Postal service

[Johnnyboy1971]

Jus want to have a moan about our postal service.
First of all i have been waiting for three weeks now for a couple of items to be delivered of which so far the is no sign.

One of the senders has been fantastic with comunication so a big thankyou to Josh for being in almost constant contact and trying to chase the goods.

The other i wont name as the goods may still arrive but after three weeks and no contact after a swap trade im really disapointed.

Two other deliveries have arrived, i bought a sheath from Rancid Badger and was waiting for me when i got home after just a couple of days. Would like to say here that his workmanship is simply first class and wouldnt hesitate to buy from or comission work from him.

Second item is from Nektarios in Denmark, the knife was posted and received within five days and included me missing the saturday post.. Big thankyou again as his communication was brilliant as was his workmanship.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/sho...=Utility+knife

Why does it take so long for something from 200 miles away and just a few days from another country.

Anyway sorry for rattling on.

[sapper1]

Can't agree more,So far this year I have lost_2 titanium gas stoves,1 tarp,3 knives and 2 sets of pots.I know they are lost because the tracking number shows they are undelivered.
I have had a few swaps go astray and heard nothing from the sender and a few things that have been sent with a tracking number but they've never turned up.I have even had a parcel recieved by someone but it was opened and empty.
Royal Mail really are rubbish.I can't believe it's just me being unlucky.

[Johnnyboy1971]

I have always been very skeptical about sending payments outside paypal especially when not knowing
The person im sending the money to. If they are classed as a maker then they have a reputation to uphold where as
Joe blogs doesnt and many people wont share there names.

Now i DO belive in naming and shaming if it can be proven that that its not a postal problem but when there is no communication i fing it strange. I have in the past being known to drive three hours to confront someone over this issue, but that was over rather expensive fishing tackle. But if i felt it appropriate i wouldnt hesitate to do the same again.

[Shewie]

Don't get me started on this again, I've suffered again this year with sent and received items going AWOL.

I made a point of selling stuff with Recorded Delivery included in the price but sometimes that just isn't practical if the monetary value is quite low, then it's a lottery of whether the other person actually receives anything, and that's not right.

BTW Johnny, I forgot to grab your stove on the way out this morning, I can meet up at the pub again tonight if you like or we can do the layby thing tomorrow afternoon around 4 'ish ?

[Johnnyboy1971]

Tomorrows fine Rich. There is no rush.
Just getting balled off now with people and the post.

[southey]

I do think that we should start publicly prodding people if things are taking time to arrive three weeks is way to long to wait even for second class, I don't think it's shaming but anything sent should be the responsibility of the sender to chase up till it arrives, I will always name the parties of the trade in the thread and update the thread as things progress, no point being coy about a deal, and never except money out side pay pal(my favourite shops take it!! )

[Tank]

I had a gift it on item go missing in the post, 1 small book and 1 large book, cost me nearly £8! to post and it never arrived, i have replaced of the the books, and ordered the second one but stupidly didnt change my posting address on paypal so it sent to my default address which is at work, so no will have to pay another £8 to post it on to the rightful owner. not sure how amazon postage is so cheap, but i want to post a book and it cos £8!

[Johnnyboy1971]

Ok well i sent out two head torches the same day one arrived the following day the other just after the weekend so maybe three days. One was a swap for another item that i was told would be posted by his sister. Received a message to say the first had arrived but nothing untill i contacted the other person who didnt even ask if my item had arrived.

[sapper1]

I sold a rucksack this week to a chap on another forum who didn't have a paypal account,he said he'd sort something out if I sent him my address.The very next day the cash arrived in the post with special delivery.I posted the sack the next day as it was to late for the post that day.
I bought a rucksack from another forum,sent the money with paypal and the sack arrived the next day.
It's not all doom and gloom,just some of it.
My postman has a habit of not getting a signature for recorded items he brings me,he will even knock the door and hand them to me but still not get a signature,makes me wonder if other postmen are the same.
I suppose an unscrupulous person could get stuff like this and deny they've had them.

