advice on best way to complain about local postie ....

[inlikeflynn]

I'm needing to make a complaint [sorry guys] and wondered if you knew who the best person to approach would be. Maybe a supervisor or manager at my local delivery office or maybe phoning customer services??? Because I want this complaint taken seriously.

Today I was out of the house at the time the postie normally delivers the mail. When I returned around 11.30am I knew he'd done his round because I could see him getting in his van having apparently just finished his route. At about 5pm my neighbour [bless her] knocked the door to say her husband had just arrived home from work and could see a few packages lying on my back door step. [The back door is actually situated at the side of the house]. There were two small packages, a letter and a larger package. I couldn't believe it. They'd been lying there all day. The larger package wouldn't have fit through the letter box, but the other two packages were small and would have fitted through easily. As would A LETTER. He didn't leave a card to say he'd left them. But then I realised, of course he didn't. He wouldn't want to leave written evidence that he'd left items lying on a door step. Especially when most of them would have fitted easily through the letter box. It defies logic. There was at least £60 worth of goods lying out in the open for most of the day and it was only good luck that my neighbour noticed them when he returned from work.

The thing is, I've ordered things online before. It's not the first time that items haven't arrived and I've had to contact the seller who then has to make me wait for a certain amount of time before they're willing to resend the items. Then they have to put in a claim for lost items to the Royal Mail. I'd hate to think that the items had in fact made it to their destination but due to the stupidity of this postie, the items were pilfered from my door step. The guy's been delivering my mail for a few years now so who knows.

I'm really annoyed about this and want to make sure it never happens again so I can continue to order things online. Any advice???

[mazza111]

I would tend to start with the delivery office manager, so he at least gets the chance to have a word with your postie

[fishtank]

It depends on what you want....

If you want to stop it happening again the quickest and most likely way to achieve that would be to have a polite but firm word with the delivery officer involved.
If you want him disciplined contact Customer Services.

[inlikeflynn]

Thanks guys.

I'll probably start with the delivery office manager and see how I get on. If no joy there then I'll take it to customer services. I'm not interested in any kind of formal disciplinary. I just want to know that the guy's been spoken to and that I'm reassured he's unlikely to do it ever again.

I'm afraid I couldn't discuss it with the postie directly as he's completely unapproachable.

[zola4ever]

First of all I must say that is not very good, but we are not the only company to deliver pckets . It could be Parcelforce, Citylink, DHL, etc. Over the last 25 years plus I have seen lots of packets " doorstepped " by these firms and the customer always says " oh look, the lazy postman has my packets outside "

[arnold cheshire]

why would the postie leave packets on a doorstep when they would fit through the letter box this is probably a courier they deliver items from amazon and qvc etc just the same as royal mail

[Hugger]

......But they dont deliver letters and there was a letter with the packets / parcels.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

......But they dont deliver letters and there was a letter with the packets / parcels.

To double check - what is printed in the top right corner of the envelope where the stamp would normally go.

The reason why we areasking is that while RM delivers 99% of mail there are some companies that indeed do deliver letters instead of RM, although mostly they are local to specific areas.

[Calm71]

I personally detest low working standards and a lack of integrity, but I digress. If your postman has indeed been doing these things then RM take this very seriously. I have a colleague who doorstepped a parcel and is now on a year's probation because of it. As my colleagues wisely suggest, there are a few delivery providers so you need to be sure that it is indeed your postman doing this to you.

My advice would be to check your order records at ebay etc online for the method of postage on the offending items, you can usually tell if they have been sent by Royal Mail, also if they have a postage stamp on them then they were definitely sent by Royal Mail, not sure about franked items myself so if anyone can shed any light on that... I'm not sure if you can get anything done about past items which you did not receive, even if they were in the hands of Royal Mail as there are so many points at which a parcel could go missing. However if you have doorstepped items in your possession which you have checked online for the delivery provider and as long as you know the date on which they were delivered then you have a definite case for a complaint.

The best way to ensure your postman is disciplined is to submit a written complaint to the delivery office manager, either that or an informal chat with the manager if you don't want to have your postman disciplined. Personally I think you are being very nice about all of this, if it were me I would be furious.

As a postman myself I do leave items with neighbours or in people's sheds or in a hidden area round the back and I leave a note to say I have done this, but this is because 99% of the time I know the customer and their neighbours very well and I know they do not have a problem with this. It also depends on where you live. I work in a very neighbourly and civic-minded place so items being stolen is not really an issue.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

[baleout]

Register a complaint with Customer Services.

Posties that Doorstep are just being not doing the job properly - no excuses. They should be sacked !!!

[dave7634]

Register a complaint with Customer Services.

Posties that Doorstep are just being not doing the job properly - no excuses. They should be sacked !!!

Do their job properly would be better. I card everything which won't go through the door. This is after I've knocked (very) loudly and rang their doorbell a few times but NEVER doorstep. RM cannot sack you for leaving a P739 card. I've been bitten before where you THINK you're saving them the torment of travelling to the Delivery Office, for them to report me and this was in a greenhouse and I carded them tellling them this too! Never again I thought and I've stuck to that.

[Spedley]

The majority of my customers ask me to leave things on their doorstep when they are out (out of sight and rain of course). One even wants me to leave it in the red recycle bin!

It seems very odd to leave a letter which could have blown away but a simple note should stop it ever happening again. I usually refuse peoples requests to leave packages but I definitely don't leave them when there is a note saying not to.

[taurus88]

I know a few folk on my round who have best friends who they will trust to take parcels in, but I never leave them with any old neighbour, I don't doorstep, don't sign for things for people, don't leave things in gardens, greenhouses. I am prepared to leave plants in the back garden, even if only to stop the soil from spilling in my bag .

[Terry Butcher]

I know a few folk on my round who have best friends who they will trust to take parcels in, but I never leave them with any old neighbour, I don't doorstep, don't sign for things for people, don't leave things in gardens, greenhouses. I am prepared to leave plants in the back garden, even if only to stop the soil from spilling in my bag .

Same, The ONLY things i will "doorstep" is plants, nobody in their right mind would want to steal a box with "Live Plants" written on the side. Contact lenses for the same reason (obvious and unattractive to the opportunistic thief), but not if it's raining or about to, in which case the red card goes through and they go back to the office. I say "doorstep", but i do my best to hide and shelter them and leave a card telling them where it is.

[Supermonkey]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I was wondering about complaining too, and I just need to check that I have cause to... I don't have any problem with 'doorstepping' - I work full time so I don't have time to pick up mail, and I routinely check in the nooks and crannies by the front door when I get home - nothing's been stolen yet. What I do have a problem with is absentee postmen!

Several pieces of mail were supposed to arrive on the 24th of December but we had no deliveries at all (all the mail suddenly appeared on the first post day AFTER Christmas, so it was probably sitting in a depot for days). Then, I had lots of items due to arrive today. Again, absolutely no mail at all. I don't think it's related to Christmas, because I've noticed that we quite often get no post at all on Fridays. If a postie takes time off or works part time, their round is covered, isn't it?

I wondered if it was possible that the postman is unofficially taking Fridays off and delivering the post whenever he feels like it! I'm particularly concerned now because I had some live plants supposedly arriving today, and they may die if left until Tuesday!!!