Time locks .... can I kill the mail?

[human1]

I have block of 10 flats. One main door to enter and 10 buzzers out side. When I get there about mid day , time locks are ON and I can not get in ... press buzzers an no one at home. What I am suppose to do with mail ? Can I kill off the mail ?

[factorycat]

I have block of 10 flats. One main door to enter and 10 buzzers out side. When I get there about mid day , time locks are ON and I can not get in ... press buzzers an no one at home. What I am suppose to do with mail ? Can I kill off the mail ?

i wouldn't kill it off. bring it back and endorse it. we have a tray at our office where we put all mail thats brought back and the gaffer has a lokk through it the next morning. he then asks why and trys to sort the problem out.

can you not get there earlier?, if not, then hopefully you can sort a key out.

think you have to try for 3 days, then you can kill it off.

[estelle]

up my neck of the woods, if no access for a week (as in Mon - Sat inclusive), can kill off on the following Monday, this is only after highlighting there is a problem with access to your lino so they can attempt delivery and also deliver a letter saying there is a problem with us gaining access.

At least, I think that's the procedure. I've only had it once that I've not been able to gain access the whole week at a variety of times - but that's because I can alter the order I work my walk to suit the buzzer times/volumes of mail as it's a small compact area I cover.

[Wessex]

I have block of 10 flats. One main door to enter and 10 buzzers out side. When I get there about mid day , time locks are ON and I can not get in ... press buzzers an no one at home. What I am suppose to do with mail ? Can I kill off the mail ?

i wouldn't kill it off. bring it back and endorse it. we have a tray at our office where we put all mail thats brought back and the gaffer has a lokk through it the next morning. he then asks why and trys to sort the problem out.

can you not get there earlier?, if not, then hopefully you can sort a key out.

think you have to try for 3 days, then you can kill it off.

Did you try round the back , a lot of communal flats have a rear door to the communal garden and they are often permanently unlocked .Also the people who were really in but couldnt be arsed to open the front door might see you and let you in once they realise you are the postie

[youwot!!!!!]

I have block of 10 flats. One main door to enter and 10 buzzers out side. When I get there about mid day , time locks are ON and I can not get in ... press buzzers an no one at home. What I am suppose to do with mail ? Can I kill off the mail ?

i wouldn't kill it off. bring it back and endorse it. we have a tray at our office where we put all mail thats brought back and the gaffer has a lokk through it the next morning. he then asks why and trys to sort the problem out.

can you not get there earlier?, if not, then hopefully you can sort a key out.

think you have to try for 3 days, then you can kill it off.

Did you try round the back , a lot of communal flats have a rear door to the communal garden and they are often permanently unlocked .Also the people who were really in but couldnt be arsed to open the front door might see you and let you in once they realise you are the postie

why bother.if they can't be arsed to answer the door then i couldn't be arsed trailing around the back.

[pokos27]

just bring it back, kill off the dsa stuff though, dont kill off mail that people paid full price for.

[Indy]

I have block of 10 flats. One main door to enter and 10 buzzers out side. When I get there about mid day , time locks are ON and I can not get in ... press buzzers an no one at home. What I am suppose to do with mail ? Can I kill off the mail ?

I have huge problems with this sort of thing.... the most annoying thing about it is people ARE in but won't answer the door.... Reason?.... "If I open the door for you then you'll always ring my bell!"

When you have to endorse few bits of mail then its not too bad BUT having a mech bundles? worth it becomes an issue. Lino/DOM don't really care until they get a complaint i.e. my credit cars hasn't turned up and I haven't had any mail for a week. Even then the only reason I've got keys is because I've hassled the residents to get them. With getting out later and later, having extra delivery points added getting to controlled entry buildings before the 'Trade' entry stops at 11am or midday if your lucky is becoming an increasing impossibility.

