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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

The Post Office is apparently still open for business nationally but has anyone had local deliveries this week? 

Tags for Forum Posts: coronavirus, coronavirus postal services

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Oh good - so we might expect another delivery soon, I hope.

Royal Mail announces changes to depot hours and deliveries to start from April 6 - https://www.royalmail.com/d8/coronavirus-changes-service

Thanks for that Lesley. 

I got our weekly(!) postal delivery in Falkland today - a few old letters, one recent card and of course the government's Covid letter.

Over the last two days, I've spoken to two postmen about the current situation. The first told me that they are prioritising newer letters and anything that "looks" urgent. He estimated it will take 4-6 weeks to clear the backlog of older parcels and letters from the big pile.

The other postman I saw was actually delivering parcels on Green Lanes today (Tuesday 7th April.) He said he usually worked in N15 but was doing overtime. He said that deliveries for N4 / N8 were pretty much in meltdown due to staff shortages and said "who knows" how long the backlog will take to clear.

I have no way of vouching for the veracity of either of these statements but the guys were on the frontline so I guess they know what's happening.

It goes without saying all Royal Mail staff are working incredibly hard in very difficult circumstances and they deserve our thanks and respect. That notwithstanding , if people are looking to get stuff delivered in a timely manner, using an alternative courier service would seem the way to go.

I'd appreciate comments from anyone with less anecdotal information.

Thanks, Adam. That fits the rumour that I'm hearing, but nothing concrete. 

We too seem to get a weekly, mainly consisting of all the things we could do without - Johnson and Adje's messages in one delivery today!

I've dipped my toe into crisis-time-online-ordering over the past couple of weeks and having not received either of the small low value items I ordered, I've given up. I imagine that higher value items carried by a courier are still getting through. 

This headline from The Guardian last Friday

Royal Mail has warned it may have to cut back on postal services as increasing numbers of its staff take sick leave.

I've had a delivery yesterday AND today! It was mostly stuff mailed about two and a half weeks ago. Won't hold my breath for the four small things I'm expecting from eBay.

I hate to say it but Amazon is probably the best bet - if you opt to combine things into one delivery, they will probably come by courier. (No such thing as 'next day' though.)

Don't want to show off, but this morning as I worked in the window (an odd habit, I know), I saw the regular Salisbury Mansions postman on this side of St Ann's Road, and a man in casual clothing delivering letters on the opposite side.

So we've got an abundance of postmen in N15 (only just N15...)

I ordered contact lenses on April 1st, next day delivery, and they've been sitting in a central London sorting office since April 2nd. I understand that service is difficult at this time, but other companies like Tesco, for instance, has addressed this issue by employing thousands more staff. The Royal Mail appears to be addressing this by not supplying the service we have paid for. On their landing page they explain how important the mail service is, but don't seem to be willing to respond effectively to the current situation. When you track your parcel, there's a "Tracking assistant" which is a bot which responds to every query with: "Please select one of the options", which is incredibly frustrating and unhelpful. If you can't help, don't launch a help assistant. If you select a delivery option you are sent to a web page which, after you've confirmed your post code says: "Sorry, we're currently trialling this service in limited areas so no options are available for your parcel at this time." I say again, I understand that we are in the middle of a crisis, but it really does seem like other companies are responding a lot more effectively than the Royal Mail.

I entirely agree - but they obviously don't want to pay extra staff in addition to sick pay for current staff.

It’s all a bit odd.  It seems like they are recruiting temporary sorting office staff but not delivery staff

https://jobs.royalmailgroup.com

From their website, a coronavirus update: 

Changes to Special Delivery Guaranteed

Due to increased absence levels, we’ve reviewed our timed guarantees for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am and 1pm services and will make the following changes:

  • For items posted from Tuesday 31 March 2020 onwards, our guaranteed delivery for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9.00am the next working day will change to by 12.00pm the next working day*.
  • Our guaranteed delivery for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1.00pm will change to by 9.00pm the next working day*.

*existing postcode exceptions apply

Well I've been waiting 9 days now for a 24-hour guaranteed package. It's not really working is it? 

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