Postal Letter

Do you think the postal service is getting better or worse?

Simple question, is the postal service better or worse than it was a few years ago. http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/features/What-s-the-mail-strike-about And are postal workers right or wrong to take action over the changes?

Public Comments

1. I get my mail everyday with no problems.
2. All I know is it keeps costing more to send a letter... And I keep getting other people's mail because apparently their employees can't read a PO Box number correctly...
3. The Postal Service(public mail option) appears to be having problems competing with message delivery via ISPs(the private sector), despite right-wingers' claims that the private sector can't compete with the government.
4. I havn`t noticed any change in the last 40 years,they have a right to strike,,
5. I find it much the same as its always been. If people think the cost of a stamp is too high at the moment then wait until some private courier service takes it over. The cost will rocket as most of them don't want to deal with letters, they are only interested in parcels. They wont get our their vans and walk the streets delivering mail to houses, flats, office buildings etc, etc,
6. Here in rural Devon UK we have no problem with the mail. Deliveries are, give or take 10 minutes, around the same time every. Collections from our post box are twice a day and the local post office does a roaring trade. Of course with this dispute going on things may change but our local postie reckons it's all an act. Let's hope so!
7. Worse. Post doesn't get delivered until midday, when they have something that doesn't fit through the letterbox you see the postman ring the doorbell then walk off because he can't be bothered to wait, and half the post I get comes days late, even if it's first class, and I always get letters for other people - sometimes my neighbours, but sometimes people in a totally different town - even when the address on the front is correct, apparently postmen can't tell the difference between Gravesend and Sevenoaks. They are wrong. Without the modernisation the Royal Mail wants, they'll all be out of a job soon enough.
8. I fear most of all the Headless Chicken Syndrome. I once worked for a Government department under privatisation that lost its contract in the end because one of the cut-price privatised engineers blew up an army base. "Run as a business" means sacking the competent front line staff, asset stripping anything of value, increasing massively the salary, bonus and share option packages for its executives, dumbing down the work so they can take on cheap labour from abroad or pressured into it by the jobcentre, charging the customer double, and then double again to put right mistakes and corner cutting, help desks that are trained to evade any complaints and armies of boxtickers taken on to provide statistics showing the public all is well.... Yes, the postal service has deteriorated significantly since the changes turned four village rounds into two. Yes the postal workers are right to take action, but the only action they can take is not really what will solve the problem of incompetent half-baked management and a loss of vision and principle from Government. Rather I fear it just lets the bad people off the hook because it gives them a scapegoat. What else can they do though?
9. With the US Postal Service, it is business as usual at an increasing price for stamps. However, I am still receiving mail for a deceased woman and her family four years after they moved...
10. I had no complaints about the post office, I posted letters and they arrive when they were supposed to. I get mail through my letter box each day. Postal workers are being really stupid and are playing right into the hands of a management that wants confrontation / wants to fire people and will do anything to bring about the change that is needed to bring outmoded systems up to date and fit for purpose. The management are crying crocodile tears because they know that they will gain the upper hand in the struggle and will ultimately win with the loss of thousands of jobs, citing the strikes for being the reason why people have found other means to send mail and parcels. The only loser's will be the strikers who jobs will go while the bosses will get a pat on the back, larger bonus payouts and extra kudos for facing down and breaking unions .