to think this delivery by Royal Mail was daft

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I got a text last night to say my Olympic tickets would arrive today. Unfortunately I already had plans that I couldn't change so I went out assuming they would send them to by local sorting office (about a 10 minute drive which I would be fine with). They need a signature which is good as it keeps delivery for them a bit safer.

Got back to find the card to say they'd been delivered but not to my local office as I thought but to my 'local' delivery office 4 and a half hours away! Absolutely rediculous. I now have to arrange redelivery which is difficult with work. They can't deliver a tracked item to an alternative dress. I would have to pay to get it sent to my local office.

Why oh why didn't it just get sent to my local office anyway. Daft, daft, daft. Oh well I'll get them somehow.

Mine were supposed to arrive today. We are the ground-floor flat in a purpose-built block but we have a separate entry door and separate buzzer (beside our private door) from the upstairs flats, although our mailbox is in their hallway as Royal Mail have a key for that area. We are not connected to the other flats in any way - no shared hallway, not wired into the door entry system, nothing.

To avoid confusion I went and bought some large adhesive letters from B&Q and stuck them on our door saying FLAT 15 (just in case the mail deliverer also missed the smaller lettering over our buzzer). I stayed in all morning to wait for the tickets.

At 2.30 this afternoon I went to check the mailbox and found that the postman had gone to the wrong door, tried to buzz a flat that didn't exist, then used his key to get in and dropped a "Sorry you were out" card in our mailbox. The worst part is, we are living in a dead end and our door is on the streetside corner - meaning the postman walked past "FLAT 15" on the door twice and never looked at it and never thought to knock/ring!

''Hang on, you live in the North East, and they got returned to Sheringham WTAF? Are you sure it says Sheringham, and not something else, or that there's another Sheringham.

BTW it won't be 4.5 hours away from you, it takes aaages to get to Sheringham, even from Norwich!''

Nope it definitely says Sheringham.

Your item is waiting for you at your local Delivery Office at:

Royal Mail
Sherringham Delivery Office
9 Station Road
Sheringham
NR26 8AA

It did say 4 and a half hours when I checked online. Norwich is a huge distance from here.

With every week that passes I become more convinced that there is a team somewhere whose jobs depend on making the entire Olympic ticketing process as convoluted, unreasonable, inaccessible and farcical as they possibly can.

Presumably their head office is in Sheringham.

You should phone your local office and ask. It sounds like a mistake.

I think a complaint to your local sorting office would be best, asking why the item is waiting at but put it in writing (and keep a copy so you can refer to your letter if they "lose" or "forget to answer").

Seems totally unreasonable for the item to be sent to Norfolk when your are in the NE. Of course, it isn't clear what address was on the original item. The fact you got the card through the door is no guarantee the correct postcode was on the item - I am imagining that while it reached your sorting office OK (because someone in Norfolk forced it on the right track if the postcode was wrong) the 'system' means that if something arrives back at the depot undelivered, the details are keyed / scanned in (to record a problem with delivery) and the sorting office chosed based on that postcode (giving rise to the wrong location).

If something isn't delivered, I thought the rules were that they leave a card offering redelivery, and explaining the item is going to be at (though not for a number of hours, or next day) and the items stay there for up to 2 (or is it 3) weeks for unregistered mail, or 1 week if recorded delivery.

Sadly :) I don't have any card to hand to see the exact wording, but I am going from memory from where I used to live in N Wales. I'm on Merseyside now and am lucky to see the postman much before lunch time (it is not unusual to have a delivery after 1400 - no good if I get a couple of DVDs from LoveFilm and want to have them back in the post the same day!).

Only on Saturdays do I see the postman earlier, and even then it is between 1100 and 1200. Last week it was 1150, this week a few minutes earlier.

Just out of curiosity, was that Norfolk address printed on the card, or hand written ? If it was handwritten then the delivery person must have been puzzled by the location (and in any case, why would they have cards with that delivery office listed) ?

If not, I wonder if the sorting office has been sent a big batch of cards which should have gone to Norfolk, and the item is really in your local office but the staff are just filling in the bits of the card they need to complete and not noticed it is wrong sorting office card that they have (probably hundreds or thousands in a box at sorting office!!)

I am laughing at the Sheringham postie getting his parcels that day and thinking "crikey, a 4.5hr trip to deliver this parcel today"... oh no, not home, best take it back 4.5hr!!

This is a royal mail stuffup, either parcel is closer to you and somehow the wrong card has been delivered (why their card is in your area I have no idea), or the parcel is in Sheringham, but noone tried to deliver it to you - the postie has not driven 4.5hr each way to card it when you weren't home.

Royal mail has to hold it at YOUR local sorting office, not some random UK address - you'd be better to travel to the venue to pick it up, LOL.

Call them, leave it to them to sort it.

They got redelivered today and luckily I could be in. Thank goodness.

Incidentally it did have the correct address on the parcel.

I'm just glad it's arrived.

They are the most beautiful tickets I've ever seen and I am sooooo excited!