Letters for vital hospital appointments and important financial documents - the list of late post for people across the West Midlands continues to grow.
Since December, Royal Mail has struggled to keep up with deliveries blaming high levels of staff sickness, delays caused by severe weather and a backlog exacerbated by Christmas parcels.
A councillor said two postal workers had described scenes of "carnage" inside the sorting office in Kidderminster, with "letters being thrown across tables, on the floor and pigeon holes full of mail".
Issues have also been reported at the Kingswinford sorting office.
Royal Mail has denied chaos behind the scenes, stating delivery officers have "remained operational, with letters delivered at least every other day and First Class items delivered daily".
But dozens people have contacted the BBC to complain about delayed deliveries.
Cancer appointment letters
Many describe receiving huge bundles of letters at once, with deliveries between one and three weeks apart.
David Ogg, of Redditch, said the delays had impacted his health.
"I am 87 and visually impaired. I have had second class post delayed up to three weeks," he said.
"One of the items I was waiting for was a battery for my diabetes monitor so I could not use this for two weeks."
Claire Cole, of Solihull, said her family had received just two deliveries since Christmas, "one of which contained five important NHS letters giving details of important scans and cancer surgery appointments".
"Luckily we were aware of some of these appointments, but feel this is an unacceptable situation in such an important time in my husband's secondary cancer diagnosis," she said.
Cath Moreton, from Shifal, Shropshire, said she had only had one delivery in two weeks.
"My mother-in-law who also lives in Shifnal hasn't received bills and has missed appointment letters," she added.
While Jackie in Eccleshall, Staffordshire, emailed in to say: "For the second week in a row we have had our first delivery after a week of no mail.
"This included a magazine that was due last Thursday and a hospital letter that has taken a week to arrive."
Graham Barr, of Newbold, Warwickshire, said his first post of 2026 had arrived on 21 January.
"This is despite the fact that I was expecting multiple items, mostly sent first class, which should have arrived at least eight or nine days earlier," he said.
"The issue is not an occasional delay, but a complete absence of deliveries for extended periods."
Jeanette Samuels, from Kidderminster, summed up many people's frustrations.
She said: "I have lost confidence in sending or receiving anything on time. I had a hospital letter two days after my appointment, a Christmas card two weeks after Christmas and a small package left over my gate that was clearly small enough to go through my letterbox."
Sonja Leason, from Worcestershire, has been trying to strike off a County Court Judgement she received for a parking fine after it was delivered to the wrong address.
The court posted a letter on 8 January requesting more evidence, with a deadline of 21 January. The letter did not arrive until 23 January.
"Luckily I called just to see what was going on," the web and marketing consultant said. Missing the deadline would have cost her another £300.
Ms Leason admitted it had caused her a massive amount of stress.
She said: "I would love it if it was all done by email, but there's all sorts of institutions that don't use email as standard. It's just shocking to me that your life can be decimated because of the postal service."
MPs and councillors have added their voices to the complaints. Labour MP for Telford Shaun Davies met Royal Mail representatives this week to "demand urgent improvements", with constituents describing delayed or missing post and concerns about missed medical appointments.
Independent Wyre Forest District Councillor Leigh Whitehouse said he had had 400 comments on social media from disgruntled residents about missed deliveries.
So why are so many people not receiving letters on time?
Some of those who got in touch with the BBC said postal workers had explained they had been asked to prioritise parcels over letters and had been refused overtime to clear the backlog.
Officially, Royal Mail said "resourcing issues", high volumes of Christmas parcel deliveries and the impact of Storm Goretti had all had an impact.
A Royal Mail spokesperson added: "We understand how frustrating it is when post does not arrive as expected, and we want to reassure customers that the vast majority of mail is delivered as planned.
"Where a delay affects a route, we put in extra support and review performance daily to restore regular deliveries as quickly as possible."