Be Excellent To Each Other

Post tales of parcel delivery-related woe here.

It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago (Easter Sunday to be exact, saviour-rising-from-the-dead-fans). That being the case, it was to be expected (hoped for) that I should receive a number (two or three) of parcels in the preceding week.

Due to the shift-work nature of my job, I'm often at home on weekdays, one such day being Thursday the 9th of this month. I should also point out that we have a very loud and reliable doorbell, so I'd be sure to hear it anywhere in the flat should, for example, an employee of Royal Mail ring it in order to press a parcel into my excited hands. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when popping downstairs to check for mail that afternoon (an activity that I do daily and thoroughly, I must stress, for reasons that are, I hope about to become clear) I found a "Sorry, you were out" card. Imagine my bewilderment when I saw that the postal worker in question had clearly written "8/4" in the "Today's date" section.

I like to think of myself as an understanding, tolerant sort of person. The type to give a chap the benefit of the doubt. I'm therefore almost ashamed to admit that I inadvertently began to entertain the notion that perhaps the aforementioned postman (or postwoman, but for the sake of simplicity let us assume that it was a man, as all the previous holders of this role that I have encountered in the vicinity of my current abode have been) had not only tried to pull a fast one (by putting the card through our door without going through all the tedious business of pressing the button to summon me, and by inference not actually bringing the parcel to my address, given the pointlessness of doing so if no attempt to present it to the recipient was to be made) but also attempted to cover his tracks by trying to make out that the card had actually been written and delivered on the previous day, that being a day when I'd be forced to admit, I was not at home during what are conventionally considered "business hours". (The astute reader will have deduced that my earlier point about checking mail each day would negate the possibility that the card - now to be seen lying on the doormat, affording my eyes unfettered access to its prominent aspect - had been delivered the previous day.)

No matter, I reasoned, and in the spirit of least-said-soonest-mended, availed myself of the redelivery URL on the card, a service that I'd used previously with no small rate of success. Alas, on this occasion, as a result of the impending Easter festivities (this being the day before Good Friday), the earliest redelivery option presented to me was the following Tuesday. My sense of charity towards the postman dwindled somewhat at the prospect of waiting five days (hence missing my birthday) to (hopefully) receive a parcel that I'd actually been present and willing to receive all day.

With this in mind, I dialled the "General Personal enquiries" number on the Royal Mail website (being unable to locate the "Complain about lazy, lying postmen" number) and struggled several times through an impressively tortuous menu system before being connected to a woman who listened to my (irritated but non-sweary) complaint and merrily chirped that yes, I would have to wait until Tuesday for a redelivery. I voiced the opinion that I should not have to wait a further five days for my parcel that had not been delivered to me through the fault of Royal Mail staff failing to do their job, and further suggested that the willful witholding of my parcel when I was at home and ready to receive was tantamount to theft. (Perhaps this was a little hyperbolic on my part, but I feared the lady with whom I was conversing had not fully gathered the extent of my disappointment at the non-service (and, frankly, attempt at deception) of her delivery-based colleague.) This seemed to have a rather peculiar effect upon her manner. She started breathing heavily and put the phone down on me.

Never being one to cower in the face of the mentally disturbed, I called back. This time I got through to a friendly, sympathetic chap who assured me that he'd pass on my complaint (but explained honestly that realistically I'd have very little chance of finding out what had gone on with the heavy breather) and request a redelivery for Saturday. Again, he was honest in pointing out that he couldn't 100% guarantee delivery on Saturday, but that in all likelihood, it would happen. After this, I remained irritated by the whole business, but at least happy that I would probably have my parcel on Saturday.

On Saturday, the doorbell duly rang and I was presented with a parcel. Joy! I was slightly surprised to note the lack of the usual handwritten "redeliver Saturday" (or words to that effect) that are the norm on redelivered items, but resolved to put the matter out of my mind, for 'twas the day of my birth tomorrow and there was much boozing and song to be enjoyed that night.

We pick up the story again this last Wednesday (the 22nd), when the thought struck me that my aunt had emailed me on the 5th to say she was sending me a parcel, and that this parcel had yet to arrive. Given that I had received a parcel on the 11th, I once again favoured giving the benefit of the doubt to Royal Mail and thinking this was perhaps a coincidence (my Aunt is American and therefore there is the additional factor of the American postal service to take into account). However, before contacting her with a view to chasing the situation from the US end of things, I decided to put my good faith to the test and once again visited the Royal Mail redelivery URL. And entered the details from the card (dated 8th, but actually from 9th). This gave me the option of a redelivery on Friday the 24th.

