Forum Topic

Royal mail

Is anyone else having problems with post deliveries.  Can the postmen read ?  They seem to be able to get the number of the door right, but not the street. Yesterday we had two letters for the right number - wrong street.

Pat Kingham ● 7451d29 Comments

As the person who started this debate, I feel I should reply to Mark.  Hasn't he missed the point ? Everyone responding has had nothing but good to say about the old system.  It's the new temps who seem unable to get the right envelope in the right letterbox.  As for it only being newcomers who have responded, I have lived in Brentford all my life, I'm not going to say how long that is, but I did go to St Pauls school in the 1950s.Apart from bank statements and bills', nothing else is important.  Surely not, does he never get a birthday card, airline/theatre tickets or a letter from a friend ?  I am sorry he feels so aggrieved and have to agree with his last paragraph.

Pat Kingham ● 7443d

IT SEEMS TO ME ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED AN OPINION ON THE CURRENT STATE OF THE ROYAL MAIL ARE THE "NEW BRENTFORD" CROWD...JUST MOVED INTO THE AREA FROM THE SURREY'S ETC. Surely he can't mean me because I've only lived in this borough for the last 32 years. Anyway, the way that Royal Mail is being run by senior management can't only impact upon residents making up the 'new Brentford crowd', can it? Isn't it a wider problem than just Brentford? It would seem to be from the investigation by the Evening Standard and the feature on the BBC link provided by another correspondent. I don't think that anyone has knocked the postmen and postwomen, rather we have debated the way in which senior management of Royal Mail have brought the postal service down. Answers on a postcard please ;-)

Gareth Evans ● 7444d

We have had some lovely post-persons over the years.  They form an important part of community life, even if you just exchange the time of day with them.  Our postman now is very cheery and I know from talking to him he does his best to do his job well.  The permanent chap before - him with the knees - (he wore shorts and was always running around - nice knees too I might add) was just as dedicated and the ones before him were so too.  Can't say I have ever lived in Surrey although the shopping is pretty good.  Would the difficulties with the post be different out in the shires do you think?

Sarah Felstead ● 7444d

WHAT DO PEOPLE EXPECT FOR 28p ?First class service to go with the first rate postal charge wouldn't be a bad trade off for a starter.

Gareth Evans ● 7444d

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/4046003.stmMaybe there are more postmen just like this one though out the country?

Angus James ● 7444d

I’ll leave aside comment on your 1st 4 points Mark. For the rest, haven’t you misinterpreted the postings?In fact I doubt if there are ANY “newcomers” who have commented in this thread, and in the main they are full of praise for the service that we have received in the past. Certainly I could never have wished for better, and junk mail aside, of which I get thankfully little, most of the post is vitally important to a business, with bank statements and bills sometimes the least important.It was the dramatic contrast following the shake up “for the better”, that has prompted the outcries. These are well founded complaints, not directed at the posties, but as you seem also to have indicated, at the “new brooms” higher up.

Nigel Moore ● 7444d

I say old bean - (my best Surbiton-Margo voice) would you recommend the shares then?

