Parcel Force and the Farce that is the Post Office.

[Mudster]

No wonder this operation loses money.....

I sent a parcel on the 17th December from the local Post Office, not huge, about 6" cube. It needed to get it to Guernsey before Christmas so I went for the Parcel Force 48 hr service.....paid £14.99 which I thought was quite reasonable.

5 days later it's still not there, so I track it on line where it says it's sat in Gatwick awaiting return to sender (my warehouse is in Gatwick).

Apparently the Post office made a **** up of the price, they assumed Guernsey was the same as Jersey, but it isn't, it's a lot more so not enough postage was charged.

Ok I'll come and pick it up then and sort it out...."you can't do that Sir it's being returned to the Hub at Coventry to be returned to you"

"Why is it going to Coventry, I'm in Gatwick and you're in Gatwick?"

"That's where everything goes to be returned Sir."

So it's now actually been to Coventry twice and Gatwick twice because there wasn't enough postage on it to deliver it to Guernsey, and I'm likely to find it returned to the Post Office from where it was sent (you guessed it - in Gatwick) on around the 2nd or 3rd of January.

What a marvel in logistics the Post office are and it's no wonder they are hemorrhaging money.

 

[BTB 500]

I had a parcel sent from Germany, my full address was on it including the postcode ... but the sender put two of the lines in the wrong order (from memory, postcode then town). So the PO here wrote "undeliverable" on it and sent it back to Germany.

 

[glojo]

Crazy and how far apart are these two islands?? At the most you are looking at a whole 25 miles and how much has this parcel actually travelled being returned to the sender?

Computers are never going to replace a thinking, human being but don't tell management as they already know everything.

Regards
John

 

[280gee]

I could not advise trying the Recorded Delivery "service" either these days.
An important letter that we sent on 17th December has so far neither, arrived & been refused or arrived & been signed for.

Ah the tracking number on the issuing office receipt..... no use at all, as the Royal Nail do not consider an item missing until at least fifteen days has elapsed and do not track "recorded" items anyway. More like a tricking number then.

 

[Mudster]

Crazy and how far apart are these two islands?? At the most you are looking at a whole 25 miles and how much has this parcel actually travelled being returned to the sender?

Computers are never going to replace a thinking, human being but don't tell management as they already know everything.

Regards
John

I actually had that conversation with the guy at Parcel Force, I pointed out that they'd moved it further to reject than if they'd have just delivered it.

Morons

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Dont get me started on the royal mail - the number of items I have had left on my step that I was meant to sign for + As far as I can tell, the Royal mail never use their own postcodes.

At work our stupid system sometimes removes the 3rd line of an address (nearly always the town name) and the post always comes back even though it has the house number or name, the street and the postcode.

 

[jaymanek]

our postman always says all we need to put is the house number and postcode...

never tried it!!

 

[TonyVianoAmbiente]

The reason for the parcel coming back via Coventry is that all parcels from outside the UK customs area have to clear customs at a single, central depot located at Coventry Airport. Guernsey is outside the UK customs area, so parcels from Guernsey have to be treated like those from any overseas country and must pass through the Coventry Airport facility.

But Guernsey's postal service is operated by our very own Royal Mail, which makes it appear part of the UK customs area, when it isn't.

The costs of doing customs clearance at more than one depot were far too high. In addition, the threat of terrorism meant that a single, secure facility was needed, so Coventry Airport, which is Britain's busiest air freight hub, was chosen to locate a single depot with full customs clearance facilities. Parcelforce International operates the facility for itself and also for Royal Mail.

 

[jaymanek]

hmm wonder if my american ebay items are in coventry then (left usa on 16 dec)!!! maybe i should go and have a rummage around...

 

[DansSlk]

The reason for the parcel coming back via Coventry is that all parcels from outside the UK customs area have to clear customs at a single, central depot located at Coventry Airport. Guernsey is outside the UK customs area, so parcels from Guernsey have to be treated like those from any overseas country and must pass through the Coventry Airport facility.

But Guernsey's postal service is operated by our very own Royal Mail, which makes it appear part of the UK customs area, when it isn't.

The costs of doing customs clearance at more than one depot were far too high. In addition, the threat of terrorism meant that a single, secure facility was needed, so Coventry Airport, which is Britain's busiest air freight hub, was chosen to locate a single depot with full customs clearance facilities. Parcelforce International operates the facility for itself and also for Royal Mail.

Still no excuse, its cost more to ship it all over the shop than it would have to drop it at the correct addy.

And they messed the price up in the first place.

 

[BTB 500]

our postman always says all we need to put is the house number and postcode...

Yes that's correct, those two items will uniquely identify any property.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Yes that's correct, those two items will uniquely identify any property.

On average we have around 50-100 items returned each week with the house number + postcodes.

Only thing is missing is the town name (our fault) eg:

Mr KillerHERTZ
123 Long Road
CB2 3AA


(Cambridge missing)

 

[BTB 500]

Postcode and house number do identify any property, but that's not to say the PO will deliver something addressed that way! They actually have quite strict 'rules' on how addresses are meant to be written.

