In October, Royal Mail failed to deliver two important financial documents, (one posted to replace the original that was lost) causing me a lot of trouble and meaning I had to take the morning off work twice to sort replacements. Not learning from my mistakes, three weeks ago I ordered five pairs of earrings as Christmas gifts from different retailers via the Etsy site, and only three arrived. I have now sadly had to ask for a refund from two independent retailers, when I would much prefer to be able to support small businesses. One of these retailers posted my original item twice, having sent me (or attempted to send me) a replacement after the first failed to arrive, only for the second pair to not arrive either - giving Royal Mail an unimpressive delivery average of 50%. Less if you count my missing documents from the previous month. I prefer to buy from independent retailers when I can but due to Royal Mail's incompetence, I will probably just go back to Amazon because at least I do receive the items I have paid for. Therefore Royal Mail's frankly disgraceful track record and casual approach to customer care is impacting other businesses who have no choice but to use their hit-and-miss "service". Sending an item via Royal Mail these days is like putting a note in a bottle and throwing it out to sea - you hope it will arrive somewhere, one day, but have no real expectation of it happening. Yet another disaster resulting from privatisation. No wonder its share price is down. I have no intention of sending Christmas cards this year either, given Royal Mail's extortionate price of £1.25 for a first-class stamp, when they admit to deprioritising letters in favour of parcels. Perhaps they should rebrand a service that is so poor and unreliable it makes the 'first class' label meaningless. In addition, the customer complaints process is laborious and can only be done by the sender, not the intended recipient, and Royal Mail's tracking system also isn't fit for purpose. Or perhaps it is if the purpose is to help my mail disappear without a trace. In that case, it has excelled itself. For the last week as I have attempted to find my two pairs of missing earrings, I have just received the message 'an update will be provided when we attempt to deliver your item'. Naively, I'd expect an 'attempt to deliver' might be the very least amount of activity to have occurred over the three weeks since I ordered - and my retailer posted - the item but maybe Royal Mail staff have better things to do such as watching Christmas television, eating biscuits or ignoring the customer complaints as they rack up. Now that the Post Office can offer the option of alternative delivery couriers, I will not only never use Royal Mail again myself, but I will no longer be shopping with any retailers who state that it is their preferred means of delivery. Well done Royal Mail, you have lost another customer and taken trade away from a couple of independent businesses at the same time.