Today i was a RM customer, and it was a poor experience

[WASD]

Anyone else frustrated that enjoys their job, doesn't mind working hard, but tired of watching Royal Mail pee money up the wall, miss opportunities, and drive themselves into the ground?

Stupid question, (i've lurked this forum a fair bit,) i know we all are. But i just encountered what i thought was a lack-luster customer experience, courtesy of your behind the desk workers at RM, something that i've not seen brought up before.

I'm sending a parcel on ebay, as i've done a lot through Post Office. Medium parcel, need £100 insurance though. On RM price finder, tracked 48h with signature for about £8 is offered for less than 2kg, for more than 2kg it's a tenner. So here we go:
-HAD to make an account online, not available service via Post Office, why? This limits customer base. Among annoyance of no guest checkout. How about pairing with Nectar or something also?
-HAD to pay by Paypal, why? Paypal can do guest checkout, but i needed to deal with Paypal "come make an account with us BS". Just do Sage checkout or whatever integrated on website.
-The user interface is horrendous. Forced to use my browser back button, this isn't pre broadband days. Can't bring up my past orders. Can't click each service for a summary on sending. An interface where inputting receiver details is completely not intuitive. The integration of local drop off information isn't there, it diverts to the RM website which isn't 100% working right now.
-Can't drop off tracked at Post Office. Pointless, really really dumb. This alienates customers further from Royal Mail day by day.
-Local depot is closed at 13:00. Really?! It's a fair sized office. *also see complaint below* (i worked there many years back, but am at a different depot now)
-I can however use service point printer to print label, this is a big plus. However, the local newsagent's do this for Hermes (rubbish company), and Collect+ (again, rubbish). Why aren't we capitalising on our strength of national domination of service points STILL?

I've sent via UPS before on ParceltoGo website, i merely input address, paid, printed label, dropped off at my local petrol station 100metres from my house. Item was above 2kg and could apply additional insurance for additional cost if needed, a service that was flawless. It was about £8. It was a painfree experience, and even the other big companies are offering this collection service for cheap.

*My current depot has this trend where they employ many people over the year, out of 3 you get 1 good one. 1 ends up going long term sick or leaving, and the other is soo useless they get a collection job or bum about in the collection office. This frustrates me to no end. Good workers coming in early and finishing late, doing additional cover overtime too because the company seems to think it's fine wasting man hours (depot budget), instead of sacking them. Hell, why can't they just get my local depot open if they are happy to employee people who clearly aren't up for the job. To add insult to injury, RM encourage this behaviour by paying staff overtime to come in early and work slower than if they came in at their official start time, and give people full sick pay. Admittedly SSP is quite poor and should be slightly higher, but smart people have a rainy day fund. I don't think giving full pay on sick for 6 months encourages good behaviour, look at the national social system.

I suppose i should add, mothers day soon. More Special Delivery flowers that can't be delivered cause Mom ain't in. Good one RM, don't bother offering a suitable service to big national customers

/rant

[clashcityrocker]

I suppose i should add, mothers day soon. More Special Delivery flowers that can't be delivered cause Mom ain't in. Good one RM, don't bother offering a suitable service to big national customers

Certainly agree with this.
Apparently we didn't get many flowers in the pipeline on Valentine's Day - that's hardly surprising.
The number that get returned to the CSP is embarrassing.
And then either you have to hand over dying flowers to the customer or you have to let them sit there for 18 days before you can RTS,
Truly shocking service for a perishable product.

[Ren Hoëk]

I suppose i should add, mothers day soon. More Special Delivery flowers that can't be delivered cause Mom ain't in. Good one RM, don't bother offering a suitable service to big national customers

Certainly agree with this.
Apparently we didn't get many flowers in the pipeline on Valentine's Day - that's hardly surprising.
The number that get returned to the CSP is embarrassing.
And then either you have to hand over dying flowers to the customer or you have to let them sit there for 18 days before you can RTS,
Truly shocking service for a perishable product.

I really don't see how that is a RM problem? That is an issue with the customers product. We cant leave them outside as customers complain. We cant leave them with neighbours because they complain. We cant bring them back to the office because everyone complains. Damned if you do damned if you don't.

How about, If you order a product that wont fit through the door either for yourself or someone else. Be in, tell the receiver to be in or designate an official safe place. We aren't miracle workers.

[yubin282]

I suppose i should add, mothers day soon. More Special Delivery flowers that can't be delivered cause Mom ain't in. Good one RM, don't bother offering a suitable service to big national customers

Certainly agree with this.
Apparently we didn't get many flowers in the pipeline on Valentine's Day - that's hardly surprising.
The number that get returned to the CSP is embarrassing.
And then either you have to hand over dying flowers to the customer or you have to let them sit there for 18 days before you can RTS,
Truly shocking service for a perishable product.

