Complaints to Royal Mail over 'lost' letters rise by a 1/3rd

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Complaints to Royal Mail over 'lost' letters rise by more than a third http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... third.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Complaints about the Royal Mail losing post have risen by more than a third amid claims that more than 120,000 items went missing in just three months.

Around 65,000 full and part-time workers have left the business since 2002, including 5,500 in the past year

The national postal service received 120,884 complaints from angry customers in the first three months of the year – up 37 per cent on the same period in 2010.

The figure represents the highest level of dissatisfaction among customers in the last three years.

Royal Mail blamed the increase in missing mail on disruption to Britain’s roads, railways and airports at the beginning of the year, caused by snow and icy weather conditions.

The company was forced to pay out £5.1 million in compensation to customers for lost items in the last year – the equivalent of almost £100,000 every week.

The disclosure comes amid the threat of 20,000 job losses at Royal Mail after the service posted losses of £258 million and admitted it is technically insolvent.

Its new chief executive, Moya Greene, also faced criticism after it was revealed last month that she received a bonus of £142,000 – equivalent to the Prime Minister's salary.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “The complaints figures in the report for ‘lost’ mail in quarter four of Financial Year 2010/11 reflect last winter’s severe weather, which was the worst in living memory.

“From 22 November to 9 January, there were only three days when services were not affected by rail, air or road transport difficulties.

“This resulted in significant delays to mail services in some areas, and many customers logged complaints for ‘lost’ mail which were subsequently delivered. We do, of course, apologise to customers for these delays.

“We invested £20 million to keep mail moving last winter. At times Royal Mail was the sole delivery operator in parts of the country. We handle over 62 million items of mail, on average each day the overwhelming majority arrives safely, on time, at the correct destination.”

In total last year, the Royal Mail received 332,000 complaints for losing letters and parcels – more than 1,000 every working day. In the previous year the comparable number of complaints was just 306,000.

Items that the Royal Mail cannot deliver end up at its National Return Letter Centre, in Belfast, where 160 full-time staff are employed to reunite lost letters and parcels with their rightful owners.

The centre manages to successfully redirect around one in five items it receives – which last year was more than 5 million items of post.

The Royal Mail revealed that the National Return Letter Centre costs more than £4 million per year to run although some money is recouped by auctioning off items where the owner cannot be located.

A spokesman for the watchdog Consumer Focus said: "Missing mail is a real cause for concern for consumers.

"If the figures are right, then Royal Mail needs to take a serious look at the service it's providing and take steps for improvement."

The complaint figures for lost post come against a backdrop of a sharp fall in the number of items delivered daily by the Royal Mail – down almost 25 per cent in the last five years.

The Royal Mail has suffered severely in the face of the internet revolution with millions of people now ditching the traditional postal system for digital communication.

[Retired Postman]

When the public learn to address their mail properly, then there might be a lot less "lost" mail, but until then it will always be part of the problem. :

[spoodoo]

remember the customer is the royal mails big priority !

[DGP1]

remember the customer is the royal mails big priority !

And the customers are the big posting companies not those who receive the mail

[R@YAL F@IL]

Thousands of us posties are amongst those claiming lost letters, such as a big cheque for the COLLEAGUE SHARES

[red666bear]

stop giving useless 24 hour staff their own rounds.

[ziko]

Solve the problem by giving managers and Moya a larger bonus - that will reduce the loss' of quality...............

[bensonhedge]

stop giving useless 24 hour staff their own rounds.

....and they tell me not to fish

[General Mannerheim]

well I sent an item the other week to my cousin 25 miles away and it's gone missing so some thieving twat has had it as the address was right,it was only a CD for his birthday.
Hope the robbing c.unts in St helens are happy.

[north london driver]

how can royal mail tell us about complaints going up.
our wtl meetings our o/c says the mail is dropping and we must make -cuts or
absorb more walks. sounds like we are going down the privatization road again.
all customer care staff are deaf and dumb anyway none of them have a clue about the job.

[POSTMAN]

stop giving useless 24 hour staff their own rounds.

How do you mean,not every part timer/newbie is useless.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

stop giving useless 24 hour staff their own rounds.

How do you mean,not every part timer/newbie is useless.

I was going to say what about the other useless staff on other hours even those doing 40, should they not have their own rounds - the point seems a little back to front from red666bear.

[bag69]

Ever occurr to anyone that it is P&L causing this. When you get this system most rounds have a new postie. We dont have the accumulated knowledge or the time to find out where it should be delivered to. Hence it gets killed off. Also if i cant find an address or the gates are locked etc, it gets killed off. No time to go the extra mile as we used to. Dont like it but unfortunately that is the way it is now.

[spoodoo]

treat youre staff like s h i,,,and the staff are not gonna give a hell about the job,,,, not rocket science ermm managers!