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Post by mtrstudent on May 28, 2023 14:50:24 GMT
UPS are crap as well. Should have had a parcel delivered on 25th May got an email saying it was delayed. Went on their tracking app and it said would be delivered by end of day 26th. Nothing arrived then yesterday 27th got another email saying it would now be delivered on 30th May. Snag is we’re out all day so logged on to my UPS account and tried to get it sent to a drop off location but you can’t do that until delivery has been attempted. So tried to change the date of delivery and got same response. I think they could have stolen an engagement ring from me. I waited by the front door and round 8:15 the phone goes *Ping* "your package was delivered at 8:12 pm". No package and didn't see anyone deliver. Nor did the security cameras that watch the front door and all around. The return address probably have away that it was a pricy package so they nabbed it?
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Post by metalhead on May 28, 2023 14:55:54 GMT
I've been selling like an absolute beast this year on eBay. Made £600 in January alone and pretty much throwing anything worth selling on eBay since. I've grown a bit tired of my local post office (Alsager). The opening hours are 9 (usually 9:05 or 9:10) to 5:30 which is naff if you work. The staff constantly try to upsell me postal services I don't need and tend to play really dumb when I ask questions like which services have a reference number, which they seem to intentionally confuse with a tracking number that are significantly more expensive. Additionally, I can't stand the queuing system but we'll gloss over that... That's a "customers being dicks" issue. I tried eBays own subsidized option the other day. It's either Evri Packlink, UPS, DPD or Yodel. I took the cheapest option Evri at £2.75, a pound cheaper than Royal Mail and with proper tracking right to the door. Dropped it at my local Evri dropoff point which opens at 6am. Delivered on time with limited fuss. For an extra pound, they'll pick up from your door... I think my days of using RM are over. Anyone else in the same boat? Sadly posy offices survive off commission from Royal Mail products. Sending stuff just normal 2nd class barely makes them any money, hence the pressure from the post office to try and upsell or at least make you away you won't be covered if Royal mail lose an item. Yes but it has merely pushed me to look for alternatives. Tbh, yesterday was the final straw. Decided not to open on a Saturday? What because it's bank holiday? I'll be giving it a long swerve from now on.
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Post by metalhead on Nov 18, 2023 12:01:29 GMT
So it's 6 months since I stopped using Royal Mail via my local Post OFfice and thought I'd come back on my experiences so far. In that time, I've probably sold 100+ items so have learnt some things. In a nutshell, I only use my Post Office and/or Royal Mail if I'm absolutely desperate. I've mostly used Evri via eBAy, which I believe is what used to be called Hermes. Majority of items I send are unlikely to be damaged (even by the most clumsy of delivery guys) and have a cost up to about £40 The Good - Delivery times are on a par with equivalent Royal Mail services. - Cost for their cheapest tracked service is very good (better than RM) - Not a single damaged item yet. - Service facilitated by a local shop which has better opening times, so I can drop off on the way to work or during the evening. The Bad - On two occasions, the local shop were unable to take my parcel. The first time, the machine had broke. The second time, they had run out of paper. Both issues rectified within 24/48 hours, but inconvenient nonetheless. - The shop don't weigh your parcel up front, so obviously it's on you to check that before paying on the eBay app. There was one that I slightly underweighed (about 0.5kg off) which meant I purchased the wrong service. In fairness eBay, I was only charged the difference in cost and not penalised with fines/fees for this, but they did keep the parcel on hold while I paid the difference. There was an option to dispute the weight difference, but I opted against it. They were probably right. - The user experience ranges from somewhere between clunky to dog shit, regardless of if you use your PC or your phone app. To purchase a delivery label, it sort of segways you onto a third party platform, and in doing so, you have to go through this nightmare: 1. Fingerprint to verify it's you. 2. Grant access to your eBay account' (yes, every time, even though I've done it 100 times before) 3. Select your Delivery service, protection level (although it does usually fill in the defaults for you) 4. Scroll to the bottom to pay, weirdly enough, via PayPal which is a service that eBay have sort of done away with... Then you're generated a QR code, which for reasons only known to them, is only visible in the app only once! Scroll away from the page? You've fucked it. The label is sent via e-mail as well in fairness, but what an absolute faff. Just a bad user experience all around. For larger and more expensive parcels, I've been using Parcelforce collection from my doorstep and they've also exceeded my expectations. Collection is about £1.20 more (usually). I had used Parcelforce via the Post Office before, but I find their doorstep service to be really very good
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Post by lawrieleslie on Nov 18, 2023 13:23:32 GMT
Our village post office is part time as the postmaster runs 2 post offices in neighbouring villages. So ours is supposed to open 9 to 12 mornings Monday to Saturday and 1 to 5 in afternoon in next village. It’s hopeless to rely on him opening on time or sometimes even at all. This guy takes the piss and and if he earns the average £34k as a post master plus takings from none mail stuff then he’s on a good earner. I complained to the post office about him and their answer was "opening times are at the discretion of post masters". Fair enough if he sticks to his advertised hours but he regularly doesn’t. I’ve now given up and drive a couple of miles to the next post office who are friendly and reliable.
