Royal Mail complaints rise 300% as targets missed

by Staff,, Brand Republic 18-Oct-04, 07:00

LONDON - Postwatch, the organisation set up to monitor Royal Mail, says that complaints about the postal service are up 300% from 2002 as grumbles about lost, damaged and late post rocket.

Postwatch handled 28,000 complaints last year, up from just 6,300 in 2002 and says complaints this year are already on course to reach 40,000 by April.

Officials said that failure of Royal Mail to hit any of its performance targets was fuelling increases in complaints ranging from lost letters and parcels to problems with redirection.

This is expected to reignite anger about the standard of postal services after figures earlier this year showed that 14.5m letters are lost annually, with 60% of those delivered to the wrong address.

Postwatch said that some of the increase in complaints could be down to the organisation's increasing public profile since its launch in 2000.

The Royal Mail is waiting to hear whether it faces a further fine this year for breaching its licence -- it was fined £7.5m when it failed to meet 15 service targets last year. It has already paid £50m in compensation to customers for service disruption after industrial action last year.

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