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Royal Mail............time For A Change ?


hilldweller

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Went early before going to town.

There were 5 people there already all being seen to.

One person had a parcel which had "gone missing" and could not be found, another had a parcel which had not been returned to the sorting office yet, even though they had received the card over 48 hours previously.

The other 3 people were all given their parcels.

I was in the sorting office for less than 5 minutes and was quickly served with my parcel.

So, Royal Mail still gets a thumbs up and a good high score for service from me :)

But clearly not from everyone :(

From my experience this morning 4 out of 6 were happy and got their parcels, 3 out of 6 did not

So, Royal Mail scores 66.7% in the sorting office customer satisfaction survey lol

Glad I got mine in time though, - it contains part of MrsH's Christmas present ;-)

I am still waiting 4 parcels posted 30/11/10

But I have received a parcel posted 14/12/10.

I think they are holding back old stuff to get more recent stuff delivered

Given that every industry is measured for performance its better for some mail to be delivered on time than delay everything, by always playing catch-up, standard business process.

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This might be unpopular on this thread BUT have you forgotten the conditions we've just come out of - and by the looks of it falling into again. RM aren't immune to getting stuck in the snow as well. Plenty of people didn't make it into work for a few days as well - which for RM means things start to back up - PLUS we then have the sudden onslaught of all the Christmas post and parcels.

I too had a long wait in the line at Crosspool sorting office this week, but my gripe is having to go there at all. Still don't understand why parcels are not sent to the local Post Office for a couple of days first so that those of us working all day get a reasonable chance to pick them up - OR they could open the sorting office through until the evening rather than closing it at Noon :angry:

When it was the GPO that could happen

Now you have

Royal Mail

Parcel Force

Post Office Counters

and

Spar shops

I think you do well nowadays to get Parcelforce to leave stuff at a Royal Mail Sorting Office, let alone leaving stuff at the local Spar Shop

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If people are not happy with the Royal Mail service in the run up to Christmas and if it is only local post can they still use the Scout Post Mike?

Scout post stopped a few years ago

also did you hear on the news stamps are going up 5p next year

After all my moanings I still consider the Royal Mail value for money.

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I am still waiting 4 parcels posted 30/11/10

But I have received a parcel posted 14/12/10.

I think they are holding back old stuff to get more recent stuff delivered

Given that every industry is measured for performance its better for some mail to be delivered on time than delay everything, by always playing catch-up, standard business process.

So the longer it has already been delayed the longer it get delayed eh! <_<

Is that why some people receive letters that were posted 40 or 50 years ago and then get charged excess postage because the letter has an obsolete stamp on it.

Which reminds me, second class postage stamps are going up to 46p (9 shillings and 3 pence)

Now in 1972 (got that mike, it WAS 1972) our CSE / O-level results were delivered by post and the second class stamp was for 2 and a half new pence. I still have the envelope somewhere 9with my results in0 to prove it. The stamps is one of those "double priced" ones where it says 2.5p (except that the .5 is written as 1/2) and after it in brackets it says 6d. We had been using decimal currency for just 18 months at the time.

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So the longer it has already been delayed the longer it get delayed eh! <_<

Is that why some people receive letters that were posted 40 or 50 years ago and then get charged excess postage because the letter has an obsolete stamp on it.

Which reminds me, second class postage stamps are going up to 46p (9 shillings and 3 pence)

Now in 1972 (got that mike, it WAS 1972) our CSE / O-level results were delivered by post and the second class stamp was for 2 and a half new pence. I still have the envelope somewhere 9with my results in0 to prove it. The stamps is one of those "double priced" ones where it says 2.5p (except that the .5 is written as 1/2) and after it in brackets it says 6d. We had been using decimal currency for just 18 months at the time.

Going back to HD's opening post, I think the problem is comparing what things used to be like, when Customer Service was important and Statistics not so, to present day when things are reversed. Rose Tinted spectacles can cause you problems.

Its not just the Royal Mail, people complain about the service you get from the likes of BT nowadays with their automated telephone response systems, press 1 for this 2 for that etc, then when you actually speak to someone they are in India or some such place, I worked for Post Office Telephones then BT for many a year, in years gone by you did not always get a better service, just a different service, you might wait 10 minutes for an engineer to answer the call, then you may end up with "ok we will come out and repair your phone", "I can't say when but we will get round to it." There was a like it or lump it attitude.

