Anybody noticing delivery problems with An Post? (Empire mag not turning up)

gaius c

I subscribe to Empire magazine and recently the service has gone haywire.
The issue I should have received at the start of March turned up nearly a month late. The issue I should have received at the start of April has never turned up despite a second copy being shipped out. Needless to say, the issue I should have received in May didn't turn up either.

The people shipping out the magazine insist that everything is running as normal but I'm missing the last two issues of Empire so there's clearly something wrong.

I'm just wondering if there's a chance that the problem could be with An Post. I seem to be getting other mail okay but I don't get much mail from abroad.

dudara

Do you have a private or public postbox?

Plus, is it obvious that the letter contains a magazine? I wouldn't be surprised if it was being lifted somewhere along the way (even possibly from your postbox).

gaius c

Postbox is private and you need a key to be able to open it and retrieve the post unless you have extra long tweezers and know what day the mag is arriving as well as leaving all other mail in situ.

I also get Phoenix magazine, which is being delivered fine.

Unfortunately it's very evident that it's an Empire mag. I guess somebody in a postal service somewhere is reading my magazine.
A replacement copy for one of the mags that didn't turn up has also failed to turn up.

parsi

I get Wired and the New Yorker from the US. The New Yorker turns very regularly but I often find that Wired is late but it does arrive fully sealed etc.

AlwaysAmber

It a UK or US subscription?

I had a US subscription to Maxim and it would never arrive, replacement issues would be sent and they'd never arrive either. I think I got 2 issues out of the 12 I was supposed to get.

Never had a problem with UK subs, have a couple running now and they might come a week late but always arrive.

E.T.

Having the same problem with Vanity Fair magazine - subscribed last summer, didn't receive a copy til October. No answer to numerous emails for months until I finally got one that said they couldn't do anything about the ones I didn't receive. Very helpful. If I do get a copy it's usually 3 weeks after I've seen it in the shops here. I'd never subscribe to a magazine from the US again (even though it's the UK edition that I actually receive for some reason).

genie

I subscribe to the Radio Times and it comes via First Class Airmail. Trouble is, there is no Airmail sticker on the envelope and quite often it arrives late. I also have a postman who only comes up my (rural) road once or twice a week, so so it could be either problem.

Grumpypants

Im waiting on 2 games from the UK for over 2 weeks now

The Recliner

Grumpypants wrote: »

Im waiting on 2 games from the UK for over 2 weeks now

A couple of games I had ordered from the Uk arrived late recently, one 12 days after it was posted and another a week after it was posts

Most DVD's I order run at least a week late

I was given a subscription to Empire as a present a few years ago, it was regularly a month late arriving or went missing

91011

Whenever I read about people with An Post problems its always about items being set to or coming from another country.

Is it just a trait we have in looking to heap blame on a local service or is it that every other contry has a perfect postal system and that the problems can only be caused by An Post.

At the moment, An Post Letter delivery system is one of the most technologically advanced in the world whereas the UK system is so archaic it is close to collaspe. - Though finally unions have allowed for a computer to be brought into it.:rolleyes: - It might take 5 years though for the UK to get to a reasonable service level.

freelancerTax

having an up to date system does not stop some scummer robbing the items in the sorting office. i have had many items (all sent to and in ireland) go missing - strangley enough if i ever post anything that is worthless it always arrives.......

manna452121

lEvery company have problems with thieves.In Dell people were walking out with parts for years,people have always been advised by an post not to put money in cards but from experance they still do it.

sunnysoutheast

manna452121 wrote: »

lEvery company have problems with thieves.In Dell people were walking out with parts for years,people have always been advised by an post not to put money in cards but from experance they still do it.

Our postman advised us to tell our family not to send birthday cards etc. from the UK unless they disguise them in plain brown envelopes, due to the risk of theft.

A friend of mine worked on the Christmas postal sorting nightshift in the UK as a skint student many years ago and he said the level of stealing was truly shocking, some of the "regulars" had hidden razor blades on their fingers so they could cut open the obvious children's cards for the pound notes and fivers inside.

SSE

Silverfish

I got a parcel from the UK last week, it took Royal Mail two full weeks to even send it, the tracking number stated it was in the UK 'preparing for shipment' for those two weeks.

Royal Mail themselves said they are backlogged even more than normal due to the volcano, and it will take them some time to clear that out. Not sure what it was before that. But I think with items coming from the UK, they've a long way to go before they even get into the hands of An Post.

dudara

If the magazine is coming from abroad, then there's a lot of links in the chain where it could be 'lifted'. It's unfortunate, but you have no way of knowing where this is being lost.

gaius c

dudara wrote: »

If the magazine is coming from abroad, then there's a lot of links in the chain where it could be 'lifted'. It's unfortunate, but you have no way of knowing where this is being lost.

That is the problem and I'm loathe to blame one particular party but the magazine crowd have insisted that all magazines have been shipped out. If they are telling the truth, then it must be "going missing" en route. It really annoys me that the replacement has gone awol as well. All the movies in that issue will be long gone from the cinema by now.

Delivery was fine before but the fact that problems have only started three months ago and haven't let up make me wonder if there's a system failure here. Is there any chance that it might be affected by "work to rule" practices, etc?

AngryLoner

Well my poor head is ruined with An Post.

In the last month I've had two cheques go missing en route (never got them, had to call around the client's house) AND I posted out an engineers report on a camper van which never arrived at the insurers... meaning I was driving around uninsured at the weekend and now I have to go and sort out another engineers report and HAND DELIVER it to the insurance brokers.

