An unhappy Swindon couple who missed hospital appointments due to postal issues described Royal Mail’s service as “diabolical”.
The Liden residents on Ridge Nether Moor noticed that they were receiving less mail than usual in recent weeks and that expected deliveries seemed to disappear.
Jackie’s husband missed a cancer-related appointment late last year because the letter never arrived and, after experiencing another delay while waiting for a different medical document, she decided to go to the hospital to collect it in person instead.
A long-overdue bank card proved to be the last straw.
Jackie said: “It’s disgusting, upsetting, and diabolical.
“We’re lucky if we get something just once or twice a week, and we’re not the only ones.
“It never used to be this bad and it seems to be getting worse but nothing happens if you complain to them about it.
“It only seems to be affecting certain streets – people on the next street over are getting their mail with no problems.
“I don’t know what’s happening, people send us things but it never turns up - where is all the missing post going?
“I’m fuming about this, but I don’t know what to do, this can’t go on.”
Last September, this newspaper reported on similar issues with Royal Mail which affected residents around the borough.
Neighbours accused Royal Mail of stockpiling post, with one resident waiting a week for mail that never arrived, then going to the Dorcan sorting office to raise a concern and receiving a pile of more than 25 letters.
At the time, Royal Mail apologised for the issues and promised to restore service levels to a good standard.
Now, a response to this latest complaint, a Royal Mail spokesperson told the Adver that issues in Swindon relating to resourcing that affected deliveries in 2023 have “significantly improved” and there are no known issues with any particular addresses in Liden at the moment.
The spokesperson added: “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 to contact our customer services team directly so we can investigate.”