by JENNY ANDREW A MAN who has made 17 complaints about the post in the last 18 months was given the telephone number of the chairman of Consignia.

But when he rang the London number to seek an answer to his complaints, he was put through to Dr Neville Bain's secretary, who was aghast he had managed to contact the chairman's office.

David Smith, of Speedwell Road, Colchester, said he had given up ringing the local office and, instead, this week spoke to the London office.

"There must have been a new girl there who said why didn't I speak to the chairman and gave me the number.

"When I called it, I was put through to the chairman's secretary who demanded to know how I had got the number. Of course, I didn't get to speak to him."

Mr Smith explained: "We are in the town area and should get post before 9.30am. We are lucky if we get it before that time twice a week, and on one day last week the mail was not delivered at all.

"I have made 17 complaints since October. I was promised great improvements for the service by January 2000, and then 2001."

He added, Colchester MP Bob Russell had also taken the matter up for him on two occasions.

A spokesperson for Royal Mail said: "There has been a slight problem. We introduced a new way of working in July, and the majority of customers have improved delivery times.

"We have a 90 per cent consistency rate in meeting the 9.30am deadline.

"Unfortunately, Speedwell Road is one of the few walks where we are having problems. We are looking at this to find out what is causing it"

She added: "We are entirely baffled as to how the customer got the number of the chairman's office. We are not entirely sure how that happened."

And she urged anyone with a complaint to ring the customer service number of 08457 740740

Last Updated on Wed 26 September 19101 at 15:0