Dispatches Special - Royal Mail - Monday night

[lewey]

Realise there are other threads on Royal Mail strikes etc, but thought this worth pointing out.

Tomorrow night (Monday 8th Feb) on Dispatches, channel 4 8pm, will be about Royal Mail with reporters going undercover to show up the chaos and attitudes of staff.

Should be interesting viewing, although not sure which way customers may take it - hope it doesn't cause them to stop ordering.

[Dave]

Cheers Lewey but think I will pass on watching because it makes me so angry thinking about the amount of damage their strikes did to the thousands of small businesses out there.

[Green East]

Thanks will watch out for it - I wonder if this is a new one or the one I watched recently.

I think it's a 50/50 situation. With thousands of postal workers across the country, there will always be a percentage with attitudes towards their work even under good conditions, while the work being piled on them is horrendous and raises that percentage.

I know for a fact I could not manage the work they do physically and appreciate the effort put in by all those workers who do care enough to get mail and parcels there on time.

I'm certainly supporting the workers but at the same time, I rely heavily on the postal service and striking is not the right answer for anyone.

[Gillf]

Hi All,

Perhaps now the top man at the PO is off to pastures new, with an obscenely huge pay package, there will be a more skilled man manager at the top of the PO who will be able to sort the problems without causing further damage.

Gill
Valentines Lingerie (http://www.ever-so-sexy.com)

[Paul S]

I've noticed an increase in the number of 'where's my item' queries recently.
More so than when the strikes were on and after the snow had cleared.
Had another one this morning.
Some are taking over a week to reach the destination, some have just plain disappeared, despite our return address placed twice on each item. They're all 'large letter' items.

Thanks for the tip, Lewey. I'll have a look at the programme tonight to see if I can spot any of them lying around...

Paul

Motorola Digital Radio (http://www.communicatemobile.com/)

[petad]

some have just plain disappeared, despite our return address placed twice on each item. They're all 'large letter' items.
We have the Royal Mail collection service, and regularly find large letters at the bottom of the mail bags they give us for collections. Maybe one of yours...:D

[mikepayn]

.... not sure which way customers may take it - hope it doesn't cause them to stop ordering.

People are getting very "twitchy" about the post though. A customer just ordered from us now and phoned to make sure it gets there for Saturday. Fortunately, "Dispatches" attracts slightly better informed viewers, so it might not start another panic!

[Adva Trading]

We have the Royal Mail collection service, and regularly find large letters at the bottom of the mail bags they give us for collections.

Same here. About one in 10 bags.

And also - the Royal mail is full of thieves - We had massive 'lost' problem when we posted Recorded. Once we changed to First Class - the problem stopped (Zero lost - unless there is a strike).

And I have seen postmen hiding behind walls and opening post while driving by.

[Paul S]

Missed the programme last night, but had two slightly ruffled customers in the last few hours with lost item queries. They both seem genuine and I can't understand why this has recently got so bad. Last year we only had about three in 12 months.
Only way to deal with it is to think of it as 'shrinkage', I suppose. But I'm not a retail operation and shouldn't suffer from shoplifters.
Had an interesting TNT delivery last week. A supplier sent a 'live' battery operated tracker direct to a customer for me on a 9am timed, as it was urgently needed. Both myself and the client were able to follow it visually from pick up to to hub, to local depot, etc. Needless to say, it caught them out.
At 9 am it had been in the van at their local office for one hour, (just two miles away from her address), arriving finally at 10.45-ish. To his credit, the driver apologised for the depot delay before anything was said.
Interesting to see how a parcel travels around the country overnight, though.
Perhaps I should send one out as a large letter and see where it ends up...

Paul

Battery powered vehicle (& package) tracking (http://www.communicatemobile.com/trailer-portable-tracking.html)

[Toy Giant]

I meant to watch this and totally forgot, I'll bet it made very interesting viewing. I think the service differs greatly according to the area you live in, local demographics etc are going to have a big influence on the attitude and competency of the staff recruited. Did anyone get to see it ?

[mikepayn]

.... Did anyone get to see it ?

I managed to see most of it. I don't think it will cause too much panic it seemed to be focused around two or three London locations. Mainly showing the disagreements between the staff and managers especially over the four day v five day week. And highlighting the odd few time wasters/shirkers etc which you have in any large organisation.

It really showed that the Royal Mail, in the locations filmed anyway, was a bit of a shambles. The hopeful part about it was the Royal Mail spokesperson/s saying that they were committed to modernisation to bring the RM in line with its European counterparts.

At least RM are aware that the small package business is the key to it's future success! Oh well, we can but hope