[Healeys] Denis Welch, the Royal Mail and a mid week Rant

[simon.lachlan at alexarevel.plus.com]

One hates to be fair but……the Royal Mail does actually deliver on time. Domestic “First Class” post over here is guaranteed next day delivery so long as the item is posted before the last pick-up, normally about 16:30. They’ll fly a small aircraft over to, say, one of the Scottish islands even if there is only one letter on board. That’s the law, their legal obligation.

My guess is that the package passed out of their hands into those of anther agency, be it customs or whatever. Typically, if we post something to France “First Class”, the Royal Mail controls it until it lands in France, normally Charles de Gaulle, Paris. After that, all bets are off. La Poste has it and you can whistle…

At the moment, over here at least, all delivery systems are suffering. Mail Centres are crowded places, very highly automated but still quite labour intensive. Lots of people, lots of proximity. Quarantine and illness is playing havoc with manning and your package is probably typical. My observation is that other couriers are suffering more than the Royal Mail and more likely to be late because the Royal Mail has a more highly practised method of recruiting what they call “Casuals” or temporaries….usually employed from +/- end of November until early January ie Christmas. They are having to do that at the moment in order to fill in the Covid gaps. With, at best, semi-trained staff things will slow down. Of course, Denis Welch will have been running a skeleton staff and how quickly things actually get despatched is moot.

Simon

 

 

From: Healeys <healeys-bounces at autox.team.net> On Behalf Of Michael MacLean
Sent: 27 May 2020 23:09
To: Healeys <healeys at autox.team.net>
Subject: [Healeys] Denis Welch, the Royal Mail and a mid week Rant

 

If some of you remember I was on the list asking about original type and after market type tappets for my BN2 engine build.  I finally decided to buy the modified tappet that Denis Welch sells.  (cost with shipping $110)  These are the same after market types that the usual suspects sell, but Welch machines a flat groove on two sides to aid oil drainage back to the pan.  With shipping by Royal Mail (the cheapest) I bought them on May 5th.  They are still in transit with no scheduled delivery date according to the United States Post Office.  For some odd reason they sat at the airport in the UK for almost a week before departing for the States.  Once here (Miami, FL) they sat there for several more days before entering the USPS system.  I purposely avoided the alternative offered by DW (UPS).  I have been hearing from several sources UPS is having problems and to avoid them.  Maybe I should have sprung for the UPS charges, even though they were substantially more.  Not sure who is at fault here;  me, Welch or the Royal Mail.   Just a note of caution if you are thinking of buying anything from a UK supplier through the Royal Mail.

Mike MacLean

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