The post company in Tenerife is a state-owned company responsible for providing postal service in Spain, called Correos.
On social media and in the press, it is not for the first time that a square working postal company in Tenerife has been taken to task. Nobody is happy with the operation and, more importantly, the service and delivery of the Spanish public company Correos.
We read hundreds of negative comments on Trustpilot. Out of a total of 2,802 reviews, the postal company managed to collect 1.2 stars out of 5. 93% of those disgruntled gave only one star. We are convinced that the postal company, subsidised by the Spanish government, would shave even less if the option of ‘zero stars’ was provided to indicate satisfaction.
In southern Tenerife, more than 16,000 official letters lie undelivered in Correos offices in Arona, Adeje and Granadilla. Letters from the Finance Ministry, courts, Tráfico and other official bodies are not being delivered due to staff shortages. The areas most affected are Los Cristianos and Costa del Silencio in Arona, Playa de las Américas and Casco in Adeje, and Granadilla, San Isidro and El Médano.
16,000 undelivered official documents
If an official notice does drop in the letterbox without the postman having knocked at the door, you’re in luck. It is especially annoying and time-consuming to trek to the post office to get this letter or parcel handed to you. Each municipality in Tenerife has a delivery unit to ensure that all correspondence is put in the residents’ letterboxes.
In the delivery unit in Cho-Parque La Reina, where mail is collected for the residents of Arona, there are more than 10,000 official letters. In the distribution centre at Playa de las Américas (for Adeje residents) and this one at San Isidro (for Granadilla), there are over 3,000 undelivered official mail units each time. That means more than 16,000 residents in the southern region are unaware that they have been summoned by a court, that the tax authorities are demanding a certain amount of money, that they have to pay a fine or that a seizure is coming their way.
Impossible task for postal workers
Correos is aware of this dramatic situation. The general secretary of the Comisiones Obreras union in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Pedro Segura Santos, reports that the situation in the south could spread further to all the Canary Islands. Comisiones Obreras is the largest union within this public company, both in the Canary Islands and nationally.
The problem is the lack of staff. Only 80% of the jobs are filled and only when an extraordinary period, such as Christmas, arrives are extra staff deployed. In time, this results in an overload of staff and makes it impossible to meet targets.
As for official letters, on top of the normal mail, each postman is now given 100 instead of 50 official letters a day to be posted to people. But for the postman, this proves to be an impossible task and thus many official items end up returning to the post office.
No improvement
For decades, Correos has had a reputation of being unreliable, offering poor service and charging high rates. Letters, parcels and packages are delivered weeks or even months late, damaged or lost. Customer service works only with pre-made standard answers and satisfaction surveys are ignored.
Correos is a state-owned company and is subsidised by the Spanish government. This means the company does not compete in the same way as other private postal companies. This leads to a lack of motivation to improve service. However, Correos has promised to improve service, but so far few results are visible. It is unclear whether Correos will ever be able to turn around the reputation of a disastrous company.
Correos.com © Photography
Post company in Tenerife ©
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