Is Royal Mail actively trying to sabotage itself?

Is Royal Mail actively trying to sabotage itself from the inside or has it developed the most effective way to meet its targets?

Having worked in eCommerce for over 20 years I have always been a staunch defender of Royal Mail. In my opinion, they have historically offered a decent service at a decent price, but I feel this Christmas will be the last one I go through fighting off annoyed customers because Royal Mail is trying to commit corporate suicide.

The latest salvo from them is the apparent decision to stop scanning parcels when they receive them. The tracking of parcels and deliveries has a very loose meaning in the vocabulary of the Royal Mail.

Picture this....

A customer goes onto a site and places an order, the owner of the site processes that order, picks and packs the order, puts a nice ‘tracking’ code on the parcel and puts it in the sack ready for collection by the regular (usually) friendly postie.

The customer of the site then gets a nice email with the ‘tracking’ number so, in theory, they can see where their order is and monitor its progress to their front door. The customer clicks the tracking number straight away (because that’s what we all do) and Royal Mail tells them, “The sender has advised us they're preparing your item. More information will be available when we receive it.”

The customer thinks, “That’s strange but maybe it’s waiting to be picked up, I’ll check again tomorrow.” So, they check the next day and get the same message, the following day they get the same message, and the next day, and the next. On the fifth day, they contact the site owner, breathing virtual fire at them for ‘lying’ about the dispatch of their much-looked-forward-to delivery.

The site owner checks the records, visually checks the warehouse, and confirms that the customer's order has left the building and asks the customer to be patient. The customer is, understandably annoyed and the site owner goes on to the next email, where the customer has waited for seven days expecting their order to be collected.

Why is this happening? Is the site dodgy?

The simple answer is Royal Mail seems to have stopped scanning parcels after collection. Instead, the process appears to go along the lines of the orders being collected by the postie, then put into a backlog queue and aren’t scanned until the day before they are delivered.

Here’s a genuine example....

The parcel was dispatched on 22nd November, it was eventually scanned on 8th December and delivered on 10th December. By the calculations of Royal Mail, they have met their 48-hour target, but in reality, they have had that parcel for 18 days.

I would love to say this is an isolated incident, but forums are packed with business owners, some fearing for the state of their business, see https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/forums/t/important-update-latest-scanning-changes-to-royal-mail-tracked-24-48/562929 and https://www.reddit.com/r/royalmail/comments/zd0oem/royal_mail_not_scanning_items/ as examples.

If you are one of those people, waiting for a delivery from Royal Mail please don’t jump to the conclusion that your order has been lost or that the shop hasn’t sent it. The truth is probably that the shop has sent your order, but Royal Mail has descended into a pit of despair and ineptitude where they are actively trying to push away all the profitable parcel business onto other couriers.

Your order will get to you when Royal Mail decides to clear up its backlog, but please be patient with the store owner and don't rush into doing chargebacks, you may be putting a small business owner out of business.

For me, I will no longer recommend Royal Mail to my eCommerce clients and for all the businesses I’m involved with we are going to be moving to other couriers as soon as possible. It’s a shame but I can see this being the true end for Royal Mail.

#Royalmail #ecommerce