Have we really sunk this low

[hairyjack]

From The Times November 14, 2009

Royal Mail: Britain’s worst company
Comment Andrew Ellson, Personal Finance Editor Royal Mail is a disgrace. Critics say that the company needs to be dragged into the 21st century, but that’s far too optimistic — the 20th century would be a good start. Even that is probably an insult to the Victorian postal service.

I exaggerate, of course. But almost every single time I have the misfortune of dealing with this company, something goes wrong. Badly wrong. This week I discovered that an important legal document that I had sent by Special Delivery more than two weeks ago was “still in transit”, a Royal Mail euphemism for lost.

If Royal Mail cannot delivery safely a single letter for £4.95, after expressly guaranteeing to do so, what hope is there for first or even second-class post?

Royal Mail defends itself on the basis that it loses only a small fraction of post each year — although it refuses to publish figures on the exact number of letters that go missing. What we do know, however, is that in the past fiscal year the company received almost half a million complaints about lost post (and more than a million complaints in total — about 5,000 every day, on average, far more than any other company in the UK).

Given that the vast majority of the public probably do not even realise if their post has gone missing, and of those who do, most do not bother to complain, the scale of the problem is huge. Even if Royal Mail loses only ten letters or parcels for every complaint it receives, which is probably a gross underestimate, that is still more than four million items a year, enough to fill two Olympic-size swimming pools. In 2004 Postcomm, the industry regulator, estimated that Royal Mail lost or misdirected almost 15 million letters or parcels, enough to fill almost eight Olympic-size swimming pools. Quite where all this post goes is a mystery; it is hardly as if it could slip down the back of the sofa unnoticed.

If your important delivery doesn’t arrive, don’t expect any sympathy, or worthwhile compensation either. After my initial complaint, it took Royal Mail three days to confirm finally that my package was never to be seen again. No explanation was offered as to how the letter might have disappeared, and although there was an apology, it was delivered in the halfhearted and resigned tones of someone who has had to repeat such cold comfort many times before. Nor is there a single penny of redress available for the inconvenience, stress and embarrassment caused by important documents disappearing into thin air.

Sadly, it is not just lost post where Royal Mail is failing. Customer service standards generally are appalling, from the lateness of the daily delivery service to the inconvenient opening hours of parcel collection depots. For some reason, every interaction with the company involves a large queue, whether you are calling the telephone helpline or wanting to send a parcel from the post office. In an incident that sums up everything that is wrong with the business, I discovered this week that the post box at my nearest post office in Whitechapel, East London, was not working. There was just a shabbily stuck up notice saying that the post box was “out of order”. Quite how a post box can be out of order is a mystery; it is hardly the most technologically advanced piece of equipment.

It is difficult to know who is to blame for this shambles of a company — the employees or the management. Either way, this once proud business can no longer be trusted. Royal Mail is dying a shameful death.

[Geezer]

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