Non-Tech Enshittification: Post Office Perils and the Czech is in the Mail
YESTERDAY I went to the local Post Office, where two weeks earlier I had sent a small computer to another country. There's a return address on the parcel, but we've not received anything back. There's a clearly written destination address, too. It was double-checked. But the destination received not even a note. Nothing. Worse yet, having paid for the delivery, we never even received a receipt and now they say this is normal (you pay for a delivery and they don't even issue proof of the transaction). This puts us in a difficult position; assuming the parcel isn't stuck in customs (perhaps in another country), we can only assume that it got stolen. So in effect we paid for a delivery, without proof of the payment, and now we may lose both the content of the parcel and also money paid for the delivery. The service was so awful that for merely disagreeing with the clerk he issued threats and when asked for what number to call he just said "Google it". We still hope that the parcel will be recovered (maybe at customs) or will be sent back some day. We can only hope that...
The national news sites have have been abundant/overflowing with negative publicity for this "courier" and our Yoga teacher, who worked for this company (yes, it is privatised now), said that people were leaving in droves, there were critical staffing problems, and it was totally unsafe to send a parcel with the Post Office or "Royal" Mail (where she worked; they left her to bleed after a dog bit her on the beat).
So all in all, this seems like another example of enshittification. Things that used to work no longer do (or barely do). This cannot be blamed on "wars" or "COVID-19". This is pure greed. Post Office or "Royal Mail" as a company just isn't reliable anymore; it's just piggybacking the past reputation when it was actually connected to the country. Now it's being sold to "Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky". █
