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Any grief off customers regarding late presents

Postal workers discussion forum. Discuss the day to day life in a Blue Shirt.
Beforenineoclockgoodone
Posts: 186
Joined: 16 Jul 2007, 12:23
Location: Cheshire

Any grief off customers regarding late presents

Post by Beforenineoclockgoodone »

just wondered if anyone had had anyone be nasty to them for delivering late packets/parcels due to the Royal Mail cock up?
Job & finish
DirtyHarry
Posts: 5051
Joined: 13 May 2007, 23:16
Gender: Male
Location: London

Re: Any grief off customers regarding late presents

Post by DirtyHarry »

Not so far, and if I do, I'll lecture them about the foolhardiness of businessmen cutting jobs, cutting duties, then expecting a company suddenly chronically understaffed, to perform as if nothing has happened. If I ran a company and needed 2000 staff for everything to go like clockwork, but employed only 1000, and everything was basically a balls-up, I'd want shooting, as does Crozier for what he's done to RM.
Pat Ostman
Posts: 2797
Joined: 17 Sep 2008, 21:53
Gender: Male
Location: In the Line Managers office being screwed over.

Re: Any grief off customers regarding late presents

Post by Pat Ostman »

bang on
Run, rabbit run. Dig that hole, forget the sun.
And when at last the work is done. Don't sit down, it's time to dig another one
Night Tonic
Posts: 1474
Joined: 23 Oct 2007, 21:35

Re: Any grief off customers regarding late presents

Post by Night Tonic »

Lecture them? You might suggest it has more to do with them not using the service except maybe at christmas.
Don't believe everything you're told in the rest room
Pat Ostman
Posts: 2797
Joined: 17 Sep 2008, 21:53
Gender: Male
Location: In the Line Managers office being screwed over.

Re: Any grief off customers regarding late presents

Post by Pat Ostman »

Night Tonic wrote:Lecture them? You might suggest it has more to do with them not using the service except maybe at christmas.
There is never enough staff, not just at Christmas. The cracks just show more and people notice more.
Run, rabbit run. Dig that hole, forget the sun.
And when at last the work is done. Don't sit down, it's time to dig another one
DGP1
Posts: 15551
Joined: 07 Jun 2007, 20:39
Gender: Male
Location: Terminus

Re: Any grief off customers regarding late presents

Post by DGP1 »

Night Tonic wrote:Lecture them? You might suggest it has more to do with them not using the service except maybe at christmas.
:hmmmm People are buying more and more online but we are getting no extra resources to deal with them, my office cleared but only because a handful of (mainly PTs) people worked late into the night to clear them and this was only in the last week. Christmas comes every year (and unlike easter it's at exactly the same time every year) and it always seems to catch RM out, at least this year they could blame the bad weather and I'm sure they are thanking the universe for the bad weather. :roll:
I'm preparing myself for the zombie invasion, rule number 1 - Cardio
Wiggins79
Posts: 182
Joined: 17 Oct 2009, 11:25
Gender: Male

Re: Any grief off customers regarding late presents

Post by Wiggins79 »

The problem with trying to explain anything like this to people who you deliver to is they just don't understand or even want to understand. They all seem to think that each postie delivers only to their street and nothing you say will alter their tiny-minded point of view. A case in point is a man on one of the rounds I cover (I'm the day off relief). 6 years ago, his street was at the beginning of the round and therefore he got his mail fairly early. Then 5 years ago, all the rounds got altered and suddenly, his street was in the middle of that particular round. Here we are 5 years later, and each time I see him he moans about how he now gets his mail "late" every day and wants something done about it. No matter how many times I have explained to him that his mail isn't actually "late" and why he doesn't get it first anymore it just doesn't sink in. Another example is an argument I had with someone when we were on strike. I tried to explain to him that the company was losing money delivering mail for TNT, UK Mail etc. etc. and that the EU and Labour government had brought in the means to allow these companies to shaft us like this, to which he kept replying "well, they'll take on more of your work if you keep on striking won't they?" I then tried to explain to him that they didn't want to take anymore of OUR work on, as they were quite happy paying peanuts and making us monkeys do the expensive delivery side of things. He then went on to tell me that, if we kept on striking TNT would deliver his mail instead, to which I asked him why they weren't doing it now? He then told me it was because they weren't allowed to, only RM could deliver mail. I then explained to him that this wasn't true, and that TNT or any other compnay was legally allowed to deliver mail if they had a licence, but that no-one was interested as there would be barely any profit and it would be a massive undertaking to set up a delivery network from scratch, and that also, it would be highly unlikely that they would be interested in doing so in a rural village area as there would be zero profit to be made. He then told me we should be grateful we had jobs and that there are plenty of people out of work who would be willing to take my place, and off he went.
On a side note, and a bit more on-topic (got side-tracked there), someone knocked sick this morning in our office (a semi-rural sub) and despite our line-managers pleas, no-one was interested in delivering it for free for her (surprise!). In the end, she said she would have to come out and deliver it herself, but that it must be thrown in (which it already had been as we'd each done a bit to get it ready for delivery) and that only 1st and 2nd class mail was to be put in the frame as she wouldn't take anything else. I also noted, when I got back to the office that she had also left all the parcels and packets, several of which were first class, and also recorded. Witholding the mail anyone?
DirtyHarry
Posts: 5051
Joined: 13 May 2007, 23:16
Gender: Male
Location: London