Once again, I was home during the day of the 24th. On this occasion there was not only no ringing of the doorbell, but no mail at all (I did, as you've no doubt guessed, check thoroughly). Logically, I was forced to conclude that the lack of my aunt's parcel was indeed a coincidence, and that Royal Mail held no outstanding items for me.

The following day (Saturday 25th), both myself and my wife were home all day. Neither of us were disturbed by the electronic chiming of our doorbell. Therefore, when my wife journeyed downstairs only to return clutching a sadly familiar-looking red card, in the same handwriting as the previous untruthful card, not only adorned with YESTERDAY'S MOTHERFUCKING DATE on it, but also with "Must collect 2nd time tried" scrawled on it FOR FUCK'S CUNTING SHITTING BASTARD PISSING SAKE, surprise was no longer adequate and I was forced to resort to astonishment! THE LAZY, LYING, WANKY FUCKING ARSEWIPES!

I am going to have words on Monday morning.

I know, TL:DR, but I felt the need to vent, sorry.

I thought immediately "That's not the same parcel"

Just to chip in on this one with a sympathetically similar story:

I was once waiting in for a parcel. I walked out of our lounge past the front door, just as a Citylink "sorry we missed you card" dropped through my letterbox. Needless to say there had been no knock. The traditional obnoxious white-van-man Citylink cunt was barely 10 feet from my door when I opened it growling and shouting at him brandishing said card.

No matter how much I had a pop at him he refused to take my parcel off his van and hand it to me as he had, apparently, already marked me as out on his little handheld computery thing.

Angry? Oh yes.

I am afraid you would be wasting your breath complaining. They simply don't give a fuck and don't care who knows it. They aren't running a business, they are doing you a favour, and you should be grateful that you get anything at all.

Like a t-shirt.

This stuff happens so often I am resolved to call the police next time I get gypped... and if the guy was refusing to let me have my fucking property and driving off with it, I'd be using the emergency number.

Last computer I ordered I paid for 9-12 delivery on day, and at ten past twelve the thing arrived, with the bloke looking at the sheet and saying "There you go, right on time". I barely resisted spitting in his face, the smarmy fucking cuntbastard.

Best of the lot was my sorting office in Chorlton, Manchester. Only ever open during the hours I work, I was obliged if wanting to pick something up to pay the 50p surcharge for it to go to the local post office for collection. The local post office in the same building. And sometimes it would not be there even when I've paid.

Frankly these mis-deliverers are fair game, I say we find some ways of upsetting them.

If anyone is obnoxious enough on this site to post "TL:DR" on this site, I will personally go round to their house and slap them.

Horrible story, chap, and I hope you get it sorted. I feel I've got many similar stories in my mind, but I fear they're so common I can't actually remember the details of any one incident. Worrying, that.

My elder brother recently ordered a netbook, however, due to be delivered by City Link. On the day of delivery, nothing came; no parcel, no card. He ran up City Link to enquire and was told his parcel had been delivered "to one of your neighbours". Great help. After asking around his street, there was no sign of it, and on the phone again he went. This time City Link sent round the delivery driver to point out which house, but the occupants denied all knowledge. No parcel. With both My brother and City Link confused and fuming, threats of the police were made against the neighbour if they couldn't produce the parcel. They, again, denied all knowledge. Brave.

Days later, after the supplier promised to send a new one if it didn't turn up, the neighbour popped round with the parcel, claiming their cleaner had taken delivey and hid it away in a closet. Yeah, right.

It really depends on your local drivers as we've discussed before.

At my office location we have superb drivers from all the major couriers. But it's a town centre location and there is always someone there to collect.

As that is the nature of my involvement with the postal service then "Yes". However I suspect your comment is of a more cowardly nature.

Cowardly no. I'd just have thought someone with a documented record of doing exactly what you just accused the Royal Mail of would not have wanted to make the post you did that's all.

I just thought it was a little kettle/pot.

Well as everything you have said is totally untrue I feel completely comfortable making such posts. Don't let that stop you continuing your petty jealous gibes though. You really must be running out of options to be so blatant.

EDIT: I see you have deleted the particularly libelous statements from your post. Congrats.

Um... jealous of what? I don't think we've even had a disagreement before even and I've never said anything against you.

I wasn't going to post these but here we go, anyone interested can make up their own mind. I think it's enough that if this were a business not run by someone here everyone would swear off them immediately.

