Privatise the Royal Mail NOW!

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I mean, how long does it take for a package to reach Toronto from London?

Normally they take about a week.

I sent one by airmail on the Monday before last and it still hasn't reached its destination.

There were three C90 tapes in the package as well as an EXTREMELY PERSONAL letter and I shudder at the thought of some thieving fuckwit opening the package, nicking the tapes and laughing himself senseless over my words (I doubly shudder at the fact that my address was at the head of my letter, as it always is).

I spent two bloody weekends compiling those tapes and writing that letter and it all looks as though it's been for nothing.

More likely of course is the possibility that it's just got lost in the stupid incompetence of the Royal Mail.

I think if I send anything like this again I'll use DHL or similar. It costs a lot more but at least the package would go where it was supposed to.

I could pick an argument with the Royal Mail but frankly it's hot, it's summer and I'm sick of having to go through my life having to shout at everyone and give myself a heart attack just to get the simplest of things done.

Britain, you are really fucking turning me into a Tory, day by day, bit by bit.

OK, end of rant, move on, nothing to see here, had to get it out of my system etc. etc. ....

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 16 June 2006 06:30 (nineteen years ago)

could be the canadian mail?

― ∂ (duff), Friday, 16 June 2006 06:34 (nineteen years ago)

I thought about that but she's been getting all the rest of her post through OK this week - everything except my package.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 16 June 2006 06:37 (nineteen years ago)

That doesn't really prove anything, though.

And if it's thieving bastards rather than rubishness to blame, privatising it won't really help either. In fact, it'll probably make things worse as corners are cut to make more cash for shareholders.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Friday, 16 June 2006 06:59 (nineteen years ago)

I suppose that's what led to all these casual workers being taken on in the first place - seems to be where all the trouble started. Are DHL any more reliable, in real terms?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 16 June 2006 07:03 (nineteen years ago)

Sometimes parcels get "intervened" on their way across borders for "security" purposes, which can delay them, but doesn't mean they are lost. I once sent a parcel of books to Spain and it arrived with an extra book (!)

Chick-lit, unfortunately.

I think DHL etc probably *are* more reliable, but there is still room for human error.

Also, bank holidays can cause much longer delays than they ought to.

I only know about UK to Spain and vice versa though.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 16 June 2006 07:15 (nineteen years ago)

i thought it was private!

ie they tried to call it 'consignia'.

― Seriously, Try Punching This Guy in the Face and See What Happens (Enrique), Friday, 16 June 2006 07:19 (nineteen years ago)

"I think DHL etc probably *are* more reliable, but there is still room for human error."

As we speak, Tom Hanks is sitting on a desert island with your parcel, talking to a volleyball.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Friday, 16 June 2006 07:25 (nineteen years ago)

I thought that, too, but it isn't

crosspost

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 16 June 2006 07:26 (nineteen years ago)

Why are you blaming the Royal mail? Things sometimes do take a long time to get to Toronto I've found. My Canadian friends invariably blame the Canadian post though, especially with parcels. Give it a few more days, it might yet arrive.

Looking on the bright side - you can do the tapes again (and much more quickly as you've now got the track listing etc sorted, right?) and write the same letter, also more quickly 'cos you know what you want to say. Then send it International Signed For (which you may well have done anyway I guess - if so you could be entitled to compensation) or DHL obv.

I am being all reasonable to-day because the sun is shining.

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Friday, 16 June 2006 08:14 (nineteen years ago)

It's a half and half thing. It is a PLC, but it is owned by the government.

I can't imagine privatising it will make it better though.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Friday, 16 June 2006 08:17 (nineteen years ago)

It's just frustrating, really.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 16 June 2006 08:24 (nineteen years ago)

My wife sends a lot of stuff to Canada and it always seems to take ages, she also sends mail to USA and that usually gets there in a week. I'm not sure it's our mail that's to blame in this case.

