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Royal Mail bosses have apologised after a Forfar woman waited 12 days for sympathy cards to arrive after her mum’s death.
Mary Ballantyne received the backlog of 17 cards in late June – 12 days after her mum, Helen McIntyre, had passed.
She received the death certificate at the same time.
The 61-year-old says it is symptomatic of an “unacceptable” service being provided by Royal Mail in Tayside.
Mary contacted The Courier after we revealed how delivery offices in Dundee are now shut in afternoons and evenings after opening hours were slashed.
‘The postman could hardly look me in the eye’
Mary said: “When the postman showed up, he could hardly look me in the eye.
“He’s such a lovely man and he’s so helpful.
“He just said he was sorry, even though it’s not his fault.
“When I first received all the cards, I couldn’t even open them.
“I couldn’t sit down and read them all – I had to sit them aside.
“I just couldn’t believe that anyone would think that this is acceptable.
“Receiving all these sympathy cards in one drop was punishing.”
A week later Mary complained about the issue at her local delivery office.
She said: “I’m not interested in blaming anyone, that’s not what this is about.
Call for Royal Mail checks after ‘devastating’ post delay
“It’s about the Royal Mail putting some checks in place so that this doesn’t happen again.
“Things like this can be really quite devastating for some people.”
The Courier previously reported how a Dundee pensioner had been left without a bank card for nearly a month – blaming a “blunder” by Royal Mail.
Mary says she has also had a similar problem due to postal delays.
She said: “I have had banking cards missing – thankfully the building society stepped in to help me when desperate.
I feel sorry for the local posties who are doing their best. This is a management issue
“I don’t know if you have ever tried to organise funerals without your hands on a bank card – it’s nearly impossible.
“Royal Mail has destroyed what used to be a trusted service and frankly they are a disgrace.
“I feel sorry for the local posties who are doing their best. This is a management issue.”
Royal Mail apology over delayed Forfar post
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We are sorry to this resident and others who have experienced delays.
“We would like to reassure everyone that improving our quality of service is our top priority, and we are committed to restoring service levels to where our customers expect them to be.
“Across our business we have plans in place to drive service levels and reduce absence at our delivery offices, we hope and expect to see further progress in the coming months.”
Earlier this week, Royal Mail claimed it no longer needed to keep its Dundee delivery offices open for more than a couple of hours a day as “over 99% of parcels are now successfully delivered to customers on the first or second delivery attempt”.
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