How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

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How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Very Bad
2
6%
Bad
3
9%
Slightly Worse than Normal
4
12%
No Difference from Normal
18
55%
Better than Normal
2
6%
Dont Know
4
12%
I never use Royal Mail
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 33

mercalia
Posts: 14630
Joined: 22 Sep 2013, 10:03pm
Location: london South

How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by mercalia »

How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

I have lots of items not turn up or even delayed by weeks eg a Royal Mail 48 item took 3 weeks, on the other hand a recent item from Bolton where the lock down is a RM24 came next day. If I was into conspiracy theorys I would think that due to the normal postmen getting sick & they are hiring people with weaker back ground checks and the items are being stolen. Too many items are just not arriving.
Jdsk
Posts: 24639
Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by Jdsk »

For some time speed has sounded very patchy by area.

Ours in South Oxfordshire has been fine.

Jonathan
Syd
Posts: 1230
Joined: 23 Sep 2018, 2:27pm

Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by Syd »

I’ve seen first class take from next day to 10 days.

All seems to depend on where it was sent from.

Surprisingly postage from China has been quicker than usual.
pwa
Posts: 17371
Joined: 2 Oct 2011, 8:55pm

Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by pwa »

Royal Mail here has been fine. Our regular postie has been providing his usual sterling service throughout.
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mjr
Posts: 20308
Joined: 20 Jun 2011, 7:06pm
Location: Norfolk or Somerset, mostly
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Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by mjr »

Patchy speed on a few things I've sent. Not much difference noticed on arrivals.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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Mick F
Spambuster
Posts: 56359
Joined: 7 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by Mick F »

Perfect as usual, and perfect as normal for ever.
Mick F. Cornwall
PH
Posts: 13106
Joined: 21 Jan 2007, 12:31am
Location: Derby
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Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by PH »

I don't know and have voted such.
I send something or someone sends something to me and it turns up a while later, whether that's two days or four is of so little relevance that it doesn't even register. I don't know what it is that people seem to need on a next day basis, or why they highlight that as great service, it's well down my list of priorities.
mumbojumbo
Posts: 1525
Joined: 1 Aug 2018, 8:18pm

Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by mumbojumbo »

Top class.
DevonDamo
Posts: 1036
Joined: 24 May 2011, 1:42am

Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by DevonDamo »

mercalia wrote:How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

I have lots of items not turn up or even delayed by weeks eg a Royal Mail 48 item took 3 weeks, on the other hand a recent item from Bolton where the lock down is a RM24 came next day. If I was into conspiracy theorys I would think that due to the normal postmen getting sick & they are hiring people with weaker back ground checks and the items are being stolen. Too many items are just not arriving.


Curious. If I'd had items which had not turned up at all, that would be at the very top of my list of complaints and they'd be the examples I'd be mentioning - not items that were delivered, whether on time or late. Mail failing to arrive is a much more serious matter (potentially a criminal offence) and I'd say a more revealing poll would be of whether anyone else has had Royal Mail items lost/stolen.
mercalia
Posts: 14630
Joined: 22 Sep 2013, 10:03pm
Location: london South

Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by mercalia »

DevonDamo wrote:
mercalia wrote:How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

I have lots of items not turn up or even delayed by weeks eg a Royal Mail 48 item took 3 weeks, on the other hand a recent item from Bolton where the lock down is a RM24 came next day. If I was into conspiracy theorys I would think that due to the normal postmen getting sick & they are hiring people with weaker back ground checks and the items are being stolen. Too many items are just not arriving.