I think Royal Mail has actually improved slightly over the last year or so, at least with regard to stolen mail. I remember starting a similar ranting thread about stolen mail a couple of years ago, probably around the time I first started posting to ILX. Haven't had any problems with that happening for ages.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Friday, 16 June 2006 08:42 (nineteen years ago)

Usually I just send letters to her, and they reach her after about a week. I suppose packages might take a little longer.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 16 June 2006 08:50 (nineteen years ago)

www.hotmail.com

― Seriously, Try Punching This Guy in the Face and See What Happens (Enrique), Friday, 16 June 2006 08:50 (nineteen years ago)

Some poor sole if having all their mail erronuously redirected to my flat. So i call up Royal Mail to ask them to look into it and get completely stonewalled. Nothing they can do about it apparently. I helpfully suggested that they could stop redirecting it but no they don't do this and they certainly couldn't call the person who had set up the redirection in the first place. They didn't even pretend to care.

― mason storm (mason storm), Friday, 16 June 2006 08:52 (nineteen years ago)

The Royal Mail is definitely not hot.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 16 June 2006 08:56 (nineteen years ago)

what kind of mail does a sole get?

xpost

― Seriously, Try Punching This Guy in the Face and See What Happens (Enrique), Friday, 16 June 2006 08:57 (nineteen years ago)

there's a punchline to that somewhere...

― mason storm (mason storm), Friday, 16 June 2006 09:12 (nineteen years ago)

Re-nationalise the Royal Mail!

― Il mio nome e' Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 16 June 2006 09:40 (nineteen years ago)

I've had the same frustration - sending CDs of my music to people whove bought it in the states, including one distributor, and having it blackhole is incredibly frustrating. It's all happened since they started trimming down the post office too, which does lead me to suspect that privatisation might not make things any better.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 16 June 2006 09:47 (nineteen years ago)

In fact it's made them worse

― Il mio nome e' Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 16 June 2006 09:55 (nineteen years ago)

Did you pay for International Signed For?
Chances are its the canadian post.
When i send parcels abroad i pay for Int Signed For so i at least know its left the country.
2 worst places to send mail to - Belgium and Canada. Belgium is a joke actually, i hate swapping stuff with my mate there, i have to take out insurance everytime incase lps go missing again.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Friday, 16 June 2006 10:17 (nineteen years ago)

the royal mail are unmitigated fuckers. during a protracted three-week FITE over why a) half my mail was going missing, and b) why i was getting other people's letters, the customer-service chap with whom i was dealing pretty much admitted that the whole system was in bits and there was very little they could do about it.

gah. i can feel the bile rising. must ... not ... rant. but yes, my solution now is to use courier companies for anything remotely important - and phone/e-mail for almost everything else.

i can't bring myself to see privatisation as the answer to anything. but then i'm the one using private companies to deliver packages. hmm.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 16 June 2006 10:35 (nineteen years ago)

Canada Post, probably. I've lost two packages because of them in the past five years (although they were quick to compensate).

― Bucky Fullminster (vincent spano), Friday, 16 June 2006 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

I buy videogames from Canada becuase they're cheap. It always takes them FOREVER to get here, but they always arrive in the end.

― JimD (JimD), Friday, 16 June 2006 11:25 (nineteen years ago)

Belgium is a joke actually

You bet. And the post here sucks too.

― StanM (StanM), Friday, 16 June 2006 11:45 (nineteen years ago)

Privatisation is not the answer - who's going to pay for the universal postal system? Taking away the monopoly will only make things worse in the long run, as the private mail companies come in take the profitable business mail leaving Royal Mail with even less of the money making stuff, which means there's less money to invest to ensure that the universal service (i.e. same price and service to post letters from anywhere in the uk to anywhere else in the uk) has the infrastructure to maintain a half decent level of service. In addition, none of the competitors have set up their own sorting or delivery facilities for letters, they just pay a measly 11.5p to dump the stuff in Royal Mail sorting offices once they've picked it up from the customer.

I know that it's not perfect, but it's bloody cheap compared to most other postal services.

Getting back on topic, Canada are complete and utter control freaks when it comes to checking incoming international mail.

