Customers no longer bother to complain in the face of Royal

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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How the postal backlog grew and was not cleared
7:00AM GMT 17 Jan 2011

SIR – One reason many people do not complain directly to the Royal Mail (Letters, January 15) is that, when you do, you are met with withering scorn.

On December 18 it snowed in Somerset. Newspapers were delivered but no post. The next day I walked five miles with a knapsack on my back to post 30 items. Two have never reached their destinations.

The Royal Mail made no effort to empty that post box until the following Wednesday. In that time, my local sub-postmaster tells me, no mail was collected from him. He had a pile of mail sacks in his sitting room that reached the ceiling.

I believe postmen are delivering mail that was "last in". Earlier post is almost certainly waiting at the sorting office.

The Royal Mail is neither honest nor well managed. It has no focus on customers – let alone on customer delight.

Richard R. Dolphin
West Hatch, Somerset

SIR – Have you tried to contact them to complain? It is extremely difficult to do so on-line or by telephone – and completely impossible by post. Enough said.

Terry Burke
Canterbury

SIR – Having been a supporter of a public Royal Mail service, I am now of the view that privatising cannot make it worse.

A parcel from Amazon is alleged to have been delivered to me while the whole family was in America. The delivery driver claims to remember handing it over to a lady. The duty manager said that I should ring Royal Mail Customer Services.

After 38 minutes queuing to lodge a formal complaint I spoke to a sympathetic woman who said I needed to speak to the complaints department. After another 15 minutes I was put through, only for the battery on my phone to give up the ghost.

Gill Griffin
Wallington, Surrey

SIR – The Royal Mail should take a look at its "mail tracker service". On December 30, I posted a recorded-delivery package and regularly checked on the tracker to see if it was still awaiting delivery.

It was delivered a fortnight ago but, out of curiosity, I checked the tracker on January 14, to find it "is being progressed through our network for delivery".

Bill Hollowell
Peterborough

SIR – Before Christmas our mail arrived at 10 am. It now comes at 3.30 pm. Our postman tells us this is all to do with business efficiency.

Stephen Duchin
Faversham, Kent

SIR – I have today been penalised £12 for late payment of a credit card bill, the letter having been posted on December 13, and not received by January 1. The provider of my credit card is ... the Post Office.

Liz Richards
Prestbury, Cheshire

[DirtyHarry]

The mind boggles, does it not?