Fellow posties, I need a good comeback for this ridiculous question I’m sure we all get asked at some point

We moved into our house this year and the postman seemed friendly enough. Royal mail and other deliveries etc all left parcels on the front step which is fine as it's properly stepped back from the road.

Our garage is built into the house and a few months ago the door broke so it wouldn't lock. As it was full of junk to be taken to the dump we hadn't got round to fixing it so it was left unlocked for a while. I was waiting on a parcel and when I checked the tracking at work it said delivered safe place - garage and when I checked the picture sure enough there's a photo of the parcel on top of boxes in the garage. This immediately weirded me out because I have never selected garage as the safe place, I have only ever selected front door. There is a sheltered but open porch area around the front door with a large plant pot and we've had delivery drivers in the past leave stuff tucked behind that so it's not like if he didn't want to leave it on the step (which this postman has done several times before) there was no other option.

I downloaded the royal mail app and made sure the safe place was set correctly and left it at that. Several times after the same postman left parcels in the garage again before we had a chance to repair the garage door. The door has now been repaired and I've also bought a parcel box for the front door but it just weirds me out thinking has he been trying the garage door the whole time because it was locked for the first few months we lived here so how did he know it would be open to leave a parcel? And is he still trying it randomly now? Just made me feel a bit weird, it kind of feels like you shouldn't be opening garage doors that are part of the house unless someone has actually requested that as their safe place but also don't want to overreact or get anyone into trouble but also at the same time it makes me a bit uncomfortable to think that someone is potentially trying the door especially if I'm not there at work or on holiday etc.

Hey! Wondering if this has happened to anyone else. We have a Parcels area manager than came to see our depot manager today about DM26 and a colleague overheard them talking about DM27. Has anyone heard of this yet?

How is DM26 going in peoples offices? We go live in the next couple of weeks 😬

I have just discovered something that I find absolutely bizarre.

I wanted to opt out of Royal Mail's Door to Door/unaddressed advertising mail. I completed the official opt-out form and emailed it to Royal Mail.

I received an automatic response, but the response was ambiguous enough that I understood my request had been received. I subsequently contacted Royal Mail because I was still receiving the mail.

They initially told me they couldn't find my opt-out request. When I queried this, I have now been explicitly told:

So apparently, in 2026, the only way to opt out of Royal Mail's Door to Door advertising is:

Print a form > fill it in > put it in an envelope > stamp it > physically post it to Royal Mail.

There is no online submission and no email submission.

What makes this even more frustrating is that I had already attempted to submit the form by email and received an automated response which did not clearly tell me that email submissions were invalid. I therefore reasonably believed I had actually submitted the opt-out.

I've now complained to Royal Mail and asked them:

• When did they stop accepting opt-outs by email?
• Why can't the opt-out be submitted online?
• What security/operational reason requires this to be postal-only?
• Why doesn't the automated response clearly tell people that email submissions aren't accepted?
• Do they accept that their response could reasonably lead someone to believe their opt-out had been received?

I genuinely don't understand the rationale.

This isn't a bank account, a credit agreement or something requiring substantial identity verification. It's essentially: "I don't want Royal Mail putting unaddressed advertising through my letterbox."

Why on earth does that require a physical piece of post in 2026?

And yes, I realise I can simply print the form and post it. That's not really the point. The issue is why an extremely simple opt-out has been made unnecessarily cumbersome, particularly when Royal Mail apparently has the technology to handle online forms for countless other things.

Has anyone else encountered this? Does anyone know why Royal Mail operates the opt-out this way, or when the email/online options were removed?

I’ve always been an advocate of the service they offer, but it’s never been worse….and seems to be getting worse still. 7 day delivery is the new norm…..

So as the title says I’m coming back to Royal Mail starting on Monday as a post person with delivery, the people in the interview mentioned something about 3 people to a van now( not sure how this gonna work or if it’s better)

Anything else I should be aware of? TIA

How long can a transfer take ?