So going back to HD's OP I afraid these days you have to lower your expectations a bit, what other company would deliver you a letter for 41p to the Shetland Isles in a few days

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So going back to HD's OP I afraid these days you have to lower your expectations a bit, what other company would deliver you a letter for 41p to the Shetland Isles in a few days

Going back to my original post, the point that I was trying to make is that if Royal Mail are to survive at all then the service they provide has got to improve.

it is obvious that they are not geared to the vast increase in parcel-post traffic, in this the age of internet shopping.

I for one desperately want to see Royal Mail survive but there is no way this can happen without huge investment in new technology and infrastructure.

In the present political climate I cannot foresee this happening any time soon. I think that the days of state intervention are long gone, even for good strategic reasons (Sheffield Forgemasters anyone ?).

I think the only answer is to increase postal rates to realistic figures.

One thing I think the government ought to do is to stop the practice of delivering recently posted items first in order to manipulate target figures.

HD

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Scout post stopped a few years ago

What!

No Scout post :o

Just over the Christmas period their service used to be excellent.

Wonder why they don't do it any more :unsure:

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Its not just the Royal Mail, people complain about the service you get from the likes of BT nowadays with their automated telephone response systems, press 1 for this 2 for that etc, then when you actually speak to someone they are in India or some such place, I worked for Post Office Telephones then BT for many a year, in years gone by you did not always get a better service, just a different service, you might wait 10 minutes for an engineer to answer the call, then you may end up with "ok we will come out and repair your phone", "I can't say when but we will get round to it." There was a like it or lump it attitude.

Well excuse me for being cynical about BT service a few years ago Stuart, but its not that long ago that BT was a protected service which had a monopoly on the telecommunications industry. You practically had to have BT (unless you lived in Hull).

Being a monopoly they could do what the hell they wanted and get away with it, because consumers had no choice but to put up with it.

But now it is a free market and there are loads of companies offering the same services, - some of them as good as or better than BT, perhaps they have had to smarten their act up, or at least rethink how they offer and promote their own services in order to remain competative and retain the lions share of the market.

Perhaps with all these parcel delivery services, and Government plans to allow other companies to deliver the mail breaking the current monopoly on it perhaps Royal Mail are now in a similar situation.

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Well excuse me for being cynical about BT service a few years ago Stuart, but its not that long ago that BT was a protected service which had a monopoly on the telecommunications industry. You practically had to have BT (unless you lived in Hull).

Being a monopoly they could do what the hell they wanted and get away with it, because consumers had no choice but to put up with it.

But now it is a free market and there are loads of companies offering the same services, - some of them as good as or better than BT, perhaps they have had to smarten their act up, or at least rethink how they offer and promote their own services in order to remain competative and retain the lions share of the market.

Perhaps with all these parcel delivery services, and Government plans to allow other companies to deliver the mail breaking the current monopoly on it perhaps Royal Mail are now in a similar situation.

Thats what I was trying to say about the old BT, Like or lump it service

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....

...

I think the only answer is to increase postal rates to realistic figures.

One thing I think the government ought to do is to stop the practice of delivering recently posted items first in order to manipulate target figures.

HD

Thats the conclusion I have

There problem solved

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Thats what I was trying to say about the old BT, Like or lump it service

I have to say that Zapatero has spent too much time with the civil servants of the UK. He can't speak English but has luckily managed to learn how to impose taxes on cigarettes, booze and other such necessities. I can just imagine David or possib ly Nick advising on how to get more tax out of unsuspecting people. Our stamps have gone up 1 cent-

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Thats what I was trying to say about the old BT, Like or lump it service

We lumped it and went to Telewest, which became Blueyonder and then Virgin Media.

We got exactly the same landline phone service we were getting from BT, but cheaper. We got cable TV, not really a BT thing although they do now offer it and we got cable fibre optic Internet independent of any BT lines and much faster even than ADSL. Even today BT struggle on Internet speeds and are still only thinking of replacing their existing service with fibeoptic cables.

Further to this Virgin have since offered me as a loyal customer mobile phone at a price lower than anyone else could ever do by giving me a discount on the bill for these services which is greater than the monthly contract on the phone, - effectively they are paying me to use a phone they have given me for free :blink: !!!

Can BT match this offer to entice me back?

At present the answer is NO

That's competition for you, BT no longer has a monopoly and other companies can offer better services for less.

I still think BT is an excellent company, - but to stay in business they need to change from their old ways.

