{"id":23565,"date":"2019-11-13T01:57:49","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T01:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=23565"},"modified":"2022-12-21T21:12:47","modified_gmt":"2022-12-21T21:12:47","slug":"damned-royal-mail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=23565","title":{"rendered":"Damned Royal Mail"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Postbox\"Note the date of this article. It has nothing to do with the 2022 strikes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last few weeks there have been reports that Royal Mail  staff are threatening to go on strike over Christmas. There is one burning question in my mind on this if they do strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would anyone bloody know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in September, I purchased something from a seller on Amazon. It wasn\u2019t fulfilled directly by Amazon, and the seller sent me emails with a delivery window. When the item didn\u2019t arrive, they quickly sent me another, which arrived promptly. I told them I\u2019d let them know if the first package arrived, but it never did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re now well into November, and last week I got a card through my door telling me the Royal Mail had a delivery for me, but that it needed outstanding postage paying on it before they\u2019d bring it. I had several parcels expected, so I paid the outstanding amount \u2013 a couple of quid \u2013 and waited to see who it was who\u2019d messed up so I could claim it back from them (when you order through PayPal and Amazon, you have no worries on that score).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The delivery date Royal Mail had given me was a day last week, but by the day before that all the stuff I\u2019d been expecting had arrived, and there was no indication or reference number that suggested any of those were involved. I was wondering what the hell it could be \u2013 I\u2019d forgotten about the lost September delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come Saturday \u2013 and you can probably guess what\u2019s coming \u2013 the September package was delivered! It was clearly dated September, but it had taken them until November to action it. A total of 50 days. I informed the Amazon seller, and they kindly told me to keep the second item as a goodwill gesture (so I got a spare of something I will almost certainly buy again at some point for a couple of quid when it normally costs ten times more).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s not the point. The Royal Mail is likely to be hit by strikes for more pay by the arseholes responsible for things like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Items go missing on a fairly regular basis for me \u2013 I can count on a few a year for sure \u2013 and when I contact sellers it is always<\/strong> Royal Mail deliveries involved, and never couriers. You can be sure that I make my views on the Royal Mail well known at that point. What really bugs me, though, is the thought that at this time of year they take on a lot of temporary staff, many of whom couldn\u2019t get jobs anywhere else, and with the occasional stories in the press where individuals have been either stealing or binning the post instead of delivering it\u2026 well, you have to wonder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there was that time they suspended all deliveries on my road for a fortnight because a dog inside a house had barked at a postman (we\u2019d assumed he\u2019d been mauled and lost an arm or something until we spoke with the owner). The whole bloody street. We had to collect our mail from the sorting office. And what was funny was that the majority of the houses in the exclusion zone were further away from the one with the dog than all the ones round the back. It wouldn\u2019t have surprised me to discover they\u2019d also forbidden staff to even drive down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n