Royal Mail Tracked - Trade Descriptions Act

[NWBusiness]

The shambles that is Royal Mail Tracked has been highly damaging to our business this Christmas. It was sold to us as “giving both you and your customers peace of mind” and “ensure you know where your goods are, from despatch to their safe arrival into your customers’ hands, enabling you to manage your operation more efficiently and enjoy complete control, peace of mind and customer satisfaction” – what a joke.

Our receiving depot Preston Mail Centre suspended scanning for over a week so close on 4,000 of our parcels were not scanned as received and our customers got the message “The sender has advised us that item ***** will be posted into the Royal Mail network on the 2010-12-**” when they checked the tracking so were accusing us of not even posting. Most were never scanned until they arrived at a delivery office, also parcels have been showing as delivered days before they actually were and some have been returned to sender despite still showing as delivered. When checking some of the tracking in response to enquiries this week some show as delivered on 25-12-2010 so obviously were not delivered on Christmas Day and still haven’t turned up. We had to stop taking orders well before Christmas so we could focus on the hundreds of delivery enquires we were getting but without tracking information that is hard to do.

Not dealing with mail in the order received makes a mockery of RM’s advice to 'post early for Christmas', some of the items we have dispatched on 6th have been delivered from Warrington today, 30th many still haven’t.

While suspending scanning because the “volume was too great” and dealing with newly posted items rather than clearing the backlog are management decisions the inaccurate scanning as delivered is the fault of staff on the frontline?

Royal Mail is using the excuse of the weather for everything, Business Customer Services don’t give a toss and our account manager has gone AWOL, could it get any worse with privatisation?

[baldrick]

could it get any worse with privatisation?

Yes.

[fishtank]

could it get any worse with privatisation?

Yes....this poor level of service will cost your business more.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

The shambles that is Royal Mail Tracked has been highly damaging to our business this Christmas. It was sold to us as “giving both you and your customers peace of mind” and “ensure you know where your goods are, from despatch to their safe arrival into your customers’ hands, enabling you to manage your operation more efficiently and enjoy complete control, peace of mind and customer satisfaction” – what a joke.

Our receiving depot Preston Mail Centre suspended scanning for over a week so close on 4,000 of our parcels were not scanned as received and our customers got the message “The sender has advised us that item ***** will be posted into the Royal Mail network on the 2010-12-**” when they checked the tracking so were accusing us of not even posting. Most were never scanned until they arrived at a delivery office, also parcels have been showing as delivered days before they actually were and some have been returned to sender despite still showing as delivered. When checking some of the tracking in response to enquiries this week some show as delivered on 25-12-2010 so obviously were not delivered on Christmas Day and still haven’t turned up. We had to stop taking orders well before Christmas so we could focus on the hundreds of delivery enquires we were getting but without tracking information that is hard to do.

Not dealing with mail in the order received makes a mockery of RM’s advice to 'post early for Christmas', some of the items we have dispatched on 6th have been delivered from Warrington today, 30th many still haven’t.

While suspending scanning because the “volume was too great” and dealing with newly posted items rather than clearing the backlog are management decisions the inaccurate scanning as delivered is the fault of staff on the frontline?

Royal Mail is using the excuse of the weather for everything, Business Customer Services don’t give a toss and our account manager has gone AWOL, could it get any worse with privatisation?

Just to make sure you haven't missed the tag line on every page I'll post it here.

We have no affiliation with either Royal Mail or the Communications Workers Union (CWU), except that most of our members work for Royal Mail and/or are members of the CWU.

However, whilst I appreciate your frustration and am genuinely sorry you had such severe problems there's not a lot we, as in members of RMC, can do about it.

BTW the inaccurate scanning whilst not directly a Management decision could be lack of training of casuals brought in over Christmas and during the back log. One of our constant refrains as employees of RM is lack of training, lack of consistency and poor decision making - as they say welcome to our world.

Weather as an excuse for everything - not the first time thats been suggested in fact again its a common suggestion by members of RMC.

Could it get worse when privatised - well yes. Profit will be the core target so the same situation could, and in my opinion is more likely, happen again. When its more profitable to delay backlogged mail rather than all mail, when deliveries are suspended because the cost of delaying mail is cheaper than risking delivery personnel, when 3 deliveries a week to rurals are more profitable than daily delivery and when there is a clause in the new Postal Act that allows for the USO to be degraded in "exceptional" cases (but does not define them) - they yes the service will be worse under privatisation because the focus will change even more from service to profit - just my opinion though.

[NWBusiness]

could it get any worse with privatisation?

Yes....this poor level of service will cost your business more.

Yes I realise that members of RMC can’t do anything about it. However the complete failure of RM Tracked is scandalous with Royal Mail hiding behind the excuse of the weather, scanning was suspended at Preston MC over a week and a half before the snow hit the Northwest. You say things would be worse with privatisation leading to increased prices, the fact is I am currently paying for a service I am not getting and nobody at RM seems to give a toss, I would rather pay a bit more and get my parcels scanned and delivered on time (over 3 weeks for parcels to be delivered 30miles to Warrington!).

I have been responding to delivery enquires from customers today, a couple of tracking numbers I have checked show as already delivered with a delivery date of New Years day from Manchester South DO and Westbury On Trym DO, delivered on a day that RM wasn’t even working what am supposed to tell my customers, do any of you have any idea why the tracking information is wrong?

