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Royal Mail Hello, my name's Dave, how can I help?

Mktg I'm calling because our postwoman doesn't push the post fully into our box, so it's left hanging out. This means anyone can take our mail, and someone actually did - we don't know what kind of confidential information a thief may now have as a result.

Royal Mail (sympathetically) Gosh, yes. How long has she been doing this round for now?

Mktg I don't know - we leave early for work. I'm sure you can find out.

Royal Mail Of course. I'm going to get in touch with the manager for you now. There's absolutely no excuse; one of the first things they're told when they get the job is not to leave letters hanging out. Can I take some details from yourself?

Mktg (gives details)

Royal Mail What day was this when it was actually, er ...

Mktg I think it was sometime last week, but I'm not sure.

Royal Mail OK, no problem, I'm going to get an email over to my manager now and get that sorted out for you.

Mktg What about the letters that have been stolen? If someone has taken our bank details we could lose money. Do you have insurance for this?

Royal Mail (pause) I wouldn't have thought so. I can just check.

Mktg I guess it's a similar situation to something not being delivered at all. Is there a procedure for that?

Royal Mail See, in one sense we have delivered it but in another sense we've not fulfilled our job as it was left hanging out.

Mktg Well it hasn't really been delivered then, has it?

Royal Mail No, no, I see where you're coming from (pause). Bear with me a second, I'm just going to check with my manager (uplifting classical music). Hello.

Mktg Hello.

Royal Mail Sorry about that. I just checked with my manager - if your bank details were stolen and used fraudulently we wouldn't actually be able to pay out compensation; we would advise that this would be a police matter.

VERDICT

Dave made me feel he understood the gravity of the situation, which was reassuring. He was also gratifyingly quick to accept Royal Mail's responsibility, up to the point where he said it was a police matter - though I got the impression that if it had been up to him he would have done more. However, I have a pet hate of people in customer service roles saying they're doing things 'for me', as if I'm asking them to do me a favour rather than just their job.