I'm disgusted at such a poor delivery service from RM

[TrueBlueTerrier]

'I'm disgusted at such a poor delivery service from Royal Mail'

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/m-dis ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ashby photographer Darren Cresswell vents his frustration with the Royal Mail.

Like a lot of small businesses, I regularly use Royal Mail for my photography business and, up until December, I had not had any major problems with their services.

Good delivery is essential to my business as I regularly send out wedding albums, prints and contracts to my clients.

I have been using Royal Mail's Special Delivery service for sending out wedding albums since starting my business nine years ago.

It's pricey (now over £25) but the cost covers guaranteed delivery and insurance for any loss or damage which is vital.

So when a wedding client contacted me about an album arriving damaged, I didn't think it would be a problem getting compensation – after all the insurance covers up to £500.

My client sent me photos of the condition of the album which had clearly been dropped on the corner, damaging the outer box, through to the inner box, all the way through to the album spine and the pages, making the album irrepairable.

After sending Royal Mail customer services the photos, a letter and eventually asking my client to send them the damaged album, I received a letter back stating they wouldn't be compensating me, claiming the album couldn't have been packaged properly.

I have sent about 100 albums out in the same packaging that I receive it in from the suppliers, who are based in Australia.

If the packaging wasn't adequate, surely they wouldn't send them.

At the moment, I am £500 down as I had to replace the album immediately so my client could have their album in time for Christmas.

To make matters worse, I sent a letter on December 15 asking them to rethink their decision before I started legal proceedings.

Royal Mail claim they never received this letter, so it looks like they can't even deliver a letter to their own customer service department.

Also over the Christmas period, a client contacted me after sending back a set of wedding album swatch cards in November. I never received them.

Again this will cost me as I need to now pay for a new set.

I understand that with the volume of items that pass through the system there are going to be issues.

But I have lost all confidence in Royal Mail and will be looking at alternatives in the future because the way they have treated this matter is disgusting.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: "We are sorry Mr Cresswell is not happy with the service provided. We have reviewed his case and are satisfied it has been handled efficiently and correctly in line with our compensation criteria.

"We regret we cannot offer any compensation as the item did not meet our guidelines for secure packaging. If Mr Cresswell is still unhappy at the decision, he is entitled to appeal to the Postal Review Panel."

http://www.darrencresswell" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; photography.co.uk

[redandblue]

He needs to get used to it,and look forward to paying more for the privilege.