Magazines!

AKDL
AKDL Forum Participant Posts: 15
edited May 17 in Club Membership #1

My son has a membership, and so do my husband and I. So we should get 2 magazines.

Usually my sons arrives on time, ours weeks later.

His May one has just arrived and no sign of ours. We do the crossword, so only have a few days to do it but we are going away, so no time to scan and email.

The online chat lady told me it is Royal Mail - How can it be Royal Mail when we live at the same address, unless its the RM hub near their distributor, in which case the club needs to sort it out.

I told her that no other post goes astray, including magazines & memberships cards for other organisations, bank cards. Only CAMC magazines!

She has ordered my May one, but cut the chat when I asked her why it wasn't ordered automatically.

Does anyone know what the problem actually is? And why are the club not listening to its members, using just the RM excuse? 

Do I need to message them every single month to get my magazine?

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Comments

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,134 ✭✭✭
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    edited May 17 #2

    There are several other threads along the same lines. 

  • AKDL
    AKDL Forum Participant Posts: 15
    edited May 17 #3

    And I have read them all, the CAMC excuse is that it is Royal Mail.

    How can CAMC stick with that line when in our family we have 2 due - one almost never arrives, the other is on time?

    We have lived at same address since before we joined 25 yrs ago, we never had a problem until last 12 months. 

     

  • GEandGJE
    GEandGJE Forum Participant Posts: 507
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    edited May 18 #4

    Once the club has given the magazines to the Royal Mail how can it be responsible if Royal Mail doesn't deliver them. There have been many articles in the press recently reporting that RM are prioritising parcel post over business post.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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    edited May 18 #5

    But how can anyone be sure that the club has actually dispatched their copy to the RM for delivery?🤔  It's easy for them to blame a third party when the problem may lie closer to home.

  • GEandGJE
    GEandGJE Forum Participant Posts: 507
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    edited May 19 #6

    I suppose it's also easier to post a conspiracy theory without any real evidence. Just my own personal opinion.

  • Cornersteady
    Cornersteady Club Member Posts: 14,425 ✭✭✭
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    edited May 19 #7

    Mine arrives on time, but I find it interesting that there are often posts about the magazine being not fit for purpose or a waste of money, useless articles,,, and how it goes straight into the recycling bin (often without it even being opened) and then threads like this and others when it does not arrive.

    Very even handed I suppose.

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,856 ✭✭✭
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    edited May 19 #8

    Does the Club actually despatch the magazine direct to members or is it done by a distribution company? If that is the case then all the Club would do is provide a database of members for it to be sent to and other than that not actually be involved in the handling of the magazine?

    David

  • jandspea
    jandspea Forum Participant Posts: 2
    edited May 19 #9

    I have also not received my May magazine, this is the third time this year it not arrived

  • Amesford
    Amesford Forum Participant Posts: 685
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    edited May 19 #10

    Our C&CC, RSGB Radcom and C&MC magazines recently all arrived about the same time but guess which two were June issues 

  • GEandGJE
    GEandGJE Forum Participant Posts: 507
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    edited May 19 #11

    I think that the club should be seriously reviewing the Royal Mail contract and start looking for an alternative distribution partner. There are lots of Business Post companies out there. Depending on cost Amazon Business would be my choice.

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,856 ✭✭✭
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    edited May 19 #12

    I wonder if that might be difficult? At least the Royal Mail (warts and all) is a universal service and whilst others might be able to deliver to the majority I suspect it would be a more expensive service? Maybe the Club could just take the simple step of emailing members when the latest version is despatched? At least then you would have an idea of when to expect it and if it didn't turn up in 7/10 days you would be in a better position to contact the Club for non delivery? They could also, in that email, take the opportunity to inform members that it is available digitally if required.

    David

  • GEandGJE
    GEandGJE Forum Participant Posts: 507
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    edited May 19 #13

    Good point David, but with the proposed sale of Royal Mail to a foreign buyer and guarantees only being required for 6 day deliveries who knows with a push for quick profits what the service levels will sink too.

