Sir, - My fiancee and I recently posted approximately 80 wedding invitations to prospective guests in all corners of the country and beyond. We have subsequently verified that postal codes, where applicable, were correct, and that the correct stamps were affixed. They were entrusted to An Post at Lucan post office at mid-afternoon on Thursday August 6th.
A handful of the invitations reached their destinations the following morning, in locations as widely separated as Killarney and Belfast, with the majority arriving on Monday and Tuesday (interestingly, one Limerick household received their two invitations on separate days). Incredibly, however, some Dublin recipients did not get their invitations until Wednesday 12th.
Quite beyond belief is the case of the Killarney couple who finally received their invitation on Tuesday 18th, 12 calendar days (eight An Post "working days") after posting.
It goes without saying that I feel these delays are unacceptable. While we have all, at some stage, received a delayed letter or card, it is normally put down to being "the one that got away". In this case, however, it appears that half the postbox got away! It is particularly embarrassing in the case ofwedding invitations: some friends and family understandably thought they had not been invited.
On finally contacting An Post's customer care line (having spent 15 minutes holding and re-dialing a non-freefone number), a gentleman who did not see fit to identify himself listened to my story. While he did sympathise with my plight, he offered no apology. Instead he proceeded with a lengthy explanation of how the sophisticated computer prioritisation system can sometimes lead to delays. He informed me that the only way to trace the problem would be for me to submit the delayed envelopes along with a completed enquiry form. Is it realistic to expect that my guests will have kept the envelopes?
A consistently reliable postal service is a fundamental and essential public service in any modern society. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that An Post seems to have abandoned investment in the improvement of its primary core function in favour of expenditure on glossy television commercials promoting nonpostal ancillary services. When in need of a new passport we can go to the passport office, and to open a low-DIRT savings account we can go to our bank. As neither of these institutions is willing to deliver our post, however, we have little choice but to resort to the national postal service. As a result, I for one await the day that An Post focuses on post. - Yours, etc.,
David McCormack,
Ballyowen Lane,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.