New Royal Mail Delivery Plans

 I didn't realise that this wasn't always allowed. I can't remember not having stuff signed for by neighbours if they were in. 

But I'm lucky, I love my neighbours

Lucyfer

Oh it was allowed.If you appointed them as potential savekeepers of your mail, then you could have them taking the mail. Also in a place like village where everony knows each other well it was more widely spread. But its not standard behaviour used everywhere. Definitely not here in London. I dont even really know my neighbours. So I definitelly would not be happy to have them keeping my parcel.

 Hi Laveila

I never appointed anyone, they just did it - both in my hometown and here. It's not a problem for me as I didn't mind but I can see it might be in some circumstances. 

You live and learn. Every day is a school day as the saying goes.

Lucyfer

I live in such a small village, my parcels always get left with my neighbours - it doesn't bother me at all!

this is the first I have heard of this  and  I work for RM  so nice of them to tell us

I think its because of the increase in traffic and they don't want us bringing the packets back as we now use a van and trolley delivery method which is pants in in extreme - we have on clue how we will cope at Christmas  and neither do management

I understand that RM may have problems copying with the increased traffic, but this is not a solution to it, as some people have neighbours who will steal or damage the parcel! Well,I guess it is.Less people will be using RM and go to companies like DHL,etc. Or use the only RM option which would not be left with neighbours. Lets be honest, people who are happy with this are using this even now, as you can ask to have the neighbour taking it. I think the majority of people who did not ask for that, is likely to be unhappy with the prospect of their neighbours having their mail.

Btw. they can hide temporary staff for Christmas to better cope I guess

Laveila wrote:

Btw. they can hide temporary staff for Christmas to better cope I guess

(hire)

They can, but they don't! They want to save as much money as they can, and only employ casual staff in the Mail Centre's.

As with most British companies they don't want to employ enough staff to do a proper job, they don't realise that if they offered a better service they would get more custom. Those they do employ seem to be left untrained and extra staff taken on only in extremis. Money seems to be wasted hand over fist, for example I had one parcel delivered by a postman being driven around in a taxi!! 

The annoying thing is not even being given an option where or if they leave your property. We don't seem to have a regular posty so I can't even arrange with him where to leave the stuff. 

I dont understand one thing though. Why they dont return to the office the same day? Its normal in my home country to have the parcel in local post office later in the afternoon, usually after 3-4 pm,after the postman comes back. Here you have to wait for at least 24 hours. Sometimes more (and no,I dont count over weekend). Moreover I was told that considering they always have problems towards the end of the week I might have waited since Wednesday to Monday to collect it.Considering it was highly recorded international mail... That was a huge bugger, just being told that.

Dont take me wrong, Czech Mail has its own problems (mainly delivery takes longer and sometimes you dont get the note in your mail box etc) but these are things I dont get with RM and which are driving me bit crazy, as I consider them as standard service

My postie always delivers parcels to my neighbours if i'm not in, and no  haven't signed upto it, and no i don't live in a village, i live in a rather rough area of liverpool.
I can kind of understand delivering a parcel to my next door neighbour, but the other day he delivered a parcel to someone in the street that my street runs off! makes no sense, and it was not the type of family i want havng my parcels!

VW x

Vampyrewillow wrote:

My postie always delivers parcels to my neighbours if i'm not in, and no  haven't signed upto it, and no i don't live in a village, i live in a rather rough area of liverpool.
I can kind of understand delivering a parcel to my next door neighbour, but the other day he delivered a parcel to someone in the street that my street runs off! makes no sense, and it was not the type of family i want havng my parcels!

VW x

You should complain, he shouldn't be doing this, lazy so and so.  

sharry wrote:

Vampyrewillow wrote:

My postie always delivers parcels to my neighbours if i'm not in, and no  haven't signed upto it, and no i don't live in a village, i live in a rather rough area of liverpool.
I can kind of understand delivering a parcel to my next door neighbour, but the other day he delivered a parcel to someone in the street that my street runs off! makes no sense, and it was not the type of family i want havng my parcels!

VW x

You should complain, he shouldn't be doing this, lazy so and so.  

Complaining would certainly get the desired effect to - it wouldn't be ignored. RM are looking for any excuse to sack employees. WandA's dad works in Liverpool as a postie and has seen big trouble over the tiniest thing. Just accidently bringing back a loose letter in your sack can get them into a lot of trouble. And have you ever noticed that they refuse point blank to give you a parcel in the sorting office if you don't have a red card? They can get the sack for that too!

Adx

I do not feel comfortable about this latest Royal Mail idea at all.

