Postal service woes
The Advertiser has, of late, been inundated with calls from disgruntled residents, who complain about poor postal service delivery and customer service at post offices.
One frustrated customer, Peter Holroyd, said he recently went to the mail depot on Commissioner Street, in search of mail he has been expecting for months.
He described what he saw inside the premises as ”complete mayhem”.
“I found hundreds of unsorted letters and items of mail, which should have been delivered a long time ago, scattered all over the floor of the sorting office and the ground outside,” he said.
“Other packages were still stuffed in steel crates, as well as trolleys. No wonder we are not getting anything!”
According to Holroyd, he is expecting important documents but, to date, he has received no information from the Post Office with regard to the reason for the delay; he claimed he has made numerous inquiries, with no luck.
“The reality is that everyone is affected by this poor service,” he said.
Another disgruntled resident, who asked to remain anonymous, corroborated Holroyd’s claim.
“If we are lucky, we receive our mail after six weeks,” he said.
”Sometimes we don’t receive anything at all, apparently because our items are stuck at the depot or they have gone missing.”
The resident claimed that he has also visited the mail depot on Commissioner Street, where he also found piles of mail, including registered mail, gathering dust in containers and on the ground inside and outside the building.
“There are piles and piles of unsorted mail that should have been delivered to different addresses in the area, which are lying there – still undelivered,” he said.
The Advertiser visited the depot on Tuesday morning, June 9, and found employees bogged down in piles and piles of mail.
Dozens of steel and plastic containers full of mail were also seen on the veranda – but it’s still unclear why they remained undelivered.
However, no mail was found scattered on the ground within the premises.
Dozens of postmen were also seen leaving the depot on their bicycles laden with mail, apparently to deliver to the different addresses.
The Post Office has, of late, been embroiled in a long-running labour dispute, which has interrupted its operations in many ways, however, the management has assured the Advertiser on numerous occasions that operations will gradually improve.
The Advertiser again approached the South African Post Office for comment, but no response had been received at the the time of going to press.
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