We are all working harder – well most of us….

The general theme that comes across when I talk to people in business is that we all appear to be working harder than ever (generally for lower fees), this is not a complaint (that comes later) – it is a fact of life. The economy is in a bad way so we have to ‘dig in’ and work through it, or at least most of us do – but not it seems the Royal Mail…..

courtesy of Viz…

I will admit to not being one of the Royal Mails biggest fans, I have blogged various times before about them and can’t recall any of them being positive, and this one isn’t either!

I accept that if I am not in the Royal Mail can’t deliver packages to me, and I have asked them not to deliver them to my 85 year old neighbour. Previously the card left asks me to wait 24 hours for the package to return to the sorting office – around 2 miles away. That is fine, I really don’t have an issue with this.

However, it now appears that it takes 48 hours to do this – why?

All I can assume is that the package is placed back into the Royal Mails own post – as we all know everything (even first class post) takes at least 48 hours these days……

 

One of my least favourite place!

Last week I had to visit one of my least favourite places in Nottingham – the post office sorting office on Clarke Rd – it is always a pleasure and something that I save up for ‘special occasions’ (not). This time it was especially exciting for two reasons;

Firstly I saw @harters34 (who was also collecting a package, he was aware of my ‘issue’ and asked when I would be doing this blog – and I don’t like disappointing people😄).

Secondly I was collecting the iPad mini case my son had ordered from the USA. Delivery had been fairly protracted (a few weeks) so he was keen to get hold of it to protect his pride and joy. The package had however attracted the attention of the UK Customs, any package is due to pay VAT on its value if it comes into the UK from outside of the EU – and it appears customs are particularly keen on US mail.

So there was 20% to pay – around £4 on the cost of the item (which is very cool and not available in the UK). I don’t have an issue with this, tax is tax, and we all have to pay it (well those of us who play by the rules).

What I do have an issue with is the Post Offices approach to collecting this tax on behalf of the revenue. It is done on a flat fee basis of £8, so in this case a rate of 200%!

So if I had imported a higher value item for let’s say £500 I would be due to pay £100 VAT and the collecting fee would still be £8 – or 8% – rather than the 200% paid in my case.

Surely there is something wrong here?

 

How the Post Office makes money

I have now worked out what the Royal Mails plan is to pull it out of the state it currently finds itself in. It appears that their delivery quota is diminishing, they want to abandon your mail at your neighbours, and now it appears that they are charging exorbitant amounts for collecting VAT on imported goods!

Let me explain;

My daughter has recently become the proud owner of a MacBook Pro, a lovely machine, but one that needs protecting whilst away from home. A case was required – not a straightforward matter it appears if you are 18 and like things to be a bit different! Consequently the case of choice was ordered from the USA. This is not a problem normally, in fact quite often deliveries from the US arrive quicker than UK ones!

No, the issue here was that the package required the payment of VAT on the purchase price, a service that the Royal Mail now appear to provide. However, the VAT sum that needed collecting was £4.42, not a huge amount, but, the “handling fee” taken by the Royal Mail at their sorting office (in cash only – no cards), was £8! – total £12.42!

Now I am happy to pay them a fee for collecting on behalf of the Inland Revenue – but twice the sum collected, that is really taking the mickey! Not a huge amount of “handling” involved as far as I can see!

So once again the Royal Mail have endeared themselves to me even more!

 

Another ‘winner’ from Royal Mail – the delivery to neighbour service!

I received a card through my door from Royal Mail last week, not the usual ‘you weren’t in’ card that I love so much, but one relating to that service. Now correct me if I am wrong, but the Post Office is supposed to be a trustworthy service – part of the backbone of British Society. If you can’t trust your postman, who can you trust – or words to that effect.

I have been noting a decline in the post office over the last few years and have blogged to that effect on many occasions. Most recently it related to the failure to deliver a package and then losing it at the sorting office when I went to claim it! So, anything purporting to improve this service is a good thing in my opinion. This however is nothing of the sort…..

Their proposal – the delivery to neighbour service – is to get your agreement to allow the postman to leave your package with any of your neighbours if you aren’t in. Now in my view this allows the post office to side step one of their main responsibilities, and something we pay for – ensuring the post gets to the correct address. As a scheme it also has various large holes in it and appears poorly thought out;

• You can’t state which neighbour to be used.
• You can’t ask them to avoid troubling an old neighbour – we have one who is in her late 80′s
• There is an option to opt out – but to do this you have to put up a sticker (they provide) which might as well say ‘I don’t trust my neighbours’!

