The Royal Mail has threatened postmen with the sack over the rash of "Sorry, you were out" cards that have been misleadingly given to customers.
By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor
Yes him againPublished: 7:00AM BST 08 Oct 2009
Postmen have been accused by consumers of routinely being "deceived" by Royal Mail workers who failed to drop off parcels and claiming, incorrectly, that householders were not at home.
Instead postal workers have pushed through the letterbox a "Sorry, you were out" card, which forces residents to travel to their local sorting office to pick up the parcel or make alternative arrangements.
The Royal Mail urged consumers, who feel they have been duped, to complain with full details of their postcode and postman by calling its complaint number of 08457 470 470.
A spokesman said: "If there any incidents of this happening, we need to know. We want to deal with this. We always promise to deliver all parcels and packets, as well as letters, to people's homes. That's absolutely our policy."
He added that any postman who was found to have not only incorrectly posted a "Sorry, you were out" card, but also left his parcels at the sorting office, would be disciplined.
"It is a clear breach of our code. They will be disciplined, and if the circumstances merit it, they will face the sack," he said.
The threat comes as Royal Mail workers are expected to overwhelmingly vote in favour of a national postal strike – the first in two years.
Consumer Focus, the Government watchdog, said it was formally raising the problem with the company, as well as with the regulator Postcomm. Consumer Focus believes that the Royal Mail, by allowing postmen to mislead consumers in this way, has broken its license agreement – something that should be penalised the regulator.
Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat MP, said: "This 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 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.
Her letter prompted more than 100 readers to come forward, most commenting they too had suffered from a similar problem.
Mark Smith wrote: "This happens to me all the time to the point that one Saturday I opened the door as the "Sorry, but you were out" card came through the letter box. I attempted to exchange the card for the parcel but the postman had to admit that because I'm often not in during the week he never bothers to deliver them any more and just leaves them at the sorting office for me to collect."
It is understood that some "rogue" postmen, in an attempt to cut down on the time it takes to complete their rounds, are leaving parcels and packets in their sorting office and instead take out a bunch of "Sorry, you were out cards".
A spokesman for the Communication Workers Union said: “We have hundreds of delivery workers telling us that they cannot complete their rounds in the allotted time and who are being threatened with disciplinary action or having their pay docked by their managers.
“Postal workers are being put under more and more pressure to meet arbitrary targets which match up with budget cuts and not the amount of work."
Hey, are these the people who answer the door up to 5 mins after you rang the bell, having already written the 739 out and about to deliver it?