Changing house name ( OT).

[Frank Erskine]

Some 'intelligent' ones insist on a county, but won't accept anything but the putative one that it's programmed with...

[Andy Hall]

One might actually *have* a title....

[Owain]

One does, but one only uses it for TV licensing.

Revd Owain.

[Andy Hall]

Wee Free?

[Owain]

Free, but with 20 million Ministers, not wee. (And if you want to be Master Of Wicca, not free.) Quite a lot of us at

[Andy Hall]

Yes but you don't get to kiss any rings....

[EricP]

Want a bet? You get some strange things in those woods at night!

[Lobster]

Oh yes... IIRC it's *Lord* Hall, isn't it ;-)

BTW you-know-who seems awful quiet these days doesn't he?

[NRH]

Wait until they've been run out of business by private competition, and you've got three or four purely business oriented competitors delivering all the post. It'll be nothing but high-priced deliveries and junk mail, you can be sure of that!

[Andy Hall]

According to someone, yes.

Yes. Perhaps he sold an awful lot of combis with magnetic sludge extractors. Either that, or the boys in his shop have had a whip round for a round the world tour.

[Andy Hall]

That will be excellent.

Not exactly. The *really* junk mail stuff will be priced out of the market and will be more likely to be delivered along with the local newspapers.

Other deliveries *should* cost more.

Two thirds of the problem with the Royal Mail/Post Office is that it still has a public sector mentality.

The remaining third is that not enough is charged for a decent service.

There is virtually zero chance of changing the culture of Royal mail/Post Office, so it might as well be left to take its own natual path to oblivion. If that can be accelerated, then all to the good.

Once the market has been left to complete its natural course, as it inevitably will, only items that *need* to be printed and delivered will be and there will be an obvious incentive for everything else to be handled electronically. Useless junk mail like cheques, bank statements and all the rest of it can easily be eliminated tomorrow.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I think you're being unfair. I get a good service from Royal Mail - considering their regulation and the requirement to carry any mail anywhere at a fixed price. Much better than some of the private couriers. Of course I'm not including Parcel Force in this...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Well, he did sort of semi crack up some months back if you remember him threatening to set the police on me. Or something like that. Perhaps he's finally flipped. But he seems to have a worthy successor in 'timegoesby'.

[Andy Hall]

That was really the third of the problem - that requirement doesn't make sense.

If I actually look at what I get delivered by Royal Mail vs. what comes delivered by courier, there is very little indeed that RM delivers that actually *needs* to be delivered in physical form.

In a typical week I get:

- A few magazines that I actually want. Actually I do like to have the hard copies of these but secured PDFs available on line would be fine.

- Bank and credit card statements. Investment statements. All of these can be provided on line. Amex already does this and doesn't send paper. My bank sends printed statements. I shred them because the same is available on line

- Utility bills. I have asked BT to stop sending paper. They have not managed this quite yet

- Government communications, e.g. tax documents, local authority stuff. None of this is needed in paper form.

- Political pamphlets

- Junk mail

90% plus of all of this lot goes into the rubbish with some via the shredder.

I am struggling to find what actually *needs* to be delivered by Royal Mail. It's a complete disaster involving them in anything that involves importation - that wastes far too much time because of their procedures for doing it.

When it comes to delivery of goods, I specifically choose suppliers who don't use Royal Mail or Parcelfarce if at all possible or specify that these carriers are not to be used.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I can never tell the difference.

[Brian Sharrock]

snip

snip

Yonks ago; perhaps in the early sixties, I dimly recall a short story in 'Analog' (the SF magazine) the story concerned a worker (Male; Gamma, Block NNNN, Cell YYYY) who'd had the temerity to write a genuine letter to an worker (Female; Gamma; Block ZZZZ, cell XXXX) that he'd spotted and fancied in the street. He was accused of crimes against the state because his hand written envelope had 'broken' the automated mail system and completely screwed up the distribution of 'Bank and Card statements'; 'Utility bills'; 'Government Communications'; 'political pamphlets'; 'Junk Mail'; etc. etc. ... !

Hang on! It's wasn't a SF story! It's (almost) happened!

[Huge]

Anglian Water insisted we had a number. Actually, the pod person on the 'phone told me "but everyone has a number". That really pissed me off. Anyhow, so far as AW are concerned, we're #100.

[jkn]

Hi Brian 'Computers don't Argue', by Gordon Dickson?

's a story by Ray Bradbury which I'm also reminded of ... can't remember the title tho'

Jon N

[Tony Bryer]

But is unlikely to change, notwithstanding that IIRC it can cost £8 for a delivery to some isolated rural addresses. Labour aren't going to upset the mail unions and the Conservative aren't going to tell their rural supporters that anyone who lives in a settlement of less than (say) 500 homes will have to pay a delivery surcharge or collect their mail from the PO. Look at the press outcry over the closure of uneconomic rural post offices.

Personally I think the PO does a pretty good job: we spent £2700 on postages last year and the vast majority of first class items seem to get delivered next day.

[Peter Parry]

I'm yet to come up with a satisfactory way of reading a magazine in PDF format whilst in the bath.