Post box collection only once a week?

[Moovart]

On the front of a postbox it gives a list of collection dates and times, mostly every day except Sunday. But in addition there is a small metal plate at the top of the box with the day written on it. My understanding was that this plate was changed by the post person when they did a collection and indicated when the next collection would be. Today I have been to three post boxes and two had a metal plate with Monday inserted, meaning (as I understood) the next collection would be in one week on the Monday. One had a metal plate with Thursday on it which I take to mean the next collection at that box is Thursday ie in two days time.

If this is the case then I now understand why the letters I have been sending first class are taking over a week to arrive.

Does anyone know if royal mail have reduced their post box collections so dramatically as to pick up only once a week in this area? If so, this is very sneaky as we're paying for first class post and thinking that the post box will be emptied the next day when it may be the following week.

I have made a complaint asking this question to Royal Mail and I am awaiting a response but if anyone can shed light on this, that would be helpful.

[Nigello]

Collections are made but those who collect the mail simply CBA to change the metal plate. Same as those who choose to litter the streets with elastic bands. (Solution - pick them up and put them in a pillar box unless dirty, of course.)

[Penguin68]

The post box local to me seems to be regularly collected. The problems we have in ED are to do with the Delivery Offices - the PO box collections (and the work of the London Sorting Office) seem to be operating relatively smoothly. I suspect delivery failures are to do with understaffing in Delivery offices and on the Post Peoples' Walks. Certainly that's true for ED. My regular postie is on a 10 day holiday - and we've seen no deliveries in several days since we went on leave, although the PO guy delivering parcels today said we might get a mail delivery tomorrow. But there is no slack for cover (holidays/ sick) at all, and some rounds have no one permanent on them.

[Applespider]

The two near me have been stuck on Sat and Tues respectively since early in the last lockdown. But first class items I put in them by the posting time regularly show up the next day (admittedly not within SE22!) so I think it's just a case of the metal plates not being used very often.

[Bic Basher]

I don't use the postbox opposite me by The Grove as it's hard to tell when it's been collected or not, instead I use the PO on Lordship Lane or the Covid priority post box near Sainsbury's Local.

[Nigello]

Each pillar box has its own code written on the panel. You can ring a number to get through Royal Mail (number on box) and quote it, explaining your problem or concern.

[Azalea]

Yesterday, the postbox just off Bellenden Road on Chadwick Road was full to the brim with post as I found out when I tried to post something. It didn?t give me any confidence that it was being emptied regularly at 530 pm as it said on the box. I ended up using a different postbox which said pick-up was everyday at 9.00 am.