Monifieth nurse Jackie Smith was pleasantly surprised to find a big bundle of mail behind her front door when she returned home on Friday.
Her surprise turned to disbelief when she found that among the 46 letters and packages, only seven were for her.
The other 39 were for householders in neighbouring streets, but posted to the Smiths at No 39 Grange Road by a confused or possibly overworked postie.
“I really couldn’t believe it,” said Jackie, who is off work with a broken arm.
“This big bundle of mail had been rammed through our letter box,” she said. “Our house is at a corner and only seven letters were for us, with the rest being for people further along Grange Road and in Ardownie Street.”
“The mail items were clearly addressed. I can’t believe the postie shoving all that mail through our door.
“I would have thought he or she would have asked themselves why so much mail was being delivered to the one house?
“The postie should have checked that it was all going to the right place.
“The way the mail had been forced through the letter box and was lying in a pile meant that I couldn’t get into my house. I had to force the door open.”
Incredulous husband Gary, a project manager with a Dundee biotechnology company, said, “Like most other people in Dundee East, we haven’t been getting regular deliveries of mail over Christmas, although things seemed to be improving over the last week.Sensitive materialHe added that the pile seems to contain sensitive material like bank statements, which could cause a lot of trouble if they got into the wrong hands.
“I don’t know if this was down to a new postie not being familiar with the round or a postie who didn’t care and just wanted rid of his letters.
“I suppose it’s one way for Royal Mail to clear its mail backlog.
“How can we be happy with Royal Mail after something like this happens? Bring on mail privatisation, that’s what I say.”
Gary said his weekend will now be spent taking on the role of unofficial postman to deliver the 39 letters and packages to their correct addresses.
He added, “A week ago I read in The Courier about the woman in Dalkeith Road in Dundee who had 30 letters pushed through her door for six different addresses in another street.
“I thought that was bad, but it looks like we’ve broken that record.”
Royal Mail has again drafted in extra delivery staff to clear the Dundee East mail backlog and hopes to achieve that task by the start of next week, slightly later than projected.
A week ago the organisation said it was aiming to clear the mail mountain at the troubled depot by this weekend and was bringing in extra resources to achieve that target.
Managers were drafted in from all over the UK and put up in hotels in the Dundee area to help in the effort, which included a double delivery of mail last Sunday.
Asked if these efforts would succeed, a spokeswoman said on Friday, “Royal Mail has over 100 extra staff and managers working in Dundee East again today and we will be carrying out deliveries again this Sunday. We expect to be back on track early next week.
“Dundee East has a robust plan in place to tackle the issues identified in our review and we are currently working through these issues to make sure our customers get the service they need and deserve. Everyone is completely focused on achieving this.”