"Peter Masson" wrote:
"Roland Perry" wrote

In London in the 40's you could post a letter in the morning informing
someone you'd be round for afternoon tea. By the 70's you could still
post a letter at 9pm in a town in the Southeast and expect it to be
delivered to someone in another town by 8am.

In 1970 I could post a letter at the main post office in Oxford up to
midnight and it would be delivered in South East London at breakfast time.

And now you can send an email, text, tweet, IM, DM, usenet post, etc,
usually for little or no charge, and have it delivered anywhere in the
world in seconds. With that sort of competition, no-one's going to pay for
the huge network of people, sorting offices and vans that would be needed
to maintain the old style of physical mail services, that delivered locally
in hours, from a previous era.

Just be grateful that we still have deliveries to everyone's front door,
six days a week, across the whole country, at a standard price. In years to
come, we'll look back in amazement at that level of service. Most other
countries no longer offer it.

On 12/03/2014 21:23, Recliner wrote:
"Peter Masson" wrote:
"Roland Perry" wrote

In London in the 40's you could post a letter in the morning informing
someone you'd be round for afternoon tea. By the 70's you could still
post a letter at 9pm in a town in the Southeast and expect it to be
delivered to someone in another town by 8am.

In 1970 I could post a letter at the main post office in Oxford up to
midnight and it would be delivered in South East London at breakfast time.

And now you can send an email, text, tweet, IM, DM, usenet post, etc,
usually for little or no charge, and have it delivered anywhere in the
world in seconds. With that sort of competition, no-one's going to pay for
the huge network of people, sorting offices and vans that would be needed
to maintain the old style of physical mail services, that delivered locally
in hours, from a previous era.

Just be grateful that we still have deliveries to everyone's front door,
six days a week, across the whole country, at a standard price. In years to
come, we'll look back in amazement at that level of service. Most other
countries no longer offer it.


On-line sales and junk mail has bee the saviour of the postal service
apparently.

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.
Railway Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail

On Wed, 12 Mar 2014 16:23:21 -0500, Recliner wrote:

"Peter Masson" wrote:
"Roland Perry" wrote

In London in the 40's you could post a letter in the morning informing
someone you'd be round for afternoon tea. By the 70's you could still
post a letter at 9pm in a town in the Southeast and expect it to be
delivered to someone in another town by 8am.

In 1970 I could post a letter at the main post office in Oxford up to
midnight and it would be delivered in South East London at breakfast time.

And now you can send an email, text, tweet, IM, DM, usenet post, etc,
usually for little or no charge, and have it delivered anywhere in the
world in seconds. With that sort of competition, no-one's going to pay for
the huge network of people, sorting offices and vans that would be needed
to maintain the old style of physical mail services, that delivered locally
in hours, from a previous era.

Just be grateful that we still have deliveries to everyone's front door,
six days a week, across the whole country, at a standard price. In years to
come, we'll look back in amazement at that level of service. Most other
countries no longer offer it.

I'd rather cut deliveries down to three or even two a week if it would cut the cost of postage.

Optimist wrote:

Just be grateful that we still have deliveries to everyone's front door,
six days a week, across the whole country, at a standard price. In years
to
come, we'll look back in amazement at that level of service. Most other
countries no longer offer it.

I'd rather cut deliveries down to three or even two a week if it would cut
the
cost of postage.

Sadly it probably wouldn't. And with online shopping such a key part of the
Royal Mail's business there'd be fierce opposition to reducing the speed of
delivery or else a decamp to incompetent couriers.

--
My blog: http://adf.ly/4hi4c

On 13/03/2014 00:21, Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
Optimist wrote:

Just be grateful that we still have deliveries to everyone's front door,
six days a week, across the whole country, at a standard price. In years
to
come, we'll look back in amazement at that level of service. Most other
countries no longer offer it.

I'd rather cut deliveries down to three or even two a week if it would cut
the
cost of postage.

Sadly it probably wouldn't. And with online shopping such a key part of the
Royal Mail's business there'd be fierce opposition to reducing the speed of
delivery or else a decamp to incompetent couriers.


Why use incompetent couriers when there are plenty of competent ones
available.

