In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes
Absolutely. You will never match Royal Mail for cost/service by using some private, cherry picking courier. They just couldn't do it, and provide truly a national service.
The couriers are probably great if you happen to live in or near a large city, but hopeless for those of us who prefer a more rural existence.
In message , Andy Hall writes
Ask the man behind the counter to mend the roof. (See? Nearly back on topic).
In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes
Ditto. I have received many hundreds of packages from USA, Canada, Europe and Australia over the last, say, five years, ranging in value from a few pounds to hundreds of pounds. The ONLY problems have been with parcels carried by idiot couriers. Luckily, they are a very small minority.
Of course they can. It's simply a matter of what people are willing to pay.
Curious idea. I can and have had packages delivered to and collected from far more remote places than Scotland in two days.
So please explain to me how to arrange that Royal Mail delivers a package to me and invoices me for the import VAT afterwards.
If you can do that, please provide the details of their procedure and how to ensure that my local office follows it.
|!On 2007-05-05 17:58:53 +0100, Graeme said: |! |!> In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" |!> writes |!>> |!>> Weird. I've bought several items from the US that involved duty payable |!>> and not had this problem. |!>> |!> Ditto. I have received many hundreds of packages from USA, Canada, |!> Europe and Australia over the last, say, five years, ranging in value |!> from a few pounds to hundreds of pounds. The ONLY problems have been |!> with parcels carried by idiot couriers. Luckily, they are a very small |!> minority. |! |!So please explain to me how to arrange that Royal Mail delivers a |!package to me and invoices me for the import VAT afterwards. |! |!If you can do that, please provide the details of their procedure and |!how to ensure that my local office follows it.
They did not deliver such a package to me. They said "come and collect it from the local Office and pay us ????"
Oh the roof isn't broken.
This is a main post office in a town centre with plenty of space inside and plenty of counters. Usually it has a queue of about 20 people, two people serving and another 6 milling around in the background pretending to look busy.
If I have to collect a package, I have to go to a window at the side of the building outside, over which there is a 1m square porch. That will keep one person dry as long as it isn't windy.
The building has a car park at the rear, but customers are not allowed to use it. There is a hand written notice to the effect that they will not be served if they do, or if they have the temerity to use their mobile phone even while waiting in line. I could understand it not being reasonable to use a phone while being served, but it isn't for RM employees to dictate the behaviour of the customers who are paying their wages when they haven't (yet) engaged in conversation with them to serve them.
How any of that can be described as any level of service beggars belief.
- The staff inside should be focused on minimising queuing time for customers. They can do their other work later
- Collection should be available inside the building
- The car park should be available for customer use. it's simple enough to have a token barrier to prevent misuse.
If a service actually were being offered, they would be delivering the goods and sending an invoice afterwards. Everybody else manages that.
There were no other options offered, the whole procedure was highly inconvenient and because of the time taken, expensive as well.
Here, on the south coast, all the 'input' sorting offices have been scrapped (AIUI) and every piece of mail goes to Redhill. At Redhill -handy for Gatwick - it's sorted then bundled back to the local 'sorting' offices which deal with 'outgoing' mail. So to post a letter to my next-door neighbour, the missive will clock up forty(?) miles there .. and forty(?) miles back. But it's efficient ... the junk-mail leaflet from RM said so!
Once upon a time I received some maps from the USA, value of 250.00 dollars. They came via Fedex and were abandoned on the doorstep. Some weeks later I received a bill from Fedex for about £2,500 - the VAT and their fees on $25,000.
Despite all the paperwork showing $250 they insisted the shipper had told them it was $25,000 (The shipper denied doing so - it would have been 5 times greater than their highest ever order so they think they would have remembered). The Fedex "solution" was for me to pay them the £2,500 as "it doesn't matter - you are VAT registered and can just reclaim it". Without a shadow of doubt they employed (in this case) the most dimwitted, irrational and illiterate individuals it was possible to find. I assume their training was franchised out to the Mchamburger university.
They have an automatic letter writing system which was rejected by eBay as being too useless. No matter what you wrote you got back one of a dozen stock letters none of which had any relevance to the problem.
It then turned out that a week before they had even sent the bill out they had mistakenly passed the account to debt collectors as being two months overdue. That put me onto a different loop of auto-letters and gibbering loons not merely from Fedex but also from their rentathugs. When you realise the most intelligent life form you are dealing with is the receptionist in the firm of debt collectors you begin to realise all is not well.
All in all it took several weeks and many hours dealing with the illiterate Neanderthals before they finally admitted they had got the amount wrong and also that 05/03/03 on an American bill does not mean it was due on the 5th of March, two months before the parcel was even posted.
I then got onto another treadmill of computer generated apology letters from Presidents, Vice Presidents, Operations Presidents, Customer Comfort Presidents, the flight attendant who sat with the package on its way over and the warehouse floor sweeper who saw the parcel on a rack whilst sweeping one evening.
All in all, most depressing.
Admittedly the Quality Street didn't prove to be quite as good a long-term investment as piggies.
Owain
The only way that couriers ever manage to deliver anything in this area (Deeside) is to come to the PO first, and ask for directions.
A courier came to my PO, and asked for directions to my house which, unsurprisingly for a sub post office, is one and the same building. I pointed to my own private front door, where my wife was waiting. The courier eventually delivered the parcel to a house a hundred yards away, where it was left outside, behind the garage. Signature, what signature? I can have a more intelligent conversation with a post box than a courier.
In message , Andy Hall writes
I have no idea how the system operates in your part of the world. Here, packages requiring payment are delivered to me. I write a grey card (similar to the red 'while you were out' card). The postie delivers the card. The recipient then comes to my warm, dry post office, pays cash or cheque, and leaves with the package. Alternatively, the recipient gives cash or a cheque to the postie, and he delivers the package. Simple.
In message , Peter Parry writes
The moral of the story is to do what I do - avoid any Johnny Foreigner who uses couriers.
In message , Andy Hall writes
We do.
It is.
It is. OK, we don't have a car park, but free parking is available outside.
Really? How times change - I didn't have any formal training before passing the bike test, but them I'm old :-)
So you never have, presumably? Most fun you can have with your clothes on, and all that...
David
I thought that you were telling me that it's a "universal service". Why would the procedures vary?
It would be if they actually did it. They don't.
In any case, why can't they simply deliver the goods and send an invoice like the proper delivery firms do?
You might. They don't
Another variation in the so-called "universal service"
.. and another.
Why should I also have to pay a car park fee of 60p in addition to everything else because RM won't deliver?
Do postboxes speak Scots Gaelic?
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