'It's a joke' People who rely on post claim Royal Mail's service is worse than ever

Hi I haven't received anything. "Where is my DVD? I placed the order 14 days ago." "Never got it. Probably lost in the mail." "Please refund me." These are the types of messages that Charlene Leworthy, an eBay seller in Hampshire, gets increasingly frequently - which she finds disappointing, but unsurprising.

- Jem Bartholomew

Leworthy - who relies on second-class letters to power her seven-year-old e-commerce business selling old DVDs - says Royal Mail keeps hiking prices but "the service is the worst I've known".

"Since December it has cost us £600 in refunds for delayed and lost post," says Leworthy. "That's money we've got to write off. It comes straight off our bottom line, we don't get that back. It's a joke."

Royal Mail, which was privatised in 2013, has struggled to make deliveries on time in recent years. Its parent company, International Distribution Services, says first-class mail arriving within one working day dropped to 76% in the three months to 29 September, below the 93% target; and second-class mail arriving within three working days fell to 93%, short of the 98.5% goal.

Missed delivery targets have led Ofcom, the communications regulator, to fine Royal Mail more than £16m over the 18 months to 30 January. And now - with a £3.6bn takeover of IDS by the Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský nearing completion - Ofcom says rules should be relaxed, with Royal Mail allowed to deliver second-class letters on alternate weekdays and stop Saturday deliveries.

Leworthy says she has had to increase prices, from £1.99 a DVD to £3.50, with another rise to £4 expected in April. "Because the cost of living has gone up, so we need to earn more anyway just to get by, and postage costs have just skyrocketed."

First-class stamps cost 76p in 2020, but by last year Royal Mail had raised them to £1.65. "Because it's gone private, it's just all about profits," Leworthy says. "They've said, screw the service, we just want money."