― Vicky (Vicky), Friday, 16 June 2006 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

hold up, vicky - don't you actually work for rm? or am i going mental?

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 16 June 2006 16:32 (nineteen years ago)

Not any more, not for two years now (same job, but we're a charity now)

― Vicky (Vicky), Friday, 16 June 2006 17:09 (nineteen years ago)

Belgium is a joke actually

You bet. And the post here sucks too.

That isn't what I meant!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Friday, 16 June 2006 20:29 (nineteen years ago)

Don't worry, it was only an attempted joke.

― StanM (StanM), Friday, 16 June 2006 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

If you want to hear a bad postal story (from New Zealand to New York)...
In 2004 I was waiting for a visa to come see me then-girlfriend. I wanted to propose, and didn't want to wait. I wrote a letter, which was drafted many times, and sent a rare old photo, et cetera. It never arrived. I would call her, after a week, then a week and a day, then two days, etc...expecting some monumental conversation. It never came...So I waited another five or six months until I arrived in New York...
(she said yes)

― paulhw (paulhw), Friday, 16 June 2006 20:45 (nineteen years ago)

At least there was a happy ending.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Friday, 16 June 2006 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

I had a winter coat mailed from US to Canada. I got a coat... a stained old bum's trenchcoat. My real coat arrived in Canada the week after I had needed it to take a train back to the states.

― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Friday, 16 June 2006 23:01 (nineteen years ago)

Hurrah! She got the package yesterday! It had been held up at Customs - for some reason it went via Customs at Quebec. But at least it's there, safe and untampered with! A HUGE weight off my mind... :-)

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 07:49 (nineteen years ago)

Glad to hear it - now apologise to the Royal Mail...;-)

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 08:05 (nineteen years ago)

don't apologise! FUCK the royal mail! :)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 08:21 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

this looks good:

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump3?catId=400043&mediaId=26800663

― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 13:40 (nineteen years ago)

hell yeah

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 13:44 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7027142.stm

Royal Mail workers have started the first of two 48-hour walkouts in a protest over pay and fears of job cuts.
After last-minute talks between Royal Mail managers and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) failed to reach a deal, the strike started at noon.
A second two-day strike by the CWU's 130,000 members is scheduled to begin at 0300 BST on Monday, 8 October.
Companies have been warned that the strikes mean there will be no deliveries until next Thursday.

― pfunkboy, Thursday, 4 October 2007 13:49 (eighteen years ago)

darraghmac to thread

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 4 October 2007 13:53 (eighteen years ago)

Haha

― aldo, Thursday, 4 October 2007 13:55 (eighteen years ago)

well? waht do you want me to say? i don't travel royal mail.

― darraghmac, Thursday, 4 October 2007 14:07 (eighteen years ago)

three months pass...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/7184753.stm

― Herman G. Neuname, Saturday, 12 January 2008 20:00 (eighteen years ago)

four months pass...

The postal regulator has called for Royal Mail to be partly privatised to safeguard the quality of the UK's mail delivery service.

― Herman G. Neuname, Wednesday, 14 May 2008 22:27 (eighteen years ago)

Don't try it.

― Alba, Wednesday, 14 May 2008 23:14 (eighteen years ago)

Think it might happen?

― Herman G. Neuname, Wednesday, 14 May 2008 23:18 (eighteen years ago)

So not gonna happen.

― Alba, Wednesday, 14 May 2008 23:18 (eighteen years ago)

I wouldn't have thought so either.

― Herman G. Neuname, Wednesday, 14 May 2008 23:20 (eighteen years ago)

Skipping 38 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

then make a film about it and call it the privatisation of the christ

― ken c, Thursday, 15 May 2008 12:05 (eighteen years ago)

you write as if no church has ever turned a profit ever.

― Thomas, Thursday, 15 May 2008 12:08 (eighteen years ago)

yeah but i am talking about divine net profit here, rather than the holy gross.

