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Cards have taken up to 10 days to arrive
Residents are seeing red over the delivery of letters by the Royal Mail, with some telling PlymouthLive’s sister print title The Herald that cards have taken up to 10 days to arrive.
Three residents have separately shared their stories of cards not arriving, and said they believed the Post Office was prioritising more lucrative parcel deliveries over ordinary stamped post.
Royal Mail this week said residents in more than 50 postcodes across the UK were being affected by late deliveries.
However, when The Herald contacted Royal Mail seeking a response, they insisted that ‘the vast majority are continuing to be delivered on time’, and insisted that parcels are not being prioritised over letters.
Residents in Plymouth, including Plymouth historian Chris Robinson, said that their mail has been delayed by a week or more, with several other residents saying birthday cards were late despite having been dispatched 10 days earlier.
On the same day that The Herald spoke to residents, the postal service said that numerous local sorting facilities throughout the country are battling to maintain standard service levels owing to “high levels of sick absence, resourcing issues and other local factors”.
Royal Mail said it is dedicated to its six-day weekly delivery commitment, but has acknowledged that in certain regions this target will “temporarily not be possible”.
Chris Robinson, who pens The Herald’s weekly Looking Back pages, said: “We subscribe to a magazine called The Week, which normally arrives on a Friday.
“This Friday we had this week’s Week on time, but last week’s Week arrived in the same delivery – a week late.
“This is a bit like getting The Herald a week late, which would be awful.
“I went to complain online to Royal Mail, but it’s not worth the time involved in filling out the paperwork.
“I have complained to Ofcom however as our delivery of mail on Friday was the first delivery in over a week and came with 32 other items of post.”
He added: “I have been told by other residents that the Post Office locally at least appear to be prioritising parcel delivery and that the Post Office is keeping your mail back until you have a parcel and at that point they will deliver everything to you.
“Having worked as a student on the Christmas post over 50 years ago, I find it sad that they feel they don’t have to go down that path anymore and can just do there own thing – badly.
Another resident, who spoke to The Herald on condition of anonymity, said a 100th birthday card was ordered online and dispatched on December 2, but only arrived on December 11, making it late.
A third resident said several child’s birthday cards were posted on Monday, December 1, from the Bristol area, but did not arrive in Plymouth until Thursday, December 11 – five days after the birthday.
The anonymous resident explained: “I really do feel sorry for the postmen. It’s my understanding that they have got even longer rounds, and they’ve been told to prioritise parcels, which have got to go out.
“I ordered a birthday card for a friend who was 100 last Wednesday, I ordered it from Moonpig and it was dispatched the previous Monday [December 1] and I was also told that Christmas cards had been sent to me that week.
“But I didn’t receive any post all week, and on the Tuesday of the birthday week [December 9] I was starting to worry and I tried to get hold Royal Mail customer services but was in a queue for half an hour so I gave up with that.”
The resident said she put a comment on social media and had a call back from Royal Mail, but was only offered compensation instead of any reassurance that her post would be delivered.
“The next day I thought I would ask the postman, so I ran out when he arrived, and he was very nice, but I said I’ve not had any post for over a week, and I had 15 items that day, and that was when he told me ‘we’ve been told we’ve got to get the parcels out’ – we’re just not able to get the normal post out.”
In response, A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We know how important letters and parcels are in the run-up to Christmas, and while this is a very busy period, the vast majority are continuing to be delivered on time.
“Where a route is affected, our teams work to resolve any delays as quickly as possible.
“Last year, 99% of items posted by the last recommended posting dates were delivered in time for Christmas, and our teams are focused on maintaining that level of service again this year.”
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