When sending mail to UK addresses we need a full and accurate address complete with postcode. You do not need to include a County name provided the post town and postcode are used. Avoid using commas or full stops and do not centre or stagger your lines.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

The pefect example of our system fault (using the address above) would be:

Miss S Pollard
1 Chapel Hill
Bournemouth
BH1 1AA

Note that the Heswall is missing, I know its our systems fault, but I wouldnt have thought that would make a diffenence considering the info avaible...

 

[BTB 500]

Note that the Heswall is missing, I know its our systems fault, but I wouldnt have thought that would make a diffenence considering the info avaible...

AFAIK that bit ("locality") is optional, missing out BOURNEMOUTH (nb capitals ) would be a problem though.

 

[Mudster]

The reason for the parcel coming back via Coventry is that all parcels from outside the UK customs area have to clear customs at a single, central depot located at Coventry Airport. Guernsey is outside the UK customs area, so parcels from Guernsey have to be treated like those from any overseas country and must pass through the Coventry Airport facility.

But Guernsey's postal service is operated by our very own Royal Mail, which makes it appear part of the UK customs area, when it isn't.

The costs of doing customs clearance at more than one depot were far too high. In addition, the threat of terrorism meant that a single, secure facility was needed, so Coventry Airport, which is Britain's busiest air freight hub, was chosen to locate a single depot with full customs clearance facilities. Parcelforce International operates the facility for itself and also for Royal Mail.

This parcel never got as far as customs, the moment it was received at the local sorting office (gatwick) it was rejected and returned to the local post office who made the mistake (gatwick), but they can't return it directly, it has to go via the hub in Coventry (according to the manager of the Gatwick sorting office) - at no point has it even approached customs.

It was sent to Coventry on Christmas eve, then for some bizarre reason mistakenly returned to the sorting office at Gatwick rather than the post office at Gatwick.

Now I know it's at the sorting office, the guy at the sorting office (in Gatwick) tells me it's at the sorting office (at Gatwick) , I'm in - you guessed it - Gatwick.

Don't worry about sending it my friend I'll come and get it..."Sorry sir you can't do that, we have to return it vis the hub in Coventry, you cannot collect it in person and we cannot send it directly to the post office it can only go via the hub in Coventry"

Customs clearance my ****, it's lack of even a modicum of basic common sense and inherent failings in a business that is still run as though it's a nationalised institution and not a private company.

 

[TonyVianoAmbiente]

hmm wonder if my american ebay items are in coventry then (left usa on 16 dec)!!! maybe i should go and have a rummage around...

I have several items from the USA waiting at Coventry Airport. I understand Parcelforce International staffed up for a significant increase in traffic over 2006 (15%) but have been absolutely overwhelmed by a much bigger increase. They could not draft any extra people in to Coventry because they have been overwhelmed with record numbers of domestic parcels as people order online rather than shop for presents.

 

[TonyVianoAmbiente]

Customs clearance my ****, it's lack of even a modicum of basic common sense and inherent failings in a business that is still run as though it's a nationalised institution and not a private company.

So you would prefer it to be run like a private mail company?

You mean, like the private companies that lost the Children's Tax Credit discs, the DVLA (Northern Ireland) licences, the VOSA (Bristol) provisional licence holder details and many more recent examples?

Private mail companies? No thanks!

 

[Dryce]

Postcode and house number do identify any property, but that's not to say the PO will deliver something addressed that way! They actually have quite strict 'rules' on how addresses are meant to be written.

Ah yes. The 'Post Town'.

I recall people trying to figure this one many years ago. The internal bureacracy of the Royal Mail had a notion of what it was that was somewhat at odds of the public's notion.

Not that the any of the 'system' is actually very coherent.

When I order company stuff via the web it's hit or miss whether the system will accept all the bits of the address - the concept of a company name and a building name are alien to some. Then there's my home address which is hit or miss because the house number doesn't appear on some databases.

And then we have some of the Royal Mail's own forms which basically have enough room for a street and a postcode.

And ... I go on (and on) we have the joys of computers that know better so they take the address you give (say a G postcode + post town of Glasgow) and decide that you are in a given region as well (eg. Lanarkshire) whether you are actually in that region or not.

And ... I still go on. You have some oik at the Royal Mail cross because you used your town and not the nearest city (Post Town conflict?) and next time around you get a compalint becfause you specified your nearest city and not the town.

And don't get me started on postcodes. Nice little mess they can be in terms of representation. (Hello London) and it doesn't help when the Royal Mail decides to change them -- which apart from mail getting screwed can also mean things like insurance quotes get screwed too.

 

[BTB 500]

Yes the Post Office changed the post code of my old house ... took years before the new one was accepted everywhere.

That house also had a name but no number, which meant I couldn't order from some websites whose validation insisted on a number (and wouldn't take zero!).