Sarah Felstead ● 7444d

AS AN EX-POSTMAN MAYBE I CAN PUT A FEW THINGS STRAIGHTWHEN I WAS A POSTMAN...1. POSTMEN GOING INTO WORK AT 4.00AM INSTEAD OF 5.00AM..BECAUSE OF ALL THE "JUNK MAIL" SHIT THEY HAVE TO SORT. RESULTING IN 6 HOURS PER WEEK UNPAID.2. APART FROM BANK STATEMENTS AND HOUSEHOLD BILLS WHAT ELSE IS OF IMPORTANCE IN YOUR MAIL ?...NOTHING.3. WHAT DO PEOPLE EXPECT FOR 28p ?4. HOW MANY PEOPLE WOULD GET UP AT 3.00am WORK TILL 13.00pm 6 DAYS A WEEK FOR LESS THAN £250.OO A WEEK ?          IT SEEMS TO ME ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED AN OPINION ON THE CURRENT STATE OF THE ROYAL MAIL ARE THE "NEW BRENTFORD" CROWD...JUST MOVED INTO THE AREA FROM THE SURREY'S ETC. THE STATE OF ROYAL MAIL AS IT STANDS IS THUS...1. THE CASUALS THAT ARE CURRENTLY EMPLOYED ARE TEMPS AND ARE PAID BY THE HOUR. THEY DONT CARE IF THEY ARE OUT ALL DAY...THE LONGER THEY ARE OUT THE MORE THEY GET PAID !!!2. LONG SERVING POSTMAN HAVE LEFT BECAUSE THEIR OLD WALKS IN CERTAIN CASES HAVE DOUBLED IN SIZE. INSTEAD OF LEAVING THE SORTING OFFICE BETWEEN 6.30am AND 7.00am..9.00am IS NOT UNUSUAL. 3. BEARING IN MIND THE POSTMEN HAVE ALREADY BEEN ON THEIR FEET SORTING "JUNK MAIL" SHIT FOR 4 HOURS THEY HAVE TO LOOK FOWARD TO ANOTHER 4 HOURS OUT ON THE STREET.          IT ALL NOW RESULTS IN A VERY POOR SERVICE RUN BY WEAK MANAGERS. I STILL KEEP IN TOUCH WITH MY OLD COLLEAGUES AND MORALE IS VERY LOW. ALL I WOULD SAY IS THAT ROYAL MAIL WILL PROBOBLY COME OUT WITH A STATEMENT IN THE NEXT 2 YEARS SAYING THAT THE NEW CHANGES HAVE NOT IMPROVED THE SERVICE, AND THAT PRIVITISATION IS THE ONLY OPTION. AT THAT POINT PRICES WILL GO UP AND YOU WILL GET EXACTLY THE SAME SERVICE AS THE SHAREHOLDERS WILL COME FIRST.

Mark Welland ● 7444d

Did anyone read the Evening Standard of yesterday? The paper featured a major piece on how the Royal Mail operates.

Gareth Evans ● 7445d

Sarah'The main problem is in recruiting permanent staff - didn't they make a whole bunch redundant a couple of years ago as part of the improvements'Yes Sarah you are quite right. Royal Mail reduced workforce numbers about 18 months ago. So far 14,500 jobs have been lost under the three year Royal Mail plan but just look what effects these job losses and previous job losses have resulted in. Let us not forget that the Royal Mail incorporates the Post Office and Parcelforce, Royal Mail have already sold off its cash-handling arm to Securicor. Today as we bear witness to the run down services from the Royal Mail, we can only imagine what possessed senior management within Royal Mail to so eagerly dispose of the very workers upon which the service depended. Look at how many Post Offices have closed down. When was the last time that any of us thought about popping into a Post Office to quickly buy some stamps or to post a letter? The queues would put nearly everyone off. I for one hate the thought of having to go to a Post Office. As for postal services, well, we all know how much the service has deteriorated. So much then for the ‘improved customer service’ so often promised by Adam Crozier, the Royal Mail's chief executive. Chickens coming home to roost and throwing baby out with the bath water springs to my mind when I think of Adam Crozier’s idea of Royal Mail improvements. Typically though the management of the Royal Mail of today apportion blame for the past failures of the Royal Mail on the faceless Royal Mail management of the past, despite many of them being in post under previous and present senior management teams. The bad news doesn’t stop there though because Amicus and the Communications Workers Union, which represents members in the postal services sector, disclosed towards the end of last year that senior managers within Royal Mail planned further rounds of compulsory redundancies despite an earlier assurance from the Royal Mail that redundancies would be voluntary. Little wonder then that workers within Royal Mail take industrial action to protect their jobs when their employer comes out with a policy statement which the staff and unions support, yet at the same time the Royal Mail follows an altogether different policy. Its pure and simple duplicity and it’s morally reprehensible that an employer should seek to treat employees in this way. In the latest round Royal Mail planned to cut up to 3,000 management jobs. Yes you’ve guessed it, under plans drawn up by the Royal Mail to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Such plans would be laughable if their consequences were not so appalling to envisage.

Gareth Evans ● 7450d

Maybe its me - but I am having great difficulty in posting my threads in the right order - does that mean I am cyber-drunk or something? (hic!)  This should go in after Kevin's posting about the bag on the bus.It was an aside really.  In the course of my job a number of years ago I had occasion to meet 2 men from the Post Office Investigation Dept (POID) - they each filled the door frame - SQUARE, at 6ft 6 or so, and were like ex-boxers who were still in training.  I stood up, but that didn't make any difference...so I gave them each a chair and carried on standing!

