“Second time (more fool me) I have used the Royal Mail Tracked 48 "service" through The Wimbledon and West Wimbledon Delivery & Collection office in Wimbledon London SW19. I wrongly thought delay last time was unfortunate, rather than deliberate.
The service which provides E-mail and SMS messages to recipient re delivery is an online purchase system and post has to be left at a Royal Mail Delivery Office. I left a parcel at Wimbledon Office on Tuesday lunchtime, I was worried as not on tracking system by Thursday evening so I returned to The Delivery Office. I was told that it would not be on system yet as there weren't yet enough parcels in the box to make it worthwhile for staff to scan parcels and put them into the delivery system. I was further told that no parcels would be scanned until Saturday at earliest as it was Good Friday tomorrow and they were closed.
What a seriously useless service when it breaks down at such a basic level. This may be only the Wimbledon Office approach, surely it can't be national policy that parcels are only sent on their way in this super new delivery service when staff are ready to be bothered with it.
Now waitnig to see if the parcel appears on the system after Saturday......Next time Hermes tracked system!”
“Was expecting a package. Online tracking system said "Sorry, we tried to deliver your parcel on 16-04-2019 but there didn’t seem to be anyone in." but no one had left a red/white card. Without it I can't request a re-delivery online. I therefore decided to physically go to the Acton Delivery Office and collect the package myself with my ID (I had to take time off work to do this). They said my package was there but I couldn't get it because I didn't have the red/white card?!?! and that I'll have to have it re-delivered. When I asked how can I find out why they didn't leave a card to begin with, the clerk said "I have no idea". OK, these things happen, but why should Royal Mail penalise customers for a mistake they did instead of trying to fix the problem? And without even having the decency to offer an apology? I've had several incidents with Royal Mail, but this is enough. If you have an option to use another service please do. Stay away from Royal Mail.”
“US package arrived, customs charge paid on 15th April (handling charge by RM was 250% more than the customs charge). Selected delivery for 2 days time 17th April, RM totally ignored the request and now package is RM collection center miles away for collection.
Spent over £10 calling their customer services - only for them to tell me to go collect it! I said 'NO, thats your job'
Will leave package for 15 days and return to sender in the US - feel sorrt for the retailer (as its not their fault RM is s**t)”
“I had ordered something to be sent by Special delivery which means I should have received it the following day by 1pm. Five days later it is still in the Manchester Mail Centre waiting to be sent out! The service is an absolute joke. It would have arrived quicker by second class post and I don't believe it will be sent out to me at all. My advice would be to use a courier service instead. I have emailed them but as yet there is no reply”
“Thanks to Royal Mail delivering our little boys aeroplane he made for his brother & sister on holiday in Flamingo land all the way from the Wirral
Absolutely made our day X”
“Wow the most inept postal service I have ever used - posted Monday 1st class delivery - now same week Friday they do not have a clue where it is. Brilliant! Don't give up your day jobs lol.”
“Bought 2 items from 2 separate eBay costumers both royalmail first class signed for. Took today off work as I am a hgv driver one of the parcel is important for me been tracking them since morning one parcel they messed up with sending it from Leeds to Pontefract and now back to Leeds they now telling me it will get delevered tomorrow now so a nother day off work thanks to Royal Mail I’m gonna be couple of hundred short in wage second is unknown but says via tracking will get delivered for 1pm it is now 2:30. Thank you Royal Mail!!”
“Sold an item on Gumtree last week and wanted to post it with tracking. Previously you took it to the Post Office and paid over the counter, job done. The only option nowadays is doing it online with Click and Drop. I signed up and printed the Tracked 48 with Signature label.
The payment confirmation email says you have to take it to a Customer Service Point. The link in the email takes you to a page where you input your postcode and you get a list of the nearest locations, the closest being the local post office, so I started there. They scanned it, then said I had to take it to the local delivery office.
This was just a parking area for Royal Mail vans with no customer area. A driver said I needed to take it to the post office in ASDA across town. I went there and they scanned it as well and it threw up an error saying it had already been used. Eventually they realised their system couldn't process it and the error was probably due to that.
I returned home and rang Royal Mail, after fifteen minutes on hold they gave me the Click and Drop helpline number. Spoke to them (eventually!) and they directed me to a Delivery Office about five miles away. They were able to accept it, but could only give me a handwritten "Certificate of Posting" and not a tracking number! After three hours of mucking about I went with that...