I really don't see how that is a RM problem? That is an issue with the customers product. We cant leave them outside as customers complain. We cant leave them with neighbours because they complain. We cant bring them back to the office because everyone complains. Damned if you do damned if you don't.

How about, If you order a product that wont fit through the door either for yourself or someone else. Be in, tell the receiver to be in or designate an official safe place. We aren't miracle workers.

Totally agree. Just do your job, go home and forget about it.

[WASD]

I suppose i should add, mothers day soon. More Special Delivery flowers that can't be delivered cause Mom ain't in. Good one RM, don't bother offering a suitable service to big national customers

Certainly agree with this.
Apparently we didn't get many flowers in the pipeline on Valentine's Day - that's hardly surprising.
The number that get returned to the CSP is embarrassing.
And then either you have to hand over dying flowers to the customer or you have to let them sit there for 18 days before you can RTS,
Truly shocking service for a perishable product.

I really don't see how that is a RM problem? That is an issue with the customers product. We cant leave them outside as customers complain. We cant leave them with neighbours because they complain. We cant bring them back to the office because everyone complains. Damned if you do damned if you don't.

How about, If you order a product that wont fit through the door either for yourself or someone else. Be in, tell the receiver to be in or designate an official safe place. We aren't miracle workers.

The idea is Royal Mail offer a service that is fit for use. We can call that service, "perishable tracked delivery". The delivery is tracked, and the customer (sender) can specify whether they want to allow collection from depot if no answer at time of call. If nothing is specified, default delivery is to doorstep. No packets valued at more than £20 can be sent via the service, and no insurance available on the service either.

We currently have deliver to named person only, and age restricted delivery, both are new services, both offer something new and something needed. So why not more new services fit for purpose?

The attitude of, "do job, go home, and forget", doesn't wash with me. I respect the point view, but to me it means, if you don't care, why should i care about making an effort to deliver a service to you? That service could be anything Take a car mechanic, having a good one is a godsend, a bad one can really mess your week up, and your finances.

[redneck]

Anyone else frustrated that enjoys their job, doesn't mind working hard, but tired of watching Royal Mail pee money up the wall, miss opportunities, and drive themselves into the ground?

Stupid question, (i've lurked this forum a fair bit,) i know we all are. But i just encountered what i thought was a lack-luster customer experience, courtesy of your behind the desk workers at RM, something that i've not seen brought up before.

I'm sending a parcel on ebay, as i've done a lot through Post Office. Medium parcel, need £100 insurance though. On RM price finder, tracked 48h with signature for about £8 is offered for less than 2kg, for more than 2kg it's a tenner. So here we go:
-HAD to make an account online, not available service via Post Office, why? This limits customer base. Among annoyance of no guest checkout. How about pairing with Nectar or something also?
-HAD to pay by Paypal, why? Paypal can do guest checkout, but i needed to deal with Paypal "come make an account with us BS". Just do Sage checkout or whatever integrated on website.
-The user interface is horrendous. Forced to use my browser back button, this isn't pre broadband days. Can't bring up my past orders. Can't click each service for a summary on sending. An interface where inputting receiver details is completely not intuitive. The integration of local drop off information isn't there, it diverts to the RM website which isn't 100% working right now.
-Can't drop off tracked at Post Office. Pointless, really really dumb. This alienates customers further from Royal Mail day by day.
-Local depot is closed at 13:00. Really?! It's a fair sized office. *also see complaint below* (i worked there many years back, but am at a different depot now)
-I can however use service point printer to print label, this is a big plus. However, the local newsagent's do this for Hermes (rubbish company), and Collect+ (again, rubbish). Why aren't we capitalising on our strength of national domination of service points STILL?

I've sent via UPS before on ParceltoGo website, i merely input address, paid, printed label, dropped off at my local petrol station 100metres from my house. Item was above 2kg and could apply additional insurance for additional cost if needed, a service that was flawless. It was about £8. It was a painfree experience, and even the other big companies are offering this collection service for cheap.

*My current depot has this trend where they employ many people over the year, out of 3 you get 1 good one. 1 ends up going long term sick or leaving, and the other is soo useless they get a collection job or bum about in the collection office. This frustrates me to no end. Good workers coming in early and finishing late, doing additional cover overtime too because the company seems to think it's fine wasting man hours (depot budget), instead of sacking them. Hell, why can't they just get my local depot open if they are happy to employee people who clearly aren't up for the job. To add insult to injury, RM encourage this behaviour by paying staff overtime to come in early and work slower than if they came in at their official start time, and give people full sick pay. Admittedly SSP is quite poor and should be slightly higher, but smart people have a rainy day fund. I don't think giving full pay on sick for 6 months encourages good behaviour, look at the national social system.

I suppose i should add, mothers day soon. More Special Delivery flowers that can't be delivered cause Mom ain't in. Good one RM, don't bother offering a suitable service to big national customers

/rant

There is no doubt we are years behind the competition, but the company are spending their time fighting the work force instead of working with us to improve it. Hence the strike ballot and all that will ensue from there. Crap and really corrupt company now whose biggest 'idea' is trim the workforce and split it up so we all compete against each other internally with the goal of bogus self employment and seven day working.

