Posties back account of poor service

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POSTIES have backed readers' claims that they are receiving a second class service from Royal Mail.

After the Times' exclusive story last week, scores of disgruntled employees contacted us to reveal more scandals from inside Herne Bay's mail sorting centre.

They claim:

Some rounds are not sent out at all on some days

Managers often tell staff to only deliver first class mail

Long-serving staff are not replaced when they quit or retire, leaving inexperienced temps to plug the gaps.

One postman, who asked not to be named, said: "Christmas is going to be terrible. The old-style postmen who have been there for donkeys' years will always do their best, but there's only so many days you can keep going from 5am to 6pm.

"In some areas the post doesn't get delivered until 5.30pm, because there aren't enough staff and it has to wait until someone has finished their own round.

"Then they take what's left on as overtime, but of course you can't force people to do overtime.

"We try our best, but some days the post doesn't get out at all."

He claimed Saturdays were a particular problem, because it is a popular day to book off and managers frequently tell staff to only take first-class stamped items.

At other times, even recorded delivery items are held back while staff concentrate on post that has to be delivered by 1pm.

Another postman said: "Half the problem is that the Royal Mail is not backfilling jobs because of the plans to close the sorting centres.

"They have a policy of not making redundancies, so they leave them open in case staff from the offices that will shut want to transfer over.

"But last week we were told that won't be until spring 2012, so we are looking at this situation for quite a long time.

"I tell customers to complain and I give them my manager's number. I just hope they do get in touch because it's the only way the company will listen."

The story was sparked after a complaint letter from a reader, and disgruntled posties pinned it to their noticeboard.

But it was removed by mail managers.

A postman said: "It didn't make good reading for them. But the rest of us were delighted to see the issue raised in the paper.

"The fact is that the service we are providing is disgraceful."