Angry Plymouth woman's '14 months of hell' working for Royal Mail

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Fuming postie says she was forced to quit her job because of the problems she endured whilst working for Royal Mail

A disgruntled Royal Mail employee has claimed she endured '14 months of hell' working for the company.

Plymouth postie Candy Capeling says she endured a catalogue of problems and has been forced to quit the job she used to love.


She claims management complained she was 'too slow' delivering mail once she started in October 2017.

But things spiralled when she accidentally forgot to electronically scan a parcel she'd delivered to a customer.

The Prince Rock woman admitted to being at fault and was told to wise up, before she got caught up in a stressful situation with another delivery.

Candy, 33, said she left a parcel intended for someone with their neighbour but the recipient reported it as missing despite being left a note explaining where it was.

She says Royal Mail chiefs demanded she went back round to the neighbour's house to find out what went wrong; before it was accused that the parcel had a hole in it.

Then she said she was left seething after being wrongly accused of not scanning a parcel which wasn't even part of her round.

She then claims she was hauled before a disciplinary panel involving Royal Mail and Communication Workers Union reps and was advised to take up counselling and agree to being shadowed - which she thought was unacceptable.

Stressed Candy says the ordeal forced her to begrudgingly hand in her notice last month and now wants everyone to know that the job is not as easy as it may seem.

She said she endured '14 months of hell' working for Royal Mail and is now relieved to be finishing up her notice period, despite still chasing up money allegedly missing from her wages.

Royal Mail meanwhile insists it supports all recruits with the appropriate training and ongoing 'coaching' is provided to ensure they give customers a 'first class experience'.

Yet Candy said: "I just feel like I was really badly dealt with, from start to finish.

"Wages have been a big thing, you shouldn't have to be chasing up wages; that's major.

"The job isn't all that it seems, but it wasn't the job necessarily that I had a problem with.

"It was my experiences with Royal Mail (staff.)

"I am just disgusted. It's not my first job to be fair, but I can't believe how they can treat their staff."

Explaining the fiasco around the 'missing' parcel incident, Candy said: "I left the parcel with the person's neighbour (because they weren't in), but in the meantime, they decided to ring up Royal Mail saying the parcel had gone missing.

"But it hadn't, it was with the neighbour, and I had left a card (explaining this).

"But Royal Mail said to me, this person has complained. They then sent me to the neighbour's house to try and sort this out, whilst I was out on my deliveries.

"She (the neighbour) said the recipient of the parcel had already been around to collect it.


"Then, in a separate incident, I was told I hadn't scanned in a parcel which wasn't scanned on my round.

"But I never went to that address; it wasn't me.

"That resulted in me being put through to a counselling stage by Royal Mail - where they look into your home life to see if there are any problems.

"They asked me if there was any support that I needed.


"At this stage, I had three people (from Royal Mail and the CWU) on me.

"There was a meeting with a union rep and a manager, explaining the impact of not scanning parcels on your round."

"I said, send someone out with me as support then, because if I was worried (about not doing my job properly), I wouldn't agree to that.

"The thing is, I love the actual job, that's the worst thing about this.

"But I can't work for a company that doesn't treat you with respect."

In a statement, a Royal Mail spokesperson said: "Royal Mail expects the highest standards of service from our all postal workers to ensure that they provide our customers with a first class service.


"We support all new recruits with initial training and ongoing workplace coaching to ensure all our postal workers are aware of and follow the correct delivery procedures.

"We provide our employees, regular updates through weekly team meetings and provide extra support to individuals where this is needed.


"Indeed, at busier times of year, such as the run-up to Christmas, we take on extra people to support our regular postmen and women.”

The Communication Workers Union, which represents employees, has also been approached for comment.

[Celgar]

RM do employ extra staff at Xmas time but generally only in MCs and rarely in DOs. We do usually get one or two more vans to set up additional parcel deliveries which are utilized by existing staff.
The experience of this woman is proof that it is best not to try neighbours with parcels unless you yourself have at least spoken to them once before. You can usually get a feeling as to whether or not you would trust someone based on meeting them the first time.