Letter to Editor: Whatever happened to the delivery of mail in Harlow?
Your Say / Sun 5th Nov 2023 at 02:15pm
Dear Editor,
AM I alone in wondering what on earth has happened to the delivery of mail in Harlow.
Just received four letters at the same time mostly written and posted over two weeks ago.
Unfortunately one was a congestion charge fine for £90 sent on 15th October. Arrived too late for me pay within the specified time resulting in me paying £180.
TFL do not make allowances for the shockingly poor service of the Royal Snail (sic).
Privatisation is and always was a disaster for our public services.
Public transport, buses, trains. Energy firms. Water companies. Outsourcing of council services. Need I go on?
Regards
Michael Beere
Maxine
2023-11-05 14:23:31
Absolutely agree with the shocking service we are receiving at the moment. I’ve complained to Royal Mail and it was no surprise that I only got the standard, inadequate response.
Tim Shaw
2023-11-05 14:34:32
Agree, not had any post at all for at least 2 weeks. As soon as profit comes into it for shareholders things change, with the service for the recipients getting worse.
Debbie
2023-11-05 14:47:48
I agree I order something about 3 weeks ago did not get it the seller had to see if me a never one out for Yorkshire I got it the next day but we think that the first so where's the second one of if that the second one where the first one. I
Darren
2023-11-05 15:06:24
Agree. If we are lucky, we get one delivery a week - and it is all our post for the week in one delivery, which is an issue if letters are time sensitive
Vanessa
2023-11-05 15:12:02
We finally got some post after two weeks and one of the letters that finally arrived was notifying me of a change in my hospital appointment. Unfortunately it arrived after the appointment so I’d already wasted the time. Has anybody had a proper explanation as to what’s going on?
Disgusted
2023-11-05 15:56:39
Although my postie works out of Waltham Cross not Harlow, l asked him yesterday (when he collected a parcel from me) where my actual letter post is as l am waiting for two (urgent) letters, he told me they are instructed to prioritise collection and delivery of parcels as this where the post office make there money, they don't care about letter post. With the cost of postage as it is now l think it is disgusting
Charlie
2023-11-05 16:19:27
Royal Mail will lose out over this. With the awful deliveries (I hesitate to say service as it is not a service) and the extortionate cost of stamps, a lot of people are thinking of not sending Christmas cards this year. Only sending to people who are not on social media, all of our family and friends on Facebook will get Christmas greetings online this year.
I’ll do that Billy
2023-11-05 18:10:25
Letter deliveries are a financial drain/loss to RM, an ever tightening noose around the company’s neck. They are legally obliged to operate the USO, six days a week. This is ridiculous, unsustainable and decades out of date.The only courier/carrier regulated by stringent Ofcom controls. Ask yourself why no other operator offers letter delivery services. RM has to be a big player in parcel and package fulfilment to survive. If RM falls over the whole sector collapses, they handle more traffic then all the other carriers put together. Amazon rely heavily on RM. The reason postal services are in decline is nuanced, primarily it is just not cost effective. You can shout all you like about ‘ I was waiting for this that and the other’ , but the reality is thus. Stamp price increases. Scale of economy, one price goes anywhere, £1 letter to the Scottish Highlands from Harlow. You do the maths. One of your contributors refers to ‘extortionate price of stamps’, what, round about a quid, what can you get for that?,goodness me.
Jasper
2023-11-05 20:16:22
Forget all the clap trap. Mail always made profit. Strangly now the deliveries are when they want to do them. Not too long ago we had 2 deliveries a day and they made lots of profits
Tony Fearon
2023-11-05 20:27:37
Michael Beere has answered his own question. PRIVATISATION is what has happened to mail deliveries, not just in Harlow but right across the UK.
Tracy George
2023-11-05 21:12:20
Last week alone I wasted 30 odd hours, waiting indoors for parcels. They scan them in the morning, generating a 'parcel will be delivered today' email. 7pm in the eve, get another email saying sorry, cannot attempt delivery, will try tomorrow. Problem is, the next day Royal Mail do the same thing all over again. I've never thought Hermes would've been a better bet than the post office that's for sure.
