Postal service is 'sloppy' (From Gazette Series)

Postal service is 'sloppy'

A DURSLEY businessman has called the postal service in the town "sloppy" because he frequently receives his mail in the afternoon.

Hypnotist Jim Robbins, of Garden Suburb, told the Gazette the post is sometimes delivered late in the afternoon and the earliest he receives it is at lunchtime.

He said: "The post is frequently late. It's not just me - it's everybody. The latest I have had it delivered was 3.20pm. The postman still had a bag of mail to deliver so a lot of people got it late.

"The post was wet as well as late. It looked as it had been dropped. I had my post delivered on Wednesday and I had four letters for another address and the postman was amazed when I gave them back to him. It is a sloppy service.

"Our post is pretty much always delivered around lunchtime. The earliest time I have had it was 11.50am. There was a time when we got the post at eight or nine in the morning.

"We used to have a postman that had it spot-on but since then we have had various different people. I don't know if there is a staffing problem.

"It is ridiculous. Some post can just be junk mail but there is an awful lot that is pretty urgent, especially if you are in business like I am."

Mr Robbins went on: "We are led to believe that we have the best postal service in the world but I want to know what we are paying for.

"They chuck the rubber bands from the post all over the street, which hardly makes the appearance of it look good.

"I haven't contacted Royal Mail because to be honest I don't think they would care about an individual complaint. I am not normally a moaner but somebody has got to shout about it."

A spokesman for the Royal Mail said: "We do accept that people would have received their post slightly late but that is because we have a new recruit on the round, as the previous postman retired.

"The new postman is going to be permanently on that round and it won't take long for him to pick up his speed and he is intending to provide a good customer service.

"We apologise if anybody has been caused any inconvenience but things will improve quickly and we ask people to be patient. We do aim to deliver everybody's post by lunchtime.

"If this customer requires his post earlier, then he can arrangements to collect it."