Left in the dark by a second class delivery service

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/bu ... ticle.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'VE been having trouble with Royal Mail for some time but my latest experience takes the biscuit.

An eBay seller in Hampshire sent me a package of rare magazines by Royal Mail next day special delivery.

When the postman – one I'd never seen before – arrived at 11.30a.m, I asked him where my package was.

He hadn't got it. His excuse was: The van driver had phoned in sick and I wouldn't get it today.

"Well, it's supposed to be here before 1pm," I told him. "What if the driver phones in sick tomorrow?" He said: "Well, you won't get the package then, either."


"But I paid a fiver for guaranteed next day delivery on that!" I protested. "Well, don't blame me," he said. "It's the system they've got now."

Well, I waited and waited and the package didn't arrive. So at 2.30pm, I walked to the enquiry office at Leek Road, Stoke, to be greeted by a disinterested counter clerk.

He didn't seem to care about the fact I am partially disabled and the three-quarters-of-a- mile walk had taken it out of me. He was very unhelpful.

Later on, I tried to get some help off the Royal Mail customer services helpline, but got the usual automated voice telling me to press this number and that number, in between commercials telling me how marvellous Royal Mail was! I gave up when I realised that I wasn't going to speak to a real person.

Later still, I contacted the seller, and he put the serial number of the special delivery counterfoil into the Royal Mail track-and-trace website and the following message came up: "We tried to deliver this package before 11.38am but no-one was in, so we left a card. The package was taken back to the sorting office."

This wasn't true. I was waiting in all morning and no -one called and no-one put a card through my door.

Well, this is a turning point. I have been an Amazon customer for nine years and an eBay buyer for seven and a half and bought hundreds of items, but I am no longer sending for anything mail order again.

I can no longer cope with the hassle. I'm just not well enough. I have cancelled all my pre-ordered DVDs. From now on, I will order DVDs in the city centre HMV store if they haven't got them in stock.

When I moved to this address nearly 17 years ago, things were different.

We had two deliveries a day, one at 8 am (7 am on Saturdays) and another at 11 am. Special delivery items were always here by 9.30am. How things have changed.

Oh, yes, and to those who would ask me why I didn't simply phone up the sorting office instead of going all the way there in person: Well, you can't get through on the number in the phone book. It's an automated message machine.

My guess is that they have arranged things this way because of the huge number of complaints they get.

DAVID RAYNER

Stoke-on-Trent

[johnsouthwales]

order your dvds from hmv online.. i do it seldom, and saves quite a bit of money and travelling and walking to get to my hmvs. never had any problems with hmv, only when there was a hiccup with a faulty cd that was jamming on the last song, or a cracked/marked cd case. i've always had my play.com items delivered. tesco i had problems with.

you can get to a human voice at customer services, even when it is frustrating. i think its option 1 or 2 then 4. i got to speak to someone after about 2 minutes. if the seller had used 1st clas delivery, that would have been suffice and you would have received your collectables quicker. tis a bit sad as they could have arranged another driver from somewhere? you're entitled to get your money back if it was not delivered by 1pm. then again, the note that was left is a bit strange. if the driver was off, who had been around?

that reminds me, have to look at hmv site, try and get a dvd, think its a fiver less than the hmv shop

[johnsouthwales]

£4 cheaper for dvd set hmv online compared to store. had a look at asda, ordered another dvd i seen before. its £6 cheaper than hmv

[johnsouthwales]

grr.. i been chatting to myself.. i din't realise it was from a newspaper article. doh