Juju
2023-11-05 21:30:45
I have been waiting 3 months for 2 letters from DWP. If I hadn’t rung them and asked for documents to be delivered via email I would have missed the reply due date. Although I have a fantastic postman I am appalled by the service Royal Mail are giving its customers. At the end of the day it’s the customers who pay the top bods wages. Customers will stop using Royal Mail and pay that bit extra for a courier service.
Pedro
2023-11-05 22:57:52
Archaic work practices and a refusal to modernise by the workforce will lead to the end of our postal service
Martyn
2023-11-06 00:17:19
We had a huge dump of mail, the first in a couple of weeks. Included in the mail dump were two hospital appointments, both in the past. There is no accountability with RM. If you pay for first class, you should get first class. You don’t get the service you pay for and with any other business you’d get your money back.
DEC HAN
2023-11-06 05:44:17
The Royal Mail has not been Privatised Yet!!! But our wonderful Government 🤣😂🤣😂 are doing everything possible to make it so along with our once great NHS, the Government get more kickbacks from Private Companies and not much of a bonus/cashback from state owned companies, corporations or businesses why do you think The Tories sold off almost everything years ago?? MONEY THE ONLY THING TORY MP’s ARE TRULY PASSIONATE ABOUT!!!!
Lesley
2023-11-06 06:59:12
I’m waiting for important information. From hospital no post for 3 weeks
David morton
2023-11-06 10:26:04
I have a family member who works for the post office and the post men and woman are up in arms, it's not their fault, they are being told to priorties parcels over letters, my car insurance renewal was sent out on the 7th October and still not received it, if your waiting for a hospital appointment your better off ringing on a regular basis or risk missing it and going to the back of the que, ironically there's never a delay on increasing the price of stamps.
Seamus
2023-11-06 12:15:48
Royal Mail is simply in a mess because of us. Like a village pub, if you don't use it, you lose it. Almost all communications these days are by text, email, social media, whatsapp etc. Sure you could blame privatisation but the drop in letters shows there is a problem. You could blame the postmen and women for taking shares to allow privatization to go ahead but it was going to go ahead eventually so why not take them? You could blame the company for seeing letter deliveries and the staff to deliver them, are your biggest area of company loss. It's probably a mixture of all of those but the biggest is that we stopped using the letter service ourselves in favour of digital communication. Technology always has an employment cost.
Stuart
2023-11-06 12:54:55
DEC HAN - the Royal Mail was privatised in 2015.
Cp
2023-11-06 13:07:15
I had 6 letters delivered saturday and one was about an important appointment 2 days previous. Thanks royal mail,it caused me so much stress
AuntyBoo
2023-11-06 13:45:50
I completely agree with everybody on here and their complaints about Royal Mail. I've just had the second parcel delivered via Royal Mail through my letterbox and the packaging is so ripped and some contents missing. This isn't a one off, it happens too often so they can't even be trusted to deliver an intact parcel. What I would say to all of the people on here that are waiting for hospital letters, call the hospital and tell them you want to be paper free and appointments sent via email. That's what I've done since the beginning of the year and it works great. You just get your appointments via your phone.
Keith Elliot
2023-11-06 14:55:19
Hope NHS charges post office 🏤 for my missed appointment as got letter three weeks late.
Chris
2023-11-07 11:49:12
2 weeks inbound seems to be the going timescale at present, and as said then appears to arrive in a huge bundle. They do appear to be observing a specific lead-time. After 10 working days late post can be eligible for compensation (to the sender).
Mike
2023-11-07 15:29:33
Perhaps they should have the Royal warrant removed it doesn't appear to mean anything. Our illustrious MP failed to comment on it when I contacted him recently. I too have failed to receive hospital apps in time, fortunately I am pre advised ( is that good English) so am able to attend. January soon, time to increase charges again
Rosey
2023-11-07 16:16:06
I have heard that 14 staff have been made redundant at Harlow, and the the bosses there don’t care that letters are piling up.
25 Comments for Letter to Editor: Whatever happened to the delivery of mail in Harlow?: