Royal Mail Review

Overall Rating

Speedy delivery for a low price.
Adaptable delivery options.
International services competitively priced.
Low chances of items being lost or stolen.

Standard-delivery item lost, it's been impossible to trace.
Compensation procedure difficult.
Some grumpy post men/women.

Royal Mail is simply one of the backbones of the UK. For a long time it had been the official organisation used by the richest and the poorest for the delivery of mail, packages and parcels.

Royal Mail's standard mail delivery is outstanding. 20p (Royal Mail 1st Class standard) is what I'd pay to send a letter from the southern-most point of Britain to the northern-most point, also knowing that it will take no more than 2 days to get there. If I were a cheap-skate, I could pay 10p and know that still the letter would arrive up in Scotland but within a week.

Couriers, though, need today to do more than simply post letters through peoples doors. Royal Mail has taken on the task of competing in the parcel delivery market too. It has been so successful in providing parcel delivery services that I'd definitely favour it over well-known couriers that specialise in parcels (such as Amtrak and Parcel Force, both of which I've had long delays with when using them). It's certainly not costly to post anything through Royal Mail because somehow they've determined balances cost rates that allow for a profit to be made whilst thrashing the competition in terms of value.

Royal Mail offers a huge range of delivery options, or accessories, to further enhance your experience with them. I frequently use the 'Recorded Delivery' option when sending both letters and parcels. Why? Recorded Delivery can be added into any postage you make with Royal Mail and ensures that there's a spontaneous record of where your item is. Once the item is delivered, you can go to the Royal Mail website to get electronic proof of delivery (PoD) which includes the signature of whoever received the mailing.

After an uncountable amount of years of my family, friends and I using Royal Mail, I've never ever had to report a lost item.
HOWEVER, last Tuesday an important shipment was sent via Royal Mail 1st class standard, a parcel, that according to the 1st class promise should've arrived by Thursday. That didn't happen; it came yesterday, the following Wednesday, instead. I rang Royal Mail Customer Services to ask for information on how to claim compensation and was told I'd have to do the following:
1)Write to Royal Mail with the details of the package and what the issue was, then later in the letter ask for Royal Mail to provide me with the relevant forms.
2)Complete the forms and send them to Royal Mail.
3)Await a phone call
4)Contact the sender for them to likewise support the claim for compensation
5)Contact Royal Mail to decide an outcome
Dear. phew
Through all that waiting, what particularly annoyed me was that I had no way of tracking the package because it was sent via a standard delivery option. Even though there are forms you can fill-in to report a lost of delayed item, how could Royal Mail possibly recover it?!

The final annoyance with Royal Mail is with some of their staff. Lately not one post person that I've had to speak with at my door has smiles or even started the conversation with "hello".

Members' Comments onkiyawhite's Review

• craigiestar on 4th Dec 2008

  Very Interesting. First Class hasn't been 20p since 1989. I'm surprised your letters get there at all!
  
  Very often the difference between the price of a Standard Parcel and Special Delivery is a coupld of quid, but the added tracking and enhanced compensation for SD more than makes up for it.
  
  Remember the service selling triangle - Cheap - Fast - Good ? You can never have all three.