Christmas delayed after Carlisle postal bungle

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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A postal bungle has meant some people in Carlisle have had to wait until today to open Christmas presents.

People were left fuming when they discovered they couldn’t claim packages from the city’s sorting office before December 25 because of a mix-up over opening times.

Royal Mail today apologised for the confusion, blaming it on the massive workload faced by posties in the run-up to Christmas Day.

A number of customers had gone to the Royal Mail offices in Junction Street to collect parcels on Christmas Eve – only to find it was shut.

They had been left cards by postmen which stated they could collect parcels until 6.30pm. But by 5pm the doors were closed – to the anger and frustration of those stood outside.

They had to wait until this morning, when the sorting office reopened, before they could get their packages, some containing Christmas presents.

One customer said: “Yet again the post office can’t get it right. If only there had been some communication between the managers and the foot soldiers.”

Royal Mail has apologised for the confusion, saying it was human error at a time when extra services had been put on to deal with the seasonal rush.

A spokesman told the News & Star: “The Carlisle enquiry office is normally open until 6.30pm on weekdays, but like the many businesses it closed slightly earlier on Christmas Eve.

“Our Christmas “sorry you were out” card provided this information. Unfortunately, because of the extremely high number of packets and parcels handled we had to revert to our standard notice left cards when resources were depleted, but staff were instructed to amend the opening times advertised on the cards accordingly.

“Our people were out on delivery in appalling weather conditions to keep the mail moving. But unfortunately during this very busy period, a small number of the standard cards were not amended and we apologise for any inconvenience or disappointment this may have caused.”

The treacherous and impassable Cumbrian roads in the lead-up to Christmas had already delayed deliveries. Even the guaranteed Christmas arrival times offered by some online companies could not all be honoured because of the weather.

[dados]

makes ya proud to be a part of this British institution,you couldn't make this up

[not me]

bet it was great in the callers for that!!!!

[DGP1]

My office used the the same P739 cards as we've done all year, even though our office opening/closing times did change

[Big Daz]

We had blue cards issued with the xmas opening times.

[Stormproof]

We had blue cards issued with the xmas opening times.

So did they

“Our Christmas “sorry you were out” card provided this information. Unfortunately, because of the extremely high number of packets and parcels handled we had to revert to our standard notice left cards when resources were depleted, but staff were instructed to amend the opening times advertised on the cards accordingly.

Same problem in our office, ran out of the blue ones, none of us were told to put the xmas eve closing time on the red ones but I'm sure most of us did, common sense

[Big Daz]

Surplus of blue ones at my D.O but not enough at other D.O's RML planning is yet again shown to be pants!!!

[not me]

our callers shut at 5pm today but the P739's say 7pm..................