Customers and postal workers said lost or misdelivered post has soared in the last year - with parcels increasingly going to the wrong address
Royal Mail customers filed nearly 900,000 complaints over lost post in 2022-23, according to Ofcom’s post monitoring report
Royal Mail lost a record number of letters and parcels in the last year, with nearly 900,000 complaints made about the issue.
Postal workers and those missing vital letters told i that parcels being delivered to the wrong addresses was becoming an increasingly common problem.
One customer from North Devon said he realised an important parcel was misdelivered because Royal Mail uploaded a photograph of the wrong front door.
Industry sources said the postal service has become increasingly understaffed in recent years and workers have been under pressure to hit unachievable targets, leading to some employees “cutting corners”.
Posties also said morale was at an all-time low, with long-serving staff members quitting the workforce, leaving behind less experienced workers with a high turnover rate.
One postal worker from County Durham said the number of people asking their neighbours about missing Royal Mail post has gone “through the roof” recently. He noticed 10 posts on a Facebook group for his delivery area during the Christmas period alone.
Ofcom’s annual post monitoring report, published last month, found compensation payments made by Royal Mail jumped by nearly 50 per cent to £26.2m in 2022-23, compared with £17.8m the previous year.
The report stated that “loss” was Royal Mail’s highest complaint category, with 898,000 complaints – up 43 per cent from 2021-22.
Nick Woodrow, 64, from North Devon, said he wanted to complain to Royal Mail after his parcel was recently delivered to somebody else’s front door.
“Royal Mail sent me a photograph of a white front door and my front door is brown,” he told i.
He was unable to retrieve the parcel after it was misdelivered, but eventually got a replacement from the vendor.
Others have complained that they have been sent proof of delivery pictures of the “wrong house” which is often the “same number on a different street”.
One customer claimed their passport was delivered to the wrong address and another said they have lost a necklace and book-binding materials because of an incorrect delivery.
Tara Banyard, 51, from Bromley, told i she has been left “unbelievably stressed” as her partner is a recent amputee and relies on NHS letters for appointments that have arrived late. Her mother passed away last year and she missed important legal and insurance documents.
A postal worker from County Durham said parcels are delivered to the wrong address due to added pressure on staff to deliver more post coupled with a less experienced workforce due to long-serving members leaving.
He said: “We used to be well-known for reliability of delivering parcels. A lot of the experienced staff have gone so now parcels go to the wrong houses all the time.
“We’ve lost the experienced staff so now we’re getting people put on walks without any training.
“I’m on my own walk. I know I can’t get everything done so I’m just trying to do my best – that’s what I do every day.”
Last November, Royal Mail was fined £5.6m by Ofcom for falling short of the required standards of delivery and the company was put under pressure by repeated strikes by disgruntled workers.
A postal worker in south-west England told i that some of her colleagues have increasingly “cut corners” because they do not have enough time to finish their delivery round.
“They’ve been given more work with less time to do it in,” she said. “Unfortunately, people start to cut corners. Not everybody – but some do.”
She has increasingly heard of post coming back to the delivery office after being sent to the wrong address – particularly the “same number but the wrong road”.
“It’s not impossible to deliver to the wrong road but it’s more likely to happen when you’re in a rush,” she added.
i previously reported that postal workers were urged to prioritise parcels over letters in the run-up to Christmas, meaning some letters sent in early December arrived just before New Year – while others did not come until January.
Postal workers and customers have accused Royal Mail of not fulfilling the universal service obligation, which requires the company to deliver letters six days a week.
In response, Royal Mail said the service does not operate a policy of prioritising parcels but added that at particularly busy times, like Christmas, “it may be necessary to clear parcels first for the safety of our colleagues and keep all mail, including letters, moving efficiently”.
A spokesperson from Royal Mail said: “The vast majority of the billions of letters and parcels we deliver every year are done so successfully and on time, with our latest published data showing three quarters of first-class mail arriving the following day, and 96 per cent within three days of posting.
“We strongly encourage any customer who experiences a substantial delay to their post, or a loss, to contact our customer services team directly so we can investigate. Trust in our brand is very important to us and we were pleased to be awarded four out of five stars for trust by Citizen’s Advice, coming joint first in their most recent survey.”
In response to the claims made about less experienced staff members, they continued: “Supporting our postmen and women in their roles is vital. We are actively recruiting to fill positions and help ensure we have appropriate numbers in place to manage the workload in a fair and balanced way. This is an ongoing process.
“New starters are given the training and equipment appropriate for their role, which includes partnering with experienced colleagues so they can understand the needs and geography of a route, and a PDA [personal digital assistant ] that maps out and provides directions within the area they are delivering to.”
