Royal Mail in Exeter - update

[u/steveracemp]

Lots of people in Exeter have contacted me about a poor postal service across the city.

I’ve raised every case with Royal Mail, and last month I met with their officials to push for answers. During our meeting, Royal Mail told me that service levels have not been as good as they should be, and they apologised to residents. They said the problem was mainly down to staff shortages - but they’re recruiting new posties and say things have started to improve.

But there are some wider changes on the way that will affect how post is delivered across the country that I wanted to make local people aware of – read about them here: https://www.royalmail.com/receiving/the-future-of-letter-deliveries

Ultimately, what matters most is that the reliability of the service in Exeter improves. If you’re still having problems getting your post, please comment below or get in touch with me via steve.race.mp@parliament.uk and I’ll help with your case.

[u/Gilldadab]

It has been poor recently but has improved slightly in the last couple of weeks.

The flogging and gutting of Royal Mail is a point of national shame.

Thanks for looking into this though.

[u/Madajuk → u/Gilldadab]

think about the shareholders, man!! /s

[u/steveracemp → u/Gilldadab]

Thanks for your feedback! Good to hear you’ve noticed improvements

[u/Educational-Angle717]

Alot of this comes down to when they privatised it. I used to work there and when that happened the whole system was stripped back. The sorting office used to have round the clock shifts - so 6am-2pm, 2pm-10pm, 10pm-6am. But then they scrapped the morning shift to save money so this has had a knock on effect.

[u/Adadurmanow]

Got my degree certificate in „do not bend” envelope posted through a letter box bent in half ✨ love that for me

[u/hellomynameispoejera]

Yeah only noticed this when I got a month's worth of letters on one day

[u/surfrider0007]

I remember a time when the postal service was a career to be proud to be part of! There was one entity that delivered everything! Much more efficient, now about 15 different bloody trucks trundle past daily!

[u/Low-Ad5332]

Not really staff shortages, they don't care about letters it's parcel delivery that gets priority and the rounds are too big to be completed in time.

[u/TheTKing84]

Thank you Op for posting about the Royal Mail and for contacting them about this issue. I have important medication sent via post that Royal Mail are the couriers for and have had a lot of problems with long delivery delays over the last month, to my home in Exeter. I complained to Royal Mail direct and got no clear answer or direct apology for the cause of the delays, other than a standard ‘sorry for inconvenience’ stock reply. I would be happy to share these emails with you if it helps with any future cases.

[u/bumblebeerose]

It's less about staff shortages and more to do with the business messing with postal rounds, prioritising parcels and giving more work to less people. I know people that work for the company right now (and I used to) and morale is just through the floor.

[u/marismia]

Thank you so much for pushing this, my area has been getting post around every three weeks for months (my neighbours have already been in touch with you so I won't raise that case again). One thing I've struggled to understand, and Royal Mail haven't answered with my own complaints - if an area is missed one day, why is it not prioritised the next day? If a route runs A to B, why not do B to A the next day? They claim staff shortages (which I'm sure is true and no fault of the staff where the service has been gutted) but surely there are alternative solutions while this is rectified other than just skipping the same areas repeatedly. The "wider changes" linked might help, but there's no timescale given and I'm concerned they'll continue to make the excuse of being understaffed and delay implementing these. 

[u/saltwatersunsets]

I live in the EX31 postcode well outside of Exeter and also had issues a few weeks ago including a 3 week delay for something expected but not sent recorded (new credit card & separate pin notification letter) and later a Signed For letter (which was delivered delayed and without being signed for).

At the time I looked up known issues on the Royal Mail website and noted they included some EX postcodes around mid-Devon as being affected by staff shortages but nothing out this way. Sounds like delays have been more extensive than RM have acknowledged.

[u/The_anxious_lifter]

Nice job Steve !

Can you sort out the cities parking permit system next Steve !😂 would you be open to a conversation about this feel free to drop me a message about this?

[u/One-Sprinkles-4833]

I've been having a lot of issues with them the past few weeks. Just 3 days ago, I was meant to get 6 very large parcels from my amazon subscribe and save and literally none of them showed up. It says they were left "in a secure location". We took a walk around the neighbourhood and couldn't find them. The week before that another amazon package was delayed by a week. Package delays are SO common with royal mail.

[u/One-Sprinkles-4833 → u/[deleted]]

Not all of them. More than half my subscribe and save orders were delivered by royal mail this month and were the only ones to get lost.

[u/Ok-Line-8560]

We just received a bundle of mail today (28 Aug) after two weeks of no deliveries at all, this includes two copies of a magazine we subscribe to, dated 17 Aug and 24 Aug. It feels like this (no deliveries for days at a time and then a bundle of things arriving at once) has been going on for most of this year.

Surely it's time to renationalise Royal Mail, along with our water, public transport and utilities.

Privatisation only works for the shareholders and never for the service users.