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Discussion => Shipping => Topic started by: mistercc on June 13, 2013, 05:47 pm

Title: Where do missing letters go? UK Royal Mail
Post by: mistercc on June 13, 2013, 05:47 pm
*** This is a direct cut and paste form the 2001 bbc news article ***

As the UK's postal service prepares for the open market, the new Post Office watchdog says sorting office standards continue to slide. What happens to all the letters that go undelivered?
Ever since the Penny Black first came into circulation, lost letters have been a fact of life. What is increasingly disputed, though, is how much mail goes astray in the UK.

Postwatch, the new consumer watchdog, has reiterated a finding by the Post Office Users National Council (POUNC), that one million letters a week go missing.
POUNC came to the figure after it posted 15,000 correctly typed and addressed letters, 17 of which "disappeared". It then multiplied the figure to reflect the 77 million letters sent every day over a six-day week.

Using a statistician who introduced a margin of error, the group doubled this total to account for mistakes that would arise from handwritten envelopes and those sent without a postcode.

The Royal Mail dismisses the claim, which would amount to 50 million letters lost each year - almost one for every man, woman and child in the UK. It says the true figure is more like 500,000 lost letters every year - a figure based on the number of complaints it receives each month.

Tonne of mail
-------------------
The million claim is certainly bewildering, not least because it would be hard to "lose" such a mass of envelopes and parcels. Royal Mail spokeswoman Christine Gregory says it would amount to a tonne of mail every week, which would fill "several articulated trucks".

But much of the responsibility rests with the public itself, says the Royal Mail.

Poorly addressed envelopes account for a significant proportion of lost mail, it says. Handwriting can be illegible and some letters are just woefully addressed, eg: Mr McFee, Glasgow. Some are even posted without an address at all.

Another serious culprit is the out-of-date address book and postmen also come across internal office post which is mistakenly dropped in the external mail.

Dead letter office
-----------------------

All "undeliverable" post should end up at the "dead letter office" - a warehouse in Belfast where 300 postal workers sort through 60 million items a year, forwarding them to the correct address or returning them to sender.

Letters that still cannot be delivered are usually held for three months before being recycled "in an appropriate manner".

Then there is the "lost" mail that was never lost at all, says Ms Gregory, who insists that "some people just forget they have received a letter".

The growing number of multiple-occupancy households, and apartment blocks that share a single letterbox, also complicate the picture. In these cases it is easy for mail to be picked up mistakenly or, indeed, stolen.

But our incompetence is only half the story. The Royal Mail must take some responsibility itself. We've all mistakenly received letters that were addressed to the house next door, across the road or another town entirely.

Feel the pinch
-------------------

Pilfering postmen are also a problem. Already this year there have been a handful of cases, including a West Country postman who was found with 3,215 undelivered cards in his attic. He pocketed £1,777 of cash sent through the post.

Three years ago, a postman from Daventry was jailed after he was found to be hiding 15,000 letters and parcels.

And then there are the unexplainable cases where a lost letter gets delivered years after it was first posted. Last month a postcard turned up at its destination in Aberdeen more than a century late. The card had been sent from Queensland, Australia, in 1889.

At least, the Royal Mail cannot be blamed for that late delivery - the card arrived in Britain having spent 112 years lost in the Australian postal system.


Google search - BBC News UK Where do missing letters go

I was a little bit paranoid about cutting and pasting the direct link in case it contained info about me hence the search term
Title: Re: Where do missing letters go? UK Royal Mail
Post by: mistercc on June 14, 2013, 07:40 am
I posted this ad I have had a missing letter and u believe the vendor did post.  The vendor had resent and I have ordered off another vendor I should get both packages tomorrow
Title: Re: Where do missing letters go? UK Royal Mail
Post by: Raoul Duke on June 14, 2013, 11:42 am
...some letters are just woefully addressed, eg: Mr McFee, Glasgow. Some are even posted without an address at all.

WTF? ???

"some people just forget they have received a letter".

lol - potheads

Last month a postcard turned up at its destination in Aberdeen more than a century late. The card had been sent from Queensland, Australia, in 1889.

LMAO ;D so my great grandkids might get that coke order that never turned up if they don't move....
Title: Re: Where do missing letters go? UK Royal Mail
Post by: mistercc on June 14, 2013, 07:09 pm
Just to update the vendors second attempt got through just fine as did my usual vendor package. so I still have a package missing in the post and will let the vendor know if I get it.
Title: Re: Where do missing letters go? UK Royal Mail
Post by: mistercc on June 27, 2013, 01:09 pm
Just an update the original package turned up in the post so advised vendor and have sorted it all out.
Title: Re: Where do missing letters go? UK Royal Mail
Post by: mistercc on June 27, 2013, 02:53 pm
In other word I got the original package and an additional resend I let the vendor know