Late delivery of magazines due to adverse weather

[David HanlonParticipant @davidhanlon38496]

MEW 172 Just arrived  here in France (in the Alps) it’s currenlty snowing hard, so as long as they are not on strike La Poste gets the job done!

 

Bon Noel a tous!

 

Dave

[DustyParticipant @dusty]

I am afraid it is not only you subscribers that are suffering. I, like many others try to support our local shops and order the magazines through them. I still have not received the latest M.E. and the last one was two weeks late. The newsagent blames the distributor. I had contemplated a subscription but in view of the posts here I will hold fire before I make any kind of decision.

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Hi,

 

happiness is a warm mag, MEW 172 arrived by the last post this morning.  I wish the wife’s present from Amazon had.  Still, at least I’ll have a good read over Christmas. 

 

Hi Dusty,

 

I too get my ME from a local source to help keep them in business, and there has been no problem there.

 

Hi David H,

 

A Joyeux nöel a vous aussi.

 

and to everyone else I wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy and prosperous New Year,

 

Terry

[TigermothParticipant @tigermoth]

Ah well, post is past for the day and no MEW for Christmas.

A poor do but it’s hard to place the blame on anyone.

It’ll probably arrive next week and that will give me something to read after I’ve read my Christmas books.

A Merry Christmas to one and all.

Bob

[BertyParticipant @berty]

Sadly, I’ve not had ME 4393 or MEW 172 yet. I keep looking at the doormat with a long face. I’ll be annoyed if they are ‘lost in the post’. : (

Enfield, North London. EN1

 

[TigermothParticipant @tigermoth]

Oh Derek

If they’ve got lost going to Enfield in London, heaven help my mag going up to Ellon, north of Aberdeen!

Just think of the other goodies which did arrive to hopefully come down the chimney tonight.

Merry Chritmas

Bob

[chris stephensParticipant @chrisstephens63393]

My MEW 172 dropped through the letter box this lunchtime, all I have to do now is find time to get through the last six months worth before I can get around to reading it. 

chriStephens

[Peter GainParticipant @petergain89847]

To DC1,

ME 4393 has STILL not been delivered. PLEASE INSTRUCT YOUR PUBLISHERS TO REVIEW THEIR DISTRIBUTERS. No appologies for the capitals, but I am not convinced that you have given the contract to the best company. With unemployment so high you have a good stick with which to bargain & obtain a better level of service.

Peter Gain.

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi There

I will ask the publishers to review their distributors but first,

who would you suggest we use rather than the Royal Mail

who are our current distributors for subscriptions?

 

My copy of 4393 arrived today.

regards David

 

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

Hi all,

He`s been!

Man in red jacket left a pressie on Friday; MEW172!!

Didnt have a silly red hat or Rheindeer – must have left them @ home.

 Ah well, `summat ter read` @ work next week.

Merry Xmas everyone.

John.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Please do not shoot the Postie over this, in any case all the other so called mail operations use the Royal Mail to deliver for them, they are just destroying the basis of our postal system.

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Hi Kwil, 

 

well made comment about the Post Office.  It’s being destroyed so that the gov’t can privatise it saying that public sector is inefficient, the general public will swallow the ploy, agree, and not kick up a fuss about another bit of family silver being sold off to cover the mess the bankers left us in while they enjoy their bonuses.

 

Happy new year

 

Terry

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

The neglect started a lot sooner I am afraid, the Parcelforce concept was superb, “they” just let the rivals come along and take the business away. What I really object to is the foreign, more often “nationalised” companies TNT, DB, EDF etc., coming here supported by their own governments, undercutting what our “own” companies are trying to do.

[chris stephensParticipant @chrisstephens63393]

Hi Guys,

I know this is off topic but it is the way this thread has gone.

 

Don’t you just love the logic of selling off the Mail. Private business will only buy if it sees a profit can be made, no profit no sale. Now if someone sees a profit can be made, why on earth are the Con-Dems going to sell? Should not the owners, us all, get the benefit of this profit?

 

chriStephens

I don’t consider the above to be political, just plain simple economics. 

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

I cannot believe that the recent ‘bad’ weather has delayed the delivery of my subscription magazines, this is just a pathetic excuse for poor administration on behalf of the magazine publishers/adminstrators. I have had numerous deliveries of mail items couriered by Royal mail and others.

I used to receive my subscription magazines several days before they hit the newsagent shelves. Over the past few months they have been arriving later and later. Despite complaints to MyHobbyStore and their assurances that the situation will be resolved and that they will put a ‘trace’ (whatever that means) on my subs magazines, I am still receiving them a day or two after publication date ( or as is the case this month, not at all).

I tried calling MyHobbystore to raise this issue and despite being left on hold with the promise of …, the final message was, no one was available please leave a message and we will call you back!!!!!

Well, I’m glad I’m not holding my breath for that, because no one did call back.

This service  is to be polite pathetic. I work in a customer service based industry and if we treated our customers in this way we would lose thousands of pounds a day. Maybe MHS see us as smal fry but, they have a duty to provide a service for which we have paid good money. The bad weather is a pathetic excuse.

 

DC1, you need toaddress this immediately otherwise you WILL lose valuable subscriptions.

 

regards

 

One very hacked off Coalburner!!

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Hi All

 

In Support of Royal Mail 

 

We have been snowed in here for a week – 4x4s and tractors can get about but 2WD attempt to do so only if really necessary. We get an awful lot of stuff delivered by carriers these days but we’ve not seen one since 17th December. 

