lost parcels

[Disgusted]

Why is it impossible to talk to someone at Royal Mail?

I now have another parcel missing but cannot contact royal Mail as they never answer a telephone.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

Why is it impossible to talk to someone at Royal Mail?

I now have another parcel missing but cannot contact royal Mail as they never answer a telephone.

best bet is customer services 08457 740 740, usually pretty quick to answer whenever i have called them

[Teletubby32]

I had the same problem, press 1 for this, press 2 for that and so on and then say assist to get to speak to someone, then either get cut off or made to hold for 15 minutes. It's all a waste of time anyway, as you'll only get some idiot on the other end of the phone who won't tell you anything, just give you some clap trap about weather causing delays, telling you your parcel isn't lost until 15 days have passed, pathetic! They should be able to get off their backsides and go look in the centre to actually physically locate your parcel and confirm it's there and not lost or stolen, and provide a real reason for it not having been delivered.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I had the same problem, press 1 for this, press 2 for that and so on and then say assist to get to speak to someone, then either get cut off or made to hold for 15 minutes. It's all a waste of time anyway, as you'll only get some idiot on the other end of the phone who won't tell you anything, just give you some clap trap about weather causing delays, telling you your parcel isn't lost until 15 days have passed, pathetic! They should be able to get off their backsides and go look in the centre to actually physically locate your parcel and confirm it's there and not lost or stolen, and provide a real reason for it not having been delivered.

Nice Idea - problem is No call Centres for Royal Mail are actually any where near Mail centres etc. Also you may ring the central number but the person you are speaking to could be based in Scotland or on the South Coast so while your suggestion is possible it would have 2 major impacts. The cost of your call would rise as you would haeve to wait for the person to come back from a 600 mile round truip, and 2 the 15 minute wait to start speaking to someone would be a lot longer.

I have to be honest here 3 of your posts are blaming the staff. However it not the staff who designed the call centre phone line system, its not the staff who decide where your packets are sorted, its not the staff who decide which mail goes out or not, its not the staff who bring in major changes that have the effect you are experiencing, and last of all its not the staff who cancel deliveries because of the weather - in fact in everything its not the staff you should blame but Management.

[Teletubby32]

I understand what you're saying about management, the way things are run comes from above, but it's the staff who follow the orders from management and therefore the staff who are responsible. Commonsense should prevail, if the staff had anything about them and they could see that certain practises were wrong then they wouldn't just go along with them. It's like my fella had an arguement last week with our bin men, they refused to empty our bin because the lid wasn't properly closed (was only slightly open), my fella went out and got hold of one of them and he claimed he wasn't allowed to empty any bin if the lid wasn't closed flat as it was a health and safety thing and we needed to take it up with management as he was just following orders, sorry but that's a cop out, there was nothing stopping that bin man from emptying the bin, nothing whatsoever, management wasn't standing there with a gun to his head telling him not to empty it.

With regards to the phonelines, I appreciate the person on the phone isn't based in the specific distribution centre etc. but all they have to do is put a call through to the distribution centre in question with the parcel details and get them to take a look and confirm if the parcel is there and if so why it hasn't been delivered and when it will be delivered and report back to the customer, it's not rocket science, would take less time than the time made to wait on the phone to get through to someone in the first place.

[fishtank]

I understand what you're saying about management, the way things are run comes from above, but it's the staff who follow the orders from management and therefore the staff who are responsible. Commonsense should prevail, if the staff had anything about them and they could see that certain practises were wrong then they wouldn't just go along with them.

I'm sorry but that is nonsense.
Common-sense is not to put your job on the line just to save a customer a trip to pick up their parcel from the local depot....is that such a difficult task?
The reason these guidelines are in place is to protect the security of your parcel....if you want your parcel left anywhere it falls i suggest you use HDNL.

[Teletubby32]

a trip to pick up their parcel from the local depot....is that such a difficult task?

Not difficult, no, but a great inconvenience and something that is so unnecessary if the posties used some commonsense.

[Stormproof]

Maybe you should've taken a leaf out of your own book and used your common sense when ordering, severe weather being the top story on the National News for the past few weeks, how did you think it would get to you......Santa

[Teletubby32]

Maybe you should've taken a leaf out of your own book and used your common sense when ordering, severe weather being the top story on the National News for the past few weeks, how did you think it would get to you......Santa

My parcel was despatched on the 8th, it is showing as being scanned on the 9th at South West Distribution Centre, and it still hasn't arrived, today is now the 18th and the status has not changed since the 9th. Yes there has been some bad weather, but get a grip, it should not have that big an effect on deliveries that parcels remain in the one place for 10 days and counting.

[Stormproof]

Get a grip? I really do think you need a reality check

[Teletubby32]

Well Stormproof, if you're a Royal Mail employee and this is your attitude, then it's easy to see where the problem lies.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Well Stormproof, if you're a Royal Mail employee and this is your attitude, then it's easy to see where the problem lies.

especially if you have a blinkerd approach to everything.

BTW as this is an UNOFFICIAL SITE outside the control of Royal Mail you will tend to get the honest truth and you wont be handled with kid gloves. If you come on her with an attitude then it tends to get reflected back. Perhaps if you treated RMC members with some respect you might have got it back, but then your first post was not a good introduction was it.

[DGP1]

I know my office hasn't been allowed out today so all the people in my area won't be getting their parcels today (again), if we go out and something happens (we fall and injure ourselves or we crash the van) then we will be held responsible and then sacked over it so we need to be aware that that's our reward for 'using out commonsense'.

If you left your bin lid up then you deserve not to have you bin emptied, those have been the rules for a few years now so it does seem that you're the person who just does whatever you like and expect everyone to jump to you.

[mazza111]

Ok face it, the system sux. Us posties know it sux!

So your packet went into the distribution centre on the 8th, then the 9th went in, then the 10th. So your packet going in first will be the last out perhaps, have seen it happening this way, not good, again, nowt I can do about it.

Do you have any idea how many thousands of packets will be in that distribution centre atm? It would be virtually impossible to go and locate it within that distribution centre. Certainly have no idea why this is our fault. The system is at fault. Who puts that system in place? Those at the top, not us mere mortals who are out delivering the mail, or in mail centres trying to work all the hours possible who are trying their very best to get as many packets out of delivery offices as humanly possible.

I seriously think you need to take this up with RM, not it's work force who are trying their best to work within Royal Mail's rules. Royal Mail are looking at cutting staff, everyone has been treading on eggshells for ages now. Doing the job as RM tell you, or you're out the door. So really, think about it, should we put out jobs at risk? I know I certainly won't

[Teletubby32]

I know my office hasn't been allowed out today so all the people in my area won't be getting their parcels today (again), if we go out and something happens (we fall and injure ourselves or we crash the van) then we will be held responsible and then sacked over it so we need to be aware that that's our reward for 'using out commonsense'.

If you left your bin lid up then you deserve not to have you bin emptied, those have been the rules for a few years now so it does seem that you're the person who just does whatever you like and expect everyone to jump to you.

So this is the real reason then why parcels are not getting delivered. Postal staff have bad attitude, don't give a damn about the customers and are frightened of a little bit of snow. If you weren't out today, then I hope to hell you weren't paid. You people are a joke, it's christmas, the busiest time of year, people are waiting for parcels, people have paid for a service that you are unwilling to provide.