― ken c, Thursday, 15 May 2008 12:12 (eighteen years ago)

I'm curious to see how the incorporation of the Poland Street PO here in Soho (always busy, rarely less than 20-30 people in the queue during lunch hour) into a branch of bloody WHSmith in the Plaza shopping centre on Oxford Street will pan out. The PO near Charing Cross is even busier - the queues in there are insane.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 15 May 2008 12:20 (eighteen years ago)

I used to go to the Poland St PO but I go to the one on Lower Regent St now, and try not to go at lunchtime.

― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 15 May 2008 12:23 (eighteen years ago)

the one on newman street is great though

― ken c, Thursday, 15 May 2008 12:41 (eighteen years ago)

in unrelated notes i just had to send a document to my mum via fedex - guarenteed to arrive by saturday noon, and i get to track it hobbling over the continents on the internet. but sets me back £36. this is for ONE PIECE OF PAPER.

it probably won't cost a lot more (relatively) if i was sending more stuff - i should have bought her some presents.

― ken c, Thursday, 15 May 2008 12:44 (eighteen years ago)

Britain, you are really fucking turning me into a Tory, day by day, bit by bit.

Noodle Vague's posts have a similar effect on me.

― stroker ace, Thursday, 15 May 2008 13:07 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.torytube.ca/images/Tory-banner_small.jpg

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 15 May 2008 13:08 (eighteen years ago)

Fortunately when voting day actually comes I have enough self-control not to actually vote Tory. Would that the same could have been said for a million or so Londoners a couple of weeks ago.

― Dingbod Kesterson, Thursday, 15 May 2008 13:11 (eighteen years ago)

And some dude I've never heard of up there.

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 15 May 2008 13:12 (eighteen years ago)

I am totally happy with the postal service.

― jel --, Thursday, 15 May 2008 16:01 (eighteen years ago)

Britain, you are really fucking turning me into a Tory, day by day, bit by bit.

Noodle Vague's posts have a similar effect on me.

-- stroker ace, 15 May 2008 13:07 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Link

darraghmac sockpuppet, i reckon.

― darraghmac, Thursday, 15 May 2008 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

seven months pass...

Marcello might get his thatcherite wish
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7785177.stm

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 15:39 (seventeen years ago)

yes, lets create another private-sector-but-subsidised monopoly, making megabucks for the shareholders and directors whist ripping off the customers for a degraded service. worked for the trains.

― tomofthenest, Tuesday, 16 December 2008 15:46 (seventeen years ago)

... which is eventually sold off to the state-run postal service of another country

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Tom D.), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 15:47 (seventeen years ago)

But as long as Marcello get his mail all will be well!

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 15:55 (seventeen years ago)

the mail really is shite now though innit?

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 15:56 (seventeen years ago)

Seems fine to me

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Tom D.), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 15:59 (seventeen years ago)

it is shit. no sunday collection, no delivery before like 11.30.

― visiting dignitary from an alien civilization (special guest stars mark bronson), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 16:05 (seventeen years ago)

There's never been Sunday collection, has there?

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Tom D.), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 16:07 (seventeen years ago)

Ah right, they had it between 1990 and 2007, don't know when they had it before that

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Tom D.), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 16:10 (seventeen years ago)

I want the 1st and 2nd post back! And 1st post before 9am like it used to be when the royal mail was great

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 16:17 (seventeen years ago)

and privatising it makes that even less likely

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 16:18 (seventeen years ago)

I got a sunday delivery this week.

― Holden McGroin (Ned Trifle II), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 16:19 (seventeen years ago)

We got a parcel 2 years ago on a sunday just before xmas.

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 16:21 (seventeen years ago)

It had been posted in 1948

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Tom D.), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 16:22 (seventeen years ago)

They always deliver on the sunday before Christmas

― Chewshabadoo, Tuesday, 16 December 2008 16:25 (seventeen years ago)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7797701.stm

The price of first and second-class stamps are to rise by 3 pence from 6 April, the Royal Mail has announced.
For standard letters weighing up to 100g, a first-class stamp will cost 39p, while second-class will be 30p.
Royal Mail stressed that the hikes were within the price limits set by the regulator, Postcomm.
It also said that even after the latest set of increases, delivering stamped mail will remain a loss-making business for Royal Mail.
Last year, Royal Mail lost more than £100m providing the universal mail service.

