Political

The weird farce of Royal Mail parcel deliveries

Now, when I say parcel deliveries, you might think that this story involves parcels or indeed deliveries. If only.

I was already familiar with the problem in many areas of people getting “Sorry you were out” cards through the letterbox, saying the Royal Mail had tried to deliver a parcel, even though they were firmly sat at home at the time.

I’d always thought this was a case of rushed staff wanting to cut corners near the end of their rounds by sticking a few cards through letterboxes without knocking on the door.

The truth though is far stranger. For in many cases the Royal Mail staff are setting off without the parcels in the first place – just the pile of cards:

The problem of postmen misleading customers came to light after a reader wrote a letter to the Daily Telegraph, saying that not only did she receive many of the “Sorry, you were out” when she was working from home, but she also confronted her postman only to discover he had no parcels.

The story also features Lynne Featherstone (due to the Daily Telegraph having picked up a similar story from her blog I suspect – a good example of the impact blogging can have):

Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat MP, said: “[Getting a card through the door even though you are at home] has happened to me, and now it would appear it was not an isolated incident.

“The sheer number of people have come forward suggests it is systematic. And it is just terrible. The Royal Mail is enough trouble as it is with the postmen exacerbating the problem and causing customers to reach the end of their tethers.

“I will be writing to the head of Royal Mail and demanding an investigation.”

The full story is here.

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