View Full Version : Thurso/Caithness Postal services
Deadmans Sunshine
24-Apr-12, 14:48
now i am not one to bash the hard work the local posties do. but for me personally deliveries of parcels are getting worse and worse. and it seems to get worse by the year. i mean the obvious flaw (wether this is a myth or not i do not know) is how most of our LOCAL post goes to inverness first then back. but im having such a time getting parcels that are sent through royal mail, ontime. at first i thought it was just amazon, fobbing me off and being the big corporate baddie, but its now with all major online services. it seems as soon as it hits the highlands the process is snail paced (insert snail mail jokes here)
is anything being done about this? or has it been brought up at mp clinics and council meetings. because the two main issues with caithness (im from thurso)
is
broadband. we are still paying retail prices when the broadband we are recieving is not proper. i believe it was meant to be temporary lines etc but we never moved on. we are not even cabled!!!!
and the post, royal mail and other firms. i had an argument the other day on the phone with a delivery service that wanted to charge me a ridiculous fee, because i was not on the mainland. so i politley told them to google map thurso. THIS SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING. its scary how bad we are bing left behind.
anyone else notice this or have similar experiences?
Nick Noble
24-Apr-12, 15:41
My experience.
Royal Mail parcels and letters still seem to get to me pretty well within 24 hours when sent first class, pretty much regardless of where in the UK they are sent from. But this is only Royal Mail. Not parcelforce, and not any other courier company. In addition when I get things sent by Royal Mail, letters or parcels the charge is the same no matter where in the UK the parcel is sent from.
Other couriers, and this includes parcelforce often do charge far higher rates for delivery north of the central belt, the actual cutoff point varies, but it can make deliveries very expensive.
Amazon used to send many parcels by Royal Mail but now seem to use other couriers for most deliveries, this is good for Amazon profits and customers in major population centres, but bad for rural areas.
If you are ordering ask the seller to send by Royal Mail, if they will not do so look around, you will probably find someone willing to sell to you and use Royal Mail and cost you less in total than buying the cheapest item and paying the rip off delivery charge. Alternatively look to buy from one of the many large companies that offer a genuine UK wide delivery charge, but expect it may take a little longer to get to you.
With regard to broadband, most of Thurso and Wick and capable of getting proper broadband with speeds of between 4 and 6 m/bit speeds. The Highland Council are currently working with HIE and BT to provide high speed broadband throughout the Highlands. Progress is somewhat slower that I would like to see, but it is still happening.
I have no involvement with either Royal Mail or BT, though I have worked for both in the past, but they get knocked by many people when in fact they do generally provide a pretty decent service and at fairly reasonable price.
Nick
Thanks for your tediously informative response (to everything).
Careful you don't talk yourself out of a place in the council.......
Nick
Thanks for your tediously informative response (to everything).
Careful you don't talk yourself out of a place in the council.......
If only Councillors carried on working as hard once they had been elected we wouldn't have any problems to worry about!!
It's strange how nothing gets done once the elections are over!!!
Same old, same old......Nothing changes!!!
C3..................[disgust]
After hearing of peoples’ woes in the far north I’ve always kept an eye on mail transit times whoever I order goods from. I've noticed no discernible difference to Royal Mail transit times and only occasionally an extra day for Parcelforce transit times since moving north from the Central Belt three years ago.
The original OP doesn't make it clear whether they’re complaining about Royal Mail or Parcelforce, or packets or parcels. While they might be delivered by the same Postie hereabouts these items are despatched and handled in very different ways.
I ordered a book on Sunday night. It arrived at lunch time today. I'm certainly not going to complain about that kind of service! I do agree with you when it comes to couriers though. I know they have to make a profit and it does cost more to deliver up here, but it doesn't mean they have to dry shaft us!
Where about do you live? I'm in Thurso and my broadband service is excellent?
In a similar thread entitled, “Arrgh KW Postcode strikes again!” I wrote the following.
#17 - This afternoon I went online to order a replacement part for my Thule bicycle rack. A company in Kent advertised the part at £10.50, which I thought was reasonable. However when I looked at delivery they wanted £20 for delivery to Highland. I emailed them asking if they would sent the item by Royal Mail Recorded Delivery.