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Law/Civi ... 46190.html
"I too bought a t-shirt from this crook. If you try and contact is so-called 'customer services' your email will bounce back undelivered. I also sent him a recorded delivery letter which was returned to me undelivered."

http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/show ... p?t=294984
"Don't use Mr Cloud, my T-shirt never arrived. Then they were really rude and wouldn't give me a refund."

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/3 ... 312538.htm
"It seems Mr. Cloud's is OK with stealing from their customers."

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/sho ... l?t=659115
"I received no apology for the fact that I did not receive the goods I paid for. I received no explanation for why the item did not arrive. I was promised a replacement within a week which did not arrive."

http://tcritic.com/archives/your-mii-on-a-t-shirt/
"Warning: Getting lots of comments (see below) on Mr Cloud not delivering so only order at your own risk"

http://springwise.com/fashion_beauty/gravanity_mii/
"We've received various alarming messages from people who paid for a Mii shirt but haven't received the product. While we still think this was a fun business concept, we would advise you not to order one. "

http://www.wiitalk.co.uk/forums/wii-bre ... maybe.html
"I too ordered from Mr Cloud and got nothing but a dent in my bank balance and no shirt"

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/in ... 523AAfMdWU
"what he does is take your money and never delivers your order"

http://simondarwelltaylor.typepad.com/h ... _plag.html
"DON'T USE MR CLOUD! It's less a T-shirt shop, more a fraud"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blytheconf ... 476018518/
"don't buy!!! SCAM!!! "

http://www.theaveragegamer.com/2006/12/18/mii-on-a-tee/
"Since originally posting, we have found multiple reports of customers not receiving their items and their payments being retained"

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3155938
"Do NOT use Mr Cloud's T-shirt Emporium. He is ripping people off. You will pay and not receive your good"
"Strange that they dont have any disclaimer or copyright information on the Nintendo owned designs they sell"

And I doubt you hold licences for the trademarks of Thundercats, 7-Eleven, Fight Club, Labyrinth, Atari, Nintendo, DC comics, Warner Bros, the BBC, CTW, Sony, Sega and any number of bands (especially as usually these people have exclusive contracts) but happy to proved wrong there.

I don't think I'll bother. Comical tried this a few months back as well with no provocation, Christ knows what you are trying to achieve. However please continue posting around the internet. It's all incoming links after all.

Christ it's hostile in here today!

Amazingly, after forcing the worst possible service on this area, Royal Mail has actually improved very slightly here (which, obviously, I've just jinxed by saying this) over the past few weeks. Although our deliveries inexplicably shifted from 8:30 to 11ish to mid-afternoon (the latest last week being around 3), the employees have actually learned to—and this will come as a shock—knock on the door.

Frankly, I'm astounded. They actually knock on the door when something's too big to fit through the letterbox, rather than using one of the four previous methods: 1) don't knock on the door, but instead leave a 'you were out' card, so therefore get the round done more quickly and make more money; 2) shove said item into the letterbox, damaging it (and on one occassion destroying our letterbox, which Royal Mail eventually agreed to pay for); 3) hiding the item in a random wheelie bin, and; 4) just leaving it on the front step.

I still think, though, nothing will beat the time we went into our back garden for the first time in about a week and discovered a soggy parcel sitting on the step, meaning that whoever delivered it was, at best, trespassing and had leaned over our gate and busted the lock.

As for Nik, I can sympathise. More than time here, I've been in our living room, a Royal Mail staff member has walked past the window, dropped a card through (which he's clearly filled in before getting to our place) and fucked off. I open the door and yell, whereupon he scampers back and says something like "I thought you were out". My point that it's usually best to ascertain that by actually finding out whether someone actually is out doesn't usually go down well.

And then there was the time I mentioned on here previously where we heard a loud banging noise coming from the front door, like someone hammering it. Thinking some local kids were pissing about, I leg it downstairs to find a Royal Mail staff member trying to force a parcel about an inch thicker than our letterbox through said letterbox. I open the door, he said "it doesn't fit". I suggest maybe he should ring the bell next time. He gets the hump, doing a slightly comical "All right, mate, no need to be like that", waving his arms about, and walks away. I note that the item's now damaged, at which point he yells "it's probably only the fucking packaging mate". I proffer that even if that's the case, this isn't the point, whereupon he yells "fuck off, wanker" so loudly it startles one of the neighbours who lives across the road, and then drives off at a speed that would very definitely have killed any local kid playing in the street had he hit one.

