I had an international redirection in place and was told that any books I ordered in the UK would be sent on. I found that very useful.
I needed to send a large box of legal papers. My housemate went to the post office and asked for advice on how to send it.
The clerks (he checked twice) told him that so long as he packages the papers to weigh less than 4kg, he could send them to my UK address and they would be redirected overseas.
We divided the pile into 6 packs and spent £50 on the postage. (My housemate checked again just before sending to make sure that they would be delivered overseas.)
But they weren't redirected. Just delivered to my home in the UK. I tried to get a refund, but many rude Royal Mail staff (including senior officials) said that they state on their website that they don't send packages over 100g. I read the website information again, and it's ambiguous: "objects that exceed 100g", it does specify papers and other printed material.
Royal Mail told me to complain to Post Office Counters (supposedly a different company). PO Counters said that it's Royal Mail policy.
I eventually contacted the director Barry Duncan as well as POSTRS, Donald Brydon and Moya Greene, but each time I got fobbed off for some obscure reason.
It seems that this total lack of cohesiveness between the various Royal Mail departments is allowed to continue because it helps to increase profits, even if it's only by a few percentage points. But what might seem like a very small amount for them £125 is a lot of money for me. I ended up getting a courier to ship the whole box to me for £75.
They (the redirection sales staff and the clerks at the various post offices) still continue to "advise" customers that they redirect books and printed matter, but I noticed also that all my book orders from Amazon, etc. Were returned undelivered. The customer services operators sometimes say that books will be redirected and sometimes say that books will not be delivered if they are over a certain weight (and the amount varies from 100g to 1kg to 2kg to 4kg).
Royal Mail should fix this problem. It actually costs everybody money. I spent many hours complaining about this issue. Royal Mail has already spent hundreds of pounds in salaries and overheads dealing with my complaint (instead of just refunding me my £50 and perhaps giving me another £50 compensation for additional losses). POSTRS make a big show about helping people, but they impose silly obstacles (e.G. Time limits for complaints) so in reality only a few complaints actually get dealt with.
Nowadays I do my utmost not to use Royal Mail services. Obviously, I have to get statements, etc. From other people and I have to post signed application forms sometimes. But if I can do it by some other means, by email or phone or a private postal service then I do. I also try to order books and products from USA or China rather than do so from the UK because I don't want my items to go through Royal Mail if possible.
Have other people had similar problems? I hope there are other people "boycotting" Royal Mail. But the problem is that post is a necessary service and should be properly controlled by the government. So we can't really boycott a service like this. And there doesn't seem to be anyone in government that one can contact directly to look into these complaints.
What do you think?
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