ENGLISH MUM: never knowingly undercatered

May

Get a grip, An Post.

Filed under: Diary — English Mum @ 10:23 am

So I’m going to have a little moan. Being of the ’shiny, happy’ variety, I don’t do it often but blimey, the postal system in this country sucks and blows. As you know, my children both had their birthdays in April. Our families, the lubly beavers that they are, all send cards and presents and stuff for the boys. Well. I think of all the cards that were sent to #2 for his birthday, only 2 arrived on the day. And this is not because they weren’t posted early enough. Oh no, all the postmarks were a good few days, even a week before, and with adequate postage attached. And they’re still coming now. #1’s birthday, a couple of weeks later, was hardly better. The last of his came, I think, on Thursday. And I received a Christmas card in March too. I wonder if that’s a record?

But this isn’t the half of it. I’d say every card bar two had been opened and then resealed with a ‘oops, this card has been opened but obviously it’s nothing at all to do with us’ type sticker on it. Oh, okay then - so whose fault would it be exactly?

And then, after you receive a birthday card which has been ‘opened in transit’, what do you do exactly? How much bad form is it to ring the sender and have to say ‘erm…you know the birthday card you sent? Was there money in it?’. We had to do this when the card that Hubby’s Mum sent me for my birthday arrived opened. It turned out there wasn’t anything in it, but how awful is it to have to ask?

My sister in law has the right idea. She always sends birthday cards inside a plain brown envelope. And do you know what? They never get opened. So if someone from An Post is reading this - get a bloody grip. Oh, and you owe my children about fifty quid in birthday money too. Cough up, then.

19 Comments »

That’s absolutely Outrageous.

I must agree EM, An Post are SHITE.

If you every want to flirt dangerously with insanity, try to make a complaint. Will drive you Nuts in under 5 minutes.

Brown envelopes are the way to go.

Or, we could organise a coup and take the postmaster of every local post office hostage until our demands are met. I’ll do Athy. Any takers?

Ché Ní B

Comment by Jennynib — May 12, 2008 @ 10:34 am
Ché: Impressive. I’ll take Virginia (seeing as she’s a girl and she won’t fight back). Where’s Thrifty? He’s good a coups.

Comment by englishmuminireland — May 12, 2008 @ 10:39 am
Jesus, I’ve never heard of that before. That is bloody atrocious and if I was you I’d be writing a strongly worded letter and…..errrr. Bugger.

Reminds me of Postman Plod, a Viz character. An Post must have really gone downhill, still I suppose the cachment for their recruitment must have diminished to the “we’ll just have to take a chance that this one isn’t a sociopath” stage.

Comment by Thriftcriminal — May 12, 2008 @ 10:58 am
“And I received a Christmas card in March too. I wonder if that’s a record?”

No. I got one last week!

Comment by Grandad — May 12, 2008 @ 11:16 am
Been there with An Post. I’ve been sent stuff first class post and its taken 5 weeks to get or not turned up at all. They’ve a lot to answer for. Oh, and if you ever get a package delivered make sure you collect it almost immediately. They’ll send the bloody thing back. They’re supposed to hold it 3-5 days but dont bank on it. Its happened to me.

Comment by Aidy — May 12, 2008 @ 11:22 am
My word that is disgusting!!! I have been praising the postal service here, compared to SA it is fantastic, I just assumed nobody sent us cards because they did not trust the SA postal service, well between Ireland and SA systems we will get NOTHING!!!! Shocking that they are stealing from CHILDREN…

Comment by Natalie — May 12, 2008 @ 12:01 pm
I mentioned this to our (wonderful) Postie and he just gave me a “I know it, you know it but what can we do?” look.

Speaks Worlds.

I reckon this sort of thing is rife in An Post. Twice, I’ve been sent a donation for my greyhounds (totalling nearly two hundred euro) and got a nice, albeit empty card. Cue excrutiating ‘did you, didn’t you’ phone call. When I rang An Post to chew arses I got a lecture on not sending cash in the post!!

Hang on, how can they escape responsibility if it went from a secure post box to a secure sorting office with the cash disappearing in between? Hands in the till, Mate.

Disgusting.

Comment by Jennynib — May 12, 2008 @ 12:27 pm
Un-bloody-believable! Stealing a kid’s birthday money from their cards? That is so low. Definitely complain.

I’ve also had problems with official bits of mail taking too long to turn up. Bills from the UK asking for payment with, you know, reasonable deadlines when the letters were sent five or six weeks ago…

Comment by Wee Jen — May 12, 2008 @ 2:04 pm
I’m appalled but sadly not surprised. When OH was a postman the penalties for abusing the trust placed in you were severe, sadly this is no longer the case. When did it change?

Our postal system isn’t so bad, though we do moan. But apparently you’d have a long way to go to beat Canada Post. Canadians are not, by nature, moaners, but you should hear them on the subject!