I write to Royal Mail about this, noting that the item was damaged, that the deliveryman was abusive (to the extent that the neighbours were shocked) and that he drove like a pillock. Response: a form letter. And while I still think a national mail service of the type of Royal Mail is needed, rather than splitting it into various local companies, my sympathy and fondness for the organisation is all but gone since living in our current house.

I think that's the problem. Their Recorded Delivery service states that should the item become lost they will refund the value of the item up to (around) £30-odd quid. When an item has become lost and the receiver insists nothing has been received Royal Mail invariable return a form letter with a book of stamps. They explain that the item was delivered but no signature was obtained. When one explains that the item remains lost and they have a commitment to refund the cost of the item the case is referred and then there is only silence. There is no option other than to make a claim in the Small Claim's Court which costs them more money than if they had just honored their terms and conditions.

Like Nik I have also had the phone put down on me when it is clear that I have a firm grasp of Royal Mail's own terms and conditions. There are ofcourse 'good eggs' but they seem long suffering.

It really needn't be this way.

That's really bad isn't it.
I guess I'm lucky to have a good postie, here. I asked him to leave stuff in the shed if I'm out, and he does. If it's recorded, he'll sign for it. Nothing's gotten damaged or missing in 6 years, so fingers crossed it remains like that.

It's a bit of a problem, the whole parcels to residential addresses thing, and the RM certainly haven't responded to the increase in parcel mail as well as they should.

I've got some popcorn, want some?

For me, the increasing level of deception and flat-out lies is the main concern. You just can't trust the service, and when trust is gone for a company delivering your mail, you become suspicious when genuine mistakes do happen, or when things are lost prior to reaching your sorting office. Case in point: my wife orders something by special delivery from Amazon. Our van-based postie knocks on the door, gets no reply, sees a neighbour in their garden, gets them to sign for it and then fucks off.

A few days later, we check Amazon and find the item's been 'delivered'. We go to Royal Mail's website and find a signature we don't recognise. A call to Amazon: "Not our problem—it's been delivered". More shockingly, a call to Royal Mail: "Nor our problem—we have proof of delivery". Our arguing that we don't recognise the signature, and that we are the only two people who live in this house is met with a wall of "but it's been delivered". They just could not comprehend the problem. Eventually, as a "gesture of good faith", as thought they were doing us a really big favour, they called the van-man. They called back and told us we should have taken notice of the card he dropped, saying where he'd left our item—the card that he later admitted when we called him on it directly that he "may have actually forgotten to post". Gnh.

Funny thing is, I had to collect very little when we lived in Iceland, because they did two types of deliveries: letterbox stuff came in the morning, but then fleets of vans went about their business around 6-7pm, when a lot of people were likely to be home.

I don't care if they have left it with a neighbour, they can fucking collect it from said neighbour. I want it delivered to my address, not an address of their choosing.

Thankfully that's never a problem because I have everything delivered to work.

On Friday lunchtime I stopped at some services on the A34 and purchased some chocolate covered popcorn from the M&S. Had eaten the lot by 4pm. Quite nice but had that odd M&S milk chocolate on it.

That sounds awful.

Correction: Dudley being a shit-stirring cunt. As Craig has said, CG said all these things before without visible provocation, and now his mate Dudley has bravely picked up the flag. What a shock.

Exactly. I can forgive mistakes, but lying to the customer (or recipient, I suppose - technically the customer would be the person who sent the parcel) should be a disciplinary matter and then doing exactly the same a second time should be a sacking offence.

This is what's so troubling about it. All it takes is one dishonest postman to sour your whole relationship with Royal Mail. I'm sure the vast majority of them are honest, hard-working people (one of my best chums is one, and I know he wouldn't dream of cutting corners on the job), but a bad experience takes a lot of mending.

I'm genuinely surprised that Amazon responded like that. In the past they've been happy to resend things purely on my word that they've not been delivered. I suspect their customer services have gone downhill though, given the problems I had trying to get something repaired/replaced last year.

I'm actually very fond of M&S milk chocolate. Not sure I'd fancy it on popcorn though.

Very much

My post still goes to my parents', partly because they're generally there and it's convenient, partly because I used to move around a lot, and mostly because it's handy for my laziness. Nothing but good things to say about the postie and the service in general, though he (or they, I'm sure it's not just one, and certainly hasn't been for all of the many years they've lived there) does things here that would be pants if they had a worse relationship with him - signs for things himself to save them the trouble if they're not there (but always knocks first), puts them on the doorstep (where they're covered from the rain) or in the hallway if they're out and so on. But in a quiet place that just makes more sense than them going to pick them up days later.

