It’s first class chaos!
NO MAIL FOR A MONTH IN ONE TOWN AFTER STAFF SHORTAGES CAUSED BY COVID
PEOPLE living in one town in the region say they haven’t received any mail for up to a month in the lead-up to Christmas.
The Royal Mail says the issue in Eccles is down to staff shortages caused by sickness and isolation because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It comes as people across the country have reported delays and problems with their letters and parcels. Last month, residents in Altrincham complained that they had gone three weeks without deliveries.
Answering complaints about the delay in Eccles, a Royal Mail spokesperson promised the problem would be fixed ‘as soon as possible.’
One Salford councillor says he called customer support about the delays and was told that the issue was due to a new system that has been put in place, with advice to visit his local sorting office every other day and see if they had any mail for his household.
Coun Mike McCusker said: “We’ve missed out on birthday cards, some tax stuff, NHS stuff, even tracked packages haven’t got to me.
“I thought this is really strange, I went down to the sorting office and asked if they had any post for me and they came back with a big wodge of letters, some dated back to November 11.
“I had mixture of current mail and mail that is 20 days old. Constituents have come to me since I posted on social media saying they haven’t had any mail either.
“I called customer support and was told it was down to a new model that was causing chaos in the sorting office. We’ve got Christmas coming up, even if that was your business model where you changed everything in an office, surely you wouldn’t do it at the busiest point in the year, when it’s coming up to Christmas?”
Speaking to the M.E.N. 39-year-old Carl Robinson who lives on Rydal Avenue in Eccles says ‘nobody’ on his street has been receiving post.
He claims he has been unable to eat for almost a week as he is waiting on his bank card to be delivered to him and having recently recovered from a serious car accident he finds it hard to travel long distances to the closest branch which is in Manchester city centre.
“I haven’t eaten in a week because I can’t get access to my bank, because the nearest is in Piccadilly.
“I don’t understand why they can’t just sort out the mail, it’s stupid.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “The vast majority of mail is delivered safely and on time. We aim to deliver to all addresses we have mail for, six days a week.
“In the Eccles area, we are experiencing some delays to service due to Covid-related self-isolation and high levels of sickness absence. “We apologise to any customers who may have experienced delays to their mail.
“We are working hard to get our levels of service back to normal as soon as possible.
“Anyone who has concerns over the delivery of their mail should contact the Royal Mail customer service team on 03457 740 740 or via the Royal Mail website www. royalmail.com.”
We’ve missed out on birthday cards, some tax stuff, NHS stuff, even tracked packages haven’t got to me Coun Mike McCusker