Things I Hate - A Comedic Rantesse

[notdeadyet]

Neither does RM by the sounds of it

Maybe I'm lucky but I've never really had much of a problem with the basic letter/small package service of RM. Again I might be lucky but my local posties are far more helpful and considerate than any of the private delivery services seem to be as well. I'm not defending RM, it has huge problems and should never have been privatised, but the basic service seems reasonably adequate.

When you get a "you have seven days to respond" type letter and it only arrives three days after the seven days has expired then I would bet cash money it never actually got posted until a couple of days ago despite the date on the letter. I worked in a few civil service mailrooms when I was a student and nothing urgent happens with urgent mail. It gets handled in between breaks and if it doesn't get done today it might get done tomorrow. We would send out jury duty summonses and batches would be sent out when you could be bothered, not according to the court schedule. Nobody cared about the chaos it caused, "it's just how the system works". Even internal mail bound for that day's court sessions may or may not get there on time. I don't imagine any other government or NHS office is any more efficient.

Parcelforce on the other hand, I would much rather chance it to one of the courier services. In fact, I'd rather just kick it down the stairs and piss on it myself for free than have Parcelforce do it. But there doesn't seem to be anyone that does parcels well. Even the pricey ones like Fedex (or as Ricky from Trailer Park Boys calls it, Fuckex) are a gamble.

[Chrisch]

Maybe I'm lucky but I've never really had much of a problem with the basic letter/small package service of RM. Again I might be lucky but my local posties are far more helpful and considerate than any of the private delivery services seem to be as well. I'm not defending RM, it has huge problems and should never have been privatised, but the basic service seems reasonably adequate.

Part of the issue is the discount for pre-sorted mail and the use of the mail to do the last mile for other carriers. My own gripe is that the tracked service has to be routed via the post office and cannot be posted directly with the click and drop. RM wanted badly to enter the small parcel market and the click and drop is actually quite good but the number of my customers who "didn't receive it" is such that I only use a signed for delivery service. Odd how we can send letters with statements and parcels to eBay buyers and they all get there but send a small item to an account customer and all of a sudden they "didn't get it". Hmmmph.

Parcelforce on the other hand, I would much rather chance it to one of the courier services. In fact, I'd rather just kick it down the stairs and piss on it myself for free than have Parcelforce do it. But there doesn't seem to be anyone that does parcels well. Even the pricey ones like Fedex (or as Ricky from Trailer Park Boys calls it, Fuckex) are a gamble.

We use APC, FedEx and UPS. They all have issues. FedEx used to be pretty good but have been less so after they bought out TNT. The TNT takeover resulted in shutting some depots and rearranging others. We have a FedEx depot in Poole, but it services Dorchester. Our FedEx guys come from Southampton. Bonkers. One supplier uses Parceforce and their deliveries are always beaten to shit. To be fair the packing team at my supplier seems to be made up of one legged chimps that are rather too fascinated with the banding machine.

[Jay_Benson]

When the new business starts selling then I am almost certain to be using Royal Mail. They collect, they do a signed for service at a reasonable price and if you aren’t in then you don’t normally have to drive across the country to get to a collection office. My previous experience with RM was pre-privatisation and in the process of sending out thousands of books across the world they managed to lose just a couple and one of those was because the buyer hadn’t changed their address on Amazon.

[Chrisch]

When the new business starts selling then I am almost certain to be using Royal Mail. ....

Just don't send anything to Wrexham.

[steelemonkey]

Just don't send anything to Wrexham.

It's ok, we are discussing the civilised world.

[Paul Evans]

It's ok, we are discussing the civilised world.

Poor James, what has he done to deserve this!!

[jamesp]

Poor James, what has he done to deserve this!!

Just had "Kings of Leon" do a 2 night show in Wrexham, I was in town 5.20 Sunday morning after the first show (work, always work).
Saw a 5 person scuffle before I got into town, and one bloke totally passed out on the pavement by McDonalds.
The amount of litter was reminiscent of the scene in Mann`s " Miami Vice" film; utter bomb site.

Good gig though, you could hear it form our gaff, about 2.5 miles away.

As for being part of the civilised world, it could be worse, I could live in Gwynedd.

[Nickpicks]

Today's hate is "optimistic" power ratings on adapters. I bought a 230v - 12v converter to power the stand up paddleboard inflator so I don't need to run my car engine whilst inflating the canoe club's SUPs. SUP pump is rated at 120W, and runs fine with a 10A fuse in my car. Amazon supplied adapter is rated at 120W / 12V 10A, and lets the pump switch on, but as soon as I press the "start filling" button, it just switches off. It does exactly the same with the 120W tyre inflator from my car.

I've just ordered a replacement from ebay which the seller specifies will work with my tyre inflator (I messaged him to check), but it does look supiciously similar to the one I've just sent back to Amazon (and similar to the 8A ones being sold elsewhere)

I'm wondering if the 10A rating is similar to "chinese lumens"

[Chrisch]

.... Amazon supplied... replacement from ebay ... "chinese lumens"

I detect a pattern.

[Nickpicks]

I'm more hopeful with the ebay one as I've actually spoken to the seller and he says he's physically tested it with a number of 12V tyre inflators.

the most humourous bit abou tthe amazon one was the "can be used for..." which included dash cam, tyre inflater, portable fridge, vacuum, and battery inverter, so you can drop 230v down to 12v, then invert it back to 230v!