Complaining about your snail mail? Get a life …

WHEN he fired off an angry letter to his local newspaper complaining
about postal services, Gary Heneghan didn’t quite receive a conventional
response. Instead of a soothing promise to look into the matter or an embarrassed apology, he was sent a Royal Mail compliment slip bearing an abusive name and reading ‘Get a life you sad git.’ Not surprisingly, the carefully hand-written missive in a franked envelope was unsigned.
However, to add insult to 39-year-old Mr Heneghan’s injury, it took only
a day to arrive, landing on his doorstep the morning after the complaint was published.

This was in contrast to the first-class letter which prompted his anger
by taking seven days to be delivered from one side of Horsham, West Sussex,
to the other.
‘The person who sent the offensive reply to me hadn’t even bothered to
write my postcode on the envelope – how cheeky is that?’ said Mr Heneghan,
a mobile disc jockey. ‘I do have a sense of humour and I laughed when I
first read it.

‘But nonetheless the letter is abusive and I can’t let them get away with
it.’ The complaint from Mr Heneghan was printed in the West Sussex County
Times, under the headline ‘Are we getting a first-class service?’ In his
letter, he wrote: ‘I posted a first-class letter in the only post box in
Hurst Road on the evening of January 12 to a customer who lives on the
north side of Horsham and they have just informed me that they received it on January 19.

‘They cannot blame the service on the bad weather because I tested out
the service last year when the post was playing up. I posted a first-class
letter to myself in the same post box and that took three days to arrive.

‘I wonder how much business I have lost due to these bad services?
‘The Post Office sells me a first-class stamp for a first-class service
and I’m not even getting a third-class service.

‘But ask me this question (sic)?

The junk mail still turns up with-out any problem. They have lost the
plot in customer care.’ Last night, Mr Heneghan said: ‘I was a bit upset with
the delivery. In my line of business, you have to confirm everything in
writing and I was worried I might miss out on business.

‘I wrote a letter complaining and the next day I got one from the Royal
Mail. I thought I had better be in the right frame of mind to open it so I
waited a day.

‘When I saw what they had written, I laughed. But this went too far and I
feel very angry now.

‘The person who wrote it was a bit stupid to do it on headed paper and I
have considered taking legal advice.

‘The Royal Mail has written me a letter apologising and offering to meet
up to discuss “the malice I have been shown”.’ A Royal Mail spokesman
said: ‘We apologise unreservedly to Mr Heneghan for the abusive note he received
which may have been sent by a Royal Mail employee.

‘We will be thoroughly investigating this incident.’