[Ren Hoëk]

I suppose i should add, mothers day soon. More Special Delivery flowers that can't be delivered cause Mom ain't in. Good one RM, don't bother offering a suitable service to big national customers

Certainly agree with this.
Apparently we didn't get many flowers in the pipeline on Valentine's Day - that's hardly surprising.
The number that get returned to the CSP is embarrassing.
And then either you have to hand over dying flowers to the customer or you have to let them sit there for 18 days before you can RTS,
Truly shocking service for a perishable product.

I really don't see how that is a RM problem? That is an issue with the customers product. We cant leave them outside as customers complain. We cant leave them with neighbours because they complain. We cant bring them back to the office because everyone complains. Damned if you do damned if you don't.

How about, If you order a product that wont fit through the door either for yourself or someone else. Be in, tell the receiver to be in or designate an official safe place. We aren't miracle workers.

The idea is Royal Mail offer a service that is fit for use. We can call that service, "perishable tracked delivery". The delivery is tracked, and the customer (sender) can specify whether they want to allow collection from depot if no answer at time of call. If nothing is specified, default delivery is to doorstep. No packets valued at more than £20 can be sent via the service, and no insurance available on the service either.

We currently have deliver to named person only, and age restricted delivery, both are new services, both offer something new and something needed. So why not more new services fit for purpose?

The attitude of, "do job, go home, and forget", doesn't wash with me. I respect the point view, but to me it means, if you don't care, why should i care about making an effort to deliver a service to you? That service could be anything Take a car mechanic, having a good one is a godsend, a bad one can really mess your week up, and your finances.

We already offer that service. It's called safe place. Doorstepping items isn't something we should be doing. Yodel, Hermes, Amazon etc all do it and it is ruining their reputations.

[SpacePhoenix]

The idea is Royal Mail offer a service that is fit for use. We can call that service, "perishable tracked delivery". The delivery is tracked, and the customer (sender) can specify whether they want to allow collection from depot if no answer at time of call. If nothing is specified, default delivery is to doorstep. No packets valued at more than £20 can be sent via the service, and no insurance available on the service either.

No such service as that, just Tracked. I somehow doubt that it flowers were left on the doorstep that RM wouldn't hesitate to sack someone if they went missing or something goes wrong

[grchpo]

Why is it our fault. If they are not in, their fault, if they don't go & collect from depot, their fault, sent back after 18 days, their fault. They are not your friends they are customers, they need to make an effort to receive THEIR parcel.

[Janet Brum]

I agree that Rm should spend more money on improving their services and bring us in 2020 instead of spending 60 mil on pda`s wich is one of Rico`s goals but I don`t see why the people on collection are being painted like that?

I believe whoever does the collections in my office and others are good posties who can do both delivery and collections impecable.

[Bluenose]

How about bringing in a new system when a customer orders anything online they are not allowed to proceed to payment unless they give a selected place for the item to be left at if they have logged on to the website with their password this is the customers permission and where they state the item is to be left is printed on the item. This would take the responsibility off the delivery person and removes the problem of the onus off the employee.

[yubin282]

Why is it our fault. If they are not in, their fault, if they don't go & collect from depot, their fault, sent back after 18 days, their fault. They are not your friends they are customers, they need to make an effort to receive THEIR parcel.

It works both ways too, if i receive a parcel and i'm not in then i go and collect it because it's MINE. I don't expect the postman to leave it with my neighbours and i wouldn't ask him to either. Thats not because i have bad neighbours (quite the opposite). Its my parcel - my responsibility.

[ssdd]

AFAIK RM are working on 'in-flight' options whereby after you receive notification of the delivery, it gives the option to nominate a safeplace or neighbour. Something like what the other couriers already have!

Interestingly I had an Amazon parcel to deliver today. There was a nominated safeplace printed on the parcel: GARDEN
(Would you like that in the middle of the garden Sir, or just off to the side?)

[Murdoch]

We're kinda stuck between both ends of the market... confused as to how best compete.

DPD, give 1 hour time slots, in flight options, such as remote signing for items, and designating a safe place. Or delivery day change / neighbour delivery.

Hermes, and yodel can just leave parcels in my shed (never had a problem).

Royal Mail service would be shite, but my postie (who i don't know), just ignores all the rules and leaves all my items in my shed too. That's pretty much where RM stands at the moment, crap service for the end customer, unless your postie breaks all the rules and risks getting sacked everytime they deliver a parcel...

[hero22]

if the competition is leaving parcels all over the place and seem to be getting away with it and winning contracts is it not about time we followed suit but maybe in a more professional way i.e wetproof bags and leave the parcels out of site, all parcels that can be left in a safeplace such as shed etc can be without it stating it on the parcel etc. Just a thought