The postal service in the UK is an interesting beast. I wish I could write at length about it being an unqualified success. Doing so however would be more than a little untruthful. When sending mundane crap, it usually performs spectacularly; letter in post box one day. A day or so later, the letter is received. However as soon as something important is put on in the post, the whole system seems to slow down and the item is only received the day you start seriously contemplating that it could be lost.
There are ways round this of course. Services are available whereby things have to be signed for. Orders can be tracked and there is a next day guaranteed delivery. All of these cost a lot of money though (especially given first class is supposed to guarantee next day delivery anyway) and in the case of tracked mail, it only shows if the letter has been sent or delivered (or if sending overseas, if it left the UK) which isn't always much use. At best, it can be used as proof of postage should any problems arise with the item not being delivered or being delivered late.
Despite this, I would say it was a reasonable system. Being able to send stuff to pretty much any point in the UK and being reasonably sure it will get there within 48 hours is a decent deal. Being able to do so with the small effort of sticking on a stamp and ambling down to the local post-box (even these days still located on many street corners) is even better still.
Where the service falls down in a big way is when anything bigger than a letter is being sent. Firstly sending the item can be a bit of a pain. It involves queueing up at the local post office which are getting scarcer and queues are getting longer. Once you get to the front of the queue, you are faced with a raft of different sending options and the person behind the desk invariably being unable to read your writing (which is strange given there have never been any problems with normal envelopes). Despite this, the price for sending even large and heavy items is usually reasonable.
The biggest problem is delivery. Getting hold of your parcel can be an absolute bloody nightmare. As soon as something doesn't fit through the letter box or needs to be signed for, a world of problems open up. You wouldn't think it would be that hard... the postie knocks on your door. If you're in, you answer it and pick it up. If you're out, they leave a note and you can collect it: better still they could leave it with your neighbours.
Sadly this is a bit optimistic. Sometimes the postie will knock and, if the door isn't opened, will leave a card saying that they called, nobody was around and the parcel was taken back to the local sorting office for later collection. So far so good. Sometimes however, the card is delivered without actually knocking on the door. I have had this happen to me a couple of times. I have even managed to get to the door before the postie left, once to be completely ignored, once to be told that he did not in fact have the parcel. To be honest, irritating as this is, I don't entirely blame the people delivering the mail. Most deliveries are still done on foot or by bike so I don't really blame them for trying to lighten the load - especially around christmas time when everyone does their shopping on line. Things are made worse by the fact that they are given punishing delivery schedules to adhere to which would make fully-trained marines wince at the pace. What does annoy me is that there isn't a more efficient system to prevent this happening.
Now assuming you get one of these infernal cards; how do you go about getting your parcel. On the face of it, it looks easy. You either pop down to your local delivery office or phone up and get it re-delivered. Let's start with the re-delivery as it sounds like the best option right? Wrong. Usually they only give a 48 hour window which means it's almost impossible to schedule it outside of office hours making it more likely you will be around. Nor can you arrange for it to be delivered to a different address; work for example. Once, in desperation, I asked for it to be delivered to another sorting office (which I passed on a daily basis) only to be informed that this is impossible.
What about collection? Well in my first flat in London this wasn't too bad. The collection office was round the corner and for the entire time I lived there, I was either a student or working locally so I could go in at odd times and miss the long queues. That was however far too good to be true. My next collection office was obviously designed by MI5 being nearly impossible to find. It was hidden at the end of what looked like a residential cul de sac and about half a mile from where the post code suggested it would be. Super!
Now for the business of collecting it. The little card makes it explicitly clear that a certain amount of time must have elapsed before collection. Do not try to circumvent this. The word on the card is law. Furthermore, it makes explicitly clear that the card must be presented at the delivery office along with proof of ID. I almost understand the logic of this. You don't really want to be dishing out people's parcels to anybody but surely a bit of common sense could be applied. For example, possession of the card surely indicates you either live with the recipient or it has been given to you by the recipient therefore it is reasonably safe to hand the item over. This would have let my flatmate drop into the collection office seeing as he passed it on his way to work. However I do accept erring on the side of security. Where it gets really stupid is the presentation of the card. Bear in mind, no unique numbers or codes are on this; just your name and address. Yet, for some reason, it MUST be presented to claim your parcel. It is not good enough to turn up with proof that you are who you say you are and you live where you say you live. Still you must hand over this meaningless bit of card. No card. No parcel. Who the hell thought this one up. It can't be an anti-fraud device. It simply must be an anti-sense device.
All this rising tension culminates nicely in an experience I had a week or so ago, not long after I moved house. I had a bit of a shopping spree on Amazon and was awaiting the various bits and pieces. Mid morning coffee I heard a knock at the door. I hurry downstairs (we have an upstairs living-room) and fumble with the keys to open the door. As I open it, I see the postman writing up a card. He looks up, smiles and says, "Morning mate. You JR?"
"Yeah" I reply somewhat thickly since I hadn't really spoken to anyone that day.
"Great, here you go then." he says and hands over a pile of parcels before cheerfully saying, "Have a good day!" and strolling off.
I stand in the door for a second slightly nonplussed, my caffeine starved brain trying to compute what's just happened: cheerful, friendly postman... little missed delivery card... handing over my stuff with no fuss... FANTASTIC! It put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. I did try and give the Royal Mail some positive feedback after this in the hope that it would continue and others could benefit from my good-fortune. However, for some reason the only feedback the website is geared up to receive is complaints. Never mind.
