Royal Mail saw the number of complaints received for loss of post jump by a huge 37% during the first three months of 2011.
- The national postal operator received 120,884 complaints from angry customers in their first three months of the year …. a rise of 37% on the same period in 2010
- In total last year Royal Mail received 332,000 complaints for losing letters and parcels – more than 1,000 every working day
- The company was forced to pay out £5.1 million in compensation to customers for lost items in the last year … the equivalent of almost £100,000 every week
The new figure represents the highest level of dissatisfaction among customers in the last three years.
Royal Mail blamed the increase in missing mail on disruption to Britain’s roads, railways and airports at the beginning of the year, caused by snow and icy weather conditions.
A Royal Mail spokesman said “From 22 November to 9 January, there were only three days when services were not affected by rail, air or road transport difficulties. This resulted in significant delays to mail services in some areas, and many customers logged ‘complaints’ for ‘lost’ mail which were subsequently delivered. We do, of course, apologise to customers for these delays.”
