Madam, - I wonder if part of the revenue from An Post's recent postage increases are to be directed towards improving its customer service. I recently had occasion to make my first credit card internet purchase and so was a little nervous when awaiting its arrival from England.
Upon my second trip down to my local An Post depot to join the queue of citizens collecting their own mail I was informed to my disbelief that the parcel had been awaiting my collection for two weeks and was now on its way back to England. At this point I was shown an "attempted delivery" docket and was assured I must have received a similar one and thrown it out by accident. Just as I was about to take issue with the previous statement, a ray of hope dawned as I was told it might yet be possible to prevent the parcel leaving the country by phoning the Roscommon depot.
This duly done, I was informed the parcel's direction had been reversed and it would be with me within three days. Four days later I discovered the parcel is in the central sorting office in midlands England. The sender is struggling to retrieve it, Royal Mail is refusing to resend it, and I'm left wondering why I was so worried about using my credit card online. My fears were naively misdirected.
I have written to An Post twice now to give the company a chance to redeem itself, but to no avail. Maybe my letters have been lost in the post? - Yours, etc,
PAUL CAWLEY, Woodford Downs, Clondalkin, Dublin 22.