Royal Mail - the good and bad (Royal Mail)

Member Name: Kezz360

Product:	Royal Mail
Date:	16/07/07 (254 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good service, something we all need

Disadvantages: When it's bad, it's BAAAAD!

I'm sure the whole world has heard of Great Britains 'Royal Mail'. Like you, I depend on them to bring me my post on a daily basis (not including bank holidays or sundays).

Royal Mail provides us with a service that is a must-have and admittedly, without them, we would be pretty much screwed as a nation. There are a number of ways we can send our mail;
1st class (guaranteed within 1-5 working days)
2nd class (guaranteed within 2-7 working days)
Signed (guaranteed within 1-2 working days)
Special delivery (guaranteed next day)
The majority of the time, we all rely on the standard 1st class post to get our mail from one end of the country, to the other. There is of course the 'Airmail' option if we want to send something abroad.

I'm writing this review at a time when there have been a number of strikes within the last few weeks regarding the postal workers pay and their work load.

Now, there aren't many times when we hear about companies employees going on strike regarding their pay or their workload. When we do, it's usually a big event that ends up on the national news. Every year (pretty much) Royal Mail workers go on strike, and it's usually regarding their pay. It makes you think to yourself, how bad must their pay really be if it always ends up with them going on strike every year?! I can say some really bad things about this situation, and some good things too, like, good on them for standing their ground and putting their point across, but then, what about us? What about the people who have to rely on their service day in day out? What about businesses who rely on their service to bring them their important/urgent documents? Well I could go on all day about the 'what ifs' etc, but this review is about the good points and bad points with Royal Mail, including my experiences with them.

GOOD POINTS
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Like i've said tirelessly, they provide us with a service that means we get our letters from our banks and building soceitys, and we get our special packages we've ordered from the internet. They give us options on how we would like to send our letter/parcel, however, in the last year or so, they've introduced a new system that requires you to weigh AND measure your letter/parcel. If you have an A5 or smaller envelope, that just contains a letter, or something really small, you can usually expect to pay about 32p, 1st class. If however, you have an A4 envelope, thats fairly thick, you can expect to pay 44p upwards 1st class...and then if you have a larger than A4 sized envelope, thats again, fairly thick, you can expect to pay about 88p upwards 1st class. The good points for this system is that it obviously helps royal mail to sort their mail easier within their system. For the person using this weigh/size guide....it can get confusing.
Other good points to royal mail. Most 1st class items will come the next working day, which is great considering you pay 33p. Saves forking out on special delivery, however, do not rely on this to get your letter to your recipient the next day, as it does not always come the next day.
Other good points to royal mail. In my experience, they have waited at my door for a good 5 minutes, when they have a package they want me to sign. If i'm in bed on a Saturday morning, and they ring my doorbell at 8am, i'm thinking, "Shit, quick, get out of bed before he leaves"....on one occasion I was about 5 minutes as I could not find my keys to open my door, and I thought to myself, "great, he's gonna go"...but he waited...and I was so thankful when i opened the door to find him still standing there waiting for me to sign for a parcel. He could've easily just rung the doorbell once, waited a minuted, left a card and carried on with his daily round, after all, he has alot of houses to call at in one morning.
Another good point, I have never had a bad experience when it comes to sending things for signed delivery or special delivery. My recipient has always received their goods on the next working day, and had them in good condition. I know of alot of people who have had their goods go missing, or not arrive at all. But in my experience, and this includes when I use to be a junior administrator, sending out parcels to other companies on an urgent basis. I have not had one bad encounter.

A really good service is when they leave you their little red card to say that they have a parcel waiting for you at your local office. If you aren't in to receive a package because it's too big for your letter box, or it requires a signature, they will leave you a card telling you so, and tell you how many hours to wait before going to collect the parcel. All you do after this, is go to your local office, with your little red card, present it to the postal workers, and in no time, they will appear with your parcel! If you're too busy to go to your local post office, you can arrange for your parcel to be re-delivered on a day that you know you will be in to have your parcel signed for, or to take it from the postman because it's too big for your letterbox.

BAD POINTS
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Now then, the bad points. To start with, lets just get this size/weight thing cleared up. I can use this system with ease now, but only when I am at work. If I have a letter I need franking, the machine sets the whole thing up fro you...you tell you the letter size, and whack it on the scales, it then tells you the amount of pennies you need to fork out. When I am at home...without a franking machine or anything like that...how can I be expected to know how many stamps to put on my letter when it's not just a normal sized envelope? Will i end up putting too many on? Will I end up not putting enough on?

Moving onto special delivery. Royal Mail guarantees that the parcel/letter will be delivered next day. For me, this has always been the case...but the Valentines Day just gone, my boyfriend had ordered me this special present from a very reliable person on the internet. They sent it special delivery and told him when they had sent it. He ordered this item 3 weeks before Valentines Day, so he was fully prepared incase the delivery would not reach him. The next day came...no parcel....thats strange as they guarantee it for the next day. He waited another day...and then another....still nothing. He then contacted his friend who sent it and told them what had happened...the gave him the tracking number they had received when they went to the post office, so it could be tracked online. He tracked it online and the status of the parcel said it had been received and signed for. Of course, this was untrue as he had received no such thing. He then enquired with his friend again, who kindly offered to send another one of the presents he had ordered for me, as there were still some in stock. He did this for free. Again, the guy sent it special delivery. Surely it wouldn't happen again.....

Well it did. My boyfriend began to wonder if his friend had sent it to the wrong address. He enquired again with him, to find he had sent the gift to the correct address on both occasions. He then suggested that since there was nothing more he could do, my boyfriend should try and ring his local post office, give them the reference number and find out if it had been left there. We tried ringing our local office at all times of the day, and there was never any response.

Afew days after Valentines Day, the gift turned up. My boyfriend was pretty miffed that he had ordered this item 3 weeks before Valentines Day, and he only received it a couple of days after Val Day. I was happy to finally receive the present, but unhappy at the way Royal Mail handled this special delivery item.

Another bad point is, going back to this strike situation. It always happens when I have things on order! I had ordered a present for my brothers birthday...he's 18, so i've ordered him this one of a kind present off the internet...I ordered it over a week ago, and expected it on Friday. But because of Royal Mails strike, I didn't receive it Friday, Saturday or Monday. Understandabley they have a huge back-log, but it just gets to me, that I'm relying on a service but can't ACTUALLY rely on them!!

SO CAN THEY BE TRUSTED?
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I don't think we have much choice really. Do we? We use them all the time, if we didn't, we'd have to pay for expensive couriers, and even they can be just as bad. Royal Mail provide us with something we HAVE to use, as much as some of us don't trust them, we still use them to deliver our important documents...sweating as we post it, wondering if the recipient will ever get it.

Even though I have made some strong bad points, I will still continue to use them as I do rely on them. It's unfortunate when they strike as we don't get any mail for a couple of days, but when they don't strike, they are efficient and handy to have in this country.

Summary: A service we all rely on