Mail

[Just John]

We have had only one mail delivery since October. That was at the end of November. A mountain of mail. Nothing since. No Christmas deliveries and a number of credit cards never delivered. This is made worse by the fact that the credit card suppliers make no provision for this kind of thing.

Surely this is a criminal matter? The mail is not being delivered.

[stuart]

We got our first delivery of the year with first class post dating back to 21/12. The Sydenham DO has been reduced to a rump by Omicron and there is a report on SE23.life that they are not accepting incoming mail which is being held at the Croydon regional centre. They are, quite rightly, prioritising LFT deliveries

Right now you can't blame the Royal Mail for non-existent posties. On the other hand the changes made a couple of months ago by their management to lengthen rounds did cause immediate issues and probably wiped out any contingency to cope with unforeseen issues. And they now have that in spades.

Stuart

[Clovers]

Anyone had many letters lately? I'm getting parcels from RoyalMail but not much in the way of letters.

Does anyone know if the sorting office in Forest Hill hold letters or just parcels?

Thanks!

[alywin]

I've definitely noticed posties seemingly going around delivering what might be termed "parcels", but haven't noticed any corresponding delivery of letters to us. Although we did have a delivery on Sunday ...

[stuart]

We have had at least two deliveries this week from our normal postie. Today I received this from Royal Mail Updates:

We're pleased to confirm, the resourcing issues reported at the Sydenham Delivery Office have improved, and services are now recovering.

I guess SDO was one of the first to be hit by Omicron and hence the first to begin to emerge with the majority of our posties now out of isolation and Omicron resistant. This reflects the graph for Lewisham infections given here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51768274

Stuart

[angela53]

Thank you for the link Stuart
Good news that local postal deliveries are continuing to improve. I notice the total number of UK daily infections continues to fall

[Clovers]

Thanks for the update!

[Just John]

Deliveries today. Tracked... I asked the postie and he says they have 3 working on the round and they hope to have the backlog delivered within a couple of days.

Keep your fingers crossed. I want to see who didn't bother to send me a Christmas card... Then to destroy all those credit and debit cards that have been cancelled because of non-delivery.

Imagine if someone had served you a summons in this period. The courts assume a letter posted is a letter delivered.

[Clovers]

Deliveries today. Tracked... I asked the postie and he says they have 3 working on the round and they hope to have the backlog delivered within a couple of days.

Keep your fingers crossed. I want to see who didn't bother to send me a Christmas card... Then to destroy all those credit and debit cards that have been cancelled because of non-delivery.

Imagine if someone had served you a summons in this period. The courts assume a letter posted is a letter delivered.

Haha just got a Christmas card yesterday!!

[Just John]

Still not received November and December post.

[Just John]

and still not... Postman declared they are up to date. There are lies, damned lies andpostie porkies

[syd-gal]

Deliveries seem to be back to normal, getting mail almost every day. Though I am missing one letter posted 1st class on 22nd Jan.

[Just John]

We have yet to receive our December post. 4 credit cards... missing.... 100 or so Christmas cards missing. Who knows what else?

[alywin]

Interesting to see a "whistleblower" on the BBC tonight - who may or may not work in our area - suggesting that much of the problem has been caused by enlarged rounds, allocated by computer, and insufficient time to deliver everything.

[Just John]

If you believe that... you will believe anything.

[Just John]

We just received one very important letter from the NHS. It was dated 15th October 2021. Perhaps they have now started to work on the backlog.

This letter was very important. I contained details of a very important hospital appointment for my partner. Fortunately he had contacted the hospital before the appointment and so knew of it. Without that he would have been penalised for missing the appointment.

[Parker1970]

Royal Mail: 2.5 million faced Christmas post delays, says Citizens Advice
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60394576

[alywin]

No mail received this month at all. The Royal Mail website isn't indicating that there's any problem with the Sydenham/Forest Hill area

[IanT]

My mail is now more than a week late, I see posties delivering in my road but not to me. Royal Mail seems to be on the verge of collapse.

[alywin]

And I believe we have 19 more strikes scheduled before Christmas? Unbelievable.

I don't know whether someone was reading my earlier post, but we got 2 deliveries on Wednesday! Nothing since then.

Are you sure the posties you've seen haven't just been delivering parcels, rather than post?