A Brighton woman said she received a Christmas card last week due to postal delays.
City residents have missed hospital appointments and suffered financial losses as a result of sorting issues and severe delays to Royal Mail’s postal service.
Mel Chan, from Brighton Marina, claimed in a comment on social media that a letter sent in December 2025 arrived just last week – four months late.
“Last week [we] received our Christmas card from [our] parents! I know my mother would’ve posted it very early,” she said.
Peter, from Hove, has experienced issues with sending and receiving important correspondence since June last year, when a delay in the delivery of documents resulted in a delay in the completion of his house move.
Speaking to The Argus, he said: “It’s a stressful time moving, waiting to confirm things, so the last thing you want is [Royal Mail] to let you down.
“I used guaranteed next day delivery tracked and it cost something like £25. It was my conveyancing contract to purchase when I’m living now but it never got to my solicitor in time. They require you to pay extra for special services but then don’t deliver those special services.
“I complained to Royal Mail, and it turned out it was sitting in the sorting office for days before it was finally delivered. They said ‘whoops, sorry we didn’t perform as we should’ve done – we’ll reimburse you for the cost of the stamp’. They wouldn’t allow me to claim compensation for any other losses I incurred.”
Peter said he “lost out financially” in April this year after an “urgent” letter from his bank arrived three weeks late.
“I applied for a new ISA just before the end of the tax year and my bank sent me a letter to say there was some mistake in the request that needed sorting. It took three weeks for the letter to arrive and by then I’d missed the deadline.
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Anger mounts as post keeps arriving late or not at all in town
Anger mounts as post keeps arriving late or not at all in town
“I had to apply to open a different ISA and by then, the interest rate had dropped. I lost out financially because Royal Mail delayed the delivery of an important letter.”
Brighton and Hove residents have taken to social media to complain of similar issues.
Eva Hinkley, from Grand Avenue, Hove, also missed important correspondence. Ms Hinkley paid for mail forwarding in February following a move but did not receive anything for several weeks. She returned to her old address and found fifteen letters waiting for her.
“The post was a mix of NHS and banking and HMRC stuff. I missed a hospital appointment because of it. I am very angry,” said Ms Hinkley.
Pauline James, from Hangleton Manor, Hove, had no choice but to take matters into her own hands after not receiving any post for several weeks.
“We nearly missed our hospital appointments. If my husband hadn’t asked the postman delivering parcels, we would’ve missed them,” said Ms James. “The postie went and got our mail and delivered it to us. We’d waited three weeks for the letters and only got them the day before our appointments.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We know how important it is that people receive their post when they expect it, particularly for time-sensitive items.
“Across the UK, around 92 per cent of letters arrive on time and 99.4 per cent within a week. While most mail is delivered as it should, there can occasionally be short-term, localised issues which we aim to resolve as quickly as possible.
“Reports of items arriving significantly later than expected are very unusual and not representative of how the service operates. During the Christmas period, when volumes are significantly higher, a small number of items can be mis-sorted or displaced within the network and delivered later, but this is rare.