Royal Fail

On 16th January I ordered a battery from SRS with free postage and they paid for First Class Recorded Signed For.

It was probably sent the same day, but it did not arrive until the Tuesday which is certainly not a Royal Mail First Class service. SRS may have delayed sending until the Monday but that was not a problem.

I am just tidying my desk after getting back from holiday and found the envelope so thought I may check to see what the Royal Mail website says about the delivery.

THREE weeks after delivery it still does not confirm that the item was delivered to me and signed for.

Directly SRS and indirectly we, are paying for a service from the cowboys in red vans and not getting it.

It is not the first time either - it is a regular occurrence.

FedEx, DHL, UPS &c can provide the information seconds after delivery so why not Royal Fail?

First Class isn't guaranteed unfortunately, but when a Special delivery item fails to arrive then the sender can claim back the fee.

Like many things, Royal Mail can deliver bang on time but when it goes wrong it seems to go very wrong.

I know that but why do they offer a service and continually fail to provide it?

However for First Class Recorded they state "With Recorded Signed For™, you get next day delivery with most First Class items." The most allowing them to have a get out clause for Scotland and the Islands.

I have just gone back to the RM website and as the browser stores text entered in certain fields, I have looked at all of the Signed For deliveries that I have checked on, some to me and some from me - 73 references and just 24 have delivery details so a failure rate of over 66%.

UPS' info systems are fantastic....

Bret

I dont feel I can trust RM at all now. Recorded Delivery seems to have less of a chance arriving than plain First Class in my recent experience.

I send a lot of packages and most First Class items arrive the next day. The trouble is, as the OP found, if that doesn't happen then it can be a very long time....

My complaint was not the extra day or two but their failure to provide the Proof of Delivery even three weeks later - something that happens in a majority of cases. Have a look at the recorded items you have sent and see how many PoDs there actually are.

Have to say that I have always received a very good service from RM, Last week I sent a special delivery next day, it got there less than 24 hrs later. My normal post is 2nd class recorded, have not had any issues in aprox 85 postings. Perhaps I am just lucky
Davex.

Check to see how many PoDs are actually listed on line ...

What I find is that my local posties are great, but that the big office up the line is a mess (even the local branch staff agree on that!)

I just wish they'd leave parcels in the conservatory rather than leaving a card all the time. They used to use us as a drop for post bags before building proper secure lockers, so it's perfectly safe (nothing ever went walkies).

Personally speaking I've had quiet a few recorded delivery packets (thankfully not photo gear!) stuck through the letter box with 'postie signed for it' written on them.

There you go, the key word here is "most". That allows them to weasel their way out of most things.

I once used TNT to send a package to another forum member, I said UK main land and what did they do... yep, they put a sticker on it with a bar-code for the UK colonies.
What could have been a 2 day deliveries became over a week I believe since it went through customs and all

Where given the choice I always opt for Royal mail or Parcelforce.

Our normal postie is fantastic and will leave things in an agreed safe place. If for any reason anything can't be left then the sorting office is only a couple of miles away and the Parcel force depot only a mile away.

Although we are close to the City Link depot in Guildford they want us to collect items from Basingstoke and DHL wanted me to collect one item from Reading, 20 or so miles away

We seem to be in a difficult place to find for non Royal Mail carriers although this now seems to have improved, probably with the use of GPS. City link were the worst offenders leaving cards in a house several roads away so you often didn't even know it was out there. We had similar problems with Argos home delivery last year who left a present for my wife on someone else's doorstep which took ages to sort out.

I'm getting old & grumpy and have become very unforgiving so will go out of my way to avoid previously unreliable couriers even if it means paying a little more from a different supplier. Argos are still way out of favour

Glyn

Well they certainly provide a great deal of chronological info on their tracking pages but I would say it's too much and not necessarily obvious what's actually happening. My experience with UPS on quite a few occasions has been OK but not spectacular.
Quite a bit of 'delivery rescheduling' seems goes on with UPS in my experience.