Same where I live, 60 miles away (for the housemates' post rather than mine, obviously) - postie has always knocked, even though he gets to us at a time when most people are out, and waits long enough for, for instance, me to get out of the shower, throw clothes on and get downstairs. Good stuff.

My postie is mostly good, I think. I've not had any trouble with him at any rate.

The guy we had doing the rounds back when I lived in a village was ace. I'd regularly send my Nan's post to the wrong house number on the street, and it always got to her.

It does indeed depend on the postman. In areas where there is a large turn around the service seems to be in decline. Around Neasden-way there have been postmen who can't read numbers. Incredibly.

I've not had a problem with the postmen here at all, so am not currently subscribed to the Postman Paranoia Theory, but is aware of the stupid targets they have to meet, which are often a bit tricky, nigh on impossible.

You can enjoy my 'Fallout 3 thrown over the side gate where nobody would see it, and indeed I fucking didn't, for a month' thread here (sorry, I'm at work, I have to use the weird alternoaddress to get here).

If anyone has a link to the 'waiting for a fucking parcel' boardgame from Viz, now is the time to post it.

I bought a present for someone, and it failed to arrive. The seller duly sent another, which failed to arrive. The seller even offered to send a third item, but by this point I was so angry at Royal Mail and fed up and didn't want to seem like a scammer that I just politely declined.

http://www.gradius.splen.co.uk/junk/parcel.jpg
It's funny because it's true!

Cuntage update: Phoned the complaints line just now, as expected full of excuses as to how all this might have happened (apparently it's standard practice for the cards to turn up with the previous day's date on!). I asked why it wasn't delivered on the Saturday after my original complaint, to which I was told "it was!". I asked why I had a second card and still no parcel from my aunt, and was told "we don't know that the cards are for the same item". I pointed out that we could be pretty sure they were based on the second one saying "must collect 2nd time tried" on it and being dated the day I'd requested redelivery of the first card. This generated the standard response of "I don't have the information about the parcels".

So, complaints woman has to phone manager of sorting office here, after which the manager has 48 hours to get back to her, as that was what the regulator required! I pointed out it had been a lot longer than 48 hours since my original complaint (after which they were supposed to contact the sorting office to get the bugger delivered), but it seems that by having the impudence to phone them again today, I've triggered a sort of "day zero" scenario.

I told her I thought the complaints procedure was a bit rubbish and she got all defensive and said "this is all the information I have". After reassuring her I wasn't blaming her personally (although her telephone manner needs a lot of work), I said I'd like to complain about the ineffectiveness of the way my complain had (or rather hadn't) been dealt with. So, I'm supposedly to get a phone call from a manager later today. Would it be terribly cynical of me to suspect this may not actually happen?

None the wiser as to when my parcel might get delivered. I do have the option of a bus trip and a walk to the sorting office now. I'm tempted to cut my losses and do that this morning, but fear the very act may make me explode with rage at the fact that I'm being made to do the job of a lazy postman.

(Apologies if this is a tad incoherent. I'm a mite riled at the moment.)

Its not just Royal Mail do that. I order stuff from Next quite a bit, and when I lived in Worcester, their courier threw a £200 suit over the fence into a bush in the back garden that I didn't notice for 3 days, and hid a package under the front wheel of my car which would have been great, if it hadn't been expensive sunglasses, and if they had devised a cunning method of letting me know they were there before I reversed off the drive and over them.

Now in London, their favourite ploy is asking for a delivery date, then delivering the very next day even if that date was 5 days in the future, and 'hiding' the package under the doormat on out communal landing.

That said, they seem to know they are shit and I have never had a problem obtaining refunds for items which have not been correctly delivered.

Back to the original subject, Royal Mail are shit, but it really does seem to be that they are only that shit over the last couple of hundred metres. I'm impressed that they can get the post from one place to another, normally very quickly, and in their timeframe. It is Postman fucking Pat who fucks it all up (which is not helped by bad management I'm sure - our postman literally runs to get his delveries done in the required timeslot).

I like the idea of evening parcel deliveries though, or the suggested system a few years ago, where you could opt to have parcels delivered to your local pub instead of your house. Never appears to have got off the ground though

We had a week off last month and our postman pushed red cards through the door when we were upstairs in bed. We heard the post come through the door, so Ange shouted some loud obscenities in his general direction, hurriedly getting dressed to chase him down the road. He must've heard her and come back, because he was waiting outside when she opened the door. I think he mumbled something like 'it's all right for some having the day off'. Twat.

