Personally not found the PO to be that bad, it appears a desperate move when Hermes and DPD are a hoped for improvement. https://apple.news/AhkYhRxgfRMu0EzrVu0Yy3w
Hmmm, my frequent awful experiences with Hermes/Evri and their non-existent customer service says this is going to make a bad situation even worse!
But RM parcel delivery is total crap. Its more expensive than the competition, and a lot of the time they won't leave parcels safe even if you accept the liability. They never take the parcels to neighbors, and their online app is non existent therefore zero tracking. So all things considered, adding alternatives to the shop licencee can't be a bad thing.
I’ve had more issues with Herpes and DPD than RM, I prefer RM as I can redirect to my very local PO should no one be at home.
In my experience, RM (parcel force at least) used to be dire - in fact they were thieving bastards and "lost" many of my parcels - but, to be fair, they have been pretty good recently. Agree with the rubbish tracking and delivery options though.
I guess we all have different experiences. Last year around this time I began to wonder if RM was only delivering parcels in VR. Re the diversion to the Post Office, -can't you do the same to "collectplus" or whatever the carriers call their version of nominated shops for parcel collection? I thought you could generally, but TBH I won't buy things online that the seller won't allow to be "left safe" which is free from signing and being there to receive them. There is a risk doing this, but staying at home the whole day is nonsense, as is collection from RM sort office 20mins drive. I have found that virtually all sellers agree to allow parcels to be left safe if you tell them I won't buy it unless they do... Also as a backup, I can buy almost anything for a few pennies more from Amazon, and they will leave everything as per my instructions.
I live a 3 minute walk to my Local PO or 10 to a RM sorting office. Everything else is a PITA, I don’t generally care who is the carrier it’s just my experience with other couriers is less than stellar in comparison with RM. But particularly Herpes which unlike other carriers has changed its identity in an effort to distance itself from itself. I refuse on principle to interact with Amazon, due to having worked in a few of their depots. I have no safe space to leave a parcel out, where I live anything left out would not be there after a couple of hours. I don’t wait in for deliveries, the only parcel I’ve ever waited for was from America as it was a very expensive custom made guitar that my Son had scrimped and saved for from his part time £5 a hour job.
