follow. As I noted above, this will focus RM's management attention on finding a solution before one of their really big customers leaves.

In all likelihood it's too late to lose a big one before Christmas, but once we're into 2023 all bets are off.

 

[skyhigh]

I'd stop using Currys then, unless they've switched to DPD.

The last week or so DPD has completely gone down the toilet here. I had a parcel dispatched with 1 day delivery. Normally it would reliably arrive on the day it was due. It took 5 days to arrive this time - delayed 2 days at the hub, and 1 day at the local depot. It went from 'out for delivery' to 'delayed' on one day. Talking to the driver (who arrived with the parcel at 9pm) they are woefully short of staff and drivers are working 12 hour days to make up for it. I had a similar experience with another parcel also sent by DPD.

I assume part of the problem is with customers moving from Royal Mail to other carriers and the additional volume is overwhelming.

 

[londonbridge]

And as I suspected I had no delivery yesterday….apparently they’ve (my local delivery office) been told to only take letters out if they think they’ll have time to deliver them, basically the fewer specials and parcels, the more letters they can take out with them. Seems if they delivered everything they’d be out working till 9.00 or 10.00pm. Also seems they’ve not hired any Xmas casuals…..meanwhile I’ve been talking to another friend who hasn’t received her blood test result and says she can’t book the next test she needs without the paperwork….what are they going to do if someone becomes seriously ill (or worse, dies) as a result of hospital correspondence being held up, then they’ll really be in trouble.