 Our postman has managed get here every day ! 

 Your distribution is quite safe with Royal Mail down here. I doubt that a privatised service will serve us so well.

 

Regards

 

Norman 

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

I for one am not having a go at Royal Mail, as I said, we have received many other items of mail both local and national. I lay the blame for hte late delivery entirely ath the feet of the publishers. MHS constantly make pathetic excuses for late delivery and make promises to correct this which they obviously cannot address.

They cannot even respond to a voicemail – which they encourage you to leave!!!

Absolutely unacceptable

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

From my reading of the situation there are number of places where the distribution is possibly going wrong. There is Royal Mail which is being used for subscription distribution, there is whoever/whatever addresses the envelopes and there is the printers.There may be other groups involved. However many groups of people are involved, it does appear that somewhere, someone or something (for I do not rule a computer problem) is not doing their/it’s job properly and what it needs is a high level investigation from within My Hobby Store.

 

As has been said, it isn’t really due to the bad weather because a lot of stuff is getting through and being delivered by the delivery posties. As an example, I had to help my grandson sort out an internet ordering problem he had on his mother’s Christmas present. The present was re-ordered on Tuesday before Christmas but as the website said that Royal Mail had abandoned guaranteed next day delivery, we ordered the next fastest – normal 1st class delivery. The present arrived Friday am! Which to my mind does indeed suggest it’s not likely to be due to bad weather. (The problem, by the way, was the grandson’s fault, no-one elses.)

 

The comment about other mailing companies using Royal Mail for the final leg is valid for small items such as magazines. Which does indeed create problems if it is the final leg of the delivery chain that’s going wrong.

 

David Clark asks who should they use? Now there is, I understand, either one or two wholesale delivery companies who deliver magazines & newspapers to newsagents and the like. These companies have, as I understand it, carved up the country between them effectively stifling competition and creating effective monopolies. (Effective here does not refer to their efficiency!) Unfortunately, it has been my experience over the years that one of these companies appears to not care about making good and correct deliveries to the newsagents with the result that on a number of occasions, all or part of the weekends newspapers have gone missing at my local newsagent. On travelling to the nearest filling station, which also sells newspapers, the missing newspapers have always been there present and correct. As you may gather, there is no way that I could even begin to recommend this particular company.

 

I fear we are between a rock and a hard place which is why I am suggesting that a high level investigation from My Hobby Stores is needed.

 

Regards,

 

Peter G.Shaw 

 

 

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

One thing I think is being forgotten is that the Post Office suspended deliveries in some areas at different times. It is quite possible that batches of ME or MEW coulfd have goner astray by being caught up in such delays. Have you ever been behind the scenes in a large P.O. handling depot? I saw some piles of mail about 1 or 2 cubic metres that had clearly been ‘delayed’ for an extended period (i’e’ partly buried in rubbish!) Once you batch is late, it will stay late until all of the ‘on time’ mail is moved through as getting fresh mail on time meets targets, by mail that has missed its target can wait until doomsday.

 

However i don’t think we should jump to assuming anyone else would have done better over the last two weeks.

 

Neil

[OddlegsParticipant @oddlegs]

I live in NE hampshire (Fleet) and am still waiting for ME and MEW.  I suppose I should consider myself fortunate however because EIM was delivered this morning.  Both ME and MEW were on sale in WHS but so far I have resisted the urge to purchase them.

 

Regards,

 

John 

[TigermothParticipant @tigermoth]

Hooray

MEW arrived today, the 29th!

At long last!

Oh well I suppose that it can be my New Year reading.

A Guid New Year to yin an’ aw and lang may yer lum reek!

Bob

[millingheadParticipant @millinghead]

i live in stocport (greater manchester) i am also waitng for MEandMEW,hoped they would come today but no just usual c**p

also i agree with coalburner the magazines just come later and later

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

Hullo Peter,

 

You say stuff is getting through so you doubt its the bad weather as such.

How about this being the reason? – Royal Mail managers up to their ears in mail @ sorting offices decide that Joe public will create a hue + cry if important  Cr Card and other bills held up so people get charged for ` non-payment.` Also other types of Financial/Legal letters, Court papers, Summons, Hospital appointments and so on.

What would you do ? Sort out piles of mags posted en-masse and chuck `em all on one side to deal with after main backlog of more important post has been cleared.

Just a thought.

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

MEW 172 arrived here in NE Hants (Whitehill) today, still waiting on the arrival of the latest ME. 4393, maybe that will arrive tomorrow. All other post seems to be arriving in reasonable time, Amazon, QVC and anything else SWMBO orders!!! so why take it out on the poor old ME

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

John,

 

I appreciate what you are saying, but the junk mail has never failed to get through!

 

Now as far as I am concerned, junk mail, and by that I mean unsolicited advertising from various places, can be delayed as long as Royal Mail wishes. Otherwise as I understand it, all mail is of equal importance.

 

On a personal note, I do believe that the use of snail mail for the majority of the stuff you mention could be, and will eventually be, done by telephone followed up by email & internet. Even hospital appointments can be done like that (personal experience). Furthermore, even for some legal stuff it is, as I understand it, permissible to use fax – even to the extent of signing documents. Certainly nowadays there is absolutely no need for anyone to receive financial statements via snail mail, and most people who regularly receive them will probably be able to access these accounts via the internet and hence find out how much they have to pay. It will, of course, require various changes in the law to enable electronic means to become fully legal, but I believe it will come eventually.

 

In other words, I understand what you are saying, but disagree with you.

 

Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw

[Author]

Posts