Royal Mail?

[Smiffy49 590]

I'm not usually one to get annoyed by the growing number of silly rules and regulations that crowd our little island.

Today however I could not resist sharing this moment.

Hurrying to get an important letter in the post, I parked in the allocated space at the post office.

I dashed over to the post box outside, as the collection van was parked near it, the driver was inside sorting something.

Not too late? said I. No, said the driver, I've not collected yet.

Well, can I give you this letter? I said. No... you have to post it in the box over there, he said.

I went over to the box and was about to "post it" in line with the "regulations" when I realised I had not put a stamp on it.

Turning back to the driver I advised him of my error and said I would just pop inside and buy a stamp.

He just shrugged his shoulders and carried on "sorting"

Inside the post office I asked for a book of stamps so as not to be caught out again.

Through the window I could now see the driver approaching the box, opening the door, and collecting the mail.

I quickly stuck the stamp on the letter and dashed outside. By this time he had got back into his van and appeared to be checking some paperwork.

I gently tapped on his window and politely asked if I could give him the letter as it was very important that it went in the post today.

He looked at me for half a second before saying that the regulations would not allow him to take it from me as it had to be "posted in the box"

I looked at the box six feet away and then back to the driver. Will you then have to open the box and take it out? I said.

No, I can't do that I'm too busy, but if you drive into the next village (3 miles away) you can post it there, as I've not emptied that one yet.

He checked his mirror, indicated and drove off leaving me standing on the pavement.

Excuse me said a voice from behind, if you've missed the post you can always pop it behind the counter inside.

Ok thanks, I said, but It needed to go today....

I ran back to my car jumped in and headed off towards the next village.

A mile up the road I caught up with the red van, held up with other vehicles in road works.

Relieved I joined the queue and waited for the lights. They changed to green, I was about seven cars behind the RM van.

Disaster the car in front of me was having difficulty getting going, with no room to pass I was stuck.

The lights had changed back to red by the time the car in front was running again.

Changing to green after about two minutes we all moved off smoothly.

As I entered the village I was just in time to see the RM driver walking back to his van.

I pulled up behind, quickly got out and approached him with my letter held aloft.

Sorry mate, too late ! he said with a grin.. But can't you just take it this once? I said, no one will know...

Sorry mate, rules are rules... He drove off without a care.

I put the letter in the post box, got back into my car and took a slow drive home.

Smiffy

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

Still bearing symptoms of the old nationalisation days. Sad to say they will have to really get their act together if they are to succeed in the private world. An example. I had a quite heavy parcel to post. Parcel Force wanted 15 quid. My Hermes dis it for just over a fiver.

[mick2me 3,033]

Cost of sending a Mobile phone to China, Tracked Parcelforce... £54

[barclaycon 569]

Yeah. Royal mail !

What's royal about it ?

It's crap now.

Expensive, slow and unreliable.

Any other service on the internet is preferable to their parcel service.

And as for letters, I seem to be getting a lot more stuff via TNT these days. Apparently they take 2 or 3 days rather than the supposed 1 day that Royal Mail claim to - but at considerably less cost.

How times have changed.

Remember when posting a card to someone was quick, cheap, easy and relaible, It wasn't that long ago.

[mick2me 3,033]

How can it still be called 'Royal Mail', its now a private company?

[Trickymicky 57]

If Royal Mail attempt to deliver a parcel or package to me, and i'm not in, rather than leave it at my village post office, they take it to one 5 miles away. Hows that for customer service?

[tomlinson 879]

I've caught a couple of posties writing out the 'collect at the P.O.' forms without even knocking to see if anyone was home. Seems to be a growing habit amongst them.

[mick2me 3,033]

Happened to me a couple of times.

[LizzieM 9,507]

We've got a really good postman but he does seem to be on holiday a lot and the relief postman delivers anytime in the afternoon. If I can have a moan though, I posted a birthday card First Class to my son last Thursday, 1st May, for his birthday on 6th May. It hadn't arrived in Hertfordshire by Saturday 3rd so I may as well not have bothered seeing as he flew out of the country on business on Monday 5th (Bank Holiday). Wonder if it's got to his home yet?

[Michael Booth 7,364]

Poor 'little chick' gets no birthday card and he thinks his mummy doesn't love him no more, aaaah

[LizzieM 9,507]

He knows his Mummy loves him !!

