The four digit code you never want to see from Royal Mail

As Christmas approaches, our posties have more work to do than ever, with many of us placing online shopping orders.

This year in particular Royal Mail is urging people to “beat the festive rush and get all your letters and parcels in the post on time”.

“Ongoing covid restrictions”, it says, as well as “reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions ” are all “impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe”.

READ MORE:Royal Mail last posting dates for Christmas: UK and international letters and parcels

On a number of occasions this year, people living in different parts of Merseyside bemoaned having to “collect their own post”, after not receiving letters and other mail for as long as “two weeks”.

It can also be frustrating if you nip out and miss the postie, especially when you’re waiting on an important delivery.

The Royal Mail uses a special code – P739 – for a failed delivery.

If you receive a P739 card this means you will have to collect the item from the sorting office yourself, and this can mean having to wait until the next day depending on what time you find the card.

However, in some cases you may be able to organise a redelivery.

Earlier this week, one postal worker vowed not to deliver mail to a resident after they left a ranting note accusing him of “pretending” to ring their doorbell with a parcel.

The postman adamantly denied the accusation, and a Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Every single item of mail is important to us. Our postmen and women work extremely hard to deliver to mail to customers across the country, six days a week, in all weathers.

“Thankfully the vast majority of items are securely delivered to customers, but if we believe a customer is not at home, we will attempt to deliver the item to a neighbour and leave a card.

“If we can’t deliver to them, we’ll leave a card and take the item back to the Customer Service Point where customers can either collect it or arrange a redelivery.

“We would advise anyone who has delivery concerns can contact the Royal Mail customer service team.”

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