While I waited for an answer I did a bit more research and found the same part was available from a company in Exeter. They wanted to charge me £8.28 and £1.46 for Standard Delivery.
The Kent company replied quoting £5.37 for shipping saying they would amend the charge before invoicing me.
Needless to say I ordered the item from Exeter, paid using PayPal and subsequently received an email saying the item would be in the post this evening.
It is worth shopping around, but the bigger the item the more research you have to do.
#19 - My update for the above post; the part arrived yesterday lunchtime and by mid afternoon I had it fitted and my bicycle rack is now complete. All this in less than 24 hours from the other end of the country - I couldn't be more pleased
Clearly it is worth your while doing some research online; if you can’t find what you want from one supplier try another. Confront suppliers regarding their charges and the carriers they use. If push comes to shove look for suppliers in Europe, they can be competative too because they want your business.
I very regularly get stuff arriving the next day, even sent second class from Engerland.
I have sent packages to Castletown and Aberdeen both arrived within 24 hours via Royal Mail, cannot fault them.
I love my local postie, he is so good, and knows when Im likely to be out and puts stuff that has to be signed for to my neighbour or the local post office rather than taking it back to Wick....and the royal mail service isnt too bad for post to arrive when expected even for overseas stuff.
But couriers......dont talk about them!
I think Im a magnet for things that go wrong.....and as for items arriving within a week of a courier delivery..or expected date ...you know sit in from 7am to 8pm on the designated day then phome the next morning to be told it arrived..umm no it didnt..well we dont know where it is....yup its in Inverness and wont come for another couple of days!
Deadmans Sunshine
25-Apr-12, 10:55
hmmm, maybe i am just unlucky. royal mail deliver letters fine, but i do have a hassle at times with packages not turning up on the correct day etc.
surprisingly i have never had a problem with couriers, well not until yesterday. when i came home and found a note saying a package had been left in.......my wheelie bin. which was full of rubbish and other nasty things. blew my mind.
and since when was 6mb deemed appropriate. its 2012 and when 16mb and up is normal and premium services offer up to 38mb. different areas of thurso hit different speeds but all are sub par. and if you do the correct diagnostic checks we never hit the high numbers, but yet we pay top price. like i said we are trailing behind and no word of cable. no one up here can use services such as.... fast cloud streaming, although we can stream and use cloud, its not the full service. as an example ONLIVE. this is an interesting new technology concerning video games. you can play any game regardless of system or specs. the game and info is streamed live to your television through cloud tech. bt has a package deal with them and works with the company marketing them over in the uk, you know, buy this option and get a reduced price. but when you do the diagnostic checks our area cant handle such tech. another example, virgin media. CANT TOUCH OUR AREA. we cant get their tv, or broadband services. and its an unfortunate situation as i dont use my phone and i pay bt for an oversized paper weight which looks like a phone....wait it is my phone. virgin cable services allow you to have broadband without a phone line. which for many would be handy
please dont take my words the wrong way, upon reading it back i appear to be whiney. i love my area and hometown, but i think my overall concern is that we are being left behind, in this age of roaming open technology. this spills over into other things, our trains, our roads, our way of life. we seem to be forgotton. funding, the tesco fiasco. orkney has far more facilities than thurso. one example....a cinema. im spreading the topic over a wide arrange of what i feel are problems for our area and i know they all have their own contributing factors for each individual problem. but it all comes back to the feeling we are being left behind. and i feel its somewhat wrong. neglect of a community. left behind.
phil_moonbeam
25-Apr-12, 11:18
hi
i orderd a whole pile of computer bits to build a new computer inc a case late on fri afternoon it was here first thing mon morninand that was royal mail so i cant knock there service
but broadband is a joke we gewt such a poor service in caithness and will likely be the same for many years to come
Last week I waited 5 days for a letter posted in Thurso. Today I got a letter from Germany postmarked on the 23rd.
hmmm, maybe i am just unlucky. royal mail deliver letters fine, but i do have a hassle at times with packages not turning up on the correct day etc.
surprisingly i have never had a problem with couriers, well not until yesterday. when i came home and found a note saying a package had been left in.......my wheelie bin. which was full of rubbish and other nasty things. blew my mind.