[Limey 242]

Interesting. Over here we have a few alternatives to the postal service, and they all work well - I use the US postal service for all my products and they are excellent. However, I often receive parcels by UPS or FedEx. I happen to know the UPS driver, and so if I am expecting a package and know I will not be at home, I let him know and he puts it in the garage!

I also cannot complain about service from the U.K. - I buy some parts from a supplier in Sandiacre! About a month ago, on a Sunday, I placed an online order with the company in Sandiacre, another with a supplier in Cleveland, Ohio and a third with a supplier in Wisconsin. All three orders arrived on the following Wednesday!

On the other hand, when I ship parts to Canada, they typically take two weeks to arrive - shipments to Australia take five days! Go figure!

[mick2me 3,033]

Ebay purchases from China were received and tracked via Sweden Post.

Appeared to originate from Stockholme though it was posted in Hong Kong?

Received with no duty payable?

[Cliff Ton 10,458]

I couldn't have told you how much it is to send anything these days because I don't use the post very often. For the benefit of anyone else in that situation, these are the current rates.

• 1st Class Letter will cost 62p
• 1st Class Large Letter (up to 100g) will cost 93p
• 2nd Class Letter will cost 53p
• 2nd Class Large Letter (up to 100g) will cost 73p

So if you had a large birthday card, or just a big envelope, it might almost be cheaper to drive round to the recipient's address; or if you are of a certain age you could uses your bus pass to deliver the card personally, and it wouldn't cost you anything.

[mick2me 3,033]

Why are there two classes of mail 1st & 2nd? What is the point?

What do they do with second class mail, put it in store for a couple of days?

[katyjay 5,090]

I'm sure every country has a gripe about their postal service, and the price of it, including me. I bought my son a Trumpton birthday card while in the U.K., thought he'd get a kick out of it, seeing how he's a fireman. It was a square card, not overly big though, so I stuck a stamp on it, and sent it. Turns out the P.O. doesn't like anything that is not 'regulation' size, and put a note in his mailbox to go to the post office and pay postage due. Happy birthday, lad!

[MELTONSTILTON 452]

Its the same here in France, everything that goes through the post has to be regulation size, even the parcels have to go in special post office boxes, and guess who sells them...The post office....

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

When my wife and I were courting in the late 60s, I sent her a letter and posted it on the way to work in the morning. She got it at dinnertime. Can you imagine that happening now?

[benjamin1945 16,139]

Where you post it ?..............in HER letter box?

[darkazana 1,736]

#16 Katyjay The same thing happened to me. My mum sent me a birthday card which I didn't receive. Instead I got a card from the post office inviting me to go and fetch it and pay the charge for an over sized card. This was two weeks after my mum posted it at first class. And it's not just the size, if the card has a badge or vaguely raised decoration it will not go through their 3mm slit and so is classed as a "large" letter. Who has a letterbox 3mm deep?

[DaveN 1,118]

I had a card through my lettebox last Friday from the postman and it stated that the sender didn't pay the full postage and I would have to collect from the depot and pay £1.20 which includes £1 handling fee. After 21 days if I do not collect the item it will be returned to the sender.

[darkazana 1,736]

That's if there is a return address,

[The Engineer 614]

I visited a Royal Mail processing plant and saw how it all works. The reason why they have a two tier pricing structure (standard and large) is down to technology. The standard size can be sorted by the machines. Anything larger than around C5 (the envelope size for A4 folded in half) or thicker than 6mm (not 3mm) involves a lot more manual handling, hence cost. It's just a pity that a lot of celebration cards are a little over-size, hence needing a "large" stamp.

As for why they have First Class and Second Class, it's because they couldn't process all the letters overnight - they concentrate on First Class (which is about half of the mail). Second Class gets done the following morning if possible, so will take a couple of days (maybe three) instead of one day to get there.

[mick2me 3,033]

Thanks engineer for clarifying that

[LizzieM 9,507]

Sadly most people who buy birthday and Christmas cards just haven't taken it on board that if the card is not a regular size or has embellishments on it then it will cost more to post. It's stated on the back of the cards if they need the extra postage. I always check now because I've had too many trips down to the sorting office to pay the extra £1.20 to collect greetings cards. When I was buying Christmas cards last year I opened up the packets to check what it said on the back of the cards. I'm blowed if I'm going to put a stamp costing almost £1 on a Christmas card!