ROYAL Mail must be one of the most incompetent, inefficient and non customer-service focused organizations in the country.

On May 1, I a received a card through the door to say they were unable to deliver a package as it was too large for the letter box (most inconsiderate of me to be out at work when the Royal Mail wants to deliver my post) and the item concerned could be collect after 48 hours.

Allowing for the Bank Holiday weekend I duly went along to collect my parcel from the East Oxford Post Office six days later, only to be told that the item had not been returned to the office. This also happened to the lady in front of me.

I duly arranged for it to be redelivered. I suppose I should have been worried when the clerk wrote the instructions on a post-it note.

One week later, no delivery, so I went to the Online Customer Service site to find out what was happening, and accordingly received an acknowledgement that my inquiry would be responded to within five working days.

Exactly five days later, I got a response to the effect my request could not be actioned. I had to go to the online redelivery site. There was no mention of why my parcel had not been redelivered in the first place?

At that point I tried to ring a customer service person ( press 3 for…., press 5 for ) it took two attempts and something like 20 minutes to get through to a real person, who apologetically took the details of my complaint and assured me a manager from the East Oxford Post Office would ring me within 48 hours.

One week later, no call. So I rang the customer service team, again to be told that they had a message back that the parcel had been returned to sender, and ‘sorry’ no one had contacted me.

Following a request to escalate my complaint I was assured a manager would ring me back by 5pm. They didn’t.

Eventually I got through to a manager who said they would investigate my complaint and I would hear back in about 10 days. So in all I have made five attempts to recover my parcel, all in vain!

I don’t hold out much hope of hearing anything from the Royal Mail as they have absolutely no intention of responding or following up. The whole of the customer service (online and phone) is designed to make it difficult to register a complaint, or even get service!

Terry Parsons, Slade Close Headington