Or they ship grandma a single use kindle with your letter on it ;)

WOW! WHAT AN IDEA!

But then public sector business don’t tend to be very good at being businesses. Not that I’m in any way against the public sector, but you only have to look at councils to see what not having any real accountability does to efficacy.

That said, enough profit should have been retained in the company to fund investment and development of services as customer needs change.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200689010

They’re huge locker walls that are controlled by an electronic keypad. You can have items delivered to them, and you get the pickup code.  They’re located in places like drugstores and convenience stores , which have longer hours.

I’ve never used one, but it’s the only option for my mom.  She lives across the street from one in an apartment building without a doorman.  Anything shipped to her place runs the risk of being stolen, or redirected to the UPS depot or Post Office.  For people who live in NYC, those places are often miles away with super long lines – so instead of just paying for Shipping & Handling, you get slapped with a cab fare to pickup as well.

Funny thing is, I said exactly the same thing about Yodel to a colleague last week. True enough, they failed to deliver because they “couldn’t find the address” then made up a name of a person who allegedly signed for it. Yodel = truly awful.

Amazon are hedging their bets.

My best story so far: I went on a trip to Ireland when I was a teenager, and my plane was leaving from Paris (I don’t live there). My handbag was stolen before I boarded my plane. (Yeah, that was charming.) My wallet, without the money of course but containing all of my papers, including my ID, was found a litle while later by the Paris Lost and Found office,  who sent us a letter to let us know. My brother, who lives in Paris, went to pick it up at their office, and had it sent to me as a registered parcel (with acknowledgement of receipt, the works, just to make sure we’d actually get it.)

We never got the god damned thing, of course. It was “lost” (or, more likely, stolen – again) and all we ever got was a letter of apology. My brother didn’t even get a refund.

And that was *before* the Poste was privatized – and everyone agreed that it’s got a LOT worse now that it is a private company. And it has. Oh gods, it has.

I’ve heard nothing but bad things about Yodel though, so I’ll believe you in that front.

Ever queued in a corner shop?

I think you have your answer.

Makes you wonder how all their competition makes a profit – or, more pertinently, why Royal Mail struggles so much.  My guess is that they’re as poorly run as every other section of the government.

[edit: It appears that their profits are syphoned off. However that still doesn't explain (or justify) why theirs is the poorest and most expensive service.]

Everything is accessible to anyone, choice is the only way to express individuality via the products we consume.