A FOUR-YEAR-OLD girl was left devastated on her birthday when Royal Mail refused to hand over an undelivered present sent by her grandparents.
Bemused mum Lynn Williamson, of Mickle Trafford, could not believe what she was hearing when a strict female staff member at the delivery office in Hoole told her she could not take the parcel home.
She was refused the present because it was addressed to her daughter Imogen and she had no identification for the birthday girl.
Even offering to show her own driving licence as proof that she lives at the same house and shares the same surname as Imogen, who was waiting patiently in the car outside, fell on deaf ears.
The present – containing bubble bath and books – was sent by Imogen’s grandparents, who live in Durham, by special delivery at a cost of £6.70 to make sure it arrived for her birthday on Friday.
Mrs Williamson, 42, was not at home when the parcel arrived so immediately went to the Station Road office to collect it.
Ironically, she was able to collect another undelivered parcel, also addressed to her daughter, because it wasn’t sent by special delivery.
She said: “The woman had no empathy when I said it was my daughter’s birthday.
“Imogen was upset, she said to me: ‘What’s happening? Why can’t I have my other parcel from nan and grandad?’
“Should I have dragged her in from the car and said this is my four-year-old daughter? Would that have worked? My husband had to go back the next day with her passport. It’s daft.”
Imogen’s nan Diane Williamson is angry at the lack of ‘common sense’ shown by Royal Mail and has made a complaint.
She said: “Our daughter-in-law could prove that she lived at the same address.
“But not being in the habit of carrying around her daughter’s birth certificate or passport, she was unable to prove with documents the obvious and indisputable fact that the child in the car was indeed the one to whom the registered parcel was addressed.
“It’s ridiculous that they kept to the rule book in those circumstances.”
A spokeswoman for the Royal Mail Group said: “If the postman or woman is unable to deliver a Special Delivery item to a customer they will leave a ‘something for you’ card which explains how to arrange a redelivery or where to collect the item.
“This card also includes details of the addressee’s identification which is required to collect the item in person.
“We apologise if the customer was inconvenienced when they tried to collect the item without sufficient identification.”
