Topic: Carillion scrambles to stay afloat

[reddebs]

Since my daughter moved 18mths ago she rarely, if ever gets post delivered anymore. 

She's had to tell family to stop sending birthday and Christmas cards for the kids as they never arrive and yes she's missed lots of hospital appointments for her little boy.

She's reported it and complained so many times but never gets anywhere.

[Musketeer Gripweed]

Most of the meaningful mail I receive these days is from the NHS. And every time I get a letter from them I think, could they not just email me like everyone else.

I actually got a letter the other day for an online appointment with a hyperlink to the website. I had to sit and type it out, and I was totally bemused as to their reasoning for sending it out in this manner.

If it means they have to modernise and speed up their communication then it would actually be a good thing.

I honestly don't know how the Royal Mail have survived in tact this long to be honest.

[PaulF]

Most of the meaningful mail I receive these days is from the NHS. And every time I get a letter from them I think, could they not just email me like everyone else.

I actually got a letter the other day for an online appointment with a hyperlink to the website. I had to sit and type it out, and I was totally bemused as to their reasoning for sending it out in this manner.

If it means they have to modernise and speed up their communication then it would actually be a good thing.

I honestly don't know how the Royal Mail have survived in tact this long to be honest.

Yet our GP surgery can send links over text.
I must admit, I think we ought to be looking at NOT sending letters, rather than figuring out how to pay for a very small number of letters that are important. (ie hospital appointments for those that can't get text)

[BarryCrocker]

Ofcom recommends/suggests Royal Mail cut their deliveries down to 5 or even 3 days. Another well done privatisation.

Fuck you Lib Dems.

Can't see any real problem with this as long as they clear out 1st Class Mail and it's associated costs. Mon-Wed-Fri is more than enough even for the older generation who aren't as digitally adept as those who get all their bills online.

We have a 100% government owned mail service in Australia and they're doing the same thing. Saturday mail delivery like the UK is virtually unheard of in the western world.

If the national postal service is losing money on delivering letters only then its the tax payers who pick up the bill whether they use it or not.

[Nobby Reserve]

Ofcom recommends/suggests Royal Mail cut their deliveries down to 5 or even 3 days. Another well done privatisation.

Fuck you Lib Dems.

You can't have a functional universal postal service without it operating as a monopoly.

Blame The Thatcher for this drawn-out death spiral. She sowed the seeds of the Royal Mail's destruction when opening RM to *competition*. That competition didn't, of course, have to run a universal service, so they just cherry-picked the profitable bits (the profitable elements - parcels and urban deliveries - used to subsidise the RM's loss-making deliveries - like to rural or remote areas).

But I'm sure some spivs made a fortune to funnel offshore, so the destruction of the state postal service was a price worth paying.

[killer-heels]

You can't have a functional universal postal service without it operating as a monopoly.

Blame The Thatcher for this drawn-out death spiral. She sowed the seeds of the Royal Mail's destruction when opening RM to *competition*. That competition didn't, of course, have to run a universal service, so they just cherry-picked the profitable bits (the profitable elements - parcels and urban deliveries - used to subsidise the RM's loss-making deliveries - like to rural or remote areas).

But I'm sure some spivs made a fortune to funnel offshore, so the destruction of the state postal service was a price worth paying.

To be fair competition was opened up in 2005 so Labour could have done something about it.

[PaulF]

People who rely on letters, I assume, aren't in the digital world where everything has to be now. So waiting two days for a letter really shouldn't be an issue.

[Nobby Reserve]

People who rely on letters, I assume, aren't in the digital world where everything has to be now. So waiting two days for a letter really shouldn't be an issue.

3 out of the last 4 times I've ordered Moonpig, they're not arrived in time for the birthday.

The Moonpig business model is in trouble due to RM being utterly shite and unreliable.

[So… Howard Philips]

People who rely on letters, I assume, aren't in the digital world where everything has to be now. So waiting two days for a letter really shouldn't be an issue.

Wife and I are both digital citizens but rely on mailed letters for hospital appointments. Without those letters we are stuffed.

Test results etc are available, eventually on the NHS app, and appear the same time as the belated letter.

This wouldn’t be a soefuc problem if, in this case, the NHS offered appointments via text, email etc for those who want them rather than relying on mail.

[gazzam1963]

Wife and I are both digital citizens but rely on mailed letters for hospital appointments. Without those letters we are stuffed.

Test results etc are available, eventually on the NHS app, and appear the same time as the belated letter.

This wouldn’t be a soefuc problem if, in this case, the NHS offered appointments via text, email etc for those who want them rather than relying on mail.

I had an appointment at aintree hospital yesterday and got a letter , a text and an email for it . Had a few texts in the lead up too to remind me and also the option to cancel

[PaulF]

But presumably the appointments are sufficiently far in the future that if you got a letter on a wednesday that had missed a Tuesday, it makes no difference.  The idea you can even get an appointment on the NHS is a different matter

[So… Howard Philips]

But presumably the appointments are sufficiently far in the future that if you got a letter on a wednesday that had missed a Tuesday, it makes no difference.  The idea you can even get an appointment on the NHS is a different matter

It’s not just a question of a couple of days it’s often a question if even receiving them.