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Thats the conclusion I have

There problem solved

It's OK for them to put their prices up while they have a monopoly.

But if other companies are allowed to handle mail and then do the job better for a lower price, they will be in the same boat as BT.

Part of BT's problem was they were slow off the mark to modernise and embrace new technology like mobile phones and the Internet allowing others to take the lead.

Likewise with Royal Mail, "snail mail" is on its way out as people find that text, email and even Skype take its place.

The only surface mail left seems to be parcels which have to be physically delivered (not electronically) and reading this topic it seems to be parcel post where Royal Mail is failing and other delivery companies are starting to get a foothold and take the lead.

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I have to say that Zapatero has spent too much time with the civil servants of the UK. He can't speak English but has luckily managed to learn how to impose taxes on cigarettes, booze and other such necessities. I can just imagine David or possib ly Nick advising on how to get more tax out of unsuspecting people. Our stamps have gone up 1 cent-

But do they actually bother to deliver mail in Spain?

In South American countries, most of which are Spanish in origin, they have a "castilla" system. a castilla is roughly the equivalent of a British P.O. Box Number. Mail is delivered only to your "castilla" which is a box in the local post office of the town you live in and you are expected to collect it from there yourself.

My experience of sending mail to South America (Brazil, Argentina and Equador) is that it is dreadfully slow with an airmail turn around time measured in months rather than weeks.

I assumed that as these countries share a Spanish / Portugese connection and as the word "castilla" is Spanish that Spain could use the same system.

If so it would be worse than Royal Mail at its worst.

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But do they actually bother to deliver mail in Spain?

In South American countries, most of which are Spanish in origin, they have a "castilla" system. a castilla is roughly the equivalent of a British P.O. Box Number. Mail is delivered only to your "castilla" which is a box in the local post office of the town you live in and you are expected to collect it from there yourself.

My experience of sending mail to South America (Brazil, Argentina and Equador) is that it is dreadfully slow with an airmail turn around time measured in months rather than weeks.

I assumed that as these countries share a Spanish / Portugese connection and as the word "castilla" is Spanish that Spain could use the same system.

If so it would be worse than Royal Mail at its worst.

Oh dear Dave, you do seem to have a poor opinion of Spain, if I may say so :(

We enjoy an efficient postal service, with the bright yellow scooters and vans trundling out to even remote villages and hamlets, covering much greater distances that in the UK. It is true that the more remote fincas and cortijos which are on their own, deep in the countryside have to have post boxes at the local post office, (which we do) but this is no hardship, simply pick up the post whilst shopping. The staff in the post office are unfailingly friendly and helpful and if they are still sorting the mail for the boxes will look through it all for any of your post not already put in the box.

I cannot find the word "castilla" in "Spain Spanish", so maybe it is just a South American term, the nearest would be "castillo" which means castle, so perhaps with an "a" at the end it is a female castle. lol The term for PO Box here is "Apartado de Correos". Since being over here we have never had any mail going astray, both sending and receiving, which unfortunately was not the case in the UK :)

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What!

No Scout post :o

Just over the Christmas period their service used to be excellent.

Wonder why they don't do it any more :unsure:

We stopped the Christmas Post in 200? as too many groups started to pull out and left gaps in the delivery process. Although they initially got filled by neighbouring groups the work load became too great for those that were left and the scheme was ended. I think it still operates in some 'local' areas and other cities though. One problem was that the last post was something like 10th Dec which for many is before they even start to think about sending cards, but because of the manual process of sorting and delivering to the various groups around the city it had to be quite early.

As for cards being local though :rolleyes: I remember sorting ones for New Zealand, and Argentina - and of course there were plenty simply addressed to Aunty Beryl No 18, or with nothing more than first names. I suppose Sheffield is a small place for some?

I don't miss it, it was very hard work in usually very cold conditions.

More info about the scheme here

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Oh dear Dave, you do seem to have a poor opinion of Spain, if I may say so :(

We enjoy an efficient postal service, with the bright yellow scooters and vans trundling out to even remote villages and hamlets, covering much greater distances that in the UK. It is true that the more remote fincas and cortijos which are on their own, deep in the countryside have to have post boxes at the local post office, (which we do) but this is no hardship, simply pick up the post whilst shopping. The staff in the post office are unfailingly friendly and helpful and if they are still sorting the mail for the boxes will look through it all for any of your post not already put in the box.

