I got back from holiday and found a notice tucked in my mail slot – they had tried to deliver a parcel but I was away. Just as back home, they left a card with the phrase ‘your parcel has been returned to our local office’ on it. So, I headed down to our local post office, ID in hand. The conversation went like this:
“Hi, I’m here for my parcel. Here’s the ticket.”
“Oh, no, sorry, we don’t have it.”
“But this card says you do.”
“No, it says the Royal Mail has it.”
“Yes. That’s why I’m here. It says it was returned to the local office.”
“Yes, but that’s the Royal Mail.” (I should mention, I was surrounded by all sorts of government postal and mail signage, books of stamps, pictures of the queen, people standing in windowed cubicles, the whole nine yards.) “We’re the Post Office.”
“Huh?”
“We’re the Post Office. The Royal Mail is the mail carriers and so on. That’s not us.”
“R-i-i-i-ght.” Pause. “So what do I do?”
“Just go to the Royal Mail. It’s right next door.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Except it’s only open 8am to 10am.” (it was 11:30.) “So you’ll have to go another day.”
“Okay, well, thanks then . . .”
It seems the Royal Mail and the UK Post Office are two completely different entities in Britain. They have different offices, different employees, and even have separate websites. You give your mail to the Post Office (who sells you the stamps and takes your letter, parcel, or package). They in turn give it to the Royal Mail, who takes your letter, parcel, or package, and delivers it to the recipient’s home. Unless they can’t, in which case they hold on to it for them. Oh, and when you give your letter, parcel, or package to the Post Office, they give you a Royal Mail tracking number so you can follow it to its destination.
The phrase WTF comes to mind.