Hospital letter takes 25 days to be delivered
SEVENTY three year old Richard Smith has lived in All Saints Grove, Sleaford for 22 years but according to Royal Mail he is not known at that address.
Despite assurances from Royal Mail regional bosses last week that action had been taken to resolve the issue of poor local postal deliveries, Mr Smith is the latest Standard reader to be less than satisfied with his postal service.
Last Tuesday Mr Smith, who is currently undergoing tests for cancer, received a telephone call from Lincoln County Hospital to say that a letter they had sent to him had been returned by Royal Mail.
Although the letter was addressed to the correct person and included the full, correct address and post code, a Royal Mail sticker had been pasted to the envelope saying 'addressee' and 'address incomplete'.
Mr Smith said: "I simply can't believe how they could have sent the letter back. We have lived at this address for 22 years, so to say 'not known at this address' is ludicrous.
"This sort of thing shouldn't happen to any mail but when it is something as important as a letter from the hospital it is unforgiveable.
"When I went to complain at the sorting office in Sleaford they said there was nothing they could do without seeing the envelope."
Mr Smith finally received the letter from Lincoln Hospital on Friday, 25 days after it was first posted – the letter was originally sent on January 25.
Mr Smith said: "I am undergoing tests for cancer, so it is a worrying time for me, especially as I have had cancer before. My last hospital appointment was in January and this was the follow up letter. It is terrible that a letter which is so important could have been returned undelivered.
"I now have an appointment for March 16 but it could have been much earlier had it not been for the mistake by Royal Mail. I'm very annoyed about it."
He said they had grown used to having an erratic postal service and added: "One Monday we received our post at 4.15pm and then on the Tuesday it arrived at 9.45am. And, for some reason we never get any mail on a Saturday."
A spokesperson for Royal Mail said: "We are very sorry for any distress this incident has caused and we have contacted Mr Smith.
"Our enquiries indicate that the item did not reach Sleaford Delivery Office but may have been misdirected to another area before being wrongly endorsed and returned to sender."
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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