and since when was 6mb deemed appropriate. its 2012 and when 16mb and up is normal and premium services offer up to 38mb. different areas of thurso hit different speeds but all are sub par. and if you do the correct diagnostic checks we never hit the high numbers, but yet we pay top price. like i said we are trailing behind and no word of cable. no one up here can use services such as.... fast cloud streaming, although we can stream and use cloud, its not the full service. as an example ONLIVE. this is an interesting new technology concerning video games. you can play any game regardless of system or specs. the game and info is streamed live to your television through cloud tech. bt has a package deal with them and works with the company marketing them over in the uk, you know, buy this option and get a reduced price. but when you do the diagnostic checks our area cant handle such tech. another example, virgin media. CANT TOUCH OUR AREA. we cant get their tv, or broadband services. and its an unfortunate situation as i dont use my phone and i pay bt for an oversized paper weight which looks like a phone....wait it is my phone. virgin cable services allow you to have broadband without a phone line. which for many would be handy
please dont take my words the wrong way, upon reading it back i appear to be whiney. i love my area and hometown, but i think my overall concern is that we are being left behind, in this age of roaming open technology. this spills over into other things, our trains, our roads, our way of life. we seem to be forgotton. funding, the tesco fiasco. orkney has far more facilities than thurso. one example....a cinema. im spreading the topic over a wide arrange of what i feel are problems for our area and i know they all have their own contributing factors for each individual problem. but it all comes back to the feeling we are being left behind. and i feel its somewhat wrong. neglect of a community. left behind.
Anyone moving to Caithness will surely be aware that this is the land that time forgot. Even when the news and weather reports discuss the 'north' they mean Aberdeen or Inverness. If they're the 'north' what are we? :confused
New technology won't come to the far north because it's not economically viable. We don't have the population, we don't have the industry, we don't have the infrastructure so we won't attract investment. :(
Re; Broadband - 2½ years ago I was only able to get 310Kbps because I am 8Km from the exchange. BT tinkled with the line and now I get 1.2Kbps at this rate I'll be in my coffin by the time I get the speed you describe. But that's the cost I chose to pay for living in God's own county. :Razz
I ordered items online on Sunday from 2 separate places.
Both arrived safely today by Royal Mail.
Additionally, if Royal Mail need a signature and I am out then it is easy for me to go to the local Sorting Office.
If a courier misses me (I am out at work most days) then they take the item back to their Inverness depot and it becomes a nightmare to get my hands on my parcel.
Ordered from Superdrug online on Monday, parcel arrived this afternoon by Royal Mail. Had been told 7-10 days, so delighted with that.
Have been waiting for over a week for a Parcelforce collection arranged almost a fortnight ago. Grrrrrrrrr
rich62_uk
25-Apr-12, 19:13
Anyone moving to Caithness will surely be aware that this is the land that time forgot. Even when the news and weather reports discuss the 'north' they mean Aberdeen or Inverness. If they're the 'north' what are we? :confused
Just how I like it ... :)
Anyone moving to Caithness will surely be aware that this is the land that time forgot. Even when the news and weather reports discuss the 'north' they mean Aberdeen or Inverness. If they're the 'north' what are we?
South of Muckle Flugga, 61 degrees north [lol]
South of Muckle Flugga, 61 degrees north [lol]
Ahh Memories, Muckle Flugga, those steps from the landing to to Lighthouse are a Killer but the Puffins, spectacular.
Ahh Memories, Muckle Flugga, those steps from the landing to to Lighthouse are a Killer but the Puffins, spectacular.
Been there, seen it and done it 40 years ago, along with 24 full fresh water barrels (24 empty coming back!), 3 week's general supplies, and two relief lighthouse keepers (two others came back) .:) The boat crew were crofters from Norwick and Haroldswick.
One of these magical unplanned trips in life which are never forgotten. And to think it all started over a pint two nights before in the Baltasound hotel with one of the keepers.:Razz
Buttercup
26-Apr-12, 17:04
Anyone thought of using Collect +. They're a lot cheaper than Royal Mail if you have a heavy parcel (up to 10kg) and you can get it delivered to McColls shop in Thurso (not sure where else in the county) which is cheaper still. For example a 7.5kg parcel is £22.80 via Royal Mail, £7.49 to your home or only £3.99 to McColls! I know there were a few problems a couple of weeks ago to do with HDN being taken over, but it's back to normal now I believe. Have a look at their website.
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