Eight-year wait for a cuppa...
IT’S a round trip you could make in around an hour.
But for one Royal Mail delivery, it took more than eight years.
Anita Clark, 54, posted an order from her tea company in Houston, Renfrewshire, to a customer in Hamilton, Lanarkshire – a distance of around 25 miles – in 2009.
So she was stunned to return home last week to find that same package by her front door having finally been returned to sender.
The parcel had two notes attached to it, both saying it had not been called for by the customer. Much to Mrs Clark’s amusement, one was dated November 25, 2009 and the other, January 20, 2018. Mrs Clark said she had posted the tea herself back when her firm, Jenier World of Teas, had just set up its online business. The small parcel contained around 100g of Turkish apple tea.
No one had been in to sign for the package when delivery was first attempted, so Royal Mail left a note telling the customer they could collect it from a nearby depot.
But they never did. More than eight years later, it made the short journey back to Renfrewshire.
‘Normally I would have expected it to be returned to us after the first notice that it had not been called for,’ Mrs Clark said. ‘We would then have contacted the customer to see if there were any issues with their order.
‘That customer might now be thinking “oh my god, that company is rubbish”. The poor chap has been waiting eight years for a fresh brew.’
She added: ‘All we had for the customer in terms of contact details was an email address, so we have tried to contact him. We wouldn’t send him the same package now though, obviously’
A Royal Mail spokesman said: ‘The quality of service we provide to our customers is very important to us. It is very rare for this to happen, and we take matters like this very seriously. We are investigating as a matter of urgency.’