Royal Mail does not deliver for weeks on end then....

KittenChops

@Bronvahl

I live in what is described as a "rural, isolated hamlet" (in a row of a few houses)
Between Mon & Sat, I see our postman most days, even if there's no post for our house - so I can't imagine why what's happening to your post is happening

Can you intercept the postman, when they're delivering a bundle to you house & ask them why?  You never know, they might tell you something useful?  And I would definitely ask your neighbours.

For NHS appointments, I use the NHS app - sometimes I get a letter about an appointment, but sometimes just a notification from the app

Banjo432

I was about to start a new thread when I found this from about 2 weeks back. Good timing ! 

I have a similar experience to a lot of other people here. We live in a town of c. 70-80K people, and get batches delivered once or twice a week. When we talk to them, the postal staff freely admit that our route struggles with resourcing. Some of them, when they are doing a neighbouring route, check to see if there is anything pending for us and deliver it as a courtesy. Good of them, but no way to run the service.

I tried the PO complaints process and got a cut and paste that looked as if the person/bot hadn't properly read my complaint. I was wondering where to go next. Anyone know anything that might work ?  Cheers.

wilson1972

I found this thread from googling to see if my problem was unique.
I asked for a replacement credit card on the 14/4/25 and it was sent out and when it had not arrived on the 22 i let the bank out and they sent a second card out. That did not turn up either and i am now waiting for my third card.

I have only had one mail delivery in the last 3 weeks, i spoke to my neighbour and his experience is the same.

I guess they are ignoring letters because the parcels make more money and i guess staff shortages are severe.

Oh previous to this i missed a cancer appointment, the letter arrived 3 weeks after the appointment was due.

MeteredOut

Another anecdotal piece of evidence, but we have definitely noticed our deliveries have changed over the past few years. Its now 4-5 days of no deliveries, then a handful of letters together.

It happens too often now to accept this is just coincidence that different companies who send us stuff would have then all arrive on the same day.

I've never missed anything important (but have 3 times now gotten both a new Credit/Debit Card and its related PIN on the same day), and fully understand why, commercially, this makes sense for Royal Mail, but I wish they'd just admit it happens.

RelievedSheff

Royal Mail have just taken 11 days to deliver two 1st class letters from my bank. One containing my new debit card. I got confirmation from the bank when the card was generated and dispatched so can confirm the time taken for delivery.

We have also noticed that we don't get mail for a week or two and then get a bundle at a time.

No deliveries problems though according to Royal Mail!

redgemini1982

My partner has been waiting for his new bank card for weeks now. We haven't had normal mail for weeks either. Our sorting office is only open while he's working, so he can't even go there and see if it's sitting there. Nor do they pick up the phone when we call. 

We still get parcels if they are delivered by someone in a van. 

We live in the largest town in Scotland so not out in the sticks. We all know our very grumpy postie on sight and neither us or our neighbours have seen him. There really is no excuse for us not getting post. But Royal Mail claim there are no issues in our area. Go figure! 

Ergates

redgemini1982 said:

My partner has been waiting for his new bank card for weeks now. We haven't had normal mail for weeks either. Our sorting office is only open while he's working, so he can't even go there and see if it's sitting there. Nor do they pick up the phone when we call. 

We still get parcels if they are delivered by someone in a van. 

We live in the largest town in Scotland so not out in the sticks. We all know our very grumpy postie on sight and neither us or our neighbours have seen him. There really is no excuse for us not getting post. But Royal Mail claim there are no issues in our area. Go figure! 

If you've not done so already, you could contact your bank and report this.  It might just be delayed in the post, or it might have been intercepted and stolen.

Okell

Okell said:

What sort of area do you live in?  Urban, suburban, rural, remote, isolated?

I live in a (smallish) city and I see postmen and RM delivery vans on my road every day.  We may not get a delivery every day ourselves, but it's obvious that deliveries are made on our road on a daily basis.

Not delivering mail and letting it accumulate for two or more weeks and then delivering it in batches sounds a bit unlikely to me  - but if you have evidence that that is what is happening then you have evidence of it.  Their excuse that delivery is conditional on resources and no staff shortages also sounds unlikely to me, but if that is whet they told you...

Having said that I thought all of this was most unlikely, I'm now beginning to wonder...

I've now noticed that we seem to have periods of several days with no mail punctuated by deliveries of several letters at a time.

I appreciate that letters are no longer the default medium* of communication but the pattern of deliveries does seem odd.

Maybe the OP is on to something


*I do tell banks and insurance companies etc that I want them to communicate with me by snail mail and not email etc

grassmarket

Here’s a measurable example: we applied online for 2 identical rail cards, on consecutive days. They actually arrived 2 weeks apart. That’s when I started noticing we weren’t getting regular expected mail. Still waiting for a November subscription magazine on 20th November. In early November I re-requested the magazine from sender, thinking it was their error, but that’s still not arrived either. We’ve had no post at all for about 10 days.

A local postie we know (delivers to another area) was not surprised - he said the local sorting offices are in chaos. Not enough staff, huge stress on existing staff causing high absence, new staff turnover very high  - starters soon leave once they realise how bad it is. When manpower requirement was last calculated for his own round, the estimate was 17 parcels/day. Now he often has 100. They don’t have enough manpower to deliver everything, so until recently they were told to leave the letters & prioritise parcels. But after Royal Mail recently got a big fine for failing to meet letter targets, they were told the opposite. He recommended going to the sorting office to pick up important post. Ours is only open 2 hours/day - imagine the queues! 

Grumpy_chap

Jenni_D said:

Earlier the OP said they live in what they classed as a Market Town, but then said the local population is about 100k. If that was a typo and they meant 10k then I'd class that as a Market Town - I'd class my town as such, and our population is creeping up towards 10k; but if the 100k is correct then that's a major conurbation, not a market town. 🤷‍♀️

We see our postie pretty much every day here ... I wouldn't expect a 100k town to have such a bad postal service.

Well, that is all down to perception.

I live in a Village - everyone refers to the area as a Village, the local social media is all titled Village, the official Local Authority refers to the area where we live as a Village.  Our Village comprises of two electoral wards with a population per ward of around 10.5k (all ages including children) so that's just over 20k in the Village.

Certainly, no-one would consider where we live as grand as a Market Town and definitely not a major conurbation.

We digress enough.  Back to the subject matter about postal deliveries.  Our post does seem to be delivered in fits-and-starts but not so that I could say it is every xxx days or certain days of the week.  I suppose it might be that 2nd class mail is held until there is some 1st class to bring it with?  Maybe mail originates in batches - marketing media might be issued with the aim to be received on Saturday when recipients might have more time to read it?