Most Urgent Help / Advice Needed.
To help mother I used the Royal Mail fee to opay website last month when we received a card saying that a letter couldn't be delivered due to insufficient postage.
Her bank statement arrived yesterday... instead of taking the £1.50 owed... they took ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY POUNDS out of her bank account
as a pensioner she simply can't afford that sum of money.
I persuaded her to see the bank & they agreed to refund £100 pounds of the money.
However, the post office is liable for the remaining £ 48.50.
The problem is that the only complaint phone number we know has a 0845 prefix, which is blocked for pay as you go mobiles. (mother doesn't have a land line).
Dose anybody know of a phone number I can give her that she CAN use to get thought to Royal Mail? As I heard there is a website that tells you how to subvert these expensive numbers but have no idea how to search for them & I am suspicious that some may be illegitimate.
I cannot emphasise enough how urgent this is... PLEASE HELP.
That's a bit shitty alright.
Have you tried this contact form instead: https://royalmailemailform.datasquirt.co.uk/ContactUs.aspx
As to the phone problem, I don't believe there is any legitimate way to call non-geographic numbers on most pre-paid phones, but there must be a payphone somewhere near you that you could use on her behalf? Or a friend that you could reimburse for a loan of their contract phone or landline?
Lots of numbers for Royal Mail here (http://www.saynoto0870.com/search.php). Good luck!
Thanks, That's very helpful Banners.
Is case anybody was interested... The Post office HAS refunded the £150. .. but not the bank charges of £75 they caused taking this money out.
And guess what?
The lettter we paid for ... still hasn't been delivered. We think that they have lost it.
these things have a habit of showing up months later - earlier this year I received a missing prog from 2011!
Guess what?
Royal mail refuses to accept respocablity or pay up.
mother has been it dept for 3 months because of them.
AND WE NEVER GOT THE LETTER.
Email a newspaper such as the Guardian.
'If you've got a problem you would like us to investigate you can contact us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com
or by writing to Consumer champions, Money, The Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include your daytime telephone number'
The are very good at shaming companies into action.
http://www.theguardian.com/money/series/bachelor-and-brignall-consumer-champions
Tell the Royal Mail you'll accept shares in lieu of monetary compensation.
Don't worry, once private companies are running the Royal Mail services will only improve.
Quote from: Professor James T Bear on 17 September, 2013, 07:47:53 PM
Don't worry, once private companies are running the Royal Mail services will only improve.
Once companies have to do the job
and pay crazy executive salaries
and make profits and pay dividends to shareholders, all out of the same customer base, service to the public can
only improve. It's obvious to anyone who stands to gain.
Targets will be pushed on the employees adding pressure to do the job better (probably for less pay).
New rules will be implemented making it easier to sack employees, the most minor of errors becoming gross misconduct.
This is the case with my employers [spoiler]Fujitsu[/spoiler]. Just this week they sacked three trainees because one of them messed up and because they couldn't pinpoint who it was they got rid of all three. We have a huge turn around of staff. I would say about 70% of new blood don't last 6 months. The pressure we are put under is immense. They expect quality and quantity.
V
I had to have a parcel picked up by private postal firm DPD on Monday - and by "on Monday" I mean that it was arranged to be picked up last Tuesday.
Their first attempt, they showed up an hour late. A day after they said they would. At the wrong address.
Their second attempt, they didn't bother showing up. The company who arranged the pickup with DPD pursued this matter and discovered that the driver thought the day was getting late so the delivery would keep until the following Monday.
Fair play, he did actually show up on the Monday - third time's the charm, but clearly it's a complicated process this "drive somewhere, pick something up, then drive somewhere else" malarky, and I can't think of anything that would help streamline this complicated process more than it being carried out by the cheapest worker available, preferably one with a grudge against the job center employee who sent him there under threat of reduced benefits to work for the equivalent of 10 pounds a week ferrying something that has a 50/50 chance of being worth over a hundred nicker flogged down the market if it happened to go walkies. There is nothing about this plan that isn't a recipe for success.
DPD are pretty good I reckon. They give you a one-hour delivery window, and even have a (somewhat experimental) service now where you can track via GPS the van your delivery is on.
Myhermes have been great when I've used them. Cheap, cheerful and do what they say they will.
Royal mail these days are slow, expensive, reckless, thieving and often deliver before teatime in these parts . I can't get worried about any sell off as their service has dropped off a cliff steadily over the years.
Quote from: sheldipez on 18 September, 2013, 08:24:07 AM...has dropped off a cliff steadily over the years...
I'm now imagining Postman Pat's van at the end of The Italian Job.
Quote from: sheldipez on 18 September, 2013, 08:24:07 AM
Myhermes have been great when I've used them. Cheap, cheerful and do what they say they will.
Royal mail these days are slow, expensive, reckless, thieving and often deliver before teatime in these parts . I can't get worried about any sell off as their service has dropped off a cliff steadily over the years.
I think a big overhaul of Royal Mail would be good. I haven't had too much of a problem delivery wise, probably 'cos I live near the main sorting office. But I've heard some real horror stories over the years, and I really feel for the Doctor and her mother's plight.
Most of the couriers around here are worse than Royal Mail—and our local Royal Mail depot is, at best, variable. We've had purchases hurled over the fence, abandoned, and given to neighbours with no notification whatsoever.
Interlink Express is, in our experience, fantastic. You get a one-hour window and a live map showing the current location of the person delivering. UPS in this area is also great, but only because the specific driver is really good at his job. Most of the others are awful.
The other thing about Royal Mail is it is a guaranteed service that's UK-wide. That'll be the first thing to fall when things become privatised. At best, you'll have way more UK zoning, with pricing depending on destination. The sad thing is Royal Mail would have been find had Labour not destroyed it and the Tories then gleefully kicked the half-dead remains. Forcing it to act like a monopoly while stripping it of profitable business and not allowing price-setting was absurd. Most of the mail we now get is junk the Royal Mail's legally obliged to deliver but makes no money from. What a waste.