Trying to find their "Customer Service Point" is like searching for Atlantis! I have gone through their website and cannot find any, let alone one near me! Googling finds a list of problems similar to my own, including this site.
Whoever designed their new system for tracked postage needs to go back and do a proper job, a way of finding these ******* Customer Service Points seems like a no-brainer for a start!
I have raised it with them via email, and am waiting on a substantive reply. What a flipping palaver!”
“Royal Mail have TAKEN £240 off me and I've spent probably about 3 hours on hold for "customer service". This ordeal has been going on for 4 months now.”
“Cant believe they actually call themselves a postal/courier service - there is very little service involved.
I will be using competitors in future; they are cheaper and provided consistent and detailed tracking.”
“Very unorganized, they say delivery dropped when not my packages are lost , called them again saying investigation started, 10 days laters calling my saying it's in office then went to the office not there , next day called them saying not here again , the next day it's here than not there again , literally wasting our time and lost our package.”
“Well it's not rocket science is it, tracking a parcel?
I'm expecting a delivery...nothing special, but I would like to check on it's progress, and to this end I was given a tracking number by the seller...so far so good, only it (or rather RM) aren't playing ball.
Oh the number is accepted, but I'm told "Tracking details will only be available AFTER A DELIVERY ATTEMPT has been made" D'OH.
SO, then you call RM's (busy) CS, and (in my case) find yerself on hold, with absolutely NO idea of your position in the queue...5th, 10th, 50th...100th?.
I confess, other than christmas (where the service can go tits-up) RM would be my 1st choice of carrier, but the tracking (such as it is) stinks, and it's p**s poor idea of CS isn't much better.”
“If no stars were an option. Ordered an item 3 weeks ago for my nephew. Still has not come. Tracking says the item was delivered and it was never was. Ordered replacement item. That has gone missing too. Tracking for the second item is not working.”
“Paid for a twelve month redirectionin July , £66.99, have had several letters still going to the old address. Rung and complained 3 times and basically just get fobbed off.. what is the point of paying for this service when it clearly doesnt work!! Was just told today that I have no proof the letters reached the delivery office even though I know from the sender this is the address they were sent to,one in Jan and another in the last 2 weeks ... so frustrating...total rip off by GPO....”
“Paid for a next day delivery (first class, signed for). That was a week ago. Still not arrived. The Customer Service Team have been pretty useless and have informed me that they do not consider the item lost until it has passed its "due date" for delivery. Forgive me, but I though that was the next day (3rd)? Apparently not. I need to somehow be psychic and know that they consider it due on 6th. Then I need to count 10 days from the due date to make a claim. How pathetic is this? Nowhere on the website do they give you a definition of "due date," and as for the people I've spoken to - on two occasions now - they've just been disinterested and treated the whole thing as a joke!”
“When I applied to renew my passport a week ago, I was advised by the person at the post office to use "Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed 1pm" at the cost of £6.60, to return my old passport the following day. This I did, and received my receipt with the tracking details. The following afternoon, according to the tracking information, my package still hadn't left the mail centre in my town. The next day, I called Royal Mail customer services to complain. I was told that they would refund my £6.60 (which I have still not received) but there was not much else they could do and I should just keep checking the tracking details. Yesterday morning I called the passport office to tell them that Royal Mail had lost my passport. Later that day I received a call back from them saying that my passport had arrived later that morning and they had started to process my application. According to Royal Mail's tracking information my package is still at my local mail centre. I certainly won't be using this unreliable service again.”
“The worst service. Letters are usually completely fine and undamaged, however their parcel service is hideous and overall embarrassing.
On multiple occasions I have left delivery and safe-place instructions, as suggested by the company, but have had my parcels taken to the ‘local’ delivery office - I have to laugh. If by local they mean a 30 mile-round trip to collect a parcel that I specifically paid for next day delivery AND left delivery instructions, then yes, they are an incredible, trustworthy service; but that’s certainly not how it should be. How difficult is it to leave a parcel that FITS THROUGH THE LETTER BOX, at my actual, local post office? It’s a joke of a service - I’ve filed many complaints in the past, with little help or no response at all through their customer service, and the staff are rude and unprofessional. Don’t waste your time - use a better parcel delivery company such as DPD; now that’s a 5-star postal service.
Too bad that most online services don’t let you chose which company to use. If they did, I’m sure my local Royal Mail service would be shut down in a heart beat— not met a single person who thinks they’re worth the hassle :)”
