I try to avoid using Royal Mail nowadays. Not only has it got expensive but it’s also got much slower. Like most businesses I prefer sending invoices by email. But sometimes, there’s clients who still insist on doing things the old fashioned way. So, after a day catching up on paperwork I popped down to the postbox, secure in the knowledge that I’d beaten the 17:30 deadline for mail at my local postbox.

Only I hadn’t…

It was only when I’d posted my letters that I read the front of the postbox & realised the collection time had moved. To 9am – the next bloody day! Royal Mail have moved the goalposts (again) and lost me yet another day. Then they wonder why people like me are loathe to use them!

The rot set in a few years ago when I still lived in North London. In those days (probably only about 15 really) Dean, our local postie, used to deliver our mail around 8am. This meant that I had time to pick it up before I left for work and I could deal with it that day. Then RM changed the delivery times. Instead of it coming in the morning, it could come anytime after midday. That meant I lost a day as by the time I got home,it was too late to contact anyone vis a vis bills, or whatever. Then Dean was moved on to another walk & we suffered a series of posties who couldn’t find their own arse with both hands – never mind our letterbox. By this time I was often working from home & my morning routine would take in doing their job for them & dropping all the misdirected mail in at the right addresses.

Now the barstewards have lost me another day. Why? Because even if I’m at home & intercept the (late) afternoon post – I can’t even reply the same bloody day! My letter sits, festering in the damned post box until the next morning!

Damn you Royal Mail. In a world where service gets quicker – you just get slower.