Courier Service

One of the impacted service sector as part of privatization is Courier Services.  Many people prefer to send documents, letters (any one write letters today?) through private couriers only over using Indian Postal Service.

May be in the initial stage, the private courier service was working fine but my personal feeling is it made life miserable.

The disadvantages I am finding are

1. Cost is more compare to Indian Post
2. Time taken to deliver is much more than Indian Post
3. You will not get any proper response (in most of the cases) from the courier company in case there is a failure in delivery
4. No personal touch between service provider and user.  I remember how the post man will remember each and every member of every family in the area where he serves.
5. No timing for delivery by private courier.  They will come and knock the door at any time.  We know, when Post man will come and there is a regular timing for delivery.  We can accommodate our time according to that time to receive any important letter
6. No information left-out by courier person if the door is locked and pocket is undelivered.  I know a postman will leave a message that letter could not be delivered so that it can be collected from Post office.
7. It is a nightmare to get back the letter from a courier service provider as chain of people are engaged on outsource model and it was next to impossible to trace it. It is very much systematic in Indian Postal Service (Recent incident I met on Receipt of PAN card)
8. It happened many times that after receipt of SMS from Bank or such firms that statement is sent through courier never received by me. No compliant works in private courier. You will get prompt response from Indian Post.
9. Private courier person asking additional money stating he spent more time to locate the address for delivery !!!! Yes it happened really.
10. Courier Service providers mostly will not accept letters for all destinations

1. Still why many prefer Private Courier? Is it because of the myth that government employee will not work?