Are You Looking Forward To The New Royal Mail Delivery Service Aug 24, 2012 14:48 by Huw Carrington
We’ve always used the Royal Mail for our Free Delivery, and with good reason – 99% of deliveries arrive next day, with a guarantee that your order will arrive within five working days of despatch.
Now, following extensive trials in 2011 that resulted in a 92% satisfaction rate, the Royal Mail are rolling out a ‘Delivery to Neighbour’ scheme, wherein if the postman is unable to deliver something to you – whether it’s too big for the letterbox or they fear a mauling by your doberman – they’ll deliver next door instead.
They leave you a new card that says your neighbour has it, and life’s easier for everyone involved!
No more travelling to the depot with a ‘Sorry, you were out’ card in hand ; instead, simply knock on your neighbour’s door and retrieve your order.
“But what if I don’t want it left with a neighbour?!”. Request a sticker to put on your letterbox. As soon as the postman sees the sticker, they’ll avoid your neighbours and take your package back to the sorting office as normal.
What does this mean for Stinkyink customers?
We have a ‘Delivery Instruction’ field on our checkout, where you can specify a safe place to leave your inks if you’re not in; have no fear – if the postman sees this then they’ll do their best to leave your package where you’ve asked, and not with one of your lovely neighbours.
It’s a simple but great idea, and we’re really looking forward to Stinkyink deliveries arriving even quicker than before.
Have you experienced this system for yourself? Know something we don’t? Leave a comment, and let the world know!
Got a question we didn’t answer? You can see the Royal Mail’s FAQ on this new service here
This is new? I’m sure my postman has been doing this for years…
Then you must have a particularly considerate postie – now all of the Royal Mail’s team will be doing this as standard, nationwide!
Won’t be buying from Stinkyink then. Don’t want my stuff left with neighbours and don’t want stickers on my new front door thank you very much.
I don’t think it applies just to us, the whole Royal Mail network will be offering the service!
Of course. But before singing its praises Stinkyink should carefully look at the scheme and consider all of the implications. For one thing RM are not offering this service but imposing it. Not an opt in but an opt out that requires a sticker that I don’t want. Will be reviewing all potential suppliers but Stinkyink have put their head above the parapet!!
We actually saw it as a positive step by Royal Mail, I guess you can’t please all of the people all of the time!. You could always select our ‘Guaranteed Next Working day’ delivery service which will then use Interlink express and they will only deliver to your doorstep and need a signature for proof of delivery
Agreed, I have horrible neighbours…
I also have horrible neighbours, but living out in the sticks it is a 15 mile round journey for me to go to our local sorting office, so any improvement is a good improvement!
I wouldn’t worry Alan – it is still purely in a trial phase and there will be enough people sharing your opinion (myself included) to have them devise a workaround, such as registering your address as an opt-out.
In regards to not shopping at Stinkyink though, I think that’s a bit extreme. If Royal Mail do follow through and fully implement this plan, we can easily look at a Delivery option that adds a “Do Not Leave With Neighbours” option for your account that is automatically applied to delivery labels. Problem solved
And Lo, in today’s post a leaflet from Royal Mail explaining the new service. To opt out of neighbour delivery you need to go to http://www.royalmail.com/out and they will send a sticker to display NEAR your postbox or somewhere clearly visible to your postie
Oh dear! I really don’t think you have thought this through. But your are not alone and its your business. Did you know by the way that it includes all Recorded Signed For items, even those that might be sensitive and confidential communications? But how would you because it doesn’t tell you in the leaflet!! Thanks for the opportunity to give you my views that haven’t changed.
Hi Alan, I’m not sure where you’re getting that information but as far as we’re aware that is incorrect.
“Special Delivery items, or mail coming from abroad, that needs to be signed for are excluded. Delivery to Neighbour is mainly aimed at helping you get easier access to items that are too large to fit through your letter-box.”
That is directly from the Royal Mail page of information that you can find here : http://www.royalmail.com/delivery-neighbour/faqs/faqs#includes
Following some further reading, the Royal Mail -will- be delivering signed-for and special delivery items on this scheme (unless they’re coming from outside of the UK).
Although I think highly of this step personally, if you would like to make your views heard by those that have the final say in this, you can contact Ofcom, before the 12th of September, here (http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/royal-mail-delivery-neighbour/howtorespond/).
Alan, this means that you’re quite right about the specifics – I trust that you’ll forgive me for the error made at the time of writing, and I hope that the situation with your neighbours improves.
My apologies to our readers for this minor confusion.