So the post office is going to strike again. To be honest I am not sure I will notice any difference in their service.
I recently got a snotty letter from British Gas titled ‘Statement of Intent’ in big red threatening letters, evidently earlier communications asking for payment did not make it to my address and I was on the verge of having legal action taken against me to ensure payment. Lucky that one got delivered or I may have had my credit rating wrecked and/or taken to court.
OK mistakes happen from time to time but for the aforementioned gas bill scenario to occur Royal Mail must have lost 2 or 3 bills for it to get to that stage. Where were these bills being delivered too, or are they sitting in the rain at a car park at the local sorting depot? What details do the bills contain that a dishonest party could use? What else might I be missing?
Would we not be better off being notified via email for this sort of thing? I guess it does not hold the legal weight a snail mail letter does. Not sure why. An email can be shown, beyond any reasonable doubt, to have been delivered to the recipient. That can be done with recorded delivery of a physical letter but utility companies do not employ this in day to day communications.
Sending private info via email may be a problem but it can very easily be encrypted and only read by the recipient. Or they could just send a note to check your account online and then you could log on with a username and password to see what they want. Got to be a better system than paper being moved around the country. And the privacy protecting a letter is just the envelope, not much protection really.
In this current eco friendly climate is there a place for dead trees to be transported in vehicles over a couple of days contributing to pollution just to remind you to pay a bill? Why not have it sent instantly via e-mail without the need for a tree to die man?
I frequently get mail meant for other people, Just the other day I got a pay slip for a lady who’s address only shares the same house number and town as me, everything else was different. Not just slightly different but vastly different. With identity theft fast becoming a major vector for stealing your money the prospect of my mail ending up at random houses willy-nily is frightening.
Is snail mail important to us today? I think that 90+% of all the mail I receive are bills. As mentioned above this could be taken care or much more efficiently in other ways. The remaining 10% is either targeted advertising or other unsolicited material. When is the last time you sent/received a physical letter to a family member or friend?
I don’t like greeting cards and try my best not to send them and not bothered one way or the other if I receive one. Sound harsh? Possibly, but honestly why do we need to do that? Why not call, send an email or something? Do we really need a cheap (well not so cheap) piece of cardboard with some witty tag line in it to confirm someone cares or congratulating you on being another 365 days older than the last reminder? Bah Humbug! There is also the fact I am pretty bad at remembering anniversaries despite various electronic devices nagging me, so ending the card exchange would help me immensely.
Aside: Years ago I sold a PDA to a friend and forgot to erase all the calendar entry’s, he still lets me know from time to time that my Ex-PDA says it’s my parents anniversary or a relatives Birthday etc 
What other services do Royal Mail provide? Tracking is one. When you use tracking services with courier companies you can often see, via a web site, 20+ points logged where your parcel has been, Leaving depo, on truck to airport, cleared customs, on flight etc. You can also have them SMS or Email you at these various points, the most useful being ‘Out for Delivery’, so you will get warning that it’s going to arrive that day. Royal Mail tracking by contrast is a joke. Basically it just lets you know when someone has signed for the package.
Most of the time when you are waiting for a parcel to arrive you can use a tracking service to see if it’s worth while staying in that day to receive it. If the tracking site says it’s on a truck that left a local depo you can be sure it’s on it’s way to you and wait in for it. With Royal Mail they can only tell you that you have, or have not, signed for it, which you would already know, brilliant!
I see that Rodger Moor is promoting the Post Office, it’s a good choice, sums up their aging lame, fumbling services nicely.
Royal Mail’s managers fiddling the company’s performance