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.
Railway Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail

On Thu, 13 Mar 2014 07:36:52 +0000, Graeme Wall wrote:

On 13/03/2014 00:21, Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
Optimist wrote:

Just be grateful that we still have deliveries to everyone's front door,
six days a week, across the whole country, at a standard price. In years
to
come, we'll look back in amazement at that level of service. Most other
countries no longer offer it.

I'd rather cut deliveries down to three or even two a week if it would cut
the
cost of postage.

Sadly it probably wouldn't. And with online shopping such a key part of the
Royal Mail's business there'd be fierce opposition to reducing the speed of
delivery or else a decamp to incompetent couriers.


Why use incompetent couriers when there are plenty of competent ones
available.

I find the courier firms are far superior to RM for customer service. They actually answer the
phone when you ring the number on the card to say they have a package for you but you were out. They
will leave in the porch or elsewhere if you wish.

RM put a card through the door instead of trying to deliver the package, when you ring they don't
answer, they won't leave items to be collected at the local post office but at an inconvenient depot
on an industrial estate.

On 13/03/2014 08:37, Optimist wrote:

I find the courier firms are far superior to RM for customer
service. They actually answer the phone when you ring the number
on the card to say they have a package for you but you were out.
They will leave in the porch or elsewhere if you wish.

RM usually don't leave items in porches because of the risk of theft.

RM put a card through the door instead of trying to deliver the
package, when you ring they don't answer, they won't leave items to
be collected at the local post office but at an inconvenient depot
on an industrial estate.

Royal Mail is actually three businesses. Post Office counters and
Parcelforce are distinct from the letter delivery business. Letters
(and packets) are held at the delivery office for collection at the
callers office. The local Post Office is a place where you can buy
stamps, though you can have redeliveries made to a local Post Office
for an additional fee.
--
Phil Cook

In message , at 16:42:17 on Thu, 13
Mar 2014, Phil Cook remarked:
I find the courier firms are far superior to RM for customer
service. They actually answer the phone when you ring the number
on the card to say they have a package for you but you were out.
They will leave in the porch or elsewhere if you wish.

RM usually don't leave items in porches because of the risk of theft.

Can descend into farce. I had a parcel delivered at my front door last
week by one of the minor couriers, where the chap said I didn't need to
sign for it because he'd already logged it as "left in back garden". It
wasn't clear if this was a one-off error on his behalf, or a widespread
form of expediting delivery without bothering to discover if the
householder was actually at home.
--
Roland Perry

On 13/03/2014 16:42, Phil Cook wrote:

On 13/03/2014 08:37, Optimist wrote:

I find the courier firms are far superior to RM for customer
service. They actually answer the phone when you ring the number
on the card to say they have a package for you but you were out.
They will leave in the porch or elsewhere if you wish.

RM usually don't leave items in porches because of the risk of theft.

RM put a card through the door instead of trying to deliver the
package, when you ring they don't answer, they won't leave items to
be collected at the local post office but at an inconvenient depot
on an industrial estate.

Royal Mail is actually three businesses. Post Office counters and
Parcelforce are distinct from the letter delivery business. Letters (and
packets) are held at the delivery office for collection at the callers
office. The local Post Office is a place where you can buy stamps,
though you can have redeliveries made to a local Post Office for an
additional fee.

No, you're out of date - the Post Office (what was once PO Counters Ltd,
now just Post Office Ltd) is a standalone business, wholly owned by the
government. It wasn't included in the privatisation of Royal Mail.

Graeme Wall wrote:

I'd rather cut deliveries down to three or even two a week if it would
cut the
cost of postage.

Sadly it probably wouldn't. And with online shopping such a key part of
the
Royal Mail's business there'd be fierce opposition to reducing the speed
of
delivery or else a decamp to incompetent couriers.

Why use incompetent couriers when there are plenty of competent ones
available.

Cost and the buyer rather than the sender is the one who experiences the
problems. For me the main annoyances are the need to put yourself under
virtual house arrest when expecting a delivery and it still doesn't come,
the inability to put together a decent flat delivery service (some of them
don't even know how to buzz the reception or phone the number supplied), the
failure to come at the times stated, the remote depots that are hard to
reach on public transport and have terrible opening hours, the ludicrously
excessive requirements for ID and proof of address when you can get in, the
premium rate phone numbers and the fines sent to senders because the firm is
incompetent.

--
My blog: http://adf.ly/4hi4c