Postal compensation claims costing RM £800K in Scotland

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Postal delivery cock-up compensation claims costing Royal Mail £800,000

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scott ... -22823321/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BUNGLED deliveries cost Royal Mail bosses in Scotland more than £800,000 in a year - as complaints rose to more than 230 a day.

Shocking statistics reveal that homeowners and businesses in Scotland made a total of 84,169 complaints about lost, misdelivered and damaged mail between January 2009 and January 2010.

More than half of the complaints - 42,731 - ended in compensation being paid. And the payments total led £807,261.

The figures - released after a Freedom of Information request - were revealed as hundreds of thousands of Scots are STILL waiting for Christmas cards and presents which haven't arrived.

They also show 26 Scottish postal workers were sacked for failing to deliver mail or stealing mail during the period, with a further 31 resigning before a dismissal could be considered.

Post watchdogs said yesterday it was "essential" that Royal Mail "treat all complaints seriously and improve the way they handle them".

A spokesman for postal watchdogs Consumer Focus Scotland said every failure to deliver a letter or parcel correctly and undamaged undermines Royal Mail's reputation with consumers.

He said: "If you consider Royal Mail deliver on average around five million items every working day in Scotland and around 30million every week, the number of complaints is remarkably low.

"However, every consumer who makes a complaint feels he or she has been let down by Royal Mail.

"We know that Royal Mail have been working hard to reduce complaints. We want them to continue to do so. The compensation is money that should be spent on keeping down the cost of postage."

Colin Borland, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said the loss of important mail can have a dreadful effect on small business owners in Scotland.

He said: "The figures are concerning. I think around 90 per cent of businesses rely on mail and invoices coming in. If they don't get them, they're really going to struggle.

"This is a large problem, particularly when cashflow is really tight, and it puts an added strain on our members."

The largest number of complaints in Scotland came in Glasgow, where Royal Mail received 21,862 complaints and paid £301,287 in compensation.

In total, Royal Mail received 34,736 complaints over lost mail and 6903 about post not arriving on time. They had 5294 complaints about damage and 5012 about incorrectly delivered items.

Reports last week claimed the backlog of gifts and cards yet to be delivered from the Dundee East delivery office is more than 100,000, with the amount throughout Scotland likely to dwarf that.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said it was "too early" to say how many presents and gifts had been delayed, lost or badly damaged over the Christmas period.

She added: "The amount of complaints received last year is a small percentage of the mailbag we deal with every day.

"Obviously we apologise to customers whose mail is lost or missing and they will receive compensation for that.

"Royal Mail continue to deliver any remaining items posted before Christmas as quickly as possible this week."

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They also show 26 Scottish postal workers were sacked for failing to deliver mail or stealing mail during the period, with a further 31 resigning before a dismissal could be considered.

I can't believe that all of these were regulars. It doesn't say so, and a statistic like that without further clarification isn't likely to endear anyone to what's really going on within Royal Mail. I know RM has let us all down, but this just makes one despair.

[fishtank]

They also show 26 Scottish postal workers were sacked for failing to deliver mail or stealing mail during the period, with a further 31 resigning before a dismissal could be considered.

I can't believe that all of these were regulars. It doesn't say so, and a statistic like that without further clarification isn't likely to endear anyone to what's really going on within Royal Mail. I know RM has let us all down, but this just makes one despair.

Is that really a lot between January 2009 and January 2010?

Do a freedom of information on the likes of Tesco and see how many got the bullet for dipping the till or heading home with an stolen ipod in their pocket.

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Sorry, I had not realised that the loss of employment was for the whole year. Silly me...

Trouble is, most peeps reading that article would have already formed an opinion that the problem is indeed endemic amongst a certain group of workers, and they (us) must be punished. The anger does not ever spill, or so it seems, anyway near any of the government-led / RM saboteurs, whose decisions impact on our everyday (and customers) working lives. They will eventually make us their scapegoat, I'm sure, while as always, they remain immune

[redspartapost]

surprised it is so little,if only the public knew what people are getting away with an example being the eastern european colleaugge in my office who has twice been caught with mail and packets in his bag by the dom doing bag checks at the signin desk.they were only suspended when they were found to have a blue pouch inside their shirt.his other countrymen continually put top flats /basements and long drive ways back in the post box un endorssed despite being warned they are flagged to the dom despite being given a blue pouch by the dom.this is not some type of go against these guys as at least 2 out of the 7 in my office try to do the job well.and the scottish reserves can be just as lazy as i found out 2 months ago when i got 8 stairs back through the system cos they were up a hill and envoveld 90 secs dead walking to get there .oh but he had a bus to catch to an away game for the team he supports