Latest news with #Royal Mail
BBC News
06-08-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Eastbourne woman 'nearly missed cancer check due to late letter'
A woman from Eastbourne said she nearly missed an urgent cancer referral as the letter was delayed in the Wynn-Jones said: "I was told I would hear within 10 I didn't. Fortunately my sister was a community matron and I asked her, 'what do I do?'.Her sister told her to call the consultant's secretary and she discovered her appointment was scheduled for the next day. The letter arrived several days living in various parts of East Sussex have complained of significant delays with post being delivered, an issue acknowledged by Royal Mail and attributed to staff shortages and sickness. Ms Wynn-Jones said it would have been "reassuring" to receive the letter before the appointment as "it detailed why I'd been referred, what they were looking for, what I needed to do now, how to prepare - well, I didn't have any of that". 'Wider organisational issues' Eastbourne MP Josh Babarinde, who has raised the issue of late postal deliveries in the House of Commons, said residents were being "let down" by the "bigger bosses at Royal Mail who have failed to sort out their organisation".Having visited local delivery depots, the MP said staff were "pulling out all the stops to get our post to us" but were being held back by "wider organisational issues".Alongside writing to regulator Ofcom, Mr Babarinde said he had secured a meeting with Post Office Minister Kevin Hollinrake to discuss the Mail has apologised for the ongoing issues and admits that its service isn't "where it needs to be" in certain areas. It said that 92% of first-class letters were delivered within two days, and that 99% of first-class letters were delivered within five changes mean that, since 28 July, second-class letters are only being delivered on every other weekday and not on Saturdays.
Daily Mail
05-08-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
My dad left £1,442 of old stamps when he died - but Royal Mail won't give me the cash: SALLY SORTS IT
I am executor for the estate of my father who died last year, aged 93. He left 1,661 unused non-barcoded postage stamps with a face value of £1,442.19. I contacted Royal Mail to ask if they could be cashed in as we are never going to use so many stamps. I was advised to post them with a Swap Out form because they were not bar-coded, include a Grant of Probate certificate, and request a cash value rather than replacement stamps. I added a note to the form indicating I did not wish to 'swap out' but wished the cash value instead. Royal Mail simply replaced them with newer bar-coded stamps and will not budge. K.W., Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. Sally Hamilton replies: You were furious when Royal Mail delivered the response that it would not let you cash in the stamps. You have no use for so many stamps and could do with the money to meet bills owed by your father's estate. As stamps are not legal tender, they cannot be used to pay official bills – though some individuals might accept them if you owe them money. In an age of email and WhatsApp, I can appreciate your frustration at sitting on a pile of postage stamps, ranging from 152 x 1p stamps and 114 x 2p stamps, to the handier 1st and 2nd class items. I suggested it might be easiest to share them between beneficiaries or relatives and friends. But you said the two beneficiaries of the estate are pensioners, including yourself, who send just a couple of Christmas cards a year. Although I use post quite often, when I purchased a pack each of first and second class stamps last week, the teller even exclaimed at the extortionate £13.46 price tag. Anyway, your complaint to Royal Mail customer services was essentially returned to sender with confirmation it could not exchange your stamps for cash. You felt particularly sore as the £19.55 you paid to send the stash of outdated postage by secure delivery to the swap out service was refunded in the form of stamps (aargh). When you escalated matters to the Postal Review Panel, which oversees gripes the Royal Mail doesn't resolve itself, it simply referred unhelpfully to the fact it could not 'make changes to the terms and conditions of any Royal Mail product or service'. Scam Watch TSB customers should beware a scam text from fraudsters purporting to be from the bank, consumer website Which? warns. The message appears on your phone as being from 'TSB', but scammers have spoofed its sender ID, meaning it appears to be a legitimate text from the bank. The text claims your 'internet banking phone numbers were changed' and to call the number in the message to cancel this change. Do not call this number, as it will put you through to a fraudster who will try to steal your personal and financial information. Instead, forward suspicious texts to 7726, so they can be reported. Since the message wasn't getting through to customer service, you came to me. You had read, in December 2023, about a reader who had purchased too many stamps in error from her local post office but on my intervention was permitted to return half of them to Royal Mail for cash. Although your position was not the same (in that case the customer had receipts to show for her barcoded stamps), I thought Royal Mail might show some leniency. But I'm afraid I could not persuade Royal Mail to budge. It said your position with the older stamps was different to the previous case and responded with a firm 'no', stating 'the swap out scheme is designed to offer replacements for invalid stamps, but it does not include a monetary refund option'. A Royal Mail spokesman said: 'We are very sorry to hear about the passing of her father. While we appreciate this has been a challenging period, we would like to clarify that our policy does not allow for cash refunds on unused, non-barcoded stamps. 'Based on this, she was directed to our swap out scheme, which enables customers to exchange old stamps for valid replacements.' Options for your stamps are to either sell or give them away. Selling is legal, though sellers should expect to offer a discount. There are also specialist traders. One I found online was offering 99p for a £1.70 first class stamp. Giving away unused stamps to charity is useful for estates wanting to reduce an inheritance tax liability, as charitable gifts of assets, including stamps, are tax-free. Specialist firm Xchange Master works with charities, including the RNIB, to convert stamps into funds for use by the charities, and says the organisations usually receive most of the stamps' face value. Holiday cottage plumbing fail Earlier this year I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent surgery which was successful but left me with urinary problems. My wife and I decided to book a short break but because of my condition deliberately chose a place with separate bedrooms and two toilets. We booked one in Whitstable through Sykes Cottages that advertised two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and paid £439. The holiday was due to start on June 3 but a few days before Sykes told us one of the toilets was out of order. There was no indication when it would be repaired as the plumber was waiting for parts. I replied that because of my medical issue this was not acceptable and asked for a refund. This was refused. A.M., Bromley, Kent. Sally Hamilton replies: You were not pleased to receive an email from Sykes stating the company judged 'one toilet to be a reasonable solution for your party of two guests'. Quite the contrary. You had gone out of your way to find accommodation with two loos and repeatedly explained this when you complained. Sykes pointed to its cancellation policy which says late cancellation will result in forfeiture of the full amount. Normal rules should not apply, I believe, as the cancellation was prompted by the property not being as advertised. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 says holidaymakers are entitled to the accommodation promised and as described. On my intervention, Sykes immediately agreed to refund you. A spokesman for Sykes Holiday Cottages says: 'We understand A.M.'s reasons for wanting to cancel his booking and are sorry to hear of his experience. 'A payment to cover the cost of the holiday has now been paid and we have been in touch to confirm this with him.' Straight to the point My wife, daughter and I went to the AO Arena in Manchester in December to watch Les Miserables. We arrived early so had something to eat, but when we arrived at the venue later we were shocked to see the show had already started. In the interval we found out many other people were also late. The head of guest experience at the arena confirmed wrong information had been advertised. My ticket had the correct time but the website showed the wrong time. C.N., via email. You have now had a full refund. *** Three years ago I had solar panels installed for £14,500 but in April they stopped working after a power cut. I had a 12-year warranty with the company that made the panels so I contacted it. But three months later it still hasn't sent out the inverter part I need, which costs about £600. Nobody answers the phone when I call and I only get messages saying the part will arrive 'soon'. S.H., Yorkshire. The manufacturer apologises. The inverter has now arrived and you have been given a £300 Amazon voucher as a goodwill gesture. *** I tried to close my broadband account, but the provider said there was an 'issue' so couldn't close it. I cancelled my direct debit then got a letter which said my service would be cut off. I called to settle the remaining balance – £296 – but was told again my account couldn't be closed. Last month, I got a letter stating my account had been handed to a debt collector. The company backed down and said it would wipe off my debts, but I've now been rejected for a mortgage. B.S., via email. Your account is now closed, the debt has been waived and credit agencies have removed this incident from your record. Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@ — include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.
Telegraph
10-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Royal Mail has one job. Why can't it do it any more?
Costs have to be cut, the service has to move with the times and modernisation is long overdue. As Ofcom, the postal regulator, decides that the Royal Mail no longer has to deliver second-class post on Saturdays, all the usual excuses will be trotted out. Of course, we all accept that there is an element of truth in them. Technology has changed the way we message each other. And yet, there is also something more troubling about the decision. In reality, it is emblematic of Britain's decline – and how the regulatory state always allows everything to get worse instead of driving it to get better. The decision was hardly unexpected. Ofcom announced on Thursday that it was relaxing the requirement for the Royal Mail to deliver letters every day. From the end of this month, letters will only have to be delivered every other weekday and not at all on Saturdays. It will halve the number of deliveries your postman has to make. It will mean that if you want something to arrive in anything like a normal time frame you will have to pay for a first-class stamp – already an eye-watering £1.70 instead of a regular second-class one. The cheap and reliable postal service that Britain pioneered in the 1840s is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. In another few years, there might be a few 'heritage' services, but otherwise the Royal Mail will concentrate on web deliveries. The letters and postcards it once specialised in will be quietly forgotten. No one would argue that changes are necessary. Very few of us even use the phone any more, never mind communicating by letter. We use e-mail, WhatsApp, or one of a dozen different messaging systems available on our phones. Ofcom estimates that the change could save between £250 million and £400 million a year, and was 'good news for customers across the UK'. That's according to International Distribution Services, the company that now owns Royal Mail, and reflects the 'realities of how customers send and receive mail today'. 'Modernising makes it worse' Well, perhaps. It is certainly good news for International Distribution Service, which will now be allowed to charge the same price for delivering only half the service. It is even better news for Daniel Křetínský, the Czech billionaire who acquired the company last year. Whether it is better for the rest of us, however, is more doubtful. In reality, there is also a bigger point here than just whether anyone can still get a postcard from Corfu or Malaga on a Saturday. It is this. Why does 'modernising' a service always have to mean making it worse? We see it happening time and time again when a service is delivered by the state or by a highly regulated monopoly. We may be scrapping jury trials for dozens of categories of offences because it is the only way to clear the backlog of cases. We are forced to discuss our health with an AI-driven chatbot, or a call centre, rather than seeing a GP who might actually know us and be familiar with our medical history. Entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson are told they cannot run trains because it might cut into the revenues of the newly state-owned Great British Railways. This list goes on and on. The officials and regulators that now control great swathes of the economy always think that it is better to cut services, reduce choice and put up prices, instead of becoming more innovative. Sure, running a daily postal service in the 2020s and making money is a tough gig. No one would deny that. But that doesn't mean it has to be impossible. We are meant to be switching from petrol to battery powered cars but that does not mean they have to be worse to drive. The plane you catch this summer will be very different from the one you might have flown 20 years ago but it will also be safer and cheaper to run. Across private industry, products get better over time. If only we could say the same about the rest.