Can you just contact the senders of the cards to say thanks for the card, and just casually mention that it arrived opened and resealed? That way it gives them an opening to say ‘WHAT? But I put a bloody tenner in that!’ Or something.

Comment by Jay — May 12, 2008 @ 3:28 pm
How does that work with your credit card bills you mail? Here the card companies barely give you enough time to pay the bill anyhow and if you have the post office screwing you around you must get charged a lot of late fees, never mind your credit rating.I guess pay online would be the way to go, but when you are paying a credit card bill,huh?Our rates just went up today to .42 cents per 1st class letter.Hey just figure you got your xmas cards early.

Comment by june in florida — May 12, 2008 @ 4:17 pm
Hee hee, you will NOT believe this…I got home today to find a Christmas card from my sister!!! The envelope had been opened and resealed with selotape, the little tune ‘thingy’ was broken and then I noticed the post mark…23 April, did my sister try to avoid the rush? Nah, she sent it late, and to the wrong house number, but somehow we got the card!!!! LOLAL

Comment by Natalie — May 12, 2008 @ 4:56 pm
Em.
We NEVER send money/cheques/rough cut diamonds in envelopes that even remotely resemble birthday card envelopes.
Sorry, I should have warned you about An Post.
Survival guide en route as I type.

Comment by Isitjustme? — May 12, 2008 @ 6:29 pm
Trust me, you don’t know how much a postal system ca suck until you’ve live in Canada. You can post a letter in Vancouver, bound for an address in Vancouver and it can take anywhere between 7 and 10 days to get to there. Now, I am English, and so I am very good at moaning and whinging and whining and complaining, but you will never hear a bad word out of my mouth about the English postal system - they can get a letter from England to Australia in 4 days - I can even get one from one side of town to the other in a week here! BTW, you have just given me an excellent idea of what to give the elder brother for a birthday present next year. I shall send him a card, that has obviously been opened and then resealed and then when he asks I shall tell him, in my most outraged voice, that there was 50 quid in there! Generous to a fault, me.

Comment by Don't Bug Me! — May 12, 2008 @ 6:31 pm
Actually I should ‘fess up here.I have two brothers who both hold prominent positions in An Post management and they’ve both advised me (as they do everyone) not to send cash or uncrossed cheques by post because while the majority of An Post employees are (like most folk) honest, there are always some skanks.
Late post is quite another thing…thats just the shitty system.

Comment by Isitjustme? — May 12, 2008 @ 6:42 pm
I can’t believe it …… so I thought you were being rude EM when you didn’t thank me for the card I sent you, now I understand why ….. there was $100 in there as well …. Bloody postie !

Still, now we know how to send stuff ok, your card to me will arrive on the 24th all ok, complete with pressie ……… ?

Comment by Moon — May 12, 2008 @ 10:54 pm
Is it just a coincidence (or have An Post been reading your blog) this very morning I (and the rest of the country?) received a booklet from that very body telling us how to resolve our complaints.
I’d say you got ‘em rightly stirred up.
(If you didn’t receive it there is a helpful note to tell you how to complain….)

Comment by Martin — May 13, 2008 @ 8:22 am
Jeez, leave the house for five minutes and you all come visit!

Thrifty: LOL! You’re right! Although our regular postie is absolutely lovely…he said that when the mail first arrives it can be sorted by all sorts of ‘hired help’, who obviously spot a nice, brightly coloured envelope and help themselves.

Grandad: Oh, that was from me. Sorry x

Aidy: They did that to me, the fuckers. Went to collect it and it had gone back to the UK. They said the local post office is too small to hold onto things. Gits.

Nats: I think that’s the worst of it. Mind you, people used to the fantastic (I’ll never complain about Royal Mail again) service in the UK don’t think twice about putting ‘Master S Surname’ on the envelope, which is kind of a big hint that there might be money in it :0(

Comment by englishmuminireland — May 13, 2008 @ 11:44 am
Jen: Exactly. How can it not be their responsibility if it was posted with money in it and arrived without it? I don’t get it.

Wee One: I wonder if it’s just UK to Ireland that suffers or if it’s everywhere. I get a lot of post from England and it’s always bloody late.

June: Luckily (or unluckily) I’m not considered sensible enough to be let loose with a credit card of my own but yes, I get your point. I just got charged £25 for paying a UK bill late though, all because of the Irish postal system. They should reimburse me!

Bugs: See comment 15. You can tell you two are related. Evil minds think alike!

Isit: You’re right, of course, it’s just the easiest way of sending a pressie. Next year we’ll have to have the ‘please don’t send money’ conversation so as not to line the skanks’ pockets.

Comment by englishmuminireland — May 13, 2008 @ 11:48 am
Moon: You two even come up with the same lies. There’s no denying those genes. Oh and your pressie? Already in the post mate!!

Martin: I got that this morning too! Had to laugh. ‘How to complain’. Yeah, I know how - see my blog!!

Comment by englishmuminireland — May 13, 2008 @ 11:53 am