I hope someone at the Royal Mail reads this and realises that little things like this are deeply appreciated.
JR
There are ways round this of course. Services are available whereby things have to be signed for. Orders can be tracked and there is a next day guaranteed delivery. All of these cost a lot of money though (especially given first class is supposed to guarantee next day delivery anyway) and in the case of tracked mail, it only shows if the letter has been sent or delivered (or if sending overseas, if it left the UK) which isn't always much use. At best, it can be used as proof of postage should any problems arise with the item not being delivered or being delivered late.
Despite this, I would say it was a reasonable system. Being able to send stuff to pretty much any point in the UK and being reasonably sure it will get there within 48 hours is a decent deal. Being able to do so with the small effort of sticking on a stamp and ambling down to the local post-box (even these days still located on many street corners) is even better still.
Where the service falls down in a big way is when anything bigger than a letter is being sent. Firstly sending the item can be a bit of a pain. It involves queueing up at the local post office which are getting scarcer and queues are getting longer. Once you get to the front of the queue, you are faced with a raft of different sending options and the person behind the desk invariably being unable to read your writing (which is strange given there have never been any problems with normal envelopes). Despite this, the price for sending even large and heavy items is usually reasonable.
The biggest problem is delivery. Getting hold of your parcel can be an absolute bloody nightmare. As soon as something doesn't fit through the letter box or needs to be signed for, a world of problems open up. You wouldn't think it would be that hard... the postie knocks on your door. If you're in, you answer it and pick it up. If you're out, they leave a note and you can collect it: better still they could leave it with your neighbours.
Sadly this is a bit optimistic. Sometimes the postie will knock and, if the door isn't opened, will leave a card saying that they called, nobody was around and the parcel was taken back to the local sorting office for later collection. So far so good. Sometimes however, the card is delivered without actually knocking on the door. I have had this happen to me a couple of times. I have even managed to get to the door before the postie left, once to be completely ignored, once to be told that he did not in fact have the parcel. To be honest, irritating as this is, I don't entirely blame the people delivering the mail. Most deliveries are still done on foot or by bike so I don't really blame them for trying to lighten the load - especially around christmas time when everyone does their shopping on line. Things are made worse by the fact that they are given punishing delivery schedules to adhere to which would make fully-trained marines wince at the pace. What does annoy me is that there isn't a more efficient system to prevent this happening.
Now assuming you get one of these infernal cards; how do you go about getting your parcel. On the face of it, it looks easy. You either pop down to your local delivery office or phone up and get it re-delivered. Let's start with the re-delivery as it sounds like the best option right? Wrong. Usually they only give a 48 hour window which means it's almost impossible to schedule it outside of office hours making it more likely you will be around. Nor can you arrange for it to be delivered to a different address; work for example. Once, in desperation, I asked for it to be delivered to another sorting office (which I passed on a daily basis) only to be informed that this is impossible.
What about collection? Well in my first flat in London this wasn't too bad. The collection office was round the corner and for the entire time I lived there, I was either a student or working locally so I could go in at odd times and miss the long queues. That was however far too good to be true. My next collection office was obviously designed by MI5 being nearly impossible to find. It was hidden at the end of what looked like a residential cul de sac and about half a mile from where the post code suggested it would be. Super!
Now for the business of collecting it. The little card makes it explicitly clear that a certain amount of time must have elapsed before collection. Do not try to circumvent this. The word on the card is law. Furthermore, it makes explicitly clear that the card must be presented at the delivery office along with proof of ID. I almost understand the logic of this. You don't really want to be dishing out people's parcels to anybody but surely a bit of common sense could be applied. For example, possession of the card surely indicates you either live with the recipient or it has been given to you by the recipient therefore it is reasonably safe to hand the item over. This would have let my flatmate drop into the collection office seeing as he passed it on his way to work. However I do accept erring on the side of security. Where it gets really stupid is the presentation of the card. Bear in mind, no unique numbers or codes are on this; just your name and address. Yet, for some reason, it MUST be presented to claim your parcel. It is not good enough to turn up with proof that you are who you say you are and you live where you say you live. Still you must hand over this meaningless bit of card. No card. No parcel. Who the hell thought this one up. It can't be an anti-fraud device. It simply must be an anti-sense device.
All this rising tension culminates nicely in an experience I had a week or so ago, not long after I moved house. I had a bit of a shopping spree on Amazon and was awaiting the various bits and pieces. Mid morning coffee I heard a knock at the door. I hurry downstairs (we have an upstairs living-room) and fumble with the keys to open the door. As I open it, I see the postman writing up a card. He looks up, smiles and says, "Morning mate. You JR?"
"Yeah" I reply somewhat thickly since I hadn't really spoken to anyone that day.
"Great, here you go then." he says and hands over a pile of parcels before cheerfully saying, "Have a good day!" and strolling off.
I stand in the door for a second slightly nonplussed, my caffeine starved brain trying to compute what's just happened: cheerful, friendly postman... little missed delivery card... handing over my stuff with no fuss... FANTASTIC! It put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. I did try and give the Royal Mail some positive feedback after this in the hope that it would continue and others could benefit from my good-fortune. However, for some reason the only feedback the website is geared up to receive is complaints. Never mind.
I hope someone at the Royal Mail reads this and realises that little things like this are deeply appreciated.
JR
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