Royal Mail: Britain’s worst company

[Geezer]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/ ... mment=true

November 14, 2009

Andrew Ellson, Personal Finance Editor


Royal Mail is a disgrace. Critics say that the company needs to be dragged into the 21st century, but that’s far too optimistic — the 20th century would be a good start. Even that is probably an insult to the Victorian postal service.

I exaggerate, of course. But almost every single time I have the misfortune of dealing with this company, something goes wrong. Badly wrong. This week I discovered that an important legal document that I had sent by Special Delivery more than two weeks ago was “still in transit”, a Royal Mail euphemism for lost.

If Royal Mail cannot delivery safely a single letter for £4.95, after expressly guaranteeing to do so, what hope is there for first or even second-class post?

Royal Mail defends itself on the basis that it loses only a small fraction of post each year — although it refuses to publish figures on the exact number of letters that go missing. What we do know, however, is that in the past fiscal year the company received almost half a million complaints about lost post (and more than a million complaints in total — about 5,000 every day, on average, far more than any other company in the UK).

Given that the vast majority of the public probably do not even realise if their post has gone missing, and of those who do, most do not bother to complain, the scale of the problem is huge. Even if Royal Mail loses only ten letters or parcels for every complaint it receives, which is probably a gross underestimate, that is still more than four million items a year, enough to fill two Olympic-size swimming pools. In 2004 Postcomm, the industry regulator, estimated that Royal Mail lost or misdirected almost 15 million letters or parcels, enough to fill almost eight Olympic-size swimming pools. Quite where all this post goes is a mystery; it is hardly as if it could slip down the back of the sofa unnoticed.

If your important delivery doesn’t arrive, don’t expect any sympathy, or worthwhile compensation either. After my initial complaint, it took Royal Mail three days to confirm finally that my package was never to be seen again. No explanation was offered as to how the letter might have disappeared, and although there was an apology, it was delivered in the halfhearted and resigned tones of someone who has had to repeat such cold comfort many times before. Nor is there a single penny of redress available for the inconvenience, stress and embarrassment caused by important documents disappearing into thin air.

Sadly, it is not just lost post where Royal Mail is failing. Customer service standards generally are appalling, from the lateness of the daily delivery service to the inconvenient opening hours of parcel collection depots. For some reason, every interaction with the company involves a large queue, whether you are calling the telephone helpline or wanting to send a parcel from the post office. In an incident that sums up everything that is wrong with the business, I discovered this week that the post box at my nearest post office in Whitechapel, East London, was not working. There was just a shabbily stuck up notice saying that the post box was “out of order”. Quite how a post box can be out of order is a mystery; it is hardly the most technologically advanced piece of equipment.

It is difficult to know who is to blame for this shambles of a company — the employees or the management. Either way, this once proud business can no longer be trusted. Royal Mail is dying a shameful death

[fmrPOSTIE]

Does raise some serious points. e.g. queues & poor customer service.

Still dont understand why Callers Offices' are open at the most inconvenient times! Ridculous! closing at 5pm or ealier in the week what planet are Royal Mail on?

[POSTMAN]

5pm or ealier in the week

12.30 my place!

[chunk]

It is difficult to know who is to blame for this shambles of a company — the employees or the management. Either way, this once proud business can no longer be trusted. Royal Mail is dying a shameful death

Of course!
The Titanic sank because of a lack of effort made by men in the engine room.
You pompous pen pusher.
you also complain about always standing in a queue
your postman personally delights slashing services, he cant wait to finish his round so he can table another post office closure.

This is not an article in the truest sense.
its a blatant rant by someone who is understandably angry at the poor service hes received from royal mail.
but as a times reporter has used his position to publicly vent his rage.
hes a financial writer remember.
Imagine if today a BBC newsreader lost a package and asked the news editor
if they could just slip in a story about poor post services!

[Mercian]

I would have to ask the questions of...........

How many of the complaints were due to mail collected by a third party via Down Stream Access ?

Can the deliverers of the DSA prove that RM had taken delivery of the complained of letters ?

How many people have blamed RM with the phrase - -"oh it's in the post - - It must have got lost " ?

[mailman337]

I would have to ask the questions of...........

How many of the complaints were due to mail collected by a third party via Down Stream Access ?

Can the deliverers of the DSA prove that RM had taken delivery of the complained of letters ?

How many people have blamed RM with the phrase - -"oh it's in the post - - It must have got lost " ?

Spot on m8!!!! :cfo :cfo :cfo :mfo :mfo :mfo

[bogstandard]

i don't belive there are that many olyimpic sized swimming pools in the uk

[steven100]

7 pm my place, apart from saturdays. Not open sunday

[steven100]

It doesn't really surprise me that we RM are the worst company. The don't listen to the staff, they try to fix something that ain't broken and making the walks longer with unrealistic time spans have led to this poor quality. Guess what it will get worst. Plus it doesn't help with Rm constantly telling lies through the media to the public.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

5,000 every day, on average, far more than any other company in the UK)

- well duh

lets say average volume of traffic is 75,000,000 with a 5,000 complaints thats 0.006% or conversely a 99.994% success rate - even engineering tolerances on spacecraft are not that tight.

Even as suggested if it was 10 times higher at 50,000 that still only a 0.06% failure rate

lets take it to extremes at say 500,000 (the yearly figure) as as single day - even then its 0.6% - still pretty good.

Obviously not if yours is one of the missing items but please keep it in perspective.

[Tman]

This "lost mail" statistic is seriously flawed anyway; as someone said above, it's a standard tactic of firms nation-wide when something hasn't been dealt with or sent.
"Must have got lost in the post...etc etc"

Birthday card never arrived? "Must be the thieving posties again...etc", when actually the sender just forgot.

Other than the very occasional postie who hides stuff in his garage etc, where do these people think that that much paper can be hidden or disappear to on a daily basis?

[krussel]

Many of these so called lost items of mail will be the ones which are incompletely addressed and undeliverable in the first place. Also mailing companies who use out of date PAF lists will generate a lot of missing mail which fails to be delivered.

Losing the special delivery was quite bad though and I would be interested to know what happened to that.

[jockstrapp]

Let's be honest here. If your mail is lost the company don't give a f#ck as long as they make a profit. Crozier :cfo does'nt give a f#ck as long as he makes his bonus. The postie does'nt give a f#ck because he's getiing screwed.

So the answer is don't use Royal Fail use e-mail,fax or a courier if you want it to get there.

[axeman]

back of an artic

[kingtubby]

It doesn't really surprise me that we RM are the worst company.

Well, it's the 'worst company' according to one journalist...