Royal Mail

ford prefect

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SO I live just outside cardiff (no I am not welsh - just visiting), and the other day I ordered a present for my nephew from Amazon. I didn't pay Super Duper delivery or anything, but they issue you with a tracking number for this item.

Anyway, it was despatched from Swansea (Amazon have a big warehouse there), and for reasons I don't understand, it went to a sorting office in bedfordshire, despite there being a perfectly good one in Cardiff. This afternoon it is in Warrington! I could have driven to the warehouse in question in just over fifty minutes - its less than 30 miles away, yet this parcel will have done over 600 miles by the time it gets here.

I wonder why they are going bust?
 

Chilly

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you're an edge case. probably more efficient as a whole to run it the way they do.
 

ford prefect

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All I know is this thing has been on the move for eight days now and I now wouldn't be suprised if it paid a visit to scotland before it came back down here.

I don't see how swansea sorting office to bedford to warrington (and hopefully back to cardiff or newport) and being delivered thirty miles from where it started is is in anyway efficent. They will probably send in on a plane next from manchester to cardiff! Whichever way you look at it, it isn't exactly a streamlined or efficent service.
 

TdC

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please don't get me started on couriers, they're my fave thing to hate. still, Chilly is right (cough, sputter).

I have a similar case with domestic vs overseas parcels sent to me: the couriers almost never catch me at home, so I have to schedule pickup. If I use FedEx, domestics get sent to a depot about 15 mins bike ride from my house, and OS get sent to a depot about an hours drive away, because FedEx has structured it's internal processing that D and OS never mix.

I have practically begged them to route parcels for me to the depot near my house, but they will never do so because a) it violates the internal process policies, and b) it will be waaaay to expensive to send a truck over with my one or two boxes, because the routes never mix thus they can't make the transport more efficient.

I still hate them though, but not as much as I hate GLS. Those faffers went through a period of actually not bothering to deliver, while updating the trackers to say they'd been past my house. I've actually sent registered mail to their CEO detailing dates, names and places of several delivery and service fuckups that all happened within a few weeks of each other.
 

mr.Blacky

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Questions, what kind of sorting centre?
You might want to check, as for instance for TDC, I presume you are talking about UPS and not FedEx (FedEx is not really active in Europe). his closest centre is a medical one ;) so not really for porn :p
 

Moriath

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they might not have had it in stock in the cardiff one :p

Just in the northampt0on one .. tho why warrington i donno
 

SAS

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You'll find it's to do with the flow of mail and pickup/drop off times. I.e if you ordered an item to be next day it will come next day (barring problems with snow and ice). If you order something from amazon that will come in 3-4 days time, in your case not using the super delivery then expect the parcel/package to be stored somewhere for a short period. The location of storage depends on what space is avaliable in the network or which centres are assigned as storage depots.

Even if Amazon release the item next day your "estimated delivery" date will be stuck to. This is because out of the 85 million items (on a normal day, higher at christmas) many of them are for next day, meaning the 3-4 days package has left a few days to go before it's delivered so will be stored and released nearer the time...

I could bore you to death with the full details but in summary there is logic in there somewhere :).
 

ford prefect

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Well I ordered this on the 2nd, and I know it was picked up from Swansea, the tracking info says so - as of this morning it is still sat in Warrington - apparently "due to adverse weather conditions" according to Royal Mail. I was in machester this weekend (was supposed to be dropping this pressie off), was cold sure, but quite sunny for the most part and very snow free. And to be honest, when the weather was bad, South Wales was one of the least affected places in the country.

I miss the days when Royal Mail wasn't computerised and the post came twice per day. You could post something first class, and more often than not it would be there the next day. Postmen looked happier back then too - or maybe thats just me.
 

Tom

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There is no snow or ice anywhere around here, and even when there was the main roads were fine to drive on.
 

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