Royal Mail are a joke (Royal Mail)

Member Name: CindyT

Product:	Royal Mail
Date:	04/05/09 (243 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheaper than couriers normally

Disadvantages: Poor service, 'lost' parcels

Royal Mail are unfortunately a postal service that most companies use and most people use due to the relative high costs of couriers. However, as the saying goes...you get what you pay for...or in Royal Mail's case you sometimes don't! I don't think it even matters where you live, they are the same all over...from Essex, to Plymouth to Sheffield I have found the same poor level of service.

The worst area for them so far is Sheffield where I moved to in August 2008. Problems started when I had 3 red cards for when post is delivered and you're out. All 3 times I asked for redelivery via the Royal Mail website. All 3 times they sent confirmation that my request had been accepted...all 3 times nothing arrived! Obviously I enquired as to what had happened and was told that after a thorough search my parcel had disappeared and that I should contact the seller and ask for a confirmation of postage and reclaim the value! The problem being I didn't know who sent it!! The 2nd parcel also 'disappeared' - I could only assume I had a postman who took a fancy to my parcels by now. After the 1st two lost items the 3rd parcel I decided to have redelivered to my local post office (a service costing 50p but I thought at least I was guaranteed to get it!). I selected my nearest PO from their website and received confirmation my request had been successful. I thought I'd phone the PO on the morning of delivery just to check it was there...and low and behold the PO wasn't even a PO anymore and hadn't been for 10+ years!!! I phoned Royal Mail to find out where my parcel was and was told that because the PO didn't exist they just held on to the package at the depot...and didn't bother to tell me, I only found out because I phoned up again. By this time I'd had a couple of other parcels (2 or 3 from Amazon) of £50+ value posted to me and rather than a red card, the postman just left them outside my door, in a communal landing, in a shared block of flats - with a front main entrance with a dodgy locking catch! (God knows how many parcels had been delivered but could have been swiped by anyone who took a fancy to it - someone's bike had already been stolen)

I'd had enough and decided to make a formal complaint to the PO watchdog who promised to investigate. The result of which was an email response saying that the postman for my area had been interviewed and insisted he would never in any circumstance leave parcels outside a door and that if I was having problems with my deliveries I could always consider using the local PO redelivery service at a cost of 50p!!! So basically my postman is a lying, probably thieving idiot and if I wanted my parcels not to get lost I should pay 50p to do it via their local PO (my local one not existing!) What a waste of time!

Needless to say any post that's important I now have sent to my mum and dad's house and pick up when I go and visit. Thought this is clearly not ideal when they live 5 hours drive away!

Summary: Royal Mail are the worst at losing parcels