Sarah Felstead ● 7450d

I am sure that there must be many people, local, with loads of knowledge of the area, who could work for the Post Office.  Something must be wrong.  Maybe when they sent in their applications they used the postal service?

Sarah Felstead ● 7450d

What I don't understand is that I know of several people - as it happens born and bred in this area and bright and sensible who have applied  to the Royal Mail, and who just got a don't 'phone us we'll 'phone you maybe, sometime, never answer. A second application following recent adverts in local papers didn't even get a response! I really am convinced it is the crap management, still they go on getting their bonuses whatever happens - hardly fills you with confidence does it?

Vanessa Smith ● 7450d

Once a postie is trained and if they have the personal qualities we all want of a postman he would still be a great postman - and aren't we pleased when this happens!  The Postmen I have spoken to over a long time suggest the difficulties they are having with accurate deliveries stem from a large number of vacancies and lots of casual labour being used...people who don't even live in this area/have never been here except to deliver mail and who have to learn on the job.  One story is about some casuals brought in from France.  I heard that they don't have much of a problem with recruiting their casuals because there is some talk about how the casual agency they used is the one of the wives of the two main bosses runs/or is a partner or something in?  The main problem is in recruiting permanent staff - didn't they make a whole bunch redundant a couple of years ago as part of the improvements?Taking a bag of mail home on the bus - and losing it?  Were you given a Police report number?  What did the cameras on the bus pick up?  ...or was that an excuse?

Sarah Felstead ● 7450d

When I lived in Brook Rd South we had a great postman,. I hope it wasn't him.

Neil Chippendale ● 7451d

LizIt won’t be much of a comfort to you but Royal Mail claim in their latest report that between July 2004 and September 2004, they delivered 92.1 per cent of first class letters the day after they were posted. I don’t know what your organisation may or may not have done to Royal Mail but there seems to be a rather large vacuum within the Royal Mail, certainly within the SW16 postcode if your organisation is receiving 1st class post up to 10 days after the post was sent. Not to worry though because despite end users telling Royal Mail that the service is deteriorating the independent research organisation which Royal Mail makes use of seems to believe that services have improved. Royal Mail makes £1m every day. Ironic then that Royal Mail are making £1m a day yet many smaller organisations face the prospect of being put out of business by cheques being processed late due to delays within Royal Mail.

Gareth Evans ● 7451d

Good point Gareth.In addition, business users much encouraged to print a "Postage Paid Impression" PPI onto the envelope...prior to mailing....and this means that the recipient can't tell when it was posted.Previously business users could get the Royal Mail to frank the mail with a DATE MARK and the charge with just 3% of the postage. This charge has recently gone up to a hefty 20% of the postage..and a cheque has to be paid up front at time of posting (instead of on an account with 21 days credit).With ordinary mail I find that the franking impressions on envelopes are often not too clear..and so the date of posting is difficult to tell.The "lost mail" statistics are staggering and are another area of study.  One hesitates sending a birthday card with a £10 note enclosed as someemployees may think that its a perk of the job to nik it!!

Jim Lawes ● 7451d

Gerry The Royal Mail used to ‘test’ their quality of service themselves and publish their own findings. The way that Royal Mail did this was dubious to say the least because instead of testing the service fairly and squarely, they used to use envelope sized cards, which were clearly marked up to identify them as being Royal Mail test posts. Royal Mail staff were instructed to retrieve these test posts as soon as they were noticed. Staff would then walk these test posts through the sorting office and out the other end, bypassing the usual processing methods, resulting in these test posts being processed through the system in minutes, rather than hours or days. Of course no sorting office management team would have wanted to be held responsible by the senior management team at Royal Mail HQ for returning poor performance figures so the test of the quality of service was naturally falsified. These days a so called ‘independent’ organisation monitors Royal Mail delivery results. How independent they are is a mute point and brings to mind an old adage along the lines of ………he who pays the piper, calls the tune………..and all that. 

