Mail from the UK

The Connexion have started a discussion on Facebook about post arriving very late from the UK during the Christmas period.

In my case one card arrived 30th December that was posted 2 weeks before Christmas and one arrived 5th January having been posted on the day before the last delivery date for Europe.

Lots of people on Facebook reporting similar problems. Anyone else with this problem?

We had one posted 12 Dec that arrived 3 Jan. Also some failed to arrive at all!
STOP PRESS…Postman has delivered cards posted on 13 Dec today!

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same story here!

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Cards posted to us from Dorset on the 13th December with the correct postage cost paid arrived here on the 6th January.

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blame Brexit

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Don’t blame anybody… it is just how things go…

I had cards from UK delivered in 2 days… 12th - 14th December.
The same length of time it took for French cards to arrive which had also been posted on 12th…and those had only been posted in the next town from us…

And today 8th January… I’ve just received a card from my sister in UK… posted on 15th December… postage £1.17… no idea if this is 1st or 2nd class…but in either case… according to the franking, it was within the last posting dates (but for which country?)

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I seem to remember some time ago a posting which suggested that sending mail from the uk ‘air mail’ takes longer than making no preference. Surface mail - it was suggested - was quicker.

How true this is, is anyone’s guess.

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I never bother to stipulate how my letters go from here to UK. On average, I’d say we get mail 3-4 days after it’s posted in UK, which is about the same as the UK postman used to deliver it in Essex, so I’m not complaining. We live in 50150 (La Manche) which may explain the apparent efficiency, it’s a short hop from UK to here.

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Same here.
Is it down to Brexit,

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Yes, we have had very late arrivals of cards and our daughter in Germany also said that the card from her sister lived ng in Bury St Edmunds arrived very late.

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This seems to have been a problem across France. Over 200 people have reported problems on the Facebook post by The Connexion. This is the first year we have had problems since coming to France 10 years ago. Will be interesting to discover what the problem was.

Since the Post Office was privatised perhaps ? :thinking:

A card arrived today (Jan 9) which was posted on Dec 14. But all the others arrived very quickly.

Can also add to this discussion.
I have many cards that have still not arrived! The latest arrived two days ago showed an Essex post mark of 11th December.
Prior to seeing this discussion I wrote to both the French & UK postal offices. I received a response from LaPost but basically it said any reasons they could put forward would be pure speculation on their behalf.

Guess what, NO response from UK postal services!!!
I have a lot of friends also in Greece (where I have a holiday home), they too have received extremely late cards from UK, hence it has to be UK post…

Think I will persue

Two cards arrived today, one posted on the 12th and the other on the 13th.

We have had two cards which arrived today!
Everyone is being charged for the first class service and receiving a poor apology for one.
Also we have thought that we have somehow not been sent cards by people and they are now arriving.
It cannot be the French post office because they are coming from all over UK.

Royal mail have reluctantly admitted that the bad weather before Christmas did indeed cause delays to overseas mail delivery.

A card from Liverpool postmarked December 12 arrived here January 10. Plus tard.

Received a pretty standard reply to my complaint !!!

Dear Mr Ebbs

Thank you for contacting us about International items that were posted on the 11th and 12th December, and the concern this has caused.

Please be aware that we aim to deliver International Standard items going to Europe within 3-5 working days and within 5-7 working days for the rest of the world. These delivery aims also apply to items being sent via our International Tracked & Signed, International Tracked and International Signed services. Delivery targets are not guaranteed though, which means we are unable to accept claims for delayed international mail.

We have a Universal Agreement with all postal operators around the world which means that all items sent overseas are handed to the postal administration of the destination country. Therefore, we don’t offer any guaranteed international services as we don’t handle the item outside of the UK.

Additionally, due to the millions of pieces of mail that pass through our extensive postal pipeline each day, we’re unable to trace individual items unless a specific trackable service has been used.

I hope you find this information useful and if we can help again, please do not hesitate to contact us, and please accept my apologies for the inconvenience caused.

Here are the responses given to The Connexion by Royal Mail and La Poste.