More than £40,000 was paid in compensation for lost and damaged
mail to people and businesses with NP postcodes during the past year,
figures released to a Newport-based Assembly Member show.
The Royal Mail paid a total of £27,904 for loss of mail during the 2007-08 financial year, shared by 1,623 claimants.
349 claimants complaining about delayed mail shared compensation of £2,392, and 176 people shared £5,054 for damaged mail.
There were also payments for other failings, including redirection problems, substantial delays and customer service failures.
Mohammad Asghar, AM for south east Wales, said: “While the mail is
delivered properly and promptly in the vast majority of cases, this is
of no consolation to people who have not received letters or parcels
they were expecting.
“I am pleased that the Royal Mail takes its comparatively small
number of failures seriously and has paid compensation to the people
and businesses it has let down.”
Commenting on the figures, a Royal Mail spokesman said: “The
complaints during 2007-08 - about one for every 15,000 letters and
packets of the 20 billion posted - came in a year when there was a
prolonged period of industrial action, but quality of service has since
improved with the large majority of mail now being delivered at target
levels or above.”