Gareth Evans ● 7451d

A friend of mine whos name I won't mention (Brook Road South) recieved a card through his door last week advising him that a recorded deliver item had been sent to him & that because he was not in he had to collect it in person from the sorting office.He went there next morning,waited for around 45 minutes or so but the letter could not be found & was asked if he could come back tomorrow.On returning the next day they could still not find the missing item.....Upon further investigation it turned out that the postman for that particular street had finished his shift on the Friday afternoon & instead of returning to the sorting office with undelivered letters etc decided to get a bus home where upon he ''left/lost his mail bag on the bus''.I have not spoken to my friend sincebut this shows the quality of the Royal Mail today.

Kevin Farnan ● 7451d

How often have we heard of plans to increase efficiency, only to discover later that the planned improvements have actually resulted in worse services?

Gareth Evans ● 7451d

It's not the Postie's fault, it all the supposed "efficiency experts" at work.For years we had the one Postie who knew absolutely everyone, and it didn't really matter what address was on the envelope, as long as our name was there. Then, as he told me, the service "re-organised" to increase efficiency, and as others have noted, it's rarely the same person twice in a row, and it's constantly someone new who doesn't know the area, the businesses, the addresses or the people.

Nigel Moore ● 7451d

Yes, we knew our postman really well, but I have to say look at the complete idiots who are running the postal service now - that plonker Alan Leighton does the top job as well as being a director of about 5 other outfits, how can anyone do that? Still, while some twerps are prepared to pay him telephone number salaries for part time jobs who can blame him for jumping on the gravy train? As for the other twit Adam Crozier - he went from the Football Association where he messed up big time to the Royal Mail - now I may be missing the connection but can someone please tell me how you go from football to mail? Given this can we really wonder why the Royal Mail is in a state? I think not. No wonder the poor old posties are ticked off, I think I might be as well if I had to work under this regime, it's a disgrace. The logical thing to do it seems to me is to get in a management team that actually have experience of, and committment to, delivering this vital service, on the other hand the cynic in me wonders if this isn't a way to privatise by the back door, b****r-up the Royal Mail and businesses will use private companies more and more, and then the spiel about "competition" will start, then Bob's your uncle, a fully privatised and quite likely more expensive postal service......just a thought.

Vanessa Smith ● 7451d

Those were the good old days! We even used to get a Christmas card from the regular milkman.

Liz Cudmore ● 7451d

"...we had a postman/lady we recognised and even left a Christmas present for."Speaking of which...whats the going rate these days for your postie's Christmas box?  ;-?

Gerry Tan ● 7451d

Once they changed to one delivery a day it was being delivered early afternoon. Now it's early before I go to work. We never seem to have the same postman and I often get my next door neighbours post. It's not as bad as SW16 where I work though. Sometimes we get nothing then it catches up on itself - you can tell by the date on cheques, sometimes over 10 days old by first class post. We even had a lot of our incoming post returned as 'gone away' even though it was correctly addressed! Wonder what the Christmas post will be like!

Liz Cudmore ● 7451d

Does anyone know where the regular postmen went ? There was a time when we had a postman/lady we recognised and even left a Christmas present for. Nowadays we hardly ever see the same one twice.

Pat Kingham ● 7451d

We have had a 'varied' service with the post around here.  We used to get letters for other surrounding streets, with the same house number, and consequently we now exchange Christmas cards with 2 sets of people we have had a common link with!  When I first started to get their post I put a friendly note on it and posted it though their doors.  Then there was a ring at the front door and the caller had come around to say thankyou because one had been a £50 premium bond win!The post has settled down recently and we are lucky because they are employing local people on our round - the only difficulty we appear to have is on his day off!  I often chat to him and ask how it is going and I have heard some dreadful stories about some of the current difficulties they are having.

Sarah Felstead ● 7451d

Yes PATRICIA, I think our postal service is rubbish! Its been bad for the last 4 or so years. Time was when they'd deliver at about 9.30am(plus or minus 30mins). Now it comes anytime from 11am to about 3pm and often with wrong addresses and sometimes the letters are "lost"!! They have a cheek to call themselves ROYAL Mail - Grrr!!! Rubbish - what a way to run a business. :-(PS: Sorry for the rant - I'm usually more positive.

Gerry Tan ● 7451d

We seem to get our post only on set days of the week ie Monday Wednesdays and Fridays these days which happens so often it cannot be a coincidence.My pet hate though is that when our postman does deliver,he always leaves the gate open.A minor gripe i know,but it tells everyone that the residents are probally out.

Paul Fisher ● 7451d