He did exactly the same thing the next day. That time Ange did chase him all over the estate until she found him and gave him a right ear bashing.

. You so should have videoed that. I also have a woman who is not afraid of shouting

The rudeness potential of that whole post is startling.

It sounds very badly managed though. In towns, 95% of the packets they have (I mean things too big for letter boxes / need signing for) will need to be carded, so I can see why the posties get hacked off with it and try to round it up to 100%.

And it must be massively wasteful of time and energy carting everything around three days in a row and then having to cope with a barrage of complaints and people traipsing to the sorting office anyway. No wonder they're suffering.

They need a proper system. You need like a personalised option for what to do with packets to every (residential) address:

Default is to hold it at the sorting office and leave a card, or an email, once you've registered with the system. This is done automatically, no faffing about with posties filling in bits of paper and losing them.
Then you either take the card and pick the thing up (and those places would be open for an extra hour in the evening to give you half a chance), OR, you go online and give a specific day to deliver it.
Or you can change the default to leave them in a safe place, which you specify.

How hard could that be?

Ah Next... Their tendency to completely ignore delivery dates and just throw stuff vaguely in the direction of your house whenever they felt like it also used to happen in North Yorkshire and was the reason I stopped shopping with them.


That sounds good, although I suspect the pub option could throw up a few problems. I'm lucky in that my shift pattern now gives me enough weekdays off to get things redelivered (usually, when they bother), but I can well remember the pain of trying to get stuff delivered when you work normal office hours though, particularly if your employer frowns upon you getting stuff sent to work (like mine did at my old job).

Well, quite. I have a Post Office at the end of my road. Why not leave all of my parcels there? I can then pick them up at my leisure any time up until 5:30pm.

We'll get shot with this kind of sensible thinking.

The pub option was a briliant idea in my opinion - Pub signs up to the scheme with no cost to them, you pay an additional fee of £1 per delivery which is split 50% to the pub for storage and 50% for the courier to cover insurance. Courier saves costs by less redeliveries and concentrating deliveries to a smaller number of destinations, pub benefits because you are bound to have a pint when you go and pick the thing up. You know that you won't have to go to the depot to pick it up and have an excuse to drink beer (worst case for me was when I had to drive 30 miles to the nearest CityLink depot as they wouldn't redeliver, but my pub was 200 yards away). I see no downsides.

You'd think it would be possible. I pleaded with the postie at my old address to just assume I wouldn't be in during the week and that I was always happy to pay 50p to get stuff from the post office (five minute walk from my house), but apparently he wasn't allowed to do that and was required to take it back the sorting office (miles away, in the arse end of nowhere, with no public transport) so I'd have to phone up and ask for it to be sent to the post office instead, resulting in at least one extra day's delay and a pissed off postie who (while understandably annoyed) had the nerve to ask me to only buy things over the internet when I knew for certain I'd be home on the delivery date!

But that's a bloody long time to wait for a pint!

Move out of Nottingham, then.

They tried to deliver a recorded delivery package on Saturday morning. Didn't get to the door on time. It's gone to the local depot (in a somewhat remote business park) so I will inevitably have to drive her over to collect it.

Never post on a forum at the same time as writing a tax planning report.

I now need to check whether I've told my client to let me have projections for the next 3 yards.

Infuriating, that.

I ordered something a few months ago, though I forget the company and courier used. I knew there was no chance in hell I'd be home to receive the parcel during the week, so I opted for (and paid a good deal extra for!) Saturday Delivery. This parcel was now guaranteed to be here on Saturday, and I was happy.

What did I find on my doorstep, in plain sight, and soggy from the rain, on the Wednesday when I got home? That's right!

Utterly fucking useless cunts.

I went to the sorting office. It rained. I have the parcel. I am wet.

My take on all these problems has always been to shout at whoever sent the parcel, not Royal Mail (or any of the other courier horror stories in this thread). Royal Mail have no contract with you, as the receiver of a parcel; they owe you nothing. On the other hand, if something is lost or damaged in transit, the sender of the package owes you a new one.

So complain always and often, but to Amazon/Next/whoever sent it to you. They have a lot more clout with the Royal Mail than you do, and after they have fulfilled their legal obligation for refunds and replacements to the customer I'm sure they take it out of the Royal Mail's hide.

In general this is true, but I'm not going to shout at my aunt in Maryland when my postman is being an arsehole.