We are forced to opt out due to the age of our neighbour, it would be wrong to have her disturbed for our post. I cannot believe we are alone in this and find it amazing that this hasn’t occured to the Post Office when they came up with this daft scheme. I believe this is yet another step towards the demise of our postal system as there is now no way of guaranteeing the delivery of ‘normal’ mail once this system starts.

If I was cynical I might think that they are just trying to force us to use the more expensive premium services that guarantee delivery? If so the couriers will step in and out price them.

Time for a re-think Royal Mail?

 

Not sure who is responsible, but well done!

I have been pretty vocal about our postal service recently – yes I got confused about who I was angry with (it was Royal Mail), but it set a tone for the post generally. In the end I got my parcel – Royal Mail did do their best to be helpful – but to be honest it was only because I complained, I still don’t have any confidence in them. The fact that when they found the parcel in the sorting office they sent it out for delivery again didn’t help – why would we be there second time if we were out to work first time!

The Post office however appeared to be much more ‘on the ball’ they saw my twitters and replied very quickly – it was because of this that Royal Mail finally spoke to me. Anyway I digress…

The Post office or is it Royal Mail (I have no idea), have excelled themselves this time over the Olympics. They said they would paint a post box gold for every Gold medal won by team GB – nice but perhaps a tad cheesy. However the idea of producing a first class stamp for every Gold medal winner is a really nice idea, and it is amazing that they have managed to produce them overnight. Sadly they are a limited run and are only available in 50 post offices – but it is a brilliant idea which has been really well managed.

Well done – I am just not clear who to thank – Royal Mail, Post office or perhaps both?

 

What’s in a name?

Quite a lot it appears!

I have blogged twice in the last few days regarding what I initially referred to as the ‘Post Office’ – we all refer to that name when we talk about mail, parcels or counter services in my household and I thought most others did. But, I was wrong, and have been put right by the Post Office via Twitter!

Firstly, good on them for watching the ‘twitterverse’ and contacting people about their comments, that is how good customer service often happen these days. I have also been contacted by Royal Mail on the back of this and they are trying to resolve my issue – time will tell how successful that will be.

It does make you think though – we take certain names for granted , they become generic – like Hoover (although perhaps now it should be Dyson), Sellotape (sticky tape), Google (for doing an Internet search), postit’s (for sticky notes) – you get the idea.

Royal Mail and Post Office parted company from each other last April, so should we now refer to sending something through the Royal Mail as ‘mailing’ rather than posting from here in? Certainly the Post office were quite keen to inform me that mail was not their province any more – glad to be rid? I wonder?

Just goes to show how important it is to get your brand across to people – get it wrong and you can get blamed for something that isn’t your fault!

 

Royal Mail parcel anyone?

This is a cracker – if you have any doubts about sending anything valuable via the Royal Mail, this will ensure you never trust them again!

Currently running the show?

I had to visit the Royal Mail sorting office at Clarke Road, Nottingham on Saturday, to collect a parcel which they had been unable to deliver earlier in the week (Wednesday). This is fairly common, we are out during the day and the post is never delivered before mid morning. Not great, but the way things are now with the post.

I have blogged before about this sorting office and the lack of parking, so I won’t go over old ground here. This issue however is a major one and makes you really wonder if you can trust the Royal Mail with your valuable post!

So,on arrival I showed the staff member my ‘we couldn’t deliver’ card and my ID when requested. Remember the ID inspection – it becomes rather salient later on in my story.

Off went the ‘posty’ to find the package, I could hear some ‘office banter’ in the background and everything appeared fine. A few minutes later our ‘happy posty’ re appeared with a package – ‘here you go’ says he. This would be fine apart from a few small point;

1. It was from Amazon (I hadn’t ordered anything from them – although he didn’t know that)
2. It was the wrong shape (I was expecting something cube shaped – it was flat – although again he wouldn’t know that)
3. It was addressed to someone else – getting dodgy for our man now
4. It was to a totally different address – really dodgy ground now for our man!

So, what did our man do – he jokingly said “oops, sorry I got distracted”

Off he went to find the correct package – which he couldn’t, so I had to leave my phone number and was told they would ‘do a parcel search’ – but not before Monday.

what we have here then is a total lack of quality control. There are signs up saying that identity checks are taken very seriously and packages wont be released without ID. What they should say is that packages won’t be released without any old ID – not necessarily your own!

We wait to see if the package can be found, it was an item that my wife had been looking for to complete a china collection, very rarely has she seen one, so if it is lost it will be particularly annoying.

My issue is that I could have walked out with the wrong package – is that what happened to mine? Frankly I won’t be using the Royal Mail for any parcels anytime soon!

