Royal Mail under fire over ‘biggest’ post change in its 175-year history

Royal Mail has been slammed by customers left unable to post letters and parcels.

There is widespread fury over the Royal Mail’s so-called “biggest redesign in its 175-year history”. The Royal Mail has been slammed by customers left unable to post letters and parcels.

The shake-up has left many unable to use the iconic red pillar boxes to send letters and parcels. The Royal Mail has rolled out 3,500 solar-powered postboxes across the UK since summer last year.

It hailed the digital redesign, which includes a solar-panelled lid, barcode scanner and parcel drawer, as “postboxes of the future”. But one Reddit user sniped: “I went to use it yesterday and when I pressed the button the light near the scanner flashed red and it made a beeping noise.

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“I could not scan my labels so had to go into the local post office to drop them off.” They added: “It’s frustrating as I am now avoiding that postbox knowing it might not work.”

Another fumed: “I’ve given up on using the new box now and I drive to the delivery office or drive to another post office. Which is a waste of my time.”

According to the Swindon Advertiser, resident Sarah Bedwell said: “I had a barcode on my package – but the scanner didn’t do a thing. There’s no way people will understand how to do this.”

“Waste of money, not posted a letter in years, certainly not at their prices,” another fumed.

Another fumed: “£3.40 to send birthday card to Dublin, Paris, Brussels and price will go up next month, not able to buy stamps in advance as price is on the stamp, will need to add more stamps once know the new price.”

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Our postboxes of the future offer another convenient way for our customers to access Royal Mail’s services, alongside home delivery and collection, our Customer Service Points, Post Office branches, lockers and Royal Mail Shops.

“We’re pleased to see positive feedback from customers in areas where the postboxes have already been introduced.”