A family have hit out at Royal Mail after going four weeks without any post.
Damien McArdle is yet to receive a single card for his birthday on October 13, but the delays have now gone from being irritating to potentially costly, as they are now affecting his work.
The entrepreneur, from Maidstone recently launched a new company giving advice on fire risks and health and safety.
But he is waiting for a letter from the HMRC to come through to give him a code so he can begin invoicing clients – something they said would take up to 14 days when he applied a month ago.
But the missing letter is only one aspect.
He said: “We’ve had literally no post for four weeks.
“It was my birthday on October 13 and I didn’t get a single card even though I know my family sent them.”
He has complained to Royal Mail who blamed the non-delivery to his terraced home in Tonbridge Road, where he has lived for the past three years, on “severe staff shortages.”
He said: “Twice they’ve assured us that we will get our mail within three days, and twice that deadline has passed without a delivery.
“I’m sure we can’t be the only ones. This could have serious consequences for people.
“There is still critical information that comes through the post and this is especially important for those more vulnerable in society.
“Parking tickets that have payment accumulation for not paying within time-scales or ones that can land you in court, such as driving offences.
“Even more concerning is that there are still many people who rely on the post for their medical appointments.”
Here Mr McArdle speaks from bitter personal experience. His father, Jude McArdle, who owned Desmond Judd Auctioneers, had a routine cancer-screening appointment letter go missing back in 2018.
By the time Mr McArdle senior attended his next appointment, his cancer was found to have returned and spread to the point where the NHS was unable to save him.
Damien said: “I think its concerning that people’s lives could be affected in such a way, and Royal Mail has not even issued any notifications of the impacted service to warn people.
“Postal workers are key to society, and like many other critical sectors they have been neglected and this is why we in the situation that we are.”
Mr McArdle’s partner, Jennifer Tring, said she had rung Royal Mail four times and had even asked whether she could go and pick their mail up.
She said: “They told me no, that wasn’t possible.”
When contacted by KentOnline, Royal Mail admitted there were delays to deliveries but said the couple had no outstanding post to be delivered – something they dispute.
A spokesman said: “We have reviewed the customer’s address and can confirm there is currently no mail to be delivered.
“We would reassure customers that we are making deliveries throughout Maidstone daily.
“However, there are, at times, delays due to a high number of vacancies at the delivery office.
“We have plans in place to minimise the impact with posties prioritising delayed deliveries the following day.”
Mr McArdle said in response: “If that were true, that we had no post, why did they not say that on the four times we have complained and been given an official complaint number?
“Besides, I know that isn’t true because I have spoken to friends and family who said they have sent me birthday cards.
“HMRC said we would hear from them within 10 to 14 days – and that was four weeks ago.
“Not having the HMRC letter is having a massive impact both on our business and on us personally – we can’t pay ourselves until we get it…”
“It’s ridiculous that we would have no post in all that time; we would routinely have had at least one or two deliveries a week – bank statements, adverts, that type of thing.
“Not having the HMRC letter is having a massive impact both on our business and on us personally – we can’t pay ourselves until we get it.
“If Royal Mail really has no post for us, they must have delivered it to the wrong address, which is perhaps even worse.”
Last December KentOnline reported on how there were lengthy delays to postal deliveries in Maidstone, Malling and Medway.
Hospital patients complained of missing appointments, birthdays went unmarked, and one Gillingham fan received his season ticket three months after the first game kicked off.
At the time a postie revealed what is was like to work for the company, saying he felt embarrassed by the service.
The Royal Mail responded, saying it had hired thousands of extra workers, increased its vehicle numbers and boosted its operational capacity in response to higher demand at peak periods.
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