[Johnnyboy1971]

I have PMd the person in question and if nothing happens by tomorrow i will name them.
But looking back at past threads and comments by them they appear to be a regular on here and have traded many items
With other people.

[southey]

Yup, the letter of the law is that they are delivering to the address not the name, any one could sign for it in any way they wanted, and as long as the postie thinks they have the right address they have done nothing wrong, weird huh!

[Tank]

i think i tend to remember the times something goes wrong than all the other times where 99% of the time it works quickly and cheaply. but it is annoying when something goes missing. I just dont like the posty leaving things on my doorstep, i live in a flat and often come back to stuff just left on the mat, thankfully i know all the people in our block of flats but you never know who come around in the day.

[Johnnyboy1971]

Im fortunate in that my postie and i are on first name terms and he knows me from deliverying parcels on an almost daily basis.

[southey]

'Door stepping' as it's called, is in fact illegal, it's abandoning the post, same penalty as dumping it over a bridge or into a bin. if you don't like it then call you local delivery office and complain ( can anybody gues what I did for a bit when i left the army?)

[Tank]

'Door stepping' as it's called, is in fact illegal, it's abandoning the post, same penalty as dumping it over a bridge or into a bin. if you don't like it then call you local delivery office and complain

cheers will do that next time. I did complain about a deliery company (Not royal mail or Parcel force) who did this too me with something worth £100 they said they have my signature on the delivery form... appariently i signed it at 2pm at home, however i was at work until 5pm 20 miles away. they sent me a copy of the signature which was nothing like mine and the delivery drive says an average size, average hight man answered the door and took the parcel inside.. in the end they did nothing as they said they are not going to call one of the drivers a liar. nice to know lol

[hiho]

lost a couple of small items so fare this year as well, at least our postie now leaves them tied to the back door if he can't shoe horn it through the letter box

[southey]

Hahaha yeah, uk mail and hdn are the worst I've come across for that. I don't understand bad customer relations at any level, it's just strange to annoy the people you are providing a service to?

lost a couple of small items so fare this year as well, at least our postie now leaves them tied to the back door if he can't shoe horn it through the letter box

Hahaha you not wrong! at least i know all the good lay by cafe's in the Basingstoke area!

[hiho]

ugh don't get me started on hdnl :@

[Paul_B]

Sorry but I'm a little confused. The thread was about how bad the Postal Service is then everyone is going on about the people selling the stuff. Is this a thread about how bad the postal service is (as indicated by the thread title and start of the OP) or is it mostly about how some people aren't delivering on their end of the deal?

The RM does get a lot of bad press and sometimes it is bad but considering its universality od service, i.e. everywhere in the UK for the price of a stamp or additional charge no matter how hard to reach, it is surprising how little its service fails. It is really only due to kind of "headline failures" that it has a bad reputation. In reality it is statistically a very good service. Case of poor PR not poor service on the whole.

Please distinguish Parcelforce from RM. They are linked but different. From what I have heard Parcelforce often take on people who have been kicked out of RM. When times are good they will often dump parcels to out of the way places into the RM delivery piles and other tricks to avoid work or to enable them to finish early or sleep in a layby or whatever it is they want to do other than work. If you live in a rural area and are expecting a Parcelforce delivery can I sugget you find out where your nearest depot is and drive around somewhere between your place and that looking in laybys. You want ones with a bin or two. You might be lucky. Otherewise call the local RM depot and if you are lucky the guy there might tell you which layby to look in. This is all suggestions partly in jest and partly in truth!!

Anyway, I'm happy with RM as I have justg gotten some nice titanium stuff from Alpkit through RM. When I placed order it was late Thursday evening so the best I could hope for was it being sent out friday for delivery to my work today. That happened. Always happens too with Alpkit and RM. I wonder if that is down to RM or Alpkit doing the labels clearly. There is something to be said for clear labelling and using proper packaging like sealed bags even around boxes (shows tampering a lot better than a sellotaped box I think).

