Some of you may have glanced at this news item today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-52395609

It reminded me of when, many years ago, I received a letter from(the late) Oliver Lloyd. It was addressed to me at, simply, "Gaping Gill Camp, Yorkshire". It reached me without problem and on time, having been delivered to Ingleborough Cave and then being relayed by a tourist visiting the winch. I've still got the envelope somewhere. Knowing OCL, I bet he never even thought for a moment that it wouldn't be delivered.

We're lucky to have posties who sometimes go the extra mile, especially at the moment with the risk to their health from the Coronavirus. Anyone else remember having a similar delivery, against all odds?

International mail is all over the place. Some of us collectors bought stuff at an auction in the USA in March. All sent out tracked. The last tracking date for us was 4th April " Leaving country of origin ". Lots of money tied up there . Lord knows when we shall get our parcels. Another US auction on now. It's really not worth us bidding. Special Delivery inside the UK still arriving next day for me.

That sounds like it's not Royal Mail's fault, OR.

Many years ago I raced off to work early one morning and left my keys in the front door. When Tommy the postie called he realised the problem, left a note for me and took my keys round to my parents' house some considerable distance away (and out of his way). My dad was so impressed he gave Tommy a bottle of whisky.

I've got nothing but praise for our wonderful postal service, which many of us take for granted.

Years ago I ran a car hire business and there was a group of people who had vehicles on a sort of permanent hire, they were a bit sort of 'iffy', but paid.

Supposed to be 'office services' I discovered the truth when I took my wife for a meal and in the restaurant foyer noticed a poster with all my cars on it advertising a taxi service. As they were paying I pretended that I didn't know about this.

Anyway, they owed a week or two and one day a postman arrived in pouring rain to catch me because he thought that "I better give you this personally". A soaking wet envelope bursting apart stuffed with cash. I sent this really honest bloke away with a handsome drink, which he didn't want to accept. Some things in life you could not make up.

When I first moved into my present house in 1964 we had a lady postman - very elderly and a little bit slow.  We used to get loads of post of Orpheus Caving Club.

One day she knocked at the door and said that she had a pram and wondered whether it would be any use for the orphans.  (No, I wasn't pregnant and we had no children!)  We very politely said, "Thank you but no" and shut the door feeling extremely puzzled.  Then we twigged ... !

I do have to admit a soft spot for Royal Mail. The postman and their little red vans give me an anchor on normality in these present times.

Stuff's a bit hit and miss at the moment, seems to depend on where it's coming from. The one that's annoying me right now is a jacobs chuck key to fit the morse taper chuck for my big drill, seller posted it ten days ago but according to the tracking number it's gone nowhere... On the other hand, I bought a new brake caliper for my Octavia yesterday lunchtime, the DPD van turned up just after nine today - it was only coming up from Stoke though!

I have had a couple of worrying incidents which have turned out well. Some years ago I went to collect a parcel from the local sorting office as I had been out when delivery had been attempted. The parcel could not be found until a member of staff passing the rear of the counter heard what was happening and said "it is in the manager's office". The item was a 7lb axe, well wrapped but heavy (of course!) and a distinctive (axe) shape. No explanation was given as to why it had been diverted away from the usual sorting office internal route.

On an other occasion I had posted some small musical instrument parts, rare and which would be very difficult to replace. After a while I discovered that the had not been delivered and had basically gone missing. I mentioned this to my local postman, who I had always found to be friendly and helpful. Two days later the parts arrived safely at their destination.

I know that good people work for the Post Office but from the above experiences I have a feeling that interesting looking items might just be put to one side, by someone, until they are "lost", compensation paid (if there is any) and enquiries ended. Not a pleasant feeling to have .

Having a regular postman in our village meant receiving post at our house after moving up the road a bit before the change in address had filtered through to all banks, various organisations etc.

I even once received a letter from an aunt addressed to me at "Winster, Derbyshire".

