postal problems

[Hedd_Jones]

Hi charles,

I watched a program on the post office any years ago, when they had alot of complaints coming in.

They were losing 14 million parcels a year.

Percentage wise that came to something like 0.18 percent.

Which they felt was reasonable for the quantity of post they were handling.

On the other hand, were the hell does 14 million parcels go every year

Theft is a big problem. At the delivery office. This was identified to me by a guy I know who still works for them.

Basically the posties are pretty good at working out what's in the packet, so if they think its something they want, it gets 'filed' somewhere, under a table, on a shelf or whatever as they sort it in the morning for delivery, or simply goes missing when out for delivery. The filed items are 'liberated' as and when time allows.

Unfortunately if they open the packet and find a piece of Austin 7 and not the I phone they were expecting (or whatever), it either gets chucked, or sometimes ends up in the 'damaged post', and gets sent to a central location for processing. This is a particular problem around xmas when the labour is supplemented by temporary staff I'm told.

I bought a 1930's toy steam engine on ebay, for a couple of hundred quid. A Bowman M101 for you saddos like me. And despite it being a toy it was about 15inches square on the baseplate, and about 10 inches tall over the chimney, so not a small thing, and requiring a large box.

Seller let me know it was on its way, after a week I was getting worried. It had not been sent insured (but at sellers risk still at this point). We go through all the forms etc, its not missing until its been missing 15 working days (so nearly a month etc) blah blah blah. So PAYPAL wont give me any money back until resolved etc.

He had contacted the Post Office 'damaged post' people who were very helpful but had not seen it (I was copied in on all emails by a very good seller - he had even double boxed it and was adamant it was very well packaged indeed)

I mentioned it to my mate who suggested the theft problem. So I made myself very unpopular at the local delivery office asking about it, even had photos of the box. They tried to fob me off but I had the e-mails from the damaged post lot on me. And said my only conclusion was that it had been stolen by the Post Office. There was about 5 of them in the room when I made this statement, and I could tell it hit a nerve.

Would you believe the following afternoon on returning from work, there was a delivery attempted card in the door. When I got back to the delivery office on the following Saturday, there was a box about 18inches square waiting for me. Funny that. It was my toy steam engine.

That was nearly a month late. The seller was a day or so from filling the lost post forms.