UPDATE -

Apparently I have done the Post Office a dis-service – for they don’t deal with our mail now (they became a separate company from Royal Mail in April apparently). Obviously I missed this fact! My blog has been amended accordingly!

So to confirm it is Royal Mail who I have an issue with – that’s much clearer!

 

Our ‘wonderful’ post office – (sorry that should be Royal Mail)

This is pet hate of mine – some businesses never fail to let you down, and the Royal Mail are one such business. I have not had issue with them for a while, more due to not using them (I don’t trust them) rather than them getting better.

And now in the space of a week they have excelled themselves – twice;

Firstly it was my stepdaughter Star’s 18th Birthday, so numerous cards were sent to her. My brother lives near Swindon in Wiltshire (not exactly the back of beyond). He sent his card first class on the day before Star’s birthday – his expectation being that it would arrive the next day – this is why he paid for first class mail!

Unsurprisingly the Royal Mail excelled themselves in their level of incompetence – a poor service would have been two days to deliver, rubbish service would be 3 or 4 days – but no – we did far worse than that.

SEVEN DAYS! That is totally useless and I am sorry to say just sums up our once great Post Office (now Royal Mail) - no wonder they are losing all of their business. So in future I assume we all need to send things at least one week before the deadline you are working to. Also why pay extra for first class?

Best get the Xmas cards ready now then!

As far as the other ‘cock up’ goes – that is a far greater one and actually has really made me consider never using the parcels service ever again – I think that deserves it’s own blog entry, so more on that tomorrow!

UPDATE-

Post altered to reflect Royal Mail rather than the Post Office as I have been informed by the Post Office via Twitter that they have nothing to do with Royal Mail now!

 

Are the Post Office serious?

I am not one of our Post Offices fans, their service has become increasingly poor in my view. The days of your post being on your door mat first thing in the morning ended years ago. For the last decade the service has become very ‘second class’ in quality.

Whether this was due to unhappy staff, or poor management is now rather irrelevant – the announcement that first class postage is to increase to 60p (and even second class to 50p) is the beginning of the end for our once great post office.

Perhaps I don’t get it, but I was under the impression that it was only sensible to increase prices when your product is in demand? Not when you are in a shrinking market! With the increasing use of email and document exchanges via the cloud the Post Office are in no position to charge more!

I am sure at work the use of electronic documents will increase because of this – and hand deliveries in town will be even more common.

RIP the Post Office.

 

Our ‘wonderful’ Post Office

At this time of the year we all become beholden to the man in the red van – not the man in the red suit (that joy leaves us at an early age). I am of course referring to Postman Pat – or whatever name you local postman goes by.

a common view for us all by the end of Christmas

I will hold my hand up here and confirm that I am not a fan of our once wonderful post office – I believe that the service they provide is poor and they need a good ‘kick up the arse’ to get things back on track. Unfortunately this is unlikely with the current dynamic between employer and unions so I would not be at all surprised to see the demise of the Post Office in the UK in the form that we all currently know over the next few years.

The reason for my current rant is related to their inability to manage when things get busy at this time of the year. I have had to make a number of visits to the Incinerator Road sorting office over the last few weeks to collect parcels. Now this is not something I have a particular problem with, both my wife and I work, so there is no one at home to receive these packages (although we have had ‘you weren’t at home’ cards through the door when we have been at home – but that is another story).

The changing face of retailing has had a direct impact upon the Post Office – or more precisely it would appear Amazon have. Everyone orders a massive amount of stuff on-line now and the Post Office appear to ‘deliver’ the lions share for these retailers. Now on the basis that many households are not at home when the mail is now delivered (later and later in the day by my experience), then most of the packages will need to be collected – and this is where the system starts to fail – badly!

Incinerator Road is a fairly small industrial unit – a sorting office with a small yard and many surrounding small businesses. But, it is also a pickup point for most of Nottingham’s  parcels that have not been delivered (certainly for south of the river). Consequently when busy (and even when it’s not) parking is a total nightmare – we are talking maybe 4 spaces for pickup – at this time of year it is a war zone!

I can see this having two effects;

Firstly people will become even less enchanted by the Post Office (difficult to believe I know) and this can have only one long-term effect!

Secondly this poor service will make the likes of Amazon more to an alternative delivery system ( they threatened it when the post office workers were on strike)

The upshot? The end of the post office parcels service as we know it.

So come on Post Office, sort your lives out or you really are going to become a thing of the past. Perhaps a bit of flexibility from your staff might go a long way?