Please can we return this awful new postal service to sender? - Helen Martin

Having been left money by my late uncle in Ireland, I had to complete a document with my banking information and send it to his lawyer in Co.Offaly so they could release the money.

Helen Martin was told that a letter posted to Ireland was sitting in Heathrow - and could be stuck there for two weeks. PIC: Contributed.

At my local Post Office I was advised to pay £10 for the tracking system, complete with special labels, and I could follow where and when the letter had gone. Plus, it would take only three to five days to be delivered. Great!

After six days I provided my reference number to the Royal Mail website, but it didn’t accept it. I phoned the Post Office who

managed to have it recognised and told me that the letter was still in the UK. Next, I phoned the Royal Mail’s customer service who said it had reached Ireland because they sent it to Heathrow on day two.

They could no longer figure where it had gone until the Irish post system logged it, and if it hadn’t arrived at the lawyers by July 6, I could claim back my £10 from the Royal Mail. I didn’t care about the tenner. Where was my letter?

I phoned the lawyer’s firm. They hadn’t received it but they were able to check Ireland’s mail system and found it was still in Heathrow where staff might take a couple of weeks to forward it. They said delay was probably due to Brexit and maybe a little due to Covid.

In years gone by, such postage really did take three days. In 2021, now what has become our “international” UK mail system, even simply to Ireland, is disastrous.

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