Curious. If I'd had items which had not turned up at all, that would be at the very top of my list of complaints and they'd be the examples I'd be mentioning - not items that were delivered, whether on time or late. Mail failing to arrive is a much more serious matter (potentially a criminal offence) and I'd say a more revealing poll would be of whether anyone else has had Royal Mail items lost/stolen.


well I think I did put that at the top of my mentions. As for in the poll list those who have had things not turn up would presumably poll a certain less than normal result and explain more in their text. The poll is about Covid and the Royal Mail not about general theft. So far it seems my experience is not typical that does alarm me that some thing may be going on
pwa
Posts: 17371
Joined: 2 Oct 2011, 8:55pm

Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by pwa »

If you don't have something turn up, you don't always know where in the chain it went AWOL. Was it really sent in the first place, for example?

Generally I find RM better than the alternatives. I once had a non-RM delivery service deliver a Gilles Berthoud saddle to a neighbour's house, leaving it by their back door. The neighbour was on winter holiday in Spain for a couple of months so knew nothing about it. I wasn't left with a card. But the online tracking showed it as having been delivered. This was a £170 item so a bit of a worry. The neighbour's house is a few doors down so it took a couple of days for me to find it. RM don't seem to make that sort of mistake around here.

But mostly, mailed items arrive in a reasonable time frame and I can't remember the last time anything didn't arrive at all. And this service is provided by people working unsociable hours for relatively low wages, who haven't been able to hide away during Covid, so my feedback has to be predominantly positive.
Ben@Forest
Posts: 3647
Joined: 28 Jan 2013, 5:58pm

Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by Ben@Forest »

Some 20 years ago l arrived at work to find a small, battered car parked across our garage (in which my works van was parked). The car was unlocked so it was easy to move but in all the footwells other than the driver's were Royal Mail sacks of undelivered mail.

I let the RM know and their response was lackadaisical, l think l may have taken the bags back to a sorting office myself. Even worse it sounded like they knew who had done it and it wasn't the first occurrence.

Having said all that RM are usually pretty good.
thirdcrank
Posts: 36776
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by thirdcrank »

AIUI, one big problem for Royal Mail is that the sorting offices are not designed for socially distanced working; on the contrary, they seem designed to have everybody working cheek-by-jowl. I only know that from having been in our local one when I saw the manager last year about our mail going to the wrong address. Earlier this year I had a lot of trouble with a locked down NS&I caused by a cock-up by Royal Mail three years ago.

I get a couple of mags by post. The current issue of Private Eye was the first to arrive on its usual day (Wednesday) during lockdown. The Radio Times (usual day = Tuesday) is now always late, but here by Friday, the day before it starts no no big deal. Only one has not arrived at all.

Above all, I think that Royal Mail is one of the organisations that has ... er ..... delivered during lockdown. Our refuse collection has delivered the best service during lockdown, even though they take stuff away. Top notch.

=============================================================================
PS Spoke too soon. Last week's Radio Times arrived today, exactly a week after the normal delivery date and halfway through the period it covers.
rmurphy195
Posts: 2199
Joined: 20 May 2011, 11:23am
Location: South Birmingham

Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by rmurphy195 »

As reliable as anyone else, and sometimes it isn't theier fault any way.

RM has been beset by Covid-19 in all sorts of ways - working practices having to change to keep social distancing, probably all sorts of precautions in the sorting offices and elsewhere (Have you posted an something then found you had Covid-19?). Plus staff off sick with the damn thing.

Its the same in delivery organisations of all sorts, in odd patches in different parts of the country, hot spots maybe in critical spaces on the "delivery path".

I've even had suppliers apologising for late delivery due to glitches in theier warehouse before RM picked the stuff up!

Wrong to single out RM I think.
Brompton, Condor Heritage, creaky joints and thinning white (formerly grey) hair
""You know you're getting old when it's easier to ride a bike than to get on and off it" - quote from observant jogger !
mercalia
Posts: 14630
Joined: 22 Sep 2013, 10:03pm
Location: london South

Re: How reliable has Royal Mail been during the Covid Crisis?

Post by mercalia »

Can anyone beat this. AN item ordered from Ebay 8th september, never arrived, I just got the collect code today from Argos, 22nd October. , 1 1/2 months!!!!!
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