h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I get these flowery emails from online buddies along the lines of:

Friendship

Friendship blooms between us
God brought us together
When I'm down and blue
You'll be there for me and I'll be there for you

Then at the end it says

Send this email to ten people or your family will die.

Royal freakin' mail. Fer gossake people. I paid for NEXT DAY delivery. I was up at 7:35 when you claimed to call. You did not even chap the door. And my parcel will apparently NOT be at the depo until tomorrow now (even though I went in cos I though what you scrawled on the card meant that it was already there - Learn to write legibly!!!)
Now I have to drive 100 miles without a winf mirror thankds to you. If I have an accident bet your bottom dollar that I'm gonna sue!

Zantic

>>I was up at 7:35 when you claimed to call<< Oh yes. Hate it. I mean, they've got to come anyway to put the little card through the door - so why not, you know, actually deliver the thing? Or, is there a possibility that, to cut down on the load, they just bring the little card?

You should sue anyway.

They seem to be getting worse; they just dump parcels outside the house when they feel like it. Why not go the whole hog and leave a sign: "We're out. Please burgle us"?

Hmm. Looks like this one has nudged beyond 'petty'

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Hey, look! There's one of my petty hates! Yay!
The whole idea of sueing really gets my goat... s**t happens, deal with it. And remember that just because a few people at Royal Mail are useless it doesn't mean the whole company is. Trust me, I know.

"And remember that just because a few people at Royal Mail are useless it doesn't mean the whole company is"

You are right, it is only the ones that have been involved with delivering *my* mail that are idiots who can't read or be bothered to check if they are putting stuff through the correct door

>>s**t happens<<

Indeed. But if you're paying for a service and it isn't up to scratch, then it's not an act of God, it's someone not doing their job properly.

I'm sure the vast majority of people at Royal Mail do a fantastic job. But they're probably the most frustrated of all, right? There's no point pretending the quality of service is anything like it was a few years ago.

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To be honest: yes "they" *ahem* are.

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Your right it isn't. It's actually better, it's just that the bad stuff gets blown out of proportion and the good stuff gets ignored (96% of First Class deliveries getting there on time is not to be sniffed at when you consider how much post there must be in one day!)

Well that rather depends on your POV and whether it is 96% of everyone's post that is delivered correctly, or if most people get it 99% of the time and a few unfortunate people get it 30% of the time.

Before I moved house I lived in a flat, 21 . I used to receive the mail of 21 . At least the town name was the same My mail used to go to a third block of flats in a different part of town somewhere else, or to 21 Had a scary moment when some very important documents sent to me went missing, they turned up two weeks later at a different flat in my block.

After a lengthy correspondence with the royal mail they decided there were no problems and I was getting all of my post with no difficulty I admit that this ended when I moved a year ago, but considering I was complaining about the awful service for nearly two years with no improvement I doubt it is any better now.

My new house has a different set of problems, and there is a slightly higher chance of receiving all the mail sent to me, but I still get stuff through the dorr that has been put through the wrong letterbox despite being correctly addressed.

This is not a petty hate actually, it is a great big one, so I'll stop moaning about it here

96% of post is delivered correctly. As far as I'm aware that means that 96% of the post which is sent out gets to its destination the next day. Just because you've had a bad experience it doesn't mean the whole company's bad! It's more likely to be a problem at your local delivery office.
Personally I've only had a couple of bad expreiences with Parcel Force/Royal Mail and each time it was because the regular guy was sick and they'd had to arrange last minute cover who didn't know the route properly or was just lazy/

>>the bad stuff gets blown out of proportion<<

I'm not talking about tabloid headlines and TV documentaries, I'm talking about my own experience. How can I blow that out of proportion exactly?

And as for the idea of first class deliveries getting there on time: well that's the problem with statistics, no? The standard of next-day delivery is improved, but only by tacitly altering what most people mean by 'next day' (which used to mean 'before you go to work' but now means 'some time in the early afternoon' - which, in business terms, isn't 'next day' at all).

Look, I work in the public sector (education). Over the same period of time I'm talking about as having seen a sharp decline in mail services, the same pressures have been working all over: I've had to endure all kinds of cuts and disadvantageous changes to my working status against the background of vastly increased demand (so, believe me, I know all about massaging statistics). Ask any doctor, nurse, teacher and they'll all paint a similar picture. But anyone working in the public sector who said 'hey, you know, s**t happens' - we'd be straight out the door. People expect you to do the job so you do the job.

So why a private profit-making (in theory) company expects a general response of 'boo hoo for postie' is beyond me. Let me make it plain. Do any of the eight or nine individuals on short-term contracts who have replaced the single postman who used to work here really give a s**t about doing the job properly? Not my impression. Not the impression of all too many people.

Rant over.

Pardon for the use of an off the cuff expression Mr. Dreadful. I don't have the money or time to sue anyone right now and I hate ambulance chasers. But this morning was frustrating in the extreme and I was ranting. I do tend to occasionally appreciate RM, but not very often as they do tend to lose my stuff on a regular basis.

For a precis for the last few weeks of no longer petty hates *ahem*
Getting my wing mirror broken off in the middle of the night.
The local breakers yards not having replacement mirrors.
Hub caps being nicked/fallen off.
Car window being smashed and stero f****d by b*****d trying to nick it. Also ensuring that my mirror (which was hanging in there with Gaffa Tape) can no longer be used.
Fingerprinting guys not turning up for several hours - during which time I couldn't clear the stuff from my car.
Getting window fixed at 1am - nice man also showed me how to remove the hanging mirror though.
Royal mail failing to attempt to deliver my new mirror.
Dentist this morning.
Finding out that although my package is abviously SOMEWHERE in Dundee, I'll not be able to get it tomorrow (when I will be in Glasgow)

Rant allowed? I know I'm feeling sorry for myself, but too bad. Wallowing can be fun.

Zantic

"massaging statistics"

Is that, like, which city has the highest proportion of massage parlours per capita??

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Despite appearances the Royal Mail is still public-sector (hence 'Royal' Mail), but at the same time it is a business (unlike, sayy English Heritage which is a charity).
Xanatic, I now see how frustrating this must be for you... Does your car have 'please damage me' written on it in special letters that only morons can see?

As for the permanent bloke being replaced with a bunch of temps, unfortunately that kind of thing is widespread at the moment, in both public and private companies. The thing that's most ridiculous about this is that it's actually costs the same for a company to employ one temp than it does for them to employ two permanent staff on the same wage.

When dealing with any company that has let you down it's really down to luck as to whether you speak to somebody who is genuinely doing their best to help you, or some guy who couldn't care less and is just there because they get paid. I tended to get the latter when having to deal with Freeserve (now Wanadoo) last year because no matter who much I tried they couldn't or wouldn't send me my broadband modem... I spent 2 hours on hold once.

Anyway, back to petty hates: Buying a pre-packaged sandwich for lunch and finding that the bread's all dry.

Saw this and had a bit of a chuckle given the current topic of converstion: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4235815.stm

The fact that Royal Mail have sent a letter to residents explaining the situation is deliciously ironic.

How about finding a pre-packed sandwich that doesn't contain.
They are an abomination and have no place in sandwiches, where they make the bread soggy and leave pips everywhere no matter how carefully you try to scrape them off.

How about SIMPLE sandwiches? They always add one more thing that I don't like.

Tesco Sandwiches - STOP ADDING MAYONNAISE TO EVERY SANDWICH! They do one single kind of sandwich without mayo (cheese and pickle). And their selection of veggie sandwiches is poor to say the least.