I remember last time I picked up from the depot, the woman behind the counter started having a right go at me for not buying local instead of having a parcel sent, and how I personally was to blame for her fella's job at Wedgeood being at risk (I think as well as buying local I was also meant to just buy plates). Should have seen her face when I said "Yeah, although if none of us needed parcels anymore due to buying local, you'd lose YOUR job"!!

Her attitude sums up all that wrong with royal mail etc, not even linking your job to pleasing the customer...

None of her god damn business and I like how you highlighted you could put her out of a job...

Well my recorded delivery item from Monday still hasn't arrived.

Also how do I get off the mass mailing crap that they send through my door as I know Royal Mail offer marketing services. Spoke to my local PO Office and they were as helpful as a polished turd.

Very quick witted. :thumbsup:

try the mail preference service
http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/

Oh, UK Mail, what a brilliant service. Most things get sent to Holland before they get distributed (it's TNT AFAIK, based in Holland) and then they get sent back to UK, or other countries. I needed to produce some documents that I didn't have and asked for copies form the provider. It took 7 days for the documents to arrive, and by then I was into all sorts of costs and possible fines with the people who wanted to see them.

I had to sort out my father-in-law's estate, and waited 10 days for documents sent by UK Mail. In contrast, the ones posted via the Post Office arrived in two days, even with a second-class frank on them. UK Mail - if that's the competition they have to match, then I for one hope they never get privatised. Oh, and two of my relatives living abroad have been fined by HMRC because bills they were sent, that had to be paid within 28 days, didn't arrive for 29+ days because they were sent by - you've guessed it - UK Mail! You pay peanuts, you get monkeys...

And don't get me started on why local Post offices are so good for small communities, yet get closed for profit reasons. This Government are a bunch of idiots...

Keep Royal Mail as it is, get the Government's targets off its back, and let it provide a service.

It's a tricky one, government owned stuff is useless because they just don't do customer service, mainly because their "customer" is the government, and not us!!! Honestly the public sector is terrible!

However, your point about post offices in small communities is a good one, and they would shut if privatized. Plus privatization just doesn't work well when their is still only one supply route, eg the actual postman! Railways being a good example!

No right headed person can want the government owning it all though either!!

Agree Dave, but effectively the Government would own it because they would try to regulate the monopoly. Let's face it, the NHS only has A&E because the Government demands it - no private health hospital has A&E - but they say they are all independent trusts. To get them to perform, they give them targets that bear no relation to customer needs. At least if the Government owned the Royal Mail, I could vote them out if they closed local POs! If it's privatised and there is an outcry over closing local POs, then the Government make the owner keep them open, and we pay the subsidy - what's the difference? Oh, I remember, we pay ££££s in a pension pot for the Chairman!! :D :D

And, while we're on the subject, where is the free market and open competition these days? Several banks are effectively bust, but instead of guaranteeing the deposits of ordinary people and letting them go bust, Governments have bought them up to keep them open. Barclays haven't taken a penny from HMG, so if the free market operated, they would be the only big bank left in the UK. Car makers - same thing. And aerospace and defence, supported by Government contracts favouring the home manufacturers. So, remind me again how we live in a competitive world? It's gone, replaced by Government intervention on every front in every country. So what's the difference between Royal Mail and privatised postal service - that'd be a lot of fees for the bankers. No thanks.

I am not a fan of privatisation, in one form or another.... I believe in the government allowing a department to compete in a commercial field, but to have full ownership over the infrastructure. Some things are just not profit orientated, they provide a service, at a cost.

Don't even go down the route of 'Target Incentive Working' as it is all bollocks, and that the people who run the departments know what they need. Targets don't work. Pay for the service that has been provided, not pay for the service you want them to provide. They will come more cost effective.

One thing i have thought about though is i think i would prefer it privatised because on the whole we cannot trust our government, i personally would rather pay a director of the company X amount and know that he will put 100% into it rather than pay someone who plays golf with the PM to come in line his pockets, not improve things and probably make it worse knowing that when it goes tits up he can just move sideways into a different role.

Dont do it look at all the otehr stuff thats been privatised and its crap. The Railways, Buses, Utilities. Keep it public.

