The Royal Mail Delivery to Neighbour Scheme has now been running since October 1st. Ofcom has approved 29 million residential addresses as alternative delivery points for YOUR mail! That means, unless you opt out, your postman can now place packages and recorded delivery items in the hands of your neighbour, without seeking your permission!!!! Yes you can opt out of the scheme by placing a sticker near your letterbox, but there is a problem, Royal Mail are not, currently, sending any stickers out because of quality control issues. The scheme had been running in trial areas from November 2011 and issues with the stickers were identified during those trials. But, after receiving approval from Ofcom on September 27, Royal Mail launched the scheme on October 1, leaving little time to obtain the stickers anyway. I have some great neighbours, but I also have bad neighbours and neigbours I do not know. For example, one neighbour was found by Police to be growing cannabis in his loft and another neighbour had an unlicensed shotgun. I also receive visits for a third neighbour from debt collectors and the magistrates Court, confusing my address with his. Then there is the neighbour who actually shot and killed someone with a gun! Currently, I collect all my mail from the Delivery Office as the sticker I ordered on 28 September has failed to arrive!!
Thank God I am Offski to PI in January. Moaning old git I am but the customer is no longer valued but a nuisance. IMO My GP's surgery introduced a new service change "Doctor FIRST" this now means one can no longer ring in and make an appointment.! Now the receptionest says she/he must get the Doctor to ring back first and he /she will then decide if an appointment is necessary. Twice I have done this - called the surgery. I then had to wait for the call back 3 hours later.! All the time unable to ring out in case I missed the Dr's call and unable to go out. "Patient last" is a better title. IMO Tom
i'm okay with this as my neighbors are quite nice.. we've been asking the postman to deliver to a specific neighbor if we're not around.. we put a sign on the door regarding this.. but since we had a new door put in, we didn't put any notice about parcels as i don't want to ruin the new door, and also, i am mostly at home anyway so i can receive parcels... but then, this morning, i missed the post man because i have a doctor's appointment.. so now, have to go to the delivery office for the parcel! lesson learned: put the notice back in the door and bollocks to the new door! LOL
I have opted out from this service. All our neighbors are out in the day and the other one doesn't come out at all. So I am just going to have to ask for redelivery each time I miss a parcel.
I'm a postie and you might not like this idea but I can't emphasis enough how much we hate it! It might be alright if you've been on a walk for a few years (a dying breed!) and you have arrangements with certain people but not if you're a reserve like me. We've just had revisions of our walks. They were all done by computer and don't allow a great deal of slack. This was before these changes, so where will the extra time come from for all this knocking at the neighbours nonesense? They are trying to save money on redeliveries but I suspect it will end up a false economy with all the overtime hours they'll have to pay and all the money they'll have to pay in claims for lost items. And it shouldn't be 'customers' with Royal Mail anyway. It is/was meant to be a public service. I deliver many free audio books for the blind, for example. There is no customer there. The same with passengers on a train. When did they become customers instead of passengers? It winds me up this commercialisation of everything.
It was obvious just talking to my local Postie and staff at the local delivery office that they do not like this scheme. Together with the major revision of rounds, starting work later in the day (8.05am I am told) longer working hours, two posties to one van, it all represents a major change. Posties with new or longer round now don't know all the neighbours. My own Postie says he will NOT deliver any items to anyone else - luckily it is the individual postie's choice but if many posties do the same I think Royal Mail will force them to deliver to neighbours! Relief posties are not so considerate. The idea that Ofcom has the power to nominate 29 million alternative delivery points beggars belief - and all without any consultation with bodies such as the Information Commissioners Office, Court Service, Police etc. Even the Postal Redress Service and my local postmistress were totally unaware of the scheme when I spoke to them last week! When I tried to complain to Royal Mail that I have still not received my opt-out sticker (waiting 13 days now) I was told that they do not act on first complaints so would not do anything. Strange that their complaints procedure (agreed with Ofcom) makes no mention they do not act on first complaints! When I tried to escalate my complaint within Royal Mail I was told I could not because I was not making use of a Royal Mail service! In other words, opting out of their Delivery to Neighbour scheme is not seen as offering a service! It cannot be right that my property can be given to someone else that Royal Mail has no contractual relationship with and who they probably do not even know. If I was to actually ask a neighbour to collect my mail from the delivery office they would have to provide the delivery office with a letter of authorisation from me, my ID documents and their ID documents, but they can deliver to any of my neighbours with requiring any ID at all. I am now doing all I can to reduce my dependency on Royal Mail by going paperless on everything I can. This year I will even send my Xmas cards by e-Mail where possible. But it is virtually impossible to get everyone to use alternative methods of delivery - my doctor and bank will send some communications by post, rather than e-Mail.
Royal Mail are Having a Laugh! Have been waiting 20 days for the opt-out stickers now. I sent a letter to Royal Mail's Post Review Panel using the address obtained from the following websites... http://www.royalmailgroup.com/our-customers/customer-support/postal-review-panel http://ask.ofcom.org.uk/help/post/postcomp As you can see, the FULL postal address on each of those websites is... FREEPOST, Postal Review Panel. Today, my letter was returned with the words: INCOMPLETE ADDRESS!!!!!
