Is the Christmas post really that unreliable?

WE HAVEN’T received any post for seven days. After a parcel delivery driver told us Royal Mail is short staffed, my neighbours decided to go to the local sorting office to collect their mail in person. When they got there, they were told the office is in disarray and no one knew where to find the post for our road. Yes, these are unprecedented times, but this is ridiculous.

S. FLOCKTON, Bexley, Kent. Despite issues raised by others (Letters), my recent experience of the postal service has been very good. I posted a small, but heavy, parcel second class to my sister in West Sussex. She received it 48 hours later. Well done!

W. HOWES, Norwich. HAVING spent the past four weeks as a temporary worker at a Royal Mail sorting office, I find it amazing some cards and letters ever reach their destination. I have seen addresses for a town in the North with a postcode for the South; gold-coloured handwriting that might as well have been in invisible ink as it was so hard to detect with the naked eye, never mind a sorting machine and barely decipherable addresses. Such post takes extra time to sort, so a few letters don’t get delivered the next day. I take my hat off to the mail workers’ detective work.

GEOFF LANGLEY, St Helens, Merseyside. I sent two parcels at the same time. One took 22 hours to get to bridlington, east Yorkshire; the other took nine days to arrive in Durham.

G. THOMPSON, Bexleyheath, Gtr London. MY SON posted a package in Edinburgh in the afternoon. It arrived the following morning. The only problem is I can’t open it until Christmas morning! DAVID WOOD, Newark, Notts.