Postal Service
The postal service is a monopoly that operates a totally unfair contract.
A contract is entered into when a service is purchased; if anything goes wrong they are protected by legislation.
When representation is made as a result of appalling service they invariably do not respond, procrastinate and prevaricate.
They do not know what courtesy and professionalism is.
1) In the last few months I have had thirteen Recorded Delivery Letters go astray, and untraceable. These have been posted at Baker Street, (W H Smith), Trent Valley and Beacon Street post offices!
2) A Special Delivery posted at Baker Street has now gone “walkabout”.
3) A Recorded Delivery Letter is not considered “lost” by the postal service until after a period of fifteen days; a Special Delivery ten days!
4) Yes, you can claim by completing a form; a book of six first class stamps is considered adequate compensation for a “lost” Recorded Delivery; a claim for the Special Delivery has not been made at this point of time.
5) A considerable amount of unwelcome and unsolicited brochures, leaflets, advertising and promotional material is now delivered. This is not the reason that the Postal Service was setup many years ago. The prime consideration is delivering mail; consequently lightening the load of the person making the delivery. The literature is confined to the rubbish bin immediately; there is an environmental issue.
6) There is an “Opt Out” scheme on offer; however this is consistently and continually ignored. Notice this is an “Opt Out” not a choice by the recipient.
7) The delivery person is under such pressure that they continually take short cuts across front gardens.
8) Recorded and Special Delivery items containing highly sensitive information is continually delivered to another address if you are not able to answer the door within fifteen seconds.
9) The drivers of the vehicles operated by the Postal Service generally appear to have activated the self destruct button; so very often the vehicles are driven in a cavalier manner without consideration for fellow drivers.
10) Postal Service Staff, quite often do not inspire confidence. Their appearance and attitude is totally lacking. Unshaven, trainers, shirts hanging out, unkempt appearance and with an unhelpful and arrogant attitude; obliviously there are staff who are absolutely fantastic, I salute them and sincerely thank these individuals.
11) Then there is the deprivation of local communities by the closure of local Post Offices. If the services are needed by reasonably fit and active individuals, it has become necessary to utilise the car, no help to the environment.
12) However, the main Post Office facilities are totally lacking in customer service since the transfer to W H Smith, (even is you are physically fit and able to get to the establishment). Invariably, due to the increased footfall, there is generally an extensive delay; it is rare to find all the service positions open and available, even with substantive queues of fifteen or more customers.
13) It is Senior Management who is the benefactor, not living in the real world but with sky high and obscene remunerations. It is totally apparent that they have embarked on a path of destroying our Postal Service, whether by design or accident remains to be determined. Are these people morally and ethically bankrupt!
What action is now needed to reinstate our Postal Service and heritage to its former glory; or it may be better that the current wave of industrial action is the final nail in the coffin?
© 2009 – 2010, Dave the Rave. All rights reserved.
I posted an A4 envelope with three sheets of 80gsm paper inside to a friend in Walsall. I checked the letter at a sub post office, confirming the weight and discovering that it required a large letter stamp. So duly affixing the large letter 2nd class stamp, I posted it in
Lichfield.
When the letter arrived in Walsall on December the 14th, it
appeared to have gained weight, perhaps partaking of a chip supper or a curry on route, which cost my friend a fine of £1:17p. If this wasn’t bad enough, my friend then checked the post mark, discovering it to be October 9th. In fact I forgotten that I’d sent it
to him, and was about to send it again.
I fail to see how the post office are not making money when they charge second class postage plus £1:17p to deliver a letter which takes over two months to arrive at its destination. One can only assume it was some kind of storage charge. Now I realise that 2nd
class postage is not what it was, but I think that two months and three days seems a little excessive to cover a distance of approximately ten miles and then to have the effrontery to fine the recipient on delivery is beyond belief.
I am aware that nowadays that the post office send mail miles out of its way to get it sorted on the cheap, but this could have taken in the greater part of the Western Hemisphere in the time it took to actually deliver it.
Being in my sixties, I can remember when mail was sorted locally and delivered the following day, in fact my father was a postman in Lichfield for over 30 years, and I was Lichfield’s last telegram boy. Poor old Dad must be spinning in his grave at what has happened to the postal service today, if ‘service’ is the correct word in this case.