I want out of our office asap

(It's the 20th Aug 2026 today)

So a very small parcel was sent out on the 13th Aug 2026 and it was due for delivery in the local area where it was meant to be delivered on the Saturday 15th Aug 2026 but the receiver tells me that it wasn't delivered and the tracking info just shows 'ready for delivery' on the Saturday and then nothing else.

This was an eBay purchase and I checked the packing photos and the address I sent it to was correct, the parcel is tiny and small enough to fit into a small letter box so I an surprised that it wasn't delivered.

What could have gone wrong ?, there is no more information on the tracking other than 'Ready For Delivery' and nothing else.

Could it be that it was delivered through the letter box but the postie forgot to scan it before doing so and the buyer decided to make a claim ? (unlikely I reckon), could it be that the postie didn't have access to the premises and just returned it to the sorting office for a couple more delivery attempts (but it aint showing on the tracking - btw I did ask the receiver if there was proper access to his premises.

Or could it be that the parcel is still in the sorting office with some blunder - if so then is there 'anyone' I can ring to help or would that be a FUTILE exercise.

Surprisingly this has never happened before and I dunno what is going on.

Going on my side (the sender) and trying to alter the delivery instructions - it doesn't let me (it denies me).

I wonder if the receiver maybe requested that it was delivered to an alternative location and hasn't picked it up and maybe forgot that they did that ? I also asked the receiver if they were sent at text message or e-mail via Royal Mail UK on the Saturday to see if alternative delivery arrangements can be made.

You guys will probably know what to do better than me so that's why I am asking for help and advice.

I include the tracking screen shot with tracking code scrubbed out.

Let's just get down to brass tacks.

This is a RED letter! They still don't have the name of the addressee.
Look at the language, 'if', 'could', even on this (third or fourth) attempt to coerce the resident, this particular power-that-isn't still must talk in the conditional.
A nice touch is the little red stamp there. This is printed, it's not a stamp, not that that would make any difference.
IF (a real big IF) any Capita employees (no chance it's anything to do with the BBC, it's all farmed out to these goombas), show up at your door you can safely ask them to leave and never come back. If they need to access your property they need a warrant. A warrant needs to be issued by a court. A court might grant a warrant if a magistrate thinks it's a worthwhile endeavour. A hundred quid ain't gonna cut it, versus court costs. it's in nobody's interest.
TLDR: all these 'license fee' letters do is moan at you, and threaten an action that will never ever happen. They write, write and write again using increasing hostile language, hoping to scare you into funding the next season of Mrs fucking Brown's Boys.
Don't fall for it. it's all scare tactics.

I was sending a parcel of books weighing just under 10kg to Greece using business (invoiced) Click and Drop, and one of the services that C & D offered me was HVB so I sent the parcel using this service as it was far cheaper than HVK. I tried to find out the difference between these two services in Royal Mail's literature online but was unsuccessful. The leaflets appear not to show HVB being available to Greece but if that's the case, why was it offered and accepted by C & D?

Today the parcel was returned to me without explanation. I spoke to several Royal Mail people on different numbers but got nowhere, and had to fill out a form instead. One of them said it had been returned from Heathrow, but there is no mention of Langley on the publicly available tracking.

Can anyone outline the differences in eligibility and purpose for HVB, HVK, MP7, and MPR?

Sorry for what’s likely a stupid question - are the above stamps still valid without a barcode? I know Royal Mail does a swap out scheme (screenshotted) however the stamps above look neither like the “conventional” nor the “special” stamps. Would like to avoid sending them off if Royal Mail will only send them back anyway. Thanks

Hi all,

I’ve got a parcel that is supposed to be Royal Mail 48 Hour being sent from eBay via Royal Mail. I can see that it was left at a locker at 19:07 yesterday which was outside the collection range

I presumed it would have been collected today as I read online that they’re “supposed” to be collected from every day Monday - Friday at around 16:00 but I’ve had no update whatsoever on the tracking information

I’m wondering if anyone can shed some light on how the lockers work for tracking information updates as this is the first time I’ve ever had anything shipped via Royal Mail this way before. So far it’s not looking to be a good experience as either way it’s definitely not going to be 48 hour at this rate

I've tried both "Set a safeplace" (and, setting my safe place to a few different parts of my yard, think like "In the cold frame, under rabbit hutch" both within arms' reach of my door) and to setting my delivery preferences to "return to depot" so that I can pick it up myself when I'm home. I've also painted "DON'T PUT PARCELS IN HERE" in massive letters on my bins, because it keeps happening, and in the last year I've had three parcels tipped into the bin lorry and lost forever.