I cannot find the word "castilla" in "Spain Spanish", so maybe it is just a South American term, the nearest would be "castillo" which means castle, so perhaps with an "a" at the end it is a female castle. lol The term for PO Box here is "Apartado de Correos". Since being over here we have never had any mail going astray, both sending and receiving, which unfortunately was not the case in the UK :)

I thought that as most of South America is as Spanish as Australia is British that they must have imported it from their homeland.

Then again, perhaps not.

Perhaps not even in South America as I must admit I have not sent post there since 1976 and things have possibly changed.

I used to do a lot of short wave radio work and did some long distance (DX) short wave listening (SWL) with the hard to pick up South American countries. Having received these stations (some commercial, some amateur) you had to write to them with a detailed reception report and they would send you back a confirmation in the form of a QSL card, again by post. The turn around time was anything from 3 to 6 months. All of them seemed to be picking up mail from their own boxes at their own leisure without any hint of rushing about it.

The P.O. Box was called "castilla" (meaning, I think, little castle) by me and other British Radio Hams who, having very limited skills in foreign languages frequently abused their words and substituted another one of theirs which we did know the meaning of and could say easily.

The correct term for the boxes was "casilla" (same but without the "t")

You could always tell that they were using these boxes from their addresses, because just as in Britain if the address included the words "P.O. Box 42" it was obvious and South American addresses had a similar give away line.

In Argentina and Bolivia it was "cas.", short for casilla, for example Radio San Gabriel in Bolivia had the address

Radio San Gabriel, cas. 1071, La Paz, Bolivia.

In Brazil the same abbriviation was C.P. (casilla poste?) for example Radio Mantiqueira was

Radio Mantiqureira, C.P. 62, Cruzeiro.

I think the difference between cas. and C.P. is to do with the native language being Spanish or Portugese

I dare say since I last wrote anything for sending out there 34 years ago the postal service could have improved a lot.

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But do they actually bother to deliver mail in Spain?

In South American countries, most of which are Spanish in origin, they have a "castilla" system. a castilla is roughly the equivalent of a British P.O. Box Number. Mail is delivered only to your "castilla" which is a box in the local post office of the town you live in and you are expected to collect it from there yourself.

My experience of sending mail to South America (Brazil, Argentina and Equador) is that it is dreadfully slow with an airmail turn around time measured in months rather than weeks.

I assumed that as these countries share a Spanish / Portugese connection and as the word "castilla" is Spanish that Spain could use the same system.

If so it would be worse than Royal Mail at its worst.

The word is casilla not castilla. It sort of means a pigeon-hole or small compartment.

I learned spanish from a South American so she taught me bits of both variations.

In Spain it's a casilla de correos

In S America it's a casilla postal

"If I remember rightly."

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We stopped the Christmas Post in 200? as too many groups started to pull out and left gaps in the delivery process. Although they initially got filled by neighbouring groups the work load became too great for those that were left and the scheme was ended. I think it still operates in some 'local' areas and other cities though. One problem was that the last post was something like 10th Dec which for many is before they even start to think about sending cards, but because of the manual process of sorting and delivering to the various groups around the city it had to be quite early.

As for cards being local though :rolleyes: I remember sorting ones for New Zealand, and Argentina - and of course there were plenty simply addressed to Aunty Beryl No 18, or with nothing more than first names. I suppose Sheffield is a small place for some?

I don't miss it, it was very hard work in usually very cold conditions.

More info about the scheme here

Thanks Mike,

My son used to help sort out the scout post in the mid 1990's when he was in the cubs at Gleadless.

He didn't enjoy it either but he did it, and it was a good service.

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The word is casilla not castilla. It sort of means a pigeon-hole or small compartment.

In Spain it's a casilla de correos

In S America it's a casilla postal

"If I remember rightly."

Already sorted the correct word out for Suzy vox, but you are correct

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I learned spanish from a South American so she taught me bits of both variations.

Well, if she goes back home and you want to continue communicating with her I don't recommend the post unless you have plenty of time to spare, - especially if she has a casilla address! ;-)

I have a friend at work whose brother works for the church and he is based permenantly in Bolivia.

They like to keep in touch and both of them think that SKYPE is the best thing since sliced bread as it allows them to do this quickly, easily and at any time that suits them in real time with no delay. They can speak to each other, see each other, show each other things for as long and as often as they like for no cost at all as Skype to Skype calls are free.

Much better than a casilla postal service that costs money and is deadly slow.

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