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Post by jesusmcmuffin on Nov 18, 2023 13:32:09 GMT
I found some old West ham autographs from a sportsman dinner years ago, Devonshire, Brooking etc and asked on line if any West Ham fans wanted them. Was about 5 different 8 x 10 pics. Took 4 months to arrive to London. Obviously were found somewhere at a sorting office but a but surprised when I got a thank you from the fella saying they'd eventually arrived.
As for Evri, I wouldn't trust them to deliver anything. A company I order clothes from sent 3 parcels, about £150-£350 in each. They all arrived at Crewe sorting depot then vanished off the delivery radar. They obviously don't use them any more
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Post by lawrieleslie on Nov 18, 2023 13:33:42 GMT
The Royal Mail is running on fumes. Pathetic service However Evri are even worse. Cheap but rubbish, you get what you pay for I’ve found Evri to be quite good down here in Devon. Royal Mail deliveries are ok but post office is abysmal. UPS are the pits as well.
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Post by prestwichpotter on Nov 18, 2023 19:05:08 GMT
Evri in the main are absolutely shocking. An expensive rebrand and name change from Hermes doesn’t seem to have changed anything.
But it generally comes down to the efficiency of the local depots so it can often be a postcode lottery…..
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Post by jesusmcmuffin on Nov 18, 2023 21:02:08 GMT
The Royal Mail is running on fumes. Pathetic service However Evri are even worse. Cheap but rubbish, you get what you pay for I’ve found Evri to be quite good down here in Devon. Royal Mail deliveries are ok but post office is abysmal. UPS are the pits as well. The problem I had with a certain clothing company and Evri was that they were sent out in their own brand packaging and Evri employees could obviously know what was inside and so it never went as far as scanned to their route etc..ie it would arrive at the depot, be scanned as arrived then never be seen again as the employees, drivers , night shift or whatever would help themselves. They said they were having to replace £1000s a week due to Evri/Hermes and dropped them as their delivery Company.of choice in the end. Perfume at Xmas was another one that had a habit of disappearing at Evri depots with Xmas staff. I had a friend Tracey who worked at Evri and she said theft was rife, . Drivers basically said a parcel wasn't there in their delivery bin, wrote the number in a missing parcel book and would load the parcel into their car without scanning it and no one cared or supervised them. They basically reported it as missing and kept it
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Post by metalhead on Nov 18, 2023 23:36:42 GMT
Our village post office is part time as the postmaster runs 2 post offices in neighbouring villages. So ours is supposed to open 9 to 12 mornings Monday to Saturday and 1 to 5 in afternoon in next village. It’s hopeless to rely on him opening on time or sometimes even at all. This guy takes the piss and and if he earns the average £34k as a post master plus takings from none mail stuff then he’s on a good earner. I complained to the post office about him and their answer was "opening times are at the discretion of post masters". Fair enough if he sticks to his advertised hours but he regularly doesn’t. I’ve now given up and drive a couple of miles to the next post office who are friendly and reliable. Ultimately, they're not wrong about the opening times. You're not obligated to use them though and that's how I viewed it. It sometimes feels like we're under a moral obligation to use certain British institutions and the post office feels like one of them, but the reality is, when the one near you is a pile of shit, then why should you? It's worth pointing out that for every Alsager Post Office, which I really do not rate, you have Audley which has a really good one. It opens extremely early and the people there genuinely know their shit, so I can't really knock them. Just a shame it's not my local. I found some old West ham autographs from a sportsman dinner years ago, Devonshire, Brooking etc and asked on line if any West Ham fans wanted them. Was about 5 