It's the various courier companies I've had issues with such as returning from a weekend away to find a parcel with some valuable contents left on a front window ledge (the house is in a terrace of adjoining houses of various shapes and sizes fronting straight onto the pavement with nor front gardens). Another time a parcel was left on a wheely bin outside a house around the corner.

Royal Mail will go the extra mile to interpret 'limited info' addresses. The Indian postal service is a stickler though. I once sent a photo I had taken to the small village of Cherrapunjee. I had taken a photo of the teacher at the local school. Despite putting the destination and info that it was a  teacher at the school, the photo was returned to the UK as having  insufficient information on it to be delivered.  Fortunately I got to her via an intermediary on my next trip to Meghalaya. The irony is that they probably developed their postal system from ours but their attachment to bureaucracy stifles initiative.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-52395609

Difficult address tales!

My general experiences of Royal Mail deliveries (in South Yorkshire) are somewhat contradictory to the warm tales recounted above. I've almost resorted to mugging them on the doorstep to get my stuff. One time I watched the postman (who was meant to be delivering a Special Delivery parcel - from Roy Fellows, ironically) reach my doorstep, write a 'You Were Out' card out and push it into my mailbox, without ringing the doorbell. I shouted to him, and he looked up and then legged it. So I ran after him and accosted him in the street, whereupon he unleashed two minutes of total blather before admitting that the parcel was actually in his van, not in his bag. So I marched him down the street back to his van, which was unlocked. In the back was my parcel, which he just gave to me, even though it was meant to be 'Signed For'. When I asked him for the card for me to sign he said he'd lost it. He certainly had.

Maybe posties in the countryside are nicer because their escape routes are fewer?

pwhole said:

Maybe posties in the countryside are nicer because their escape routes are fewer?

Click to expand...

We have the same postman everyday except for when he is on holiday and we know him on a first name basis. The previous postie died sadly after a long illness and there was a book of condolences in the village shop to sign and a collection for his family. I suppose its one of the differences between living in a small village versus a large town or city.

That's true I think - our posties seem to be rotated on routes, as I don't always get the same one, but I guess that may be as much to keep them interested - or relieve them from duties on some of the rougher estates. Plus Sheffield's seriously hilly, which may also mean more rotation to give everyone a fair chance on the flat bits, where less hilly towns don't generate the same competition. In consequence though they're very fit round here

I regard our postal worker as a friend.

I  send out books all the time - the only complaints about damaged or lost parcels are delivered or not by Hermes.

I sent out 25 adventures Underground  recently all got there as far as I am aware . I am not just small parcels I reduced the price of Northern Mines volumes and sent out some large parcels all have arrived

Mike

paul said:

I even once received a letter from an aunt addressed to me at .

Click to expand...

I also received a letter addressed to me at  "Winster, Derbyshire" The impressive thing is I actually lived in Wensley and still got it.

My copy of Underground Adventure arrived today Mike. Looking forward to making a start on it later 

We had the same postie for years until he retired. Since then we've had a succession, and I've found out our route is now a training route, possibly because it's a varied route with all sorts of problems, private roads, back-to-backs, several roads with similar names (eg Park Road, Park Villas, Park Place). Even so, I'm always relieved when I see a parcel has been sent by Royal Mail - I know it will arrive, unlike parcels sent by particular well known carriers. Our local facebook page is full of pictures of front doors and people saying "my parcel has been delivered here - is this your front door?"

A year or two ago I ordered a case of wine from one of the on-line companies, and received an e-mail to say that it had been delivered; only, it hadn?t. We searched the obvious places outside our house and contacted the firm, who got onto the courier, who said that it had definitely been delivered, but it must have gone to the wrong address. So we scoured the neighbourhood, to no avail.

We got onto the company, who said they?d start an investigation. Anyway, by this time the weather had deteriorated, with lots of rain.

After about 5 days somebody we?d never met before came round with a very bedraggled looking address label, which was just legible, and said, ?Is this you?? Well, it was, and they told us that they?d just got back from a holiday in Australia to find this big box in their garden ? hundreds of metres from where we?d searched. When we tried to pick it up, the box disintegrated ? still, the wine was OK!