A

There's some really good points here on this thread. The free Market works when the barriers to entry aren't prohibitive, and when it's driven by customer desire, rather than a small segments need, eg with the post office sections of the community need it, but not enough in some areas to make a profit. A free Market does not work there, it's choosing the best alternative! With railways I think the issue is barriers to entry.

Lee made a good point though, who wants politicians running anything, they can't be trusted!

Slowone is also bang on though, what the government has done in this crisis has massively altered the way our economy works in ways we can't know yet. For me, banks should have been allowed to go bust with the depositors protected. Same with other companies. I have massive sympathy with people working in manufacturing but I also work in the car industry, and there seems to be a view from so many people that someone will always come along and save them, and it stops them being competitive in the market.

On utilities, was privatization really that bad Ash? I mean worse than if the gov ran it? Cos I have power/water every day, and a f**king quick broadband at home at a good price, and I'm really not sure that would be true with the gov running it!!

mmmm
 

Royal Mail is basically subsidised by the taxpayer. i know they are a bit shit, but no other company could deliver a letter for the price of a stamp, simples.

If you sell off bits of the mail your service will get worse, The bits that would go first would be the trunking as theres hundreds of hauliers out there that would fight for that contract. Thats the easy profit bit , from there its only downhill, when it gets to deliveries no company will want to do the last mile cos its labour and vehicle intensive which both cost money ! So you wont get post through your door you will have a po box that you will have to go and check/empty to get your post!
If you check i think you will find for all its faults we have one of the best postal services in the world.
Where else could you send a letter for the price of a 1st clas stamp anywhere in the uk and it get there in most cases the next day. I think thats a brilliant service!
There may be a few letters/parcels that get delayed or go missing not very re-assuring if it turns out to be your letter but when you look at how many letters they turn around thats just a drop it the ocean.
My opinion is that the royal mail doesnt want selling off or privitising it want managing properly from the top, lose the dead wood and modernise.

The mail is a service not a business!

Just my thoughts on the matter

Right For all you people agaist royal mail I would love you to come in at the hour's we do for normal derlivery! something like 6am - 2:30pm
so do expect us to make some mistake's due to lack of sleep some night's!
Also you have to remember one postie cover's quite an area on his own!
Also i would love people to have a day working at royal mail to see how tough its getting atm with cost cutting ect!
So over all there trying there best on what they can affored!
And you have to remember that its not only royal mail delivering thing's so its lossing out there too!
Now wait's to get shot down!!

By all means give us a clearer picture, nothing like a good debate and insider knowledge.

Also most cases of missing letter's/parcle's are down to the SENDER miss addressing ie missing off the postcode or miss coding something then NOT putting on the return address!
IF you put a return address/postcode most case's it will work its way BACK TO YOU!
simple ain't it?

So far i have gavered that all up on one week's work experiance

Unfortunately the bigger the company the bigger the problem. I doubt it will make any change, possibly make it more stream lined and less people as they dont need as many but its still going to a nightmare to run.

A few months back I was at home during the day (teacher on school hols) waiting for a few car bits to be delivered.
I'm working out in the garage, postie (a woman, not our normal postie) comes up to the front door, starts having a chat apparently she lived in my house a few years back and was surprised by all the changes I'd made.
Anyhow, she hands me the post directly and in there is a 'Sorry you were out' card for one of my parcels, already filled out.
So I point out that clearly I'm not out, and I'd like my parcel instead of just a note. At this point she admits she left all the parcels at the depot because they made her bag too heavy! But she points out that since it never left the depot I could go collect it right away.
So I hop in my car off to the Depot, hand over the note and they say 'Not today, you have to leave it 24hrs'. I ask why, and am told it won't be at the depot because its out with the postie. Except of course it isn't. But they don't know where she left it. So I still have to wait till the next day.
At this point I insist they redeliver tomorrow rather than me have to drive off to the depot. 'Ok sir, there will be a small fee though.......' I remind them that its not a really redelivery as they never tried to deliver it in the first place, and they finally agree to deliver.
All this means my parcel finally arrives 2 days after the card. And what was this incredibly heavy, impossible to carry around parcel? A Lipo pack for a Micro T, no bigger than a fag packet and probably light!