Previously, An Post have lost Concert Tickets and the registration book of my car!

And look, it takes THIS many idiots to screw up my life.....

http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/MainContent/About+An+Post/The+Board+and+Executive/


What can I do? No point in talking to their "customer service" dept no doubt....

polyfusion

Never had problems with mail not being delivered before, but about 3 weeks ago, my Mum redirected a letter to my address in Dublin, and I still haven't received it. Have no idea what it was, and a bit worried about it, could be notice of a FPN or jury service, which could put me up the proverbial without a paddle down the road. Would these normally be sent registered? The letter she redirected wasn't.

She sent a letter to me on Wednesday, and I got it yesterday, so it's not like my existance is in a vacuum or anything.

Filled out a missing mail form on the An Post website. Waste of time? Anything else I can do?

Kimono-Girl

an post workers are just inept!:mad:

similar thing happened to us, we usually get post every day but for two whole weeks nothing, so just to check it out i posted an empty envelope to myself, two days later we got a mountain of post delivered, you guessed it, dated back from the two weeks previous! :rolleyes:

foggy_lad

candlelover wrote: »

an post workers are just inept!:mad:

similar thing happened to us, we usually get post every day but for two whole weeks nothing, so just to check it out i posted an empty envelope to myself, two days later we got a mountain of post delivered, you guessed it, dated back from the two weeks previous! :rolleyes:

your postman was on holidays and his/her post was left undelivered!

psycho-hope

yep stuff regularly takes over a week to get from dublin to my home address in wicklow, near missed a college registration deadline over it, another problem we have is the appartments in front of us are xxx aprtments and we are xxx avenue regularly get post for apartments and they regularly get post for us, disptie there being 2 signs at the entrance to the estate pointing out which is which

Jimmyboss

I work in a sorting office......you wouldn't believe the amount of incorrectly addressed mail we receive on a daily basis.
We do try to deliver as much of this mail as possible, but we're not mindreaders!

An Post have a 'Quality Of Service' protocol in place; in our office, all benches are checked daily to ensure that all mail is being brought out on delivery, and re-checked on the postman's return.

I can only speak for my own office (West of Ireland),where we deal with 25k+ items daily; I'm sure that in any similar-sized company, there may be occasional problems with customer service.;)

foggy_lad

Jimmyboss wrote: »

I work in a sorting office......you wouldn't believe the amount of incorrectly addressed mail we receive on a daily basis.
We do try to deliver as much of this mail as possible, but we're not mindreaders!

An Post have a 'Quality Of Service' protocol in place; in our office, all benches are checked daily to ensure that all mail is being brought out on delivery, and re-checked on the postman's return.

I can only speak for my own office (West of Ireland),where we deal with 25k+ items daily; I'm sure that in any similar-sized company, there may be occasional problems with customer service.;)

from different threads here postmen regularly leave parcels and packets behind(anything larger than the standard a4 size it seems) and have the slips written up and ready to stick in the letterbox when in fact they should have the parcel/packet and at least ring the doorbell and attempt delivery.

manna452121

Postman on a regular route get to know when people are at work or are told to hold mail when people go on holidays.It sometimes makes it easier for the postman to write a docket rather than carry the packets around on their delivery and find that people are not at home.

foggy_lad

How about they just do the job they are paid to do instead of trying to manage the whole post system. They should be bringing packets and small parcels with them. That is what they have those large bags on their bikes for and that is their job! Simply sticking the slip in the door is pure bone idle laziness!

delllat

foggy_lad wrote: »

How about they just do the job they are paid to do instead of trying to manage the whole post system. They should be bringing packets and small parcels with them. That is what they have those large bags on their bikes for and that is their job! Simply sticking the slip in the door is pure bone idle laziness!

especially if u took a day off woirk to wait for it

Shelflife

Put very simply there are good workers and bad workers in every walk of life.

if you have a problem with your post going missing or delayed, then you fill out a form and send it back , they are then highlighted to the fact that there is a problem.

if you dont report a problem then officially a problem doesnt exist and cant be fixed.

manna452121

foggy_lad wrote: »

How about they just do the job they are paid to do instead of trying to manage the whole post system. They should be bringing packets and small parcels with them. That is what they have those large bags on their bikes for and that is their job! Simply sticking the slip in the door is pure bone idle laziness!

Have you ever cycled a bike with 3 heavy bags on board for about 5 hours?

bcirl03

Up to recently our post would not arrive, arrive very late or partially open. The partially opens would be mostly letters \ cards that would have a small slit to the top of them. If you weren’t looking for it you'd miss it.

Any complaints to the local sorting office were ignored.

It changed when the local sorting office closed and moved to a bigger one.

In summary I wouldn’t trust An Post with a blank letter, unfortunately we have little choice.

foggy_lad

manna452121 wrote: »

Have you ever cycled a bike with 3 heavy bags on board for about 5 hours?

have you ever sat on top of a building in the cold and wind putting a roof on, or how about milkmen, bakers getting up at all hours to bring us fresh bread?

if the postman is not up for cycling his bike around he should QUIT and let someone else do the job he/she is not prepared to work at because like it or not that is the job and the job was accepted by the postman,

it is also the case that those big heavy bags get very light by the end of the shift!

Kimono-Girl

foggy_lad wrote: »

your postman was on holidays and his/her post was left undelivered!

thats what i thought too, but i saw him around the place on the days it wasn't being delivered, so i talked to a neighbour of ours that we know, and the business near us, the business was receiving its mail, the neighbours weren't but did say their neighbour in between us and them did get his...

the students accross the road got theirs too