Residents of Mid Craigie in Dundee complain they did not get their post delivered for over a week, meaning they missed important letters.
Fairhurst Walk residents Billy and Lynn McCann say before Monday, mail was last delivered to the hundreds of homes in the area on March 24.
Billy says residents are missing out on important letters, including those for hospital appointments.
The 56-year-old claims the issue lies with his local sorting office in the east of Dundee, which he claims is prioritising parcels over letters due to a shortage of staff.
Royal Mail says high numbers of staff sickness is to blame for delays but that disrupted routes will be prioritised to avoid further delays.
Billy is waiting on important court documents before he can move his mother-in-law, whose has dementia and is currently in hospital after a fall in October, into a care home.
He paid £33.99 for her post to be redirected to his home address but says it is sitting undelivered alongside his own.
Mail sitting undelivered
He said: “We have some of the documents but are still waiting on others before we can move her.
“We’ve been told she is bed blocking but can’t do anything until we get those documents in, which I think are sitting in a pile in the sorting office.
“One elderly neighbour missed a hospital appointment as she never got the letter for it.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous. The whole thing is a total shambles.”
Billy says the problem is a reoccurring issue.
He complained to Royal Mail regarding his lack of post last week, with the companying saying they would investigate.
The following day he received one week’s worth of mail. He was the only one in his street to get any delivered that day.
Billy said: “This is not just a one off with that sorting office. It happens all the time. We don’t get mail delivered for a week to 10 days at a time then it comes all at once.
“They are losing staff as morale is that low and no one wants to work there.
‘It’s becoming a joke’
“We had two great postal workers but one left as they got fed up and the other is leaving at the end of the week.
“I got one week’s worth of mail only after I complained to them. Parcels are getting priority. These guys get paid to deliver our mail this shouldn’t be happening
“I imagine the issue is happening elsewhere in Dundee too because of that office.
“It’s becoming a joke.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused by delays reported by some customers in Mid Craigie.
“We are experiencing a higher than usual number of sickness absences, which has caused some delays on certain days.
“If and when a particular local delivery route experiences delays, we rotate deliveries to prioritise that route the next day, so that no customers should experience delays for more than one day.
“We are also revising delivery routes, to better allocate resources to the workload across the local area.”
Conversation