But miracles do happen and Mrs P got TWO appointments today!

[rob1966]

Cutting Deliveries surely means a cut in hours for the Posties?

If they don't like it they can get a job somewhere else (Thats a Tory c*nts thoughts)

[PaulF]

It’s not just a question of a couple of days it’s often a question if even receiving them.

But miracles do happen and Mrs P got TWO appointments today!

OK. Stick with me though. If you aren't getting them because of poor 'service'. Then deliveries on only three days a week won't impact that.  It might even improve it a bit as they are better staffed for those three days?

[PaulF]

I always get my NHS letter delivered, as I refusee to share my personal data with the outsourced, third-party website.

I didn't like the look od their T & Cs.

Fair point. I reckon though that as soon as you connect to the net there are a myriad of ways for your data to leak.

[Red Beret]

Looking forward to Everton popping up in this thread. A little bit of light relief amongst all the gloom.

[Riquende]

OK. Stick with me though. If you aren't getting them because of poor 'service'. Then deliveries on only three days a week won't impact that.  It might even improve it a bit as they are better staffed for those three days?

Yeah, I follow the logic. I think if you made recorded delivery a separate service (maybe tie in with Parcel Force) to continue with important mail and let anything else go to 3 days it might work. Personally about 90%+ of my post consists of a couple of catalogues I can't find a way to cancel, periodic adverts from the AA, so on. Occasionally I get annual statements from student loans, pensions and the like but it's not like I need those ASAP.

But that's just my situation and there will be others who a far heavier senders/receivers.

[So… Howard Philips]

I had an appointment at aintree hospital yesterday and got a letter , a text and an email for it . Had a few texts in the lead up too to remind me and also the option to cancel

I’ve never had an email (that would be helpful), get text from my GP but not for hospital appointments.

[reddebs]

All these posts about NHS letters remind me of the time I took my mum to the diabetic clinic for her 6mthly checkup. 

They lived very rurally and post, even 1st class was at least 4 days and when we arrived at clinic was told her appointment had been cancelled as the doctor was on annual leave but that they'd sent a letter with the rearranged appointment details.

I explained letters were a waste of time and it would be better if they would email me instead.  The receptionist was disgusted at that saying "we can't possibly afford to send emails"! 

I've recently sent a letter, next day and signed for to a business as I needed proof they'd received it and it took a week to get confirmation on the tracking thing 😡

[Millie]

I got an appointment letter from the hospital earlier this year that arrived after the scheduled operation.  Luckily I had already seen the Consultant who informed me of the date and time in person.

The NHS really need to rethink this and email/text much more.  I know not everyone has email/phone but the vast majority do.

[So… Howard Philips]

I got an appointment letter from the hospital earlier this year that arrived after the scheduled operation.  Luckily I had already seen the Consultant who informed me of the date and time in person.

The NHS really need to rethink this and email/text much more.  I know not everyone has email/phone but the vast majority do.

I made an appointment with a physio at my GP for a steroid injection. Confirmed by text almost simultaneously.

However anything from the hospital either comes in a duplicated letter or late.

Mrs and Mrs P are officially old but both use electronic communication.

[Huyrob]

My mum who is 96, totally deaf and frail. Still lives independently in a flat.
Didn’t receive her winter fuel payment by 26 th Jan. Rang them on the gov . Number waiting 35 minutes. Initially they insisted on me answering various eligibility questions eg mum receiving pension credit, age etc. Then we hit the security questions. My mum is to totally deaf so I asked if they could ask me the question, I would write it down and my mum could tell them the answer…. No this wasn’t allowed as I “ was prompting her”  WTF. Nice lad on the phone but couldn’t suggest a solution.

[Millie]

My mum who is 96, totally deaf and frail. Still lives independently in a flat.
Didn’t receive her winter fuel payment by 26 th Jan. Rang them on the gov . Number waiting 35 minutes. Initially they insisted on me answering various eligibility questions eg mum receiving pension credit, age etc. Then we hit the security questions. My mum is to totally deaf so I asked if they could ask me the question, I would write it down and my mum could tell them the answer…. No this wasn’t allowed as I “ was prompting her”  WTF. Nice lad on the phone but couldn’t suggest a solution.

Email your MP. 

[PaulF]

Are you registered on her accounts?

Martin Lewis did a show, back in November, about what we should do, in case we have accidents and are incapable of dealing with our administration, or, in this case, before we get old.

Yes, power of attorney, although I must admit that was for when we'd lost our marbles, not in Huyrobs case. Worth a look though . Power of Attorney should really be sorted even before a will ( I MUST do mine).

Quite often they won't talk to me when it's a bill in my wife's name or vice versa, so I've come to be economical with the truth.