Don’t forget that British Rail also used to be subsidised (e.g. £518 million in 1989/90 – see http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199091/cmhansrd/1991-01-21/Writtens-5.html).

And after privatisation, the number of poeple using the railways increased sharply (number of passenger journeys up 25% from 1996 to 2000), afer decades of decline under State-owned British Rail.

One thing that needs to be considered with regards to telephones is that privatisation coincided with huge technological leaps. This could be conflated with improvement because of privatisation – there is no other technology in which such huge bounds have been made.

I have not even returned the worth of my toaster, let alone my car or TV.

Good luck with the exam. Success in this will give you seperateness from the proles.

As for ‘proper competition’ in 1991, I worked in outbound consumer sales at BT in 1999, our prices were fixed by the government and we weren’t allowed to mention the names of any other companies. It’s different now of course, but this regulatory tug of war between telecoms companies, with OFGEM trying to referee, is set to continue.

Now BT want the goverment to force the mobile networks to allow them access (because they made the blunder of selling BT Cellnet?) and for consumers not to be allowed to leave their landlines without a ‘pin code’, which they say will stop ‘slamming’. The cynic in me would ask whether the real intention is that they want customers to have to speak to a retentions team before they leave?

Shoot the lot of them!

You want a service similar to the modern BT that has taken 25 years to achieve. BT went through the same process that RM will have to go through. Privatised in 1984 the telecoms market was only opened to proper competition in 1991. BT had a long time to get itself ready. Even then it nearly went under in 2001 with £30BN of debts. This year it lost 1.3bn.RM has been opened to competition without the luxury of building up profits and gradually reducing workforce to ensure smooth transition. BT had 235,000 workers in 1985 and 100,00 in 2004.{figures from CWU, ironically the old GPO’s, including BT, union} This despite Telecoms being THE growth sector of the 1990′s.

Anyway, that is for the future.

On the specific point of service, which I am not criticising you on BE, just have a different outlook, RM could be a lot better. Much better. But.. you know the but is coming.. it does deliver 80 million items each day.
Couriers leave items at the wrong addresses, in the rain, on the doorstep etc every day. My business posted 1000 packets by parcelforce last year and one went astray. In Lithuania, where RM has no control over who delivers but has to pay me out anyway.
My insurance company sent me a policy with someone else’s name on it. The airline lost our bags on the last trip. The car dealer didn’t order my new car and consequently the special deal was lost. The bank didn’t direct transfer the money for a property deal costing thousands.. I bought a CD from HMV and it had a different CD in the box.
Mrs Q just had Laser eye surgery that a} didn’t work properly, b} cost far more than advertised because of {a} and C}, left her with an infection in both eyes that required hospitalisation for a fortnight, blinded. This from the top eye hospital in the country. All within the last few months.Nothing to do with price, just the human element and RM has more of that than most.

So RM delivered you a letter in a plastic bag because it tore, or got wet? They delivered it.Isn’t that the important bit? Everyone screws up and when it happens to you its a problem. But, the point I was trying to get across, is within their field, when not on strike, their hit rate is very good, despite all the problems, many self inflicted, that they have.
RM has a huge warehouse in Belfast where people are employed to decipher handwriting, search items for clues of origin and try to match the mail to the envelope of the one that has come unglued. If they really didn’t care why would they not just chuck them all in a furnace?

As for RM compensation every letter carries up to £39.00 compensation for free. 100 x compensation for the item you bought, a stamp at 39p. What compensation do you get when you buy something of equal value like a packet of starburst?

Why am I defending them? They are my least favourite client after CWU. Sod ‘em both.

and in well-designed regulatory regimes, neither is electricity

believe it or not, the (natural monopoly) pipes-&-wires aspect of the UK’s energy market are the envy of the world