Royal Mail deliveries

[qualitycardsandgifts]

Just heard on the news that Royal Mail are proposing that 2nd class letters will only be delivered every other day so that they can continue to deliver first class 6 days a week.    Unless Ebay change their EDDs to reflect this, it will cause major problems for sellers who give free delivery unless they upgrade.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

As it stands, it's only a proposal.  So it's likely to be rejected again.  They have tried changing things quite a few times now and each time, it's rejected.

So at this point, worrying about what Ebay will do at some point in the future, is really a waste of your energy.

Worry about it, if and when it actually changes.

[kempseykate]

Every other day would be an improvement for us! Currently we are lucky to get 1st or 2nd class once a week.

[yorkshire*flower]

 proposing that 2nd class letters will only be delivered

Proposed is the key word here and they have to get agreement from the government which likely to be rejected.  

[qualitycardsandgifts]

I think at some point the government are going to have to allow Royal Mail to change in order for them to survive.    No other company will deliver letters, so there will have to be some compromise.  

[wyntersemporium]

But some of their letters as they say are large letters. Most of my items I have for sale are predominantly fit in LL. 

im not going to start using first class which i cannot afford. 

[the_book_seekers]

There needs to be some clarification as so many businesses rely on 2nd large letter. 

If this goes ahead I'd like to see letter and large letter seperated. I don't fancy fighting

with ebay's EDDs which seem to be set in stone.

[237ben]

I hope they leave 2ndclass alone. We can receive 2nd class the day after it’s been posted, as opposed to RM's supposed '48 hour tracked' which usually take 4-14 days and rarely provides any useful tracking updates. And then there’s the added bonus that the posties generally regard 2nd class stuff as not worth stealing. 

[autostorehouse]

They are just trying to think of ideas to get the money to pay back all the settlement compensation they had to recently pay to the post office software scandal.

Expect sellers/buyers to pay that bill in some form.

This idea is simple. It forces or scares people into changing from 2nd class to 1st class so they can get more money from you. If they still have to deliver 1st class every day then they are not going to deliver one first class parcel to a street if there is also five 2nd class  parcels as well. Just dont make sense economically on fuel costs. Then again I had three different postmen come to the door on the same day the other week. One to deliver letters, other to deliver a parcel and another to collect my stuff, all within 1 hour of each other.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

You are aware, that Royal Mail and the Post Office are two separate companies?

So why exactly would RM be paying for issues at the post office?

They were split back 2012!  A long time before the scandaly happened!

[andybrussell]

Whilst they are now seperate entities (since 2012) the Horizon scandel started in the early 2000s, well before they seperated. I'm not sure how that affects their responsibility for cases arrising before they split or wherether Post Office is responsible for it.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

When a company is split, the new separate company will no longer have liability to previous issues from the originaly company.

Unless there is a contact in place specifically for those issues.

So no, they will not be liable for any of the Horizon issues.

Royal Mail has plenty of issues, but they are nothing to with the Post Office.

Problems such as not being able to upgrade systems and services etc.  Problems with staff and so on.

And obviously, extra expense, with having to delivery letters everywhere in the UK for the same price.

[ducatimondo]

Appreciate the post to let us all know that they are proposing to downgrade the service standard of 2nd class post. If I didn't read it here, I otherwise wouldn't know as I don't watch TV or read newspapers.

All an exercise in futility worrying about it and definitely if you are thinking eBay will have any kind of reaction at all to it.

You should know by now that it will still be the sellers fault for not delivering it 1 day before it was supposed to be even posted, same as it is now.

eBay do not care on iota that buyers are leaving in masses and those that remain are constantly attacking sellers over delivery times, that eBay lie about on an industrial scale; because it is already all working as planned.

eBay have been told about this thousands of times and they keep the same rhetoric, that it is staying as it is and that is the end of the matter.

So why would they change because of this?

They won't will they...

[mrs-trebus16]

I spoke to my postie last week and asked his opinion and reasoning for 2nd class deliveries going to just 3 times a week

He thinks it's ridiculous and that RM are wanting to do away with letters or maybe even going public again.

I said won't it be harder work some days and easier on others. For example and say deliveris of 2nd class are Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Won't those days be more busy and Tuesday, Thrusday and Saturday easier. He agreed. And, at the end of the day, there will still be sorting and deliveries of 1st class so all in all it seems it is a totally ridiculous idea

If they are wanting to get rid of letters and just deal with parcels, it makes sense now (to me) why they are keeping parcel prices at a reasonable rate, incluidng free collections

[mrs-trebus16]

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@qualitycardsandgifts wrote:

I think at some point the government are going to have to allow Royal Mail to change in order for them to survive.    No other company will deliver letters, so there will have to be some compromise.  

---

The government don't have a hand it it any more. They relieved their part in it back in 2011 when the company was privatised

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Of course they do.

Why do you think that the proposals keep getting rejected?  They are legal requirements now.

So for Royal Mail to make changes to their Letter services, the law needs to be changed, irrespective of whether or not they are a private company!

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I wouldn't pay too much attention to what your postie says, they only have a partial picture.

If RM changes the way they deliver 2nd class letters, to a longer period, it means that overall, there will be less deliveries.

I would be willing to bet, that the vast majority of post these days, is 2nd and not 1st class.  After all, if there is sufficient time for something to actually go via snail mail, instead of email, then there is generally no great rush for it.

As it stands, the average number of letters that a household receives over the last 12 months, is 4 per week, compared to 14 in 2003/4.

So even if they reduce the deliveries by a single day, they would be saving 20% of the costs for final leg, to deliver that post.

[yorkshire*flower]

Unfortunately the Post office are not meeting their present targets and are being fined - They are so poorly managed and so far behind with technology (online tracking and delivery windows)  its ridiculous. Ill get a text saying my order will be delivered (3hrs window) and very rarely is it in that window infact often next day or 3hrs later. 

I had a Post office business account for years then they brought in new tech and  recategorised loads of my Large letter as parcels and fined me then dipped into my direct debit to take the money - Asked them for proof as I had a template and scales and always made sure they were correct and I was told they didnt need to and my £17k a year account wasnt big enough for them to bother! (Since the post office scandal their arrogance certainly doesnt surprise me)  I posted what happened on here and many others said the same thing had happened to them  - we had all closed our business accounts and gone elsewhere but I tallied that Rm had lost half a million pounds of business just from those on the thread, they have 0 customer care and brought it on themselves.  It really needs breaking up as its not fit for purpose as a viable delivery service

[therenewalworkshopltd]

It must have been a very long time ago, if you had a Post Office business account.

It's been Royal Mail for the last 12 years!  

But I have used Royal Mail for the last 7/8 years or so and have found them to be very reliable for parcels and tracked services.  Particularly so for tracked, as a good proportion of tracked 48 are actually delivered within 24 hours.

For letters not so much, but that's what they have been fined for and not parcel services.

But there is simply no other option for letters, so I really don't know where else you have gone for letter services?  Even there, they are generally delivered on time, with a few exceptions.

[yorkshire*flower]

no it was an OBA account, then move to click and drop, and was with them for about 10yrs up until about 6mth ago. Sorry for not using the correct wording