Looking to contact David Cochrane

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Many years ago, this happened to me: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2004/j...sumerpages

Remarkably, after publication, RM paid out in full...

[Steve kay]

Privatisation, Ruairidh, got to look after the shareholders first.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

C’est vrai.

[Tony Betts]

Steady on Tony, I’ve just had dinner!

Hi ivor,

Sorry about that.

A big fat, hairy,  customs officer. Rifling through my used crusty still makes me cringe.

I shudder to think what it does to others 

There are times you dont want to be the third party

Tony.

[Charles P]

Privatisation, Ruairidh, got to look after the shareholders first.

It wasn't private in 2004 when the story was published.

C

[Tony Griffiths]

Privatisation, Ruairidh, got to look after the shareholders first.

It wasn't private in 2004 when the story was published.

You beat me to it. We send out loads of mail and, so far in the last ten years, our few (low-value) claims have, happily, been met. One downer is that compensation for first-class mail was cut (to £20 I think) caused I was told, by masses of people making spurious claims against low-value items. Some of the worst practices are perpetrated by UPS and FedEx - lots of stories online about the tricks they try to pull off. We avoid them with one exception - if the customer has an account, we use that.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I thought the Post Office became a public company, with shareholders, in 2001 - my apologies.

I should point out that it is the one and only time that the Special Delivery service they offer has ever let me down in any way. When I absolutely need it to get there, I use SD.

PO are also the only real choice for reliable service to Northern Ireland just now, in my experience.

[Steve kay]

An apologetic historian writes, one should always check dates. Whilst Royal Mail lost its monopoly on operation of mail  services in 2006, the process of privatisation began in 2010, and was completed in 2014. Now, does anyone have reservations about the time of 9 minutes 28 seconds attributed to Herbert Austin for his ascent of Middle Hill on a single cylinder Wolseley in August 1905?

[Dennis Nicholas]

We are lucky enough to have a very good MP.  He is a QC so very well versed in Law and he and his team look after his rural constituency in a very caring way.  I have had cause to seek their help on a couple of occasions with good results.
May I suggest you all engage your local MP with these postal problems, especially where Royal Mail is concerned.  If nothing else it would flag up the problem all over the UK and maybe even show up just a few bad areas.  With enough complaints the MPs may get results; even if for just a single complaint they may not have the time or inclination to aggressively fight a case.  The problems would be made aware.
I believe there should also be a law passed where a delivery company has to show a phone or email contact number which gets to a human.  I have wasted much time in the past chasing up lost/undelivered/wrong-items-delivered and found the companies "customer services" to be useless, especially the automated "chat with us" ones that restrict what you can enter.
So sorry to hear our traders are having so much trouble.

Dennis

[Ian Dunford]

I find myself in a similar no win situation with my occasional need to send small packages.
The nearest Post Office is a mile away with waits of around half an hour or more for service..
The only practical solution is to have the parcel collected with a minimum charge of around ten pounds.
The vast majority of my requirements weigh at least ten kg and go by carrier anyway.
Small value despatches are a real problem to me,and the occasional customer.