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Queues snaked out of a city sorting office yesterday as Royal Mail workers try to clear a backlog of parcels.
One customer, a flight attendant, waited almost four weeks for a birthday present from her sister.
Sarah Jane Wilson was one of several disgruntled Royal Mail customers waiting in the queue outside the North Road sorting office in Brighton yesterday to collect long-awaited parcels.
The 31-year-old has been waiting since March 6 for her sister's present from Scotland to arrive and was finally able to pick it up yesterday.
Miss Wilson said: “My sister was away on my birthday on February 20 so she sent it on March 6 but I just received a card through my door to pick it up today.
“She sent it first class from Scotland but I think it must have arrived by slow boat.”
Another customer who didn't wish to be named said four packages he had bought for his family as birthday presents had gone missing.
He said he had spent around £70 on presents that hadn't arrived and even replacements bought for missing gifts had not arrived.
He said: “The post has been really rubbish in the middle of March.
“I'm still waiting for about seven or eight parcels all ordered in about the same week around March 10.
“I had to replace them all and even some of them didn't arrive so I had to replace the replacements.
“I've had to make my excuses to family members and buy more presents.”
Other complaints raised in the hour that an Argus reporter spoke to customers include a Kemptown jeweller who claimed that she no longer received any post on a Monday.
Another woman who also wished to be anonymous said she had seen post boxes in Larkfield Way and Braybon Avenue with notices on saying that the next collection from these boxes would be Tuesday.
She said she was concerned this meant there were no collections from these boxes on Mondays.
Office worker Josh Wilson was one of several customers disgruntled at being forced to spend their lunch breaks in a queue.
He said: “We order quite a lot online and every time I come to collect at a lunchtime it's always like this, they should put more staff on.”
A Royal Mail spokeswoman said she would look into the complaints raised.
Last week The Argus launched its Sort It Out campaign after it emerged that skips full of unsorted parcels destined for areas of Brighton were going undelivered.