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 23 December 2008 14:21 (seventeen years ago)

Marcello must be on holiday

― Pfunkboy Formerly Known As... (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 23 December 2008 17:44 (seventeen years ago)

tapes??

― s1ocki, Tuesday, 23 December 2008 18:25 (seventeen years ago)

two months pass...

who says no-one listens to the blogoshere, right? right?

― meme economist (special guest stars mark bronson), Tuesday, 24 February 2009 13:21 (seventeen years ago)

Marcello has so much power, hope it doesn't to to his head.

― Pfunkboy in blood drenched rabbit suit jamming in the woods (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 24 February 2009 15:32 (seventeen years ago)

ugh this again

― O Supermanchiros (blueski), Tuesday, 24 February 2009 15:37 (seventeen years ago)

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=6105&edition=1&ttl=20090224153936

― Pfunkboy in blood drenched rabbit suit jamming in the woods (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 24 February 2009 15:40 (seventeen years ago)

three weeks pass...

read this http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2327019.ece

and then the follow-up http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/7956570.stm

― Pfunkboy in blood drenched rabbit suit jamming in the woods (Herman G. Neuname), Saturday, 21 March 2009 11:04 (seventeen years ago)

“I feel that as an outsider who now feels he belongs that I can tell others what they should do.”

yyyep

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 21 March 2009 11:37 (seventeen years ago)

get a stamp vending machine, morans

― Hard House SugBanton (blueski), Saturday, 21 March 2009 11:51 (seventeen years ago)

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00758/broken_english_758576a.jpg

i remember thinking as a little kid that there were two languages in the whole world, english and foreign.

― Darramouss Darramouss will he do the fandango? (stevie), Saturday, 21 March 2009 12:37 (seventeen years ago)

that, like, 'foreign' was the name of the other language.

― Darramouss Darramouss will he do the fandango? (stevie), Saturday, 21 March 2009 12:38 (seventeen years ago)

four years pass...

I hope the OP's happy now.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 10 July 2013 13:32 (twelve years ago)

Britain, you are really fucking turning me into a Tory, day by day, bit by bit.

this from the guy who was an authority on whichever celebs/pop stars had ever exhibited a tory tendency in their entire lives

― Puff Daddy, whoever the fuck you are. I am dissapoint. (stevie), Wednesday, 10 July 2013 13:55 (twelve years ago)

nine years pass...

I wonder what technological advances in mail delivery will be made possible by these new barcoded stamps?

At the moment the barcoded stamps let people watch and share “exclusive” Shaun the Sheep videos,

― ledge, Friday, 23 December 2022 14:27 (three years ago)

This thread aged well

― partez Maroc anthem (Noodle Vague), Friday, 23 December 2022 15:05 (three years ago)

Can’t wait for the free market to fix the health service next

― pilk/pall revolting odors (wins), Friday, 23 December 2022 15:20 (three years ago)

Do the new barcodes stop you re-using unfranked stamps?

― djh, Friday, 23 December 2022 16:52 (three years ago)

i think so. they can't be for the sender or the destination and i can't think why else you'd need to uniquely identify stamps

― koogs, Friday, 23 December 2022 17:06 (three years ago)

three years pass...

A czech billionaire owns the mail?

― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, 24 March 2026 18:03 (two months ago)

I think if I send anything like this again I'll use DHL or similar. It costs a lot more but at least the package would go where it was supposed to.

Ah, the innocence of 2006!

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 24 March 2026 18:08 (two months ago)

I was kind of following the decline of working conditions and worker morale at Royal Mail through the postman/writer Kevin Boniface on twitter. It was already going badly for them a few years before the Czech billionaire bought them out. He was just the kiss of death for a dying patient I think.

― calzino, Tuesday, 24 March 2026 18:17 (two months ago)

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