The future of Royal Mail

[eoff]

I think they changed the goalpoasts due to COVID and it has just changed again as I see from the website.
However if you were misled about a service you paid for I would be asking for a refund.

 

[CrispyUK]

In the last few weeks I have had 2 online orders delivered by Royal Mail using the Special Delivery service. MY understanding is this guarantees delivery the next day (Mon-Sat) by 1pm.
In both cases the delivery has taken 2 days despite the order having been dispatched in time for it to be delivered the next day.
If special delivery takes 2 working days then I might as well go for regular 1st class as Special Delivery is quite expensive.

They pushed out the special delivery times due to COVID-19 but they still should have been next working day, I think by 1pm became delivered anytime and by 9am became delivery by 1pm, they have improved/tightened this recently but it’s still not back to the guaranteed 9am/1pm times.

Worth noting that an extra charge applies for guaranteed Saturday delivery, unless this is paid then items sent special delivery on a Friday can be delivered on the Monday.

I mainly use special delivery for higher value items, where it is the insurance/compensation cover that is more important than the delivery time, £500 cover as standard and options to boost that up to £2500 if needed for a little extra cost, all very competitive compared to a lot of the parcel carriers that only offer £25 cover as standard and can get very expensive if you want to increase this.

 

[david1212]

In the last few weeks I have had 2 online orders delivered by Royal Mail using the Special Delivery service. MY understanding is this guarantees delivery the next day (Mon-Sat) by 1pm.
In both cases the delivery has taken 2 days despite the order having been dispatched in time for it to be delivered the next day.
If special delivery takes 2 working days then I might as well go for regular 1st class as Special Delivery is quite expensive.

When, if indeed ever, did Special Delivery take 2 working days or have I just been unfortunate?

For a long time now so long as posted before the latest collection time ( not necessarily the last collection from the Post Office ) Special Delivery service guaranteed delivery the next day (Mon-Fri) by 1pm. Saturday was an additional charge.

For business with Royal Mail collection again there will be a cut-off time.

The website currently states

From Monday 28 September we’ll be improving our timed guarantees for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am and 1pm services and will make the following changes:


• For items posted from Monday 28 September 2020 onwards, our guaranteed delivery for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9.00am the next working day will change to by 11.00am the next working day*


• Our guaranteed delivery for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1.00pm the next working day will change to by 4.00pm the next working day*.


• This includes items where a Saturday guarantee has been purchased.

*existing postcode exceptions apply

 

[Bletchleyite]

Improving?

This is a business that deserves to fail. And fail it will.

 

[cactustwirly]

Had parcels delivered by Parcel force and Hermes this week, both were good. Fast delivery no issues.

 

[Westcountryman]

At the beginning of lockdown, my mother-in-law's grandson sent her a plant, which was being delivered by RM. They attempted to deliver the parcel whilst she was out, but they wouldn't deliver the parcel to a neighbour or leave the parcel in a safe place. They just left a note saying 'perishable, collect from sorting office' or similar. We live ~12 miles away and we went to deliver groceries (she is 90, rather frail and isolating) and found this situation. So we headed off to the sorting office, which is two or three miles away. Not only was it closed but we found that the parcel wouldn't been available until the next day. Not only that, but the office was only going to be open for an hour from 7.00am to 8.00 am. If we were to collect the next day we would have had to get up at ~6.00 am to get to the office for those opening times. If my mother-in-law was to get it it was 2 buses, and during that time I don't know whether it would actually be possible to get there by that time bearing in mind the restricted service.

There has been a lot of comment above about parcels delivery companies and their ability to allow you to track your parcel. This is like so many things nowadays. Everyone expects everyone else to be computer savvy and to have the equipment and knowledge to be able to track. Unfortunately a minority of people cannot or will not go on-line. The parcel was a gift which was not expected, so no tracking number was available. Nearly all other delivery services will deliver to neighbours or leave the parcel safe, not RM though.

Perhaps there are other things RM could do better.

 

[Mojo]

The parcel was a gift which was not expected, so no tracking number was available. Nearly all other delivery services will deliver to neighbours or leave the parcel safe, not RM though.

To be fair on them it seems that quite a lot of companies won’t deliver to neighbours at the moment. Amazon’s are the same, I had a package in May or June and I was out for the day, the delivery officer called me and I asked to leave it next door, they advised me due to Covid-19 it will only be left either at the address, or taken back to the depot for redelivery on another date. They were happy to leave it in the front garden behind a plantpot though. I suppose this is an advantage of Amazon’s having their own delivery network - Royal Mail will only have the phone number for a minority of properties they are delivering to.

 

[ta-toget]

Royal Mail will only have the phone number for a minority of properties they are delivering to.

In some countries, Royal Mail equivalents make a point of collecting contact details for recipients, to send them texts automatically etc (I think). With Royal Mail, the sender has to provide it. Royal Mail could improve in this respect.

One good thing with Royal Mail vs some (not all) other carriers, is that the postie is mostly the same (for me, at least), so you get to know each other, which can help for delivery if you're not in,