I have had a couple of small talk convo's with my neighbours and they are lovely and polite but I don't know them. Issues such as identity theft, privacy etc creep up.

Anyways, I thought Royal Mail was going to be privatised. Has it already happened? Is it part of the change?

Laveila wrote:

I understand that RM may have problems copying with the increased traffic, but this is not a solution to it, as some people have neighbours who will steal or damage the parcel! Well,I guess it is.Less people will be using RM and go to companies like DHL,etc. Or use the only RM option which would not be left with neighbours. Lets be honest, people who are happy with this are using this even now, as you can ask to have the neighbour taking it. I think the majority of people who did not ask for that, is likely to be unhappy with the prospect of their neighbours having their mail.

Btw. they can hide temporary staff for Christmas to better cope I guess

I also work for Royal Mail, it's the one thing that drives me mad is when people order stuff online but don't make any arrangements re the delivery! If you order stuff from say Argos or your shopping from Tesco you have to wait in for them but order stuff and have a Royal Mail delivery with it 99% of people don't make prior arangements.. (even a little note on the door saying 'don't leave with neighbour' for example would help. As for thinking anything  different would happen with DHL (German), TNT (Dutch), Hermes, DPD (French) etc need to think again..

Just to point out this is my first post (no pun intended) not sure if I've done it right!!

BlackCountryLad - welcome! It seems you got stuck in the quote box, but that happens a lot here so it's ok!

I agree - I really hate private couriers with a passion and will refuse o buy online or over the phone (if I can avoid it) if DHL, DPD and the likes are delivering because they're not only unreliable and expensive but their depots are miles away so I can't exactly collect my parcel (only rearrange delivery for the next inopportune moment - because if you pick a convenient moment you can pay up to £15 extra! - miss it again and try again until I get lucky!).

I really hope this current idea *doesn't* go ahead, not because it especially bothers me, but because companies will stop using RM to deliver my parcels (and rightly so - enough people are against the idea (with good reason) that companies need to protect their customers) and I will ultimately stop buying online all together!

Adx

i put a sign on the door saying to leave large parcels under the bbq in the garden and if i order something make sure i write it on the added instructions/ comments box too. they're usually pretty good.

The post up were I am (North of Scotland) is actually really good. We've had parcels occasionally left with those next door and have taken things in for the neighbours, and every once in a while a note will come through the door saying "Left behind plant pot in garden" ect, but most of the time if we aren't in it goes back to the sorting office and you can pick it up after a couple hours.

However, even though we have never had problems with our neighbours and post (Other than not being aware anything has been delivered till they turn up with it after they've finished work) I really would rather that my post not go through them, for one simple reason; they didn't order it.

If our house has ordered it, it should be delivered to our house, and if not, taken to a secure location to be held for our collection. The post office and the postie have no idea about the nature of our relationship with the people on our road, and they should not be making assumptions that it is safe to leave parcels with them, or theirs with us.

 Im not sure about it. My neighbours are fine but its not exactly safe now is it?

Alicia D'amore wrote:

sharry wrote:

Vampyrewillow wrote:

My postie always delivers parcels to my neighbours if i'm not in, and no  haven't signed upto it, and no i don't live in a village, i live in a rather rough area of liverpool.
I can kind of understand delivering a parcel to my next door neighbour, but the other day he delivered a parcel to someone in the street that my street runs off! makes no sense, and it was not the type of family i want havng my parcels!

VW x

You should complain, he shouldn't be doing this, lazy so and so.  

Complaining would certainly get the desired effect to - it wouldn't be ignored. RM are looking for any excuse to sack employees. WandA's dad works in Liverpool as a postie and has seen big trouble over the tiniest thing. Just accidently bringing back a loose letter in your sack can get them into a lot of trouble. And have you ever noticed that they refuse point blank to give you a parcel in the sorting office if you don't have a red card? They can get the sack for that too!

Adx

If he's leaving it with people who aren't even close neighbours then perhaps he deserves the sack. Identity theft is a big and growing problem. We've had a brush with it (caught it early) and even that caused a few problems. We are extremely careful with all our details but all it takes is the wrong person to get hold of a little bit of info and there's the opening.  

If you have a regular postie they're really helpful as a rule and you can ask them to leave it with whomever but to just dump it with anyone is not on. RM may be looking for any excuse but they still have to go through certain proceedures to sack anyone unless it's gross misconduct. 

Oh no, I wasn't disagreeing at all :) these procedures are in place for a reason and if a postman is breaking the rules then he knows the rules and knows how harshly they're ddealt with so he made that choice!

Our postie is a mate of WandA's dad - so if he can't reach us he just passes it on.

Adx