MY way of dealing with this is to attempt to deliver mail for 3/4 days then selectively return mail as inaccessible. Returning 'junk' would probably been seen as doing the residents a favour SO I return things that APPEAR to be credit cards/statements cheque books etc. Reason? a few years ago my credit card statement was sent back in error and my CC was declined in Sainsbury. When I contacted the company they said it was because the statement had been sent back i.e. security. I've since found out that doing this normally either gets me a key or a way of getting in.

I really wish that RM would take the controlled entry problem more seriously..... I'm at the address every day trying to deliver. The time it takes to ring all the bells and waiting is normally more than the time it takes to actually deliver. Then theres the time it takes to endorse the mail the extra time/effort it takes to re-sort it at the mail centre? and then bring it back to the DO the extra time on IPS then frame sorting and carrying it back out to the address. THEN its quite possible the previous is repeated multiple times before access can be gained... normally a Saturday.

RM it appears gets paid sod all for DSA why should it have to go to the substantial extra cost of multiple delivery attempts? In reality I don't think RM care unless they can show an actual monetary cost in £'s.... go figure!

[clashcityrocker]

Did you try round the back , a lot of communal flats have a rear door to the communal garden

And would this entrance have been risk assessed?

[pinkpat]

I have the same problem with time locked flats on my walk, told my manager who then contacted the local council to try and resolve the situation by either having a key or getting the time lock changed to a later time, They weren't helpful what so ever and said they couldn't do anything cos of security risks, so no matter what mail I have for the flats where I can't access my line manager tells me I have to kill off everything on a daily basis if I couldn't gain access that day

[SexyLegs]

Is it not possible to re-arrange the walk so you go to these flats first, you then do them when you're fresh and skip up and down them, and you don't have the time wasting issues of waiting for people to answer the buzzers to let you in?

I'm a reserve and do plenty of walks with time locks, I just cycle out to the time locked premises, deliver and then cycle to my start point, and then you obviously miss out the timelocked premises on your way home, makes no difference to the time it takes to complete the round and you get rid of it all.

Is that a good solution?

[coxie]

if you want to kill it off to highlight the problem you can but only after 3 unsuccessful attempts at gaining access

[Wessex]

Did you try round the back , a lot of communal flats have a rear door to the communal garden

And would this entrance have been risk assessed?

A fair point , probably won't be covered by insurance .It's what I normally do .I've always hated flats I did meter reading in Hackney and places for a while , the local posties must have nerves of steel to deliver to some blocks

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

if you want to kill it off to highlight the problem you can but only after 3 unsuccessful attempts at gaining access

For some reason I thought killing off inaccessible addresses should only happen after one week. I have several addresses that periodically become inaccessible due to blocked pathways to the door, in which circumstances I attempt delivery for one week before killing off mail, until such times as safe delivery of mail can be resumed.

As for time-locked "trades" buttons, I attempt to gain entry by buzzing each address in the block that has mail, giving 10 seconds or so per address. No answer, no delivery and endorsement of each piece of mail taken back. Now as this scenario only happens when I'm doing cut-offs or abs o/t, I've no idea what happens if this happens over 7 contnuous days... Presumeably the mail should be killed off, but then presumeably it should be flagged with the lino to get some action taken? Another case of insufficient training for the job!

[bootleg]

its funny how many different places seem to have different ways of doing things,would like to know what official stance is on this.
in our office you have to kill the mail off as no access when you get back or the following day

[clashcityrocker]

All items not delivered due to issues with controlled entry systems must be returned to the delivery office and this should be brought to the attention of the DOM.
All items not delivered due to issues with controlled entry systems must be endorsed using a P4306 label.
Attempts to deliver the mail must continue. Every attempt to resolve the issue of access must be made.
Incomplete delivery walks should be reported against the USO part walks failure on DDOR. The DOM should notify customers of the issue. This letter will formally qualify the affected addresses as USO exemptions.
Undelivered mail will be retained and as a last resort Return to Sender.

Ensure every attempt is made to agree a resolution. Under the formal "Difficulty of Access" procedure the customer has the right to appeal to Postcomm., who will be unlikely to support RM's position if it becomes evident RM have not undertaken robust attempts to agree a solution.