Royal Mail Bicester residents complain of ‘useless’ service

Residents living in the north Oxfordshire town voiced their woes on the social media community group ‘Bicester General Chat’.

While there was praise for some ‘great’ local Royal Mail posties, others weren’t so happy with the ‘useless’ service they were receiving.

The general consensus is that while post, including letters and parcels, are being delivered, residents receive them later than expected and/or all in one go.

Complaints were raised about post being delivered damaged, being ‘lost’ and others missing important hospital appointments.

Some said despite making complaints and escalating further, they do not receive an update.

Bicester residents take to social media to raise complaints about ‘useless’ Royal Mail postal service (Image: Getty Images)

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We know how important it is for people to receive their post reliably, especially when it contains personal, financial or medical information.

“We take concerns about delays seriously and any customer experiencing a specific issue with their mail should contact our customer services team so it can be looked into.

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“Improving quality of service is our top priority. Nationally, around 92 per cent of letters are currently arriving on time and over 99 per cent within a week, but we know there is more to do to deliver the reliable service customers expect.

“That is why we are making changes through our new delivery model, backed by our improvement plan, to improve reliability for customers across the UK.”

A target of 93 per cent is set for the postal company to deliver first class mail to be received within one working day.

But in Oxfordshire, the Royal Mail is hitting just 67.2 per cent, Liberal Democrat Witney MP Charlie Maynard revealed earlier this year.

This is below the Royal Mail’s claim of delivering 76.3 per cent of first class mail within one day across the UK for the year to March 2025.

Mr Maynard said that in his Witney constituency, people are even missing medical appointments because of late postal deliveries.

In May, services in Bicester (OX25 – OX27) saw delays “temporarily” due to sick absence, resourcing or other “local factors”, the Royal Mail said.

A spokesman said at the time: “In those cases, we will rotate deliveries to minimise the delay to individual customers.

“We also provide targeted support to those offices to address their challenges and restore our service to the high standard our customers would normally receive.”

Last year, the Royal Mail was taken over by International Distribution Services by Czech billionaire businessman Daniel Kretinsky’s IP Group in a £3.6 billion deal.