Never bought from a private individual online only companies. Was going to buy from someone off another forum but it got sold before I got in there. He was a serious regular poster and well known by people on the forum. Could even have found out where he lived too from others on there. Both are generally a safer thing to do.

[lab72]

Yes the postal service (use the word service loosely) I have had 2 letters lost 1 parcel from the states lost and think Iam looking at a 3rd complete bunch of "£$%&*£$!!!!!

[beenn]

I am the member in question- no need to name and shame

I have the receipts from the post office and i used to send all swaps second class as i never had a problem with things not arriving and the delivery time was a day later most of the time
I now post everything recorded but i also have not received some items and its the problem with the post office i suppose but what can we do except drive to other countries and places and exchange hand to hand

[Paul_B]

I'd complain. If it is your local office there could be a problem there. If more people complained to the right people then perhaps patterns could be spotted for example local sorting offices with records worse than the average. There are always bad offices. Sometimes its when the manager is lazy and doesn't bother coming in till late, creating the wrong attitude. Personally I haven't had any trouble and I have friends who have ebay sidelines which use the Postal service without any problems at all. We are talking about 20-30 packages a week sometimes.

[beenn]

I'd complain. If it is your local office there could be a problem there. If more people complained to the right people then perhaps patterns could be spotted for example local sorting offices with records worse than the average. There are always bad offices. Sometimes its when the manager is lazy and doesn't bother coming in till late, creating the wrong attitude. Personally I haven't had any trouble and I have friends who have ebay sidelines which use the Postal service without any problems at all. We are talking about 20-30 packages a week sometimes.

I have a friend at the sorting office and if i miss a parcel he brings them home for me and i collect them from him, but everytime i don't have a parcel come or its damaged i have spoke to the main post office and they just say they will 'file a complaint'
I am hoping the water bottle is delayed as i had something turn up 2/3 weeks later the other day but i really hope it arrives

[Paul_B]

There are plenty of places for packages to "fall behind" that only get checked out irregularly. Some areas have whole cages stashed away somewhere sat untouched for a few weeks. On the whole though they are pretty good but these sorts of stories doesnt exactly help with peoples' opinions of RM.

All I can say is I've never, ever had any problems with RM but through work UPS, DHL, Fedex and some more UK based services have had bad service before now. I always get told the home network is particularly bad (or whichever one the Amazon UK shower use).

[Shewie]

I picked up a flyer in the local sorting office the other day and they're apparently planning some big chnages over the next few months.

I think there was something about them trying to deliver when people are actually at home and not at work.

[Paul_B]

I'd prefer them to deliver while I'm at work as I always get deliveries made to my work address. I hope that won't affect my deliveries!! There has been a big change in hours of late. The posties I know about are all starting work later and finishing later too.

[Johnnyboy1971]

I picked up a flyer in the local sorting office the other day and they're apparently planning some big chnages over the next few months.

I think there was something about them trying to deliver when people are actually at home and not at work.

Thats cool but right now im not at work having taken the year off so at home

[mountainm]

A lot of pubs are now setting themselves up as parcel drop offs - so you go pick up your parcel from your local, and, well it would be rude not to have a pint wouldn't it....

http://www.useyourlocal.com/send-parcel/

[Nagual]

The latest delivery I have ever had was 12 months after it got posted. Luckily nothing important... lol

Although my ex had a credit card stolen out of the postal service, along with several months of statements... but according to RM, it wasn't them.... I simply think the RM are a bunch of lazy gits(in my encounters with them, mainly the Managers ), with no inclination to achieve high standards. Not all of course, not tarring them all with the same brush.

[Shewie]

Can't agree more,So far this year I have lost_2 titanium gas stoves,1 tarp,3 knives and 2 sets of pots.I know they are lost because the tracking number shows they are undelivered.
I have had a few swaps go astray and heard nothing from the sender and a few things that have been sent with a tracking number but they've never turned up.I have even had a parcel recieved by someone but it was opened and empty.
Royal Mail really are rubbish.I can't believe it's just me being unlucky.

Any of these bits turned up yet Chris ?