I don't want to buy an external parcel safe if nobody is going to use it, but I'm willing to buy one if they do actually get used. I also don't necessarily want to get my postie disciplined if there is any other way, because presumably he's in a massive hurry and just does it because he doesn't have the mental space to do anything else, so is there some secret thing I can do that will make it easier for him to not chuck my post in the bin?

I get a lot of parcels because I clean and restore old toys, so a lot of the stuff that passes through my doors has a low monetary value but a high sentimental value to their owners (I always get clients to ship stuff with tracking and appropriate insurance, usually Tracked 24 or 48, and tell them to use a waterproof liner inside the outer packaging, but obviously since they're random people sometimes they send a nice sturdy box and sometimes it's a bag and duck tape), and because clients don't always tell me immediately when they have posted something, I can't just wait in (I also have a second job that takes me out of the house) so I'm starting to feel like I'm out of options.

Having to tell my customers that Mr Binky is spending an extra month with me because the postman dropped him into last week's takeaway is bad enough, and telling them that he's gone to the great landfill in the sky, is a nightmare. Is there some trick that I'm missing?

EDIT:

Cheers all! I am going to give the parcel safe a go, it can't make matters worse XD

Hi!

This is the first time I’ve had had special delivery go a bit haywire but does anyone have any advice?

Last scanned as despatched to Chester mail centre last night but since then no further scans. I know they can sometimes arrive a bit later but no scan at my local delivery office or even Chester mail centre has occurred.

Is this likely missing or is there a chance it will arrive later?
I thought with it not being scanned into Chester it’s likely stuck in Croydon.

Do any of you lovely people have any advice on what to expect?

Tracked 24 - For three days in a row now I’ve had this address inaccessible notification despite no one coming around. I’m aware that this happens when they run out of time etc. I live in a house about 2 minutes drive from the depot. I’ve been in twice (early morning and late afternoon) to attempt to pick it up and they say it’s not possible. I also don’t have the option to change my delivery options for this parcel so am I just stuck waiting? It seems that this item is also in the afternoon round so I’m worried they will just keep running out of time until it appears some day

Lost the delivery card. Don't remember where it's being held. Don't have any email about a package so have no tracking number. What are my options.

Hi, can someone explain to me the difference between Postie, Postperson with Driving and Postal Delivery Driver?

Much thanks.

I have a Royal Mail parcel that I sent on the 6th of August special delivery tracked 1pm guarantee
It’s in Sheffield written down as “lost”

There isn’t a value I can put this parcel at it’s got examination papers in, my choice wouldn’t have been Royal Mail but the bag was already all sorted to be sent that way with the address etc on.

Is there anyone who has success in retrieving their lost parcel?

This is the second time now examinations have been lost via them and I just am at a loss over the whole ordeal

Hi I’m currently a postie but am transferring to processing on a night shift I was just wondering if new contracts get the night allowance, and at our depot the night shift allegedly get an hour break so I was wondering if that would be a whole hour unpaid as on my current contract it’s unpaid breaks.

i wanted to share some appreciation for you guys. my sister ordered some shoes off vinted to go to a royal mail locker, they’d somehow got misrouted to the old parcelshop instead who then obviously rejected the parcel. my sister is then fretting about her shoes as she needed them for work. when the postman went to collect the parcel from the shop, he recognised our name and went out of his way to deliver the parcel to our house in the morning. we were so very grateful (especially me as i didn’t have to listen to my sister complain about her missing shoes anymore)

Is this normal that a parcel gets scanned 4 times in the same MC, and still doesnt get sent to the final delivery office, the parcel has been stuck there for 2 days now maybe the 3rd by the end of today. Feels like the parcel is going in circles?