Shambolic service for Royal Mail Tracked 48 / Tracked 24 services

[theoneandonly1995]

I recently needed to send something via Royal Mail that was valued at about £90. I was going to choose Royal Mail First Class Signed For, but this would only cover £50.

Going to Royal Mail's website, I entered what I needed and it came up with Royal Mail Tracked & Signed 48, for £5.10. Perfect - as I do not want to be paying for an overpriced "Special Delivery" service, when other providers can do the same job for less money.

Went to the Post Office - apparently they do not accept Tracked 48, and I have to go to the local depot/drop off point/Customer Service Point (whatever it is called).
How strange - and how ridiculous, given that the Post Office are more than happy to take tracked returns back to retailers using the same Tracked 48 / Tracked 24 services!

So if I can't send my own tracked parcel via a Post Office, why can I send a return to a company via the Post Office, that uses the exact same label (Tracked 48)! Why on earth is this! Is it so that the Post Office can sell you "Special Delivery" !

I then went to the local collection point, where I pick up my parcels if no one is in, which happens to be our Customer Service Point (as advised via the Post Office).
The result: As of September 1st, they have new opening hours, that are some of the worst opening hours I have ever come across.
Mondays and Tuesdays are only open 8am - 10am ! Why is this - not everyone can wake up really early like this, and you have to allow time to wrap up your parcel and prepare it for sending! If you can't make 8am-10am, you're out of luck!
Wednesdays - completely closed!
The only day that they are open outside of 8am - 10am is a Thursday. Given that Thursday would be 3 days away, and thus resulting in a defect / Item Not Received case if I waited this long, I took it with me to a local parcel box (like a postbox, but big enough to shove a parcel in) and shoved the item in there. At least it will now be picked up at 6pm tonight, unlike the P.O. (won't take it) or the CSP (Thursday only!).

Also, I paid extra to have a tracked service with full cover up to the value of £90. Given that the item had to be taken to a parcelbox, and not the Customer Service Point, then whilst I still keep tracking, I lose all form of parcel protection due to not being able to get proof of postage!
Why is this allowed to happen?!
I'd have been better off, both in time, money, and protection, using standard Royal Mail 2nd Class, which would have cost £2.95 and not £5.10 !

Conclusion: THAT'S IT. I'M FINISHED WITH ROYAL MAIL. ALL OF MY ITEMS WILL GO EITHER COLLECTPLUS, HERMES, INPOST, UPS, DPD, OR ANYONE ELSE THAT IS UP TO THE JOB. ROYAL MAIL ARE CLEARLY LACKING IN COMPETENCE AND THEREFORE DO NOT DESERVE ANY OF MY ITEMS.

[2yearpostie]

First off Royal Mail and the Post Office are two separate businesses, RM is a private company pPO is still gov backed.

2nd the customer service point is only open those hours as we currently have a lot of postie either self isolating or ill in hospital for obvious reasons, we are open when there is someone on the premises to serve you, Very sorry thats not up to standard but even we arent immune from the effects of current world events.

[Snaggletooth]

Why won’t the Post Office accept the item? They only accept items if it is a service they get paid for by Royal Mail. So it is down to commercial negotiations between the two companies. The PO is told to break even by its shareholder (the Government) whilst simultaneously being laden down with work that it is obliged to do for free. So they can’t really agree to add a new service unless it covers its costs.

Operationally and commercially there is a difference between accepting home shopping returns and processing new parcels. The service used to transport the item has little bearing on this.

[theoneandonly1995]

Why won’t the Post Office accept the item? They only accept items if it is a service they get paid for by Royal Mail. So it is down to commercial negotiations between the two companies. The PO is told to break even by its shareholder (the Government) whilst simultaneously being laden down with work that it is obliged to do for free. So they can’t really agree to add a new service unless it covers its costs.

Operationally and commercially there is a difference between accepting home shopping returns and processing new parcels. The service used to transport the item has little bearing on this.

I don't know why they wouldn't accept it, all I do know is that I have sent multiple tracked returns back via that Post Office, but they wouldn't take my RM Tracked 48 label and they told me to go to a Customer Service Point - and my CSP is closed all week (except for 2 hours early in the morning) except for Thursday.
Hence, the parcel just got shoved in the nearest Parcel Postbox. It was supposed to be collected at 6pm, hopefully someone did actually take the item and it is on its way through the network :). Only time wll tell.

Though I checked the website and now parcels that don't need proof of delivery should be fine to go through a parcel postbox, but Tracked 24/48 should actually go through the CSP? Yet when I checked for locations on the RM website, they showed up the parcel postbox?

Why did I not just go 1st class signed for...

[gimba]

1) Post office and RM are separate companies, just like Asda and your local Premier store
2) There's a pandemic on ya know, of course times are going to change
3_ you posted a TRACKED parcel, in a box that has no tracking or proof of being sent

go elsewhere, no doubt you'll complain when literally everything is your own fault for not checking anyway

[aiden01]

1) Post office and RM are separate companies, just like Asda and your local Premier store
2) There's a pandemic on ya know, of course times are going to change
3_ you posted a TRACKED parcel, in a box that has no tracking or proof of being sent

go elsewhere, no doubt you'll complain when literally everything is your own fault for not checking anyway

Must say hes had a right good moan over nothing.. an most csp's are operating on reduced hrs an days due to covid19.

[Sir Henry]

an most csp's are operating on reduced hrs an days due to covid19.

Never been told why and the pros for this?

Is it purely so the callers staff can be pushed out of the office to cover walks?
If it is its not actually happening, not at ours anyway.

Open the CSPs, let the customers collect their parcels, saves us having to redeliver so many when we already have more than we can cope with on a daily basis.

[aiden01]

an most csp's are operating on reduced hrs an days due to covid19.

Never been told why and the pros for this?

Is it purely so the callers staff can be pushed out of the office to cover walks?
If it is its not actually happening, not at ours anyway.

Open the CSPs, let the customers collect their parcels, saves us having to redeliver so many when we already have more than we can cope with on a daily basis.

An ive no clue either but thats the reason being given..

[TrueBlueTerrier]

an most csp's are operating on reduced hrs an days due to covid19.

Never been told why and the pros for this?

Is it purely so the callers staff can be pushed out of the office to cover walks?
If it is its not actually happening, not at ours anyway.

Open the CSPs, let the customers collect their parcels, saves us having to redeliver so many when we already have more than we can cope with on a daily basis.

An ive no clue either but thats the reason being given..

They are trying to discourage collecting of items for what seems to me, an obvious reason. Apologies if it isn't to everyone.

But 1 or 2 posties delivering items by knocking on doors and then leaving the item and stepping away from the door seems a lot safer than allowing people to queue where social distancing is not always observed and the chances of being in contact with a Covid suffer are greater. I personally think that scenario 2 is more likely to cause Covid to spread through a delivery office than scenario 1.

[Sir Henry]

Fair comment. Considering our office's very lax attitude towards enforcing precautionary measures that scenario hadn't struck me as the most likely. I don't believe that encouraging more people than usual to attend the callers office within a 2 hour window is ideal but at least we have plenty of outside queueing space in which to socially distance.

[Zedbed]

I wanted to send a tracked parcel containing medical equipment urgently to a hospital. Chose Tracked 24 and booked a collection. Of course, the parcel was not picked up (what a surprise) and that evening received an email saying I could take the parcel to a "post office or Royal Mail customer service point. Of course I foolishly took it to a post office, and was rather rudely told to take it to a customer service centre. The urgent package that I had paid for 24 hour delivery eventually turned up on day 5. Shambles is absolutely the right word.

[Woody Guthrie]

What reason was given for the failure to collect?