We can add that the 2013-15 privatisation, carried out during Cameron's disastrous Prime Ministership, has been followed by the acquisition of Royal Mail in 2024 by a company controlled by a Czech billionaire explicitly planning to realise its property assets. To adapt Blair's 1997 campaign anthem, Things Can Only Get Worse. JM
Having recently changed addresses & put in place redirection of mail well in advance, the service has been shocking with numerous letters - including health appointments & financial correspondence (why they don’t use email or text is an argument for another day!) - still being delivered to the old address. Contacting customer service usually requires a telephone wait time of 40 minutes or a week to respond to an email if you are lucky. A monopoly without any oversight. A very poor service in my view.
Isn’t there something called OFCOM? Surely there are performance standards on letter delivery they’re meant to monitor? However , there’s no way a decent public sector employer could compete with the private parcel delivery services and their piecework employment practices.
The delivery companies already charge excessive additional costs to deliver to areas in the north (even Grampian and Inverness), the west and the islands of Scotland - if they will do it at all. Not too surprisingly... when they can choose their delivery areas.
The RM is an essential service and life is expensive enough for those living in those areas.
120 years ago my grandmother's boyfriend would send her postcards - sometimes to arrange their meeting place for the next day. A postcard would be postmarked at, say, 5 PM somewhere in central London, and arrive at its destination, somewhere in Croydon, the following morning. Cost of postage was ½d (a green ha'penny stamp).
We can add that the 2013-15 privatisation, carried out during Cameron's disastrous Prime Ministership, has been followed by the acquisition of Royal Mail in 2024 by a company controlled by a Czech billionaire explicitly planning to realise its property assets. To adapt Blair's 1997 campaign anthem, Things Can Only Get Worse. JM
But isn’t competition the answer? The experiment that keeps on delivering…..
Having recently changed addresses & put in place redirection of mail well in advance, the service has been shocking with numerous letters - including health appointments & financial correspondence (why they don’t use email or text is an argument for another day!) - still being delivered to the old address. Contacting customer service usually requires a telephone wait time of 40 minutes or a week to respond to an email if you are lucky. A monopoly without any oversight. A very poor service in my view.
Isn’t there something called OFCOM? Surely there are performance standards on letter delivery they’re meant to monitor? However , there’s no way a decent public sector employer could compete with the private parcel delivery services and their piecework employment practices.
The delivery companies already charge excessive additional costs to deliver to areas in the north (even Grampian and Inverness), the west and the islands of Scotland - if they will do it at all. Not too surprisingly... when they can choose their delivery areas.
The RM is an essential service and life is expensive enough for those living in those areas.
120 years ago my grandmother's boyfriend would send her postcards - sometimes to arrange their meeting place for the next day. A postcard would be postmarked at, say, 5 PM somewhere in central London, and arrive at its destination, somewhere in Croydon, the following morning. Cost of postage was ½d (a green ha'penny stamp).
A different world.
Around here (Edinburgh) Royal Mail are delivering Amazon packages - and on Sundays too.
REALLY??? Who needs their parcels delivered on a Sunday.
I feel very sorry for our local RM delivery man... who has become less and less happy over the years.