PLEASE DON’T BLAME US!

The Royal Mail, or rather the CWU (Communication Workers Union) are causing everyone a lot of stress with their strike action affecting Royal Mail services.

The Royal Mail is a very old organisation, and it does need to bring itself into the modern business world, using modern business processes and models.

Managers of the Royal Mail are trying to do this, but the CWU put every spanner into the works they can find in their 1970’s tool box.

I say 1970’s because that what it feels like back in the days of British Leyland, when the unions stopped car production every other day, and looked what happened! No more British car industry.

The unions really have not learnt a thing, if they are allowed to carry on like this there will be no jobs for any of them, as competition will come in and just steal Royal Mail’s customer base. I can’t wait for that day!

The problem with the unions taking action in the postal system is that it affects even more people than most other industries. To the average customer who never gets their item, to the small business like us.

We are really beginning to suffer and end up losing out from both sides, which simply isn’t fair!

We send goods to customers in a very prompt time scale. The item does not arrive, the customers asks where their goods are, we say it’s in the post, they demand something be done, which is fair enough.

So, what we would do is refund the customer, and go on to claim compensation from the Royal Mail, which is great, as we have our money back and the customer has their money back, but there is a catch. The Royal Mail will only accept an item as lost after 15 workings days, so we have to wait for such time to pass until submitting a claim. Remember this is working days which can be as long as 20 days if taking into account weekends and bank holidays.

The Royal Mail then send a letter to the recipient, asking them to sign a declaration that they did indeed not receive the items described, and this is where it went wrong for us. Customers had their money, as we’d refunded them in good faith, so couldn’t be bothered sending the form back to the Royal Mail, and we, as a business were out of pocket. This is not fair, and regrettably the customer has shot themselves in the foot, because we can no longer be amiable to refund them straight away, instead we now ask them to wait for the Royal Mail’s stipulated 15 working days. This seems to infuriate some customers, but can you blame us? Please comment.

We spoke to a real postman on the 10th September 2009, he said things like “postage sacks scattered everywhere”, “they’ll never be delivered”, “managers are doing the work and they don’t know what their doing”.

The strike actions instigated by the CWU have created backlogs within the system, backlogs which aren’t getting cleared simply because the post never stops coming.

It isn’t surprising hearing these words from somebody ‘on the inside’ that items are getting lost or taking upto 10 days to be delivered, yes 10 ten days!

To those customers who are complaining they haven’t had their item delivered, we are afraid to say you’ll just have to wait!

We can’t send you another one because it may turn up, please wait the 15 days!

We can’t refund you because it may turn up, please wait the 15 days!

Shouting at us will not speed things up.

Threatening us will not speed things up.

The ironic thing about the threats we receive such as “I’ll open a dispute with PayPal” is because:

a)    It isn’t our fault, you are shouting at the wrong person.
b)    We aren’t actually ripping you off, we WILL get you your money back.
c)    A PayPal dispute actually takes longer! And will result in a delay in you getting you money back!
d)    WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE POSTAGE SYSTEM. i.e. there is simply nothing more we can do.

We regard the PayPal dispute process to protect against unscrupulous sellers who sell damaged items, items not as described, refuse to sort a faulty or broken item, or simply to not send any item, or have no intention of refunding if the item never arrives.

We will always work to sort all the above issue, including if the item never arrives, but regrettably in that instance there is a time scale, and that time scale is 15 days.

Please, please, please be patient. The current turmoil within the Royal Mail isn’t our fault! Please work with us to achieve the right conclusion, i.e. for Royal Mail to pay the compensation they should for not doing what they are supposed to do!

Here is a statement on Royal Mail’s website regarding the current situation:
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?catId=99700760&mediaId=99700760&campaignid=serviceupdate_redirect

Here is a news report of CWU blaming the Royal Mail for basically not bowing down to their demands to keep the Royal Mail a draconian, inefficient institution, rather than a profitable business it is trying to become:
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/20090909/cwu-accuses-royal-mail-quot-head-sand-quot-approach-postal-strike-communication-workers-union.htm

Here is CWU’s view point:
http://www.cwu.org/news/archive/cwu-urges-royal-mail-to-negotiate-as-mail-backlog-hits-record-high.html

A message to the CWU and all unions:
•    The Royal Mail need to be a profitable business, stop making everyone’s life a misery and let them get on with it.
•    It is a business, not a charity.
•    If a business needs to cut costs well let them.
•    They do not owe anyone a job for life, there is no such thing anymore!
•    Grow up, stop moaning, life is tough, if you can’t handle that you shouldn’t have left home.
•    Read the news (if you can read), there is a recession on.

Thank you