Riverhead businesses left frustrated by 'erratic' post

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Riverhead businesses left frustrated by month of 'erratic' post http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Riverhead-b ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



TRADERS in Riverhead – including a funeral directors – are furious after claiming a month of "erratic" postal deliveries is damaging their trade.

Business and shop owners in London Road have hit out at Royal Mail following weeks of delayed post.

Sophie Bish, funeral arranger at W Hodges Funeral Services, in London Road, said it had been a "massive problem" and was making the bereavement process even harder for families.

She added: "We have an issue with paying accounts. We send families reminders to pay and they have already put it in the post but we haven't received it so we have to follow it up until we get it. It's distressing for them and that's disgusting.

"We have a lot relying on the post such as returning photographs to families. The post is really erratic, sometimes we get three deliveries in one day and then none for three days."

Speaking to the Chronicle on Friday Ritesh Patel, of Sai newsagents in London Road, also criticised the service.

"I've been affected badly. It has been a problem for a few months but no one has done anything," he said. "We had no post yesterday and still haven't had any today.

"I have been waiting for important documents for 10 days.

"It's a pain because we don't get cheques on time and that's the biggest problem."

Tim Francis, a partner at Sevenoaks Drivers, London Road, said: "It's affecting us because we don't know when we will get cheques in.

"We have to pay wages so we need to keep the money flowing in. We need a reliable service, but that's not what we are getting."

Royal Mail spokesman Nick Martens said: "We apologise to any of our customers who have, on occasion, experienced later delivery times in the Riverhead area recently.

"This has been due to unforeseeably high levels of staff absence. We have bought in additional staff to cover these deliveries and these staff have taken slightly longer to complete their rounds as they are less familiar with the routes.

"Fortunately our regular staff are now returning to work and so we anticipate services being back to normal very soon.

"We would like to reassure customers that all mail for delivery is going out and being delivered every day in all parts of Sevenoaks."

[POSTMAN]

Where's our Sal,and our Jim for that matter.