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[crumbly65]

Quite right SafariJohn!

The rich and powerful (and politically connected) have very rarely had to answer for their actions.  When I worked in Local Government, the politicians were never,ever at fault.  It was always "the Officers haven't advised us properly - or at all".  Of course there may have been occasions when that was accurate, but largely, that was, and is, a lie.

Just like Government ministers (of all political persuasions) blame the Civil Service.  It's never the politician's policies that are or were wrong.  Governments quickly blame everybody (Fake news, The Civil Sevice, Unions, the EU, CEO's, Shareholders, Russia, China, etc etc) for any failure of their policies.

The Post Office is a very good example.  The CEO who presided over the Horizon debacle, and consistently misled both Parliamentary scrutiny and the Courts, has been recently rewarded with another lucrative job, and I think, was named in the honours list!

The Minister responsible for deregulation of building controls (which, it could be argued, led to the Grenfell Tower fire), was enabled and elevated to the House of Lords........


I just heave a world-weary sigh, take refuge in my SII, and hope the next generation will eventually get it better

 

[Calum]

As said the Post Office and Royal Mail are indeed separate entities now. The Horizon farce has been (and continues to be) absolutely deplorable, but I kind of feel a bit sorry for the Royal Mail.
I think they do a sterling service, but their problem is in competition with other postal services, especially when it comes to parcels. RM are legally obliged to deliver all post - they cannot pick and choose the destinations they deliver to and they still have to deliver leaflets and junk mail etc to the most remote dwellings often at a loss as they might not even be delivering anything else there. As such the pricesseem to rise - they need to make enough money to cover all the loss making deliveries they have to make (which others are not required to do).
All post boxes are collected from at least once daily every day (even Sundays?) And they never remove a post box - any that are 'removed' are required to be reinstated nearby if not in their original location.
Belfast mail centre receives all the undelivered, mislabelled etc mail and endeavours to deliver it all. Some gets to the destination reasonably quickly, other items months or years later! I can't say I see the same level of commitment from other companies where once a parcel falls off the radar that's it, gone forever.

I've had some awful experiences with Hermes recently, and as such I won't use them again. I even wish others wouldn't use them for purchases I make on eBay etc (where it isn't always clearly stated which company will be delivering my parcel) - the main guy who does our Hermes deliveries displays such low regard for the residents and the parcels. At our house the front door opens onto the narrow lane. He drops the parcels out of his van window onto the stone flags, fragile label or not.
All our local posties are lovely!

[Safari John]

Ahh Hermes. Don't get me started.....!!!!!!

[oilstain]

Ahh Hermes. Don't get me started.....!!!!!!

To be fair, sometimes Hermes deliver quickly for a great price BUT other times the 3 day service takes over 2 weeks, they smash up the goods or throw them in the ditch and wont comunicate about any problems
On the other hand whilst our postmen are great some not all of our post ofices now give very poor service and have given up on moden day customer service requirements
Now it seems the whole country buy online its a great opertunity for a good company but as far as I can see no company wants to have a go

[Peter Holden]

Hermes delivered something yesterday that I ordered on Friday.
Peter

[Mr Pickles]

I ordered some items from China, on the 6th July! 
Package arrived at Heathrow on the 15th.
Passed to the Post Office, for delivery, on the same day!
According to the tracking, it's still hasn't moved!

Half way around the world in 9 days, Heathrow to Cambridge, not arrived in 12 days!

Must be in quarantine! 

Mr.P

[Rog-from-Bix]

I ordered some items from China, on the 6th July! 
Package arrived at Heathrow on the 15th.
Passed to the Post Office, for delivery, on the same day!
According to the tracking, it's still hasn't moved!

Half way around the world in 9 days, Heathrow to Cambridge, not arrived in 12 days!

Must be in quarantine! 

Mr.P

You may be about to get stung with a customs charge happens to some packages from abroad no rhyme or reason with the ones they pick on.

[lightweightles]

Hi .. Mr P .. Maybe your package is self-isolating ..    .. cheers Les

[Mr Pickles]

Hi .. Mr P .. Maybe your package is self-isolating ..    .. cheers Les

Quite possible as they are face masks! 

You may be about to get stung with a customs charge happens to some packages from abroad no rhyme or reason with the ones they pick on.

They can charge me customs, if they want, it'll cost them more to do than they'll get, as the whole order is less than £7.00! 

Mr.P