A woman from Brockley is among a number of people in the area who have expressed their frustration towards Royal Mail after having not received any post for more than two months.

Maddison, aged in her 20s, says she is still waiting on Christmas gifts and cards from family and friends which haven’t been delivered.

She says she has hospital appointments due to come up that she doesn’t know the status of, work deliveries that she has not received and is struggling to get refunds from online sellers who insist they have sent out her parcels.

She explained that she is becoming increasingly “frustrated” by the situation – and has not been informed about what the holdup is or why.

Maddison, who wishes for her full name to be kept anonymous, told the News Shopper: “I don’t know whether this is an issue in the sorting office, or if its Covid related, but I’ve been getting no post whatsoever and it’s absurd really.

“I went to the sorting office because I saw on a community page that they can check there if they’ve got any mail for you but they had nothing for me.

“It’s so difficult to dispute that you haven’t received an item with a seller when they have proof of postage.

“And, more importantly than Christmas presents, I’ve had hospital appointments due to come up and I don’t know whether they’ve been cancelled.

“People receive important documents in the post about money or health and it can be very problematic – especially with the backlog in hospitals at the moment.

“It’s hard to get an appointment anyway and that’s made worse if people aren’t receiving notifications about them.

“This aspect of the problem is about people’s health at the end of the day.”

Maddison explained that she has written a formal complaint and sent an email to Royal Mail but hasn’t heard anything back.

Royal Mail has recently been issuing a service update each day on its website which lists the postcodes in the UK where post may be delayed due to “Covid related self-isolation, high levels of sick absence, resourcing, or other local factors”.

Maddison thinks it is “pretty absurd” that SE4 has not been named on the list at all.

A spokesperson for Royal Mail has said that it is experiencing some delays to service in this local area due to high levels of sickness absence and Covid related self-isolation.

Maddison added: “We should be very high on that list.

“There are constantly complaints on our community Facebook pages that people haven’t received their post for weeks on end.

“Obviously Royal Mail is not saying there’s a problem for whatever reason.

“I can appreciate it’s not necessarily the people in the sorting office’s problem though.”

The situation was the same last Christmas with post in the area according to Maddison – so she says she wonders whether it is Covid related or not.

“It seems to get really bad around Christmas time,” she explained.

“I do expect a bit of delay, and I get that, but not two months.

“Now, every time I buy online I ask if my order can be posted with a courier which isn’t Royal Mail.

“You want to be able to rely on a postal service.”

The Royal Mail spokesperson assured that hard work is being done to get service levels back to normal "as soon as possible".

Another man who lives in Brockley says Royal Mail is “overwhelmed” due to “staff shortages”, and assumes that next day deliveries are “buried in a mountain of unsorted mail”.

The resident, who wishes to remain an anonymous, has also spoken of the “growing problem” with post in the area.

He has called on the postal company to draft in extra staff – otherwise the problem “will continue”.

He explained: “I spoke to my local postman who has told me they are completely overwhelmed by the Christmas mail mountain.

“There has been no effective provision of extra staff to tackle the problem so it keeps getting worse.

“We haven’t received any of nine separate items ordered between November 28 and December 8.

“Thousands of Christmas gifts remain undelivered and there is an outcry on local community Facebook forums but the logjam shows no sign of being fixed.

“Without extra staff being drafted in by Royal Mail this will continue for weeks and even months.”

The full statement from a Royal Mail spokesperson said: “The vast majority of mail is delivered safely and on time.

"We aim to deliver to all addresses we have mail for, six days a week.

"In the local area, we are experiencing some delays to service due to high levels of sickness absence and Covid related self-isolation.

"We apologise to any customers who may have experienced delays to their mail.

"We are working hard to get our levels of service back to normal as soon as possible.

"Anyone who has concerns over the delivery of their mail should contact the Royal Mail customer service team on 03457 740 740 or via the Royal Mail website www.royalmail.com.”

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