Where’s our post gone?
Anger at erratic mail deliveries and disappearing items
PEOPLE living in one part of south Manchester say they have been left without post for weeks due to a shortage of postal workers.
Residents of Victoria Park, near Longsight, say they have faced significant delays in receiving letters and parcels, with some even missing important appointments due to late mail.
One resident, who lives on Laindon Road, said he had only received one letter in the past fortnight.
“It was my birthday and I was getting messages from people asking if I’d received cards from them,” the resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, said. “I know for sure that things have gone missing because I’ve had numerous people send things for my birthday and only one has arrived so far.”
He said he has spoken to his neighbours to see if they were having similar issues.
He said: “One neighbour missed a dentist’s appointment because the letter arrived four days after the day the appointment was supposed to take place.” He also posted a message on a local residents’ group on Facebook and was inundated with responses. “Yep, only had one delivery in over a month,” one resident replied.
Another said: “Don’t think I’ve had anything since last week, which is unusual as you do get junk mail now and again.”
There have also been instances where mail has been marked as delivered despite the intended recipient not receiving anything.
“I had an item delivered on November 13 and the tracking number says it’s been posted but I don’t have a clue where it is,” the resident added.
“I’ve asked my neighbours and nobody has seen it.”
He has since contacted Royal Mail about the issues and says he received a ‘boilerplate’ response from the company. In the response, he was told the organisation were experiencing ‘increased levels of employee absence due to illness and self-isolation’.
He says he hasn’t been able to find out any specific details about where his missing post is.
“I totally understand that we’re in the middle of a pandemic and there will be people off sick and other issues,” he said.
“But it’s just the fact that I’ve not been able to get through to anyone directly or get an idea of what’s going on. Even if they just explained to us that they are working through our mail to get it out as soon as they can, that’d be appreciated.” Another resident living in the area has also had issues with their mail. The resident, who lives on Daisy Bank Road, says he’s been having issues since the start of the second lockdown.
“We can go weeks without any mail,” he said. “There’s also issues where things are being scanned as delivered but they’ve not been delivered here, they just seem to vanish.”
At the end of November, he says he spoke to a postman about his issues. He says the worker told him that he had been asked to cover the Victoria Park area because there hadn’t been any mail delivered in two weeks.
“I asked if it was a Covid or Christmas thing and he said that they had only been able to hire eight new members of staff in the last two months. He said the sorting offices were falling apart and in absolute ruin.”
In response to the claims, Royal Mail said it was working hard to deliver the ‘most comprehensive service’ it can to all customers.
“The combination of online Christmas shopping and the ongoing COVID restrictions mean that delivery companies are experiencing exceptionally high volumes this year,” a Royal Mail spokesperson told the M.E.N.
“Every single parcel, letter and card is important to us. We remain grateful to all our customers for their patience and understanding as our dedicated workforce work hard to deliver higher volumes in difficult circumstances, whilst also adhering to necessary social distancing measures. Despite our best efforts and significant investment in extra resource, some customers may experience a temporary reduction in service levels due to exceptionally high volumes, coronavirusrelated absences and necessary social distancing measures.”
Things are being scanned as delivered but they’ve not been delivered Resident in Daisy Bank Road, Longsight