Re: Any grief off customers regarding late presents

Post by DirtyHarry »

Night Tonic wrote:Lecture them? You might suggest it has more to do with them not using the service except maybe at christmas.
Blimey, what planet are you from? Royal Mail provides a heavy load for me regularly, not just at Christmas. A Victorian postman may have had to do a first, second, even a third delivery every day, but he never had a high capacity trolley full of mail, so much, that he can barely close the lids, a pouch bag containing a couple of bundles of mail plus a few packets, and maybe two, three, drop bags containing more bundles of mail, more packets, and that was one typical day for me in JULY.
PS.
For JULY read JANUARY, FEBRUARY, MARCH, APRIL, MAY, JUNE, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, then we get a bit busier, DECEMBER.
The mail may have, or may not have, decreased, but Crozier's savage cuts have bitten so deeply, as to make any genuine claim that mail volumes have dropped, seem just like so much bull manure.
Still, never mind hey? At least Royal Mail is well on the road to being a thoroughly modern organisation, what with fewer collections, later and later deliveries, and good old-fashioned thieves being taken on to replace experienced, dedicated, public servants, who are being shunted out as fast as Crozier and his henchmen can get rid of them, some, if not most, in the most underhand ways imaginable.
Your whole philosophy stinks, watching a nation prostrate itself before the altar dedicated to so-called market forces, stinks, and what this government, the EU, Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier, and those that blindly follow them, has done to this nation's postal service, stinks.
DirtyHarry
Posts: 5051
Joined: 13 May 2007, 23:16
Gender: Male
Location: London

Re: Any grief off customers regarding late presents

Post by DirtyHarry »

Wiggins79 wrote:The problem with trying to explain anything like this to people who you deliver to is they just don't understand or even want to understand. They all seem to think that each postie delivers only to their street and nothing you say will alter their tiny-minded point of view. A case in point is a man on one of the rounds I cover (I'm the day off relief). 6 years ago, his street was at the beginning of the round and therefore he got his mail fairly early. Then 5 years ago, all the rounds got altered and suddenly, his street was in the middle of that particular round. Here we are 5 years later, and each time I see him he moans about how he now gets his mail "late" every day and wants something done about it. No matter how many times I have explained to him that his mail isn't actually "late" and why he doesn't get it first anymore it just doesn't sink in. Another example is an argument I had with someone when we were on strike. I tried to explain to him that the company was losing money delivering mail for TNT, UK Mail etc. etc. and that the EU and Labour government had brought in the means to allow these companies to shaft us like this, to which he kept replying "well, they'll take on more of your work if you keep on striking won't they?" I then tried to explain to him that they didn't want to take anymore of OUR work on, as they were quite happy paying peanuts and making us monkeys do the expensive delivery side of things. He then went on to tell me that, if we kept on striking TNT would deliver his mail instead, to which I asked him why they weren't doing it now? He then told me it was because they weren't allowed to, only RM could deliver mail. I then explained to him that this wasn't true, and that TNT or any other compnay was legally allowed to deliver mail if they had a licence, but that no-one was interested as there would be barely any profit and it would be a massive undertaking to set up a delivery network from scratch, and that also, it would be highly unlikely that they would be interested in doing so in a rural village area as there would be zero profit to be made. He then told me we should be grateful we had jobs and that there are plenty of people out of work who would be willing to take my place, and off he went.
On a side note, and a bit more on-topic (got side-tracked there), someone knocked sick this morning in our office (a semi-rural sub) and despite our line-managers pleas, no-one was interested in delivering it for free for her (surprise!). In the end, she said she would have to come out and deliver it herself, but that it must be thrown in (which it already had been as we'd each done a bit to get it ready for delivery) and that only 1st and 2nd class mail was to be put in the frame as she wouldn't take anything else. I also noted, when I got back to the office that she had also left all the parcels and packets, several of which were first class, and also recorded. Witholding the mail anyone?
I have a walley like him on my round, two in fact, typical modern day Brits, they know everything there is to know about running a business, but have never run a business, and you just know they would struggle selling ice cream on southend pier in july.