I have until now always been against privatisation but with complete failure of Royal Mail this Christmas something needs to be done.

[Stormproof]

Perhaps Manchester South DO and Westbury On Trym DO were working today and tomorrow, its not unheard of

[NWBusiness]

Perhaps Manchester South DO and Westbury On Trym DO were working today and tomorrow, its not unheard of

Tracking states:

We have a record of item ************* as being delivered from Westbury On Trym DO on 2011-01-01.

Actually out delivering on New Years day? Often tracking shows as delivered up to a week before it actually is so I can’t question my customers honesty as tracking can’t be trusted. Clearly some delivery offices are pre-scanning as delivered.

I have some tracking numbers showing as delivered on Christmas Day!

[mazza111]

hmmm not sure how it's working with tracked items. But if it's scanned as "ready for delivery" Does it not show as delivered if it's not been scanned as "Undelivered" ie on return to the delivery office? I'm really not sure on this one. I know our tracked items that came in even during the snow and when we weren't delivering were scanned as "Ready for delivery" Then scanned as "Undelivered" reason being "Inaccessible" Then they were scanned as ready for delivery again on the day that we went back out to deliver. Bit of a hoohaa too, but it let the customers know exactly what was happening, and we were able to dig out any tracked items that the customers spotted were at the DO in that time.

From reading between the lines, I don't think RM were prepare for the huge increase in tracked items that they had this year. The weather only exaggerating the problem. The revisions and new delivery methods exaggerating the problem even further. However I also believe that RM will try to make us all believe that it was just the weather causing the problems.

[NWBusiness]

Thanks for your reply, if it is lucky enough to be scanned at a DO it normally says the following until it is delivered:

Delivered date:Still to be delivered
Reference no:*************
Status:On its way
We received item ************* at Mansfield DO on the 2010-12-31. The item is now ready for delivery.

It is quite concerning if you are right that a parcel is presumed delivered unless it is scanned when returned to the delivery office so tracking showing delivered doesn’t necessarily mean delivered.

A collection driver told me unofficially there are not enough PDAs to go round.

[andy2007]

could it get any worse with privatisation?

Yes....this poor level of service will cost your business more.

Yes I realise that members of RMC can’t do anything about it. However the complete failure of RM Tracked is scandalous with Royal Mail hiding behind the excuse of the weather, scanning was suspended at Preston MC over a week and a half before the snow hit the Northwest. You say things would be worse with privatisation leading to increased prices, the fact is I am currently paying for a service I am not getting and nobody at RM seems to give a toss, I would rather pay a bit more and get my parcels scanned and delivered on time (over 3 weeks for parcels to be delivered 30miles to Warrington!).

I have been responding to delivery enquires from customers today, a couple of tracking numbers I have checked show as already delivered with a delivery date of New Years day from Manchester South DO and Westbury On Trym DO, delivered on a day that RM wasn’t even working what am supposed to tell my customers, do any of you have any idea why the tracking information is wrong?

I have until now always been against privatisation but with complete failure of Royal Mail this Christmas something needs to be done.

I've been getting 3 and 4 week old Mail, delivered to my Home, which has come via Warrington MC. And I've been told by someone who works at Warrington MC, that the backlog is still bad there. So I think it's likley that your Mail, is stuck in the same backlog as mine.

The sooner Postcomm changes the rules, so that RM can be fined more than once for the same failed Mail (if it fails on the next day(s) too), the better! Because this ludicrous setup, which allows Managers to order us to ignore Mail that's already failed, and do the "live" (not failed) Mail first. Is making a bad situation worse. And not just for the recipients, like you and me. But also for those of us who work in RM, who are forced to ignore Mail, which should be upgraded to 1st Class, and delivered ASAP! Don't you realise how bad it makes the majority of us feel, knowing that if we were allowed to, we could reduce the length of time that important Mail is delayed. But instead, have to leave it, to get later, and later.

I seriously doubt that Postcomm will change it's mind. Because they're more bothered about reducing the potential penalties for whoever buys RM (if they succeed in selling it), than allowing us to provide the service you deserve, and that we want to provide.

[mazza111]

NW I could be wrong on that one, really not 100% sure. I know that's what we had to do with them in our DO over the period we couldn't deliver. We then sorted them into the duties that would normally have taken them, then it was easier if customers did turn up looking for their stuff it was easier to find. Especially when they knew what they were looking for, ie. Amazon, a pair of wellies. Customers giving as much info as possible really helped us locate many of the items during that period.

I know that the special deliveries are still scanned as delivered if the postman hasn't called to say that he has one to bring back, bad practice I know, at the end of the day, tracked items shouldn't be going out with posties who don't have PDAs. We sent them out in our office and still have a lot of confirmation cards to input into the system. Which is 2nd best to having the PDA but then we have to wait for someone to bring back a PDA to get them all scanned. So yes, not enough PDAs is a problem too. But only one of them.
There are several issues here that the powers that be need to look at, but as usual they will blame the snow in certain places. Whilst the weather did have a big impact, I believe RMs policies in dealing with backlogs and other practices need looked to ensure that this doesn't happen again.