    Best option for the club would be to go fully digital and do away with physical copies, but club won't do that. So if it was my decision I would go for a new supplier as Royal Mail are constantly failing and showing no signs of improvement.

  • Amesford
    Amesford Forum Participant Posts: 685
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    edited May 19 #14

    I've never had a problem with Royal mail delivering my other magazines  

  • GEandGJE
    GEandGJE Forum Participant Posts: 507
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    edited May 19 #15

    That just shows how inconsistent the Royal Mail service is these days.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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    edited May 19 #16

    It is rather obvious that you have it in for the RM, whereas, as David suggested earlier, the problem could just as easily be a problem with the company that distributes the magazine to the RM, for the club, who you plainly see as not being responsible for the delay, without proof that is not them at fault I may add.

  • GEandGJE
    GEandGJE Forum Participant Posts: 507
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    edited May 19 #17

    If you read into my posts that I have it in for the Royal Mail then I'm afraid you are sadly mistaken. If you read the business press and go beyond the headlines you will see that the Royal Mail is missing performance targets across the board. Personally I think it's very sad that a national institution like this has got into such a sorry state. The signs are obvious, their costs continue to increase, with wages and fuel etc, the number of letters being sent each year is reduceing as people find emails cheaper, faster and more reliable and Parcel Force is having to compete against all the other distribution companies. Royal Mail is competing in a very tough marketplace. 

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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    edited May 21 #18

    All that is obvious, but why then does it appear that there is no problems with the delivery on time of the C&CC magazine by the same service?

  • GEandGJE
    GEandGJE Forum Participant Posts: 507
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    edited May 22 #19

    Now that's the question everybody on CT will have an opinion on but not the answer. 

  • Rufs
    Rufs Forum Participant Posts: 4,072
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    edited May 22 #20

    Dont get the C&CC mag but my CAMC mag for May arrived today, not that i care very much, i have a back log of approx 20 that i have never opened, i always take a stach away with us with all good intentions of reading some of them, but i never do.

  • Hja
    Hja Club Member Posts: 846 ✭✭
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    edited May 22 #21

    I get an email from the ccc that says the edition of the mag has been released, with an on line link. The hard copy always arrives within two days.

  • Amesford
    Amesford Forum Participant Posts: 685
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    edited May 25 #22

    I have just received a update from Ofcom stating that they are launching an investigation into Royal mail delivery service for 2023/24 

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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    edited May 25 #23

    Did it?

  • skodaman
    skodaman Forum Participant Posts: 141
    edited May 26 #24

    my may mag arrived on the 25 0f May perhaps it si a problem with the printers of said  Mag  who dont send it to the distribitors in good time they then pass it on to royal mail to do the final delivery [ or not ]

  • Hja
    Hja Club Member Posts: 846 ✭✭
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    edited May 26 #25

    yes

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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    edited May 26 #26

    👍

  • NutsyH
    NutsyH Forum Participant Posts: 534
    edited May 27 #27

    I haven't received a magazine since before Christmas.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,636
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    edited May 27 #28

    Unless you have indicated to the club that you no longer wish to receive the magazine, have you bothered to contact HO to enquire why that is?

  • NutsyH
    NutsyH Forum Participant Posts: 534
    edited May 28 #29

    Nope. I haven't cancelled the magazine, so that's not the reason. The RM service in this area is shocking,and I put it down to that not the club. If RM do go ahead with the 2 deliveries per week that will be a great improvement on what we currently get......

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,856 ✭✭✭
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    edited May 31 #30

    With most magazines I get posted to me I am used to the next months arriving in the month before. So a May magazine would be received in April. Not sure the Club subscribes to this way of doing things as my May magazine arrived in May. Just to complicate my understanding my June CMC magazine arrived today!

    David

  • Amesford
    Amesford Forum Participant Posts: 685
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    edited May 31 #31

    Having received our May magazine less than two weeks ago our  June issue arrived this morning