ChatterBank1 min ago
Royal Mail Deliberate Failure
21 Answers
What seems to me to be a distinctly crass situation exists in how Royal Mail deal with items posted at a post office to destinations abroad.
Apart from the normal/standard service there are a range of premium services which include the requirement for a signature on delivery, online tracking, etc. In a previous thread I already explained how the more expensive International Tracked provides less service than International Tracked and Signed.
It transpires that there is a more absurd anomaly in their behaviour. In the UK Royal Mail hand mail destined for abroad (at least some premium paid for items) to a private courier company which cannot deliver to certain perfectly valid postal addresses. This applies in particular to post boxes - in other countries it is possibly more common than in the UK for people to have post box addresses (at post offices and elsewhere, not just as a bank of slots outside flats, etc.).
Nobody can walk into a post office and expect them to put an item into any post box (unless you pay the postal fee). So what happens is that the courier holds onto it for some days and then sends it back, there is nothing else they can do - in the tracking info they enter that delivery was attempted several times and that it failed ! They know they can't deliver so it probably never goes any further than the first depot. If no return address is on the envelope/package then it will be destroyed. Royal Mail is bound to also know this - there is a name for this and it is wilful stupidity.
However, provided there is a telephone number on the envelope/packaging then the courier will hopefully call that number to arrange a delivery/rendezvous. A telephone number is of course not a required/mandatory part of a postal address.
I would be interested in knowing what others feel about this attitude to a legal responsibility which Royal Mail have regarding the postal service they are to provide under their licence to operate. Meanwhile I suggest that those wanting to avoid trouble put a contact telephone number on the outside of their item when posting to abroad - and remember that if you don't have a number available you should probably not send anything.
Apart from the normal/standard service there are a range of premium services which include the requirement for a signature on delivery, online tracking, etc. In a previous thread I already explained how the more expensive International Tracked provides less service than International Tracked and Signed.
It transpires that there is a more absurd anomaly in their behaviour. In the UK Royal Mail hand mail destined for abroad (at least some premium paid for items) to a private courier company which cannot deliver to certain perfectly valid postal addresses. This applies in particular to post boxes - in other countries it is possibly more common than in the UK for people to have post box addresses (at post offices and elsewhere, not just as a bank of slots outside flats, etc.).
Nobody can walk into a post office and expect them to put an item into any post box (unless you pay the postal fee). So what happens is that the courier holds onto it for some days and then sends it back, there is nothing else they can do - in the tracking info they enter that delivery was attempted several times and that it failed ! They know they can't deliver so it probably never goes any further than the first depot. If no return address is on the envelope/package then it will be destroyed. Royal Mail is bound to also know this - there is a name for this and it is wilful stupidity.
However, provided there is a telephone number on the envelope/packaging then the courier will hopefully call that number to arrange a delivery/rendezvous. A telephone number is of course not a required/mandatory part of a postal address.
I would be interested in knowing what others feel about this attitude to a legal responsibility which Royal Mail have regarding the postal service they are to provide under their licence to operate. Meanwhile I suggest that those wanting to avoid trouble put a contact telephone number on the outside of their item when posting to abroad - and remember that if you don't have a number available you should probably not send anything.
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