different 8 x 10 pics. Took 4 months to arrive to London. Obviously were found somewhere at a sorting office but a but surprised when I got a thank you from the fella saying they'd eventually arrived. As for Evri, I wouldn't trust them to deliver anything. A company I order clothes from sent 3 parcels, about £150-£350 in each. They all arrived at Crewe sorting depot then vanished off the delivery radar. They obviously don't use them any more Sorry to hear that mate. I rarely sell items that expensive on eBay. The fees are a bit too much and there's also the risk of some shady buyer stitching you up. For the items I have been selling, it's worth the risk and Evri have proved more than capable and have far exceeded my expectations tbh. I was definitely expecting a few issues, but so far, I've had none. For the higher priced stuff, I use Parcelforce online. Evri only insure up to a very low amount whereas Parcelforce will insure up to the value of the item. You can book them online and they come to your door. Their service is truly excellent and the cost is a pound or two (depending on weight) more than using your Post Office. Ultimately though, as the buyer, don't you have consumer protection of some sort?
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Post by lawrieleslie on Nov 19, 2023 7:59:24 GMT
Our village post office is part time as the postmaster runs 2 post offices in neighbouring villages. So ours is supposed to open 9 to 12 mornings Monday to Saturday and 1 to 5 in afternoon in next village. It’s hopeless to rely on him opening on time or sometimes even at all. This guy takes the piss and and if he earns the average £34k as a post master plus takings from none mail stuff then he’s on a good earner. I complained to the post office about him and their answer was "opening times are at the discretion of post masters". Fair enough if he sticks to his advertised hours but he regularly doesn’t. I’ve now given up and drive a couple of miles to the next post office who are friendly and reliable. Ultimately, they're not wrong about the opening times. You're not obligated to use them though and that's how I viewed it. It sometimes feels like we're under a moral obligation to use certain British institutions and the post office feels like one of them, but the reality is, when the one near you is a pile of shit, then why should you? It's worth pointing out that for every Alsager Post Office, which I really do not rate, you have Audley which has a really good one. It opens extremely early and the people there genuinely know their shit, so I can't really knock them. Just a shame it's not my local. It’s the fact that he rarely sticks to his published opening times that pisses people off and he’s losing customers. Many of us drive or cycle the couple of miles to Elburton where they open at 9-5.30 Monday-Saturday.
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Post by metalhead on Nov 20, 2023 13:44:54 GMT
Ultimately, they're not wrong about the opening times. You're not obligated to use them though and that's how I viewed it. It sometimes feels like we're under a moral obligation to use certain British institutions and the post office feels like one of them, but the reality is, when the one near you is a pile of shit, then why should you? It's worth pointing out that for every Alsager Post Office, which I really do not rate, you have Audley which has a really good one. It opens extremely early and the people there genuinely know their shit, so I can't really knock them. Just a shame it's not my local. It’s the fact that he rarely sticks to his published opening times that pisses people off and he’s losing customers. Many of us drive or cycle the couple of miles to Elburton where they open at 9-5.30 Monday-Saturday. It's not that different to Alsager. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, the straw that broke the camels back was one time they decided not to open at all, on a Saturday. More so than most other shops, people rely on their local Post Office, so to just sack off opening one day really demonstrates a level of contempt for the local people who rely on that shop.
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Post by mrcoke on May 29, 2024 8:57:19 GMT
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