Royal Mail is a Royal Pain!

Who would have guessed that my first post from the UK would be a rant? Ok, ok, you can all put your hands down now! For those of you who have moaned and groaned over Canada Post’s service, you have nothing to complain about. I am beginning to think that it is a gamble as to whether you will receive a package or if one you send will get to where it is going. To help my case here is my most recent (and ongoing) adventure with the postal system…

Last weekend I ordered a small piece of stereo equipment to help connect my laptop and Wii simultaneously to my system. It is not a large item but it was sent by Recorded Mail, meaning that someone has to sign for it. From what I can ascertain from the events that followed, the parcel was around my house on Tuesday when the post-person (not our regular guy) simply dropped off a “sorry you were out” card in the slot with the rest of the mail. They didn’t even ring the bell and try to deliver it! I know because I was home and watched them in disbelief as they walked away. “Oh well,” I thought as I followed the directions on the card and requested a re-delivery for the next earliest date, Thursday, figuring it will be a little birthday gift. I awaited for the package to arrive throughout the day but didn’t hold my breath as it was the day that a winter storm blew through (6, maybe 7, centimeters of snow fell) bringing the country to a halt it seemed, as well as the postal service apparently. Another “oh well” moment as you can’t control such things. This is when I tried to call the number on the card to inquire about the whereabouts of my delivery, but apparently they were too busy losing mail to be bothered to answer the phone… for 2 days straight.

Then Friday came, and still no package. Our regular postman, a really nice gentleman who we have met several times now, rang the bell to deliver another package, but not the ever elusive one I have been waiting for. I explained my dilemma to him and he said that we would look for the package for me when he was back at the main depot, that and that my inability to reach anyone by phone was not surprising to him. On Saturday (yup, they deliver mail on Saturdays) he came back to let me know that he was unable to locate it and that I should go to the depot to pick it up, which is exactly what I tried to do today.

It was a dreary and wet day out which required a little effort for me to go out in and walk the 30 minutes to the depot, but I wanted my damn package that I paid for! I got there and patiently queued in line, being about the 10th person waiting, to speak to the glass window. While waiting out in the damp we even got to view the postal workers playing pool in their lounge, which resulted in several comments from people about how they are obviously too busy to be able to deliver mail. More people disgruntled over the postal system! My comrades! I felt a bit better now, that is until it was my turn to hand over my little red piece of paper in exchange for a package. I moved to the side and waited as what seemed like dozens of people got their packages. I can see the lady running around in back all over the place trying to find it, to no avail. She comes back to the window at which point I explain the past 7 days’ events to her. She then asked if I went online to request a re-delivery, which is when I got a little snarky. I told her that I did, but technically it wasn’t a RE-delivery since an initial delivery was never attempted and that the re-delivery was supposed to happen 5 days ago. After 5 minutes of her asking me to give her a chance to find it and get back to me, I finally gave up and gave her my phone number to reach me at if she does and left.

Not feeling great about the morning’s events, I proceeded to walk home in the damp, stopping at the bakery to get myself a yummy treat to make me feel better (which it did!) Then, much to my surprise, I received a phone call from the lady at the postal depot. She located my parcel!! Now that the first hurdle has been cleared, finding it, she is going to send it out for re-delivery tomorrow. So, if all goes well on their end, it will probably be here sometime next week. Oi!

Tags: Royal Mail