POST SITUATION

[MOKOSEX]

This post is NOT knocking royal mail,they are my first choice and will be in the new year ,this post is what i have heard and it could be relevent to someones situation.
SECOND CLASS PARCELS Are not quranteed to get delivered before christmas ,only special delivery are guranteed
If you sell on ebay you may want to inform your customers
If you don,t want to pay special delivery rates i can recommend" interparcel" ,you need a printer but local drop off is an option and if you are sending multi parcels it may be worth your while
plus shop hours are longer than the post office,which is where i have just come from(long queue)

What prompts this post,usually i have about 5 a year asking "where is my parcel?" ,usually from abroad,so far in the last 2 weeks i have had 6,one of them was told by their own postman that bags have been left for 3 weeks without being sorted,
again i am NOT knocking the royal mail,we don,t now the circumstances,so if you are posting that needs to be there for christmas you need to plan it a bit,and if you are expecting a parcel,be patient,this is not
an ordinary christmas
dave

[Squid]

This is not an ordinary christmas.

It hasn't been an ordinary year. Recently I had a purchase sent UPS "Mail Innovations." On 10 December, UPS transferred it to a Post Office less than half an hour away from me. Since then, USPS has shown it in "pre-shipment." How and why it can take so long to move a package such a short distance is beyond me. Had I known it would take that long, I would have paid for second-day air.

[Idris]

ParcelForce is also in chaos at the moment. I sent two '48 hour' parcels on 11th, and they've only just left the distribution hub for the delivery depot. I've also noticed that '24 hour' parcels sent to me by various companies have been taking 48 to 72 hours to arrive.
It's obvious that the system is overloaded, resulting in delays, but why do they still pretend it's a 48-hour service when they know full well that it's not going to be?

[YYS4BOB]

I had a parcel vanish into thin air whilst in Royal Mail's custody. It was sent tracked and signed for by the vendor. I tracked it to the Eastbourne District Office, and waited with baited breath for it to arrive. And waited, and waited and...........you get the drift. Eventually, after 10 days, I went to the District Office with the tracking number to find out where it had gone. Onto the computer he went, looked puzzled for a while, then said "it went to walking delivery on XXXX" which was the day after it arrived at that office. So where is it? I asked. I don't have it and you don't show it as delivered. "Must be lost then" he said with a shrug. After I'd got down off the ceiling, I said "So what now? is it sat on a van somewhere, has your walking delivery nicked it? or what?"
"No idea mate, it's just lost. Here's a claim form."
Yes I got a refund from the vendor, and presumably he got a refund from Royal Mail, but I'd still like to know where my three mint & boxed 1st series YY's went!
Similarly, another parcel showed as delivered, but again I didn't have it (I was away in Devon when it was allegedly delivered). Asked the postman what had happened to it.
"No idea mate, I wasn't on this round on Monday" Here we go again! Later that day, a knock on the door and there stands my neighbor from next door but one.
"Found this on our garden wall on Monday. Saw you were back so thought you'd better have it"
Had sat on his wall in the rain for half a day 'til he came home from work. I guess Royal Mail are being less choosy about the quality of their staff at the moment.

[Diecastmolester]

There is a Parallel Universe that ate all the Matchbox horses. I mean, every K-18 came with four of them, now there isn't a single one left.
And since there are no Matchbox horses left for that Parallel Universe to devour, it switched to postal parcels.

[Squid]

Why do they still pretend it's a 48-hour service when they know full well that it's not going to be?

I think this is the first I've ever heard of ParcelForce. Do they have some sort of written guarantee of their delivery times, or heavily advertise them as such? If so, they should be issued a cease-and-desist order, or face legal action for false advertising.

I guess Royal Mail are being less choosy about the quality of their staff at the moment.

Much the same with USPS...