I receive quite a few parcels in the post. For several reasons – things are cheaper outside Sweden, there is a bigger selection outside of Sweden and there are things unavailable in Sweden.

I receive on average approximately two parcels a week from abroad. Since October 2013, the postal service has (get this) been unable to deliver a single one. The correct procedure is to attempt delivery and if this fails, to post a parcel slip through the letterbox or, if they cannot come through the entrance door because there is a code or it is locked, they post it in the nearest postbox. But no, I have received not one parcel nor one parcel slip.

Now somehow the letter carrier has got it into his or her head that a) I am not at home b) there is a code on the door b)I am not answering my phone c)the door is locked. Or a combination of all three.

In November I complained to the Post Office via customer services. Nothing happened. In December I complained to the Post Office via customer services. Nothing happened. In January I complained to the Post Office via customer services. Nothing happened. Finally in February 2014 I made a formal written complaint. This time something happened. They promised to attempt to find the letter carrier. I gave them a list of all the tracking numbers I still had available. Of the 13 – 14 parcels they have not delivered I still had the tracking numbers of about seven of them showing the problem. If necessary I could find the remaining seven by contacting the vendors who sent the parcels. The Swedish Postal Service let me know they could not speak to the person who delivers my post as he was off sick.

And still, six weeks later, the postal services are unable to delivery a sodding parcel. Yesterday I was waiting for a parcel from Gillio. I watched the status as it updated. I was home, as was my ex-husband AND a builder who was replacing all the windows and doors. All doors were wide open because of the building work – and voila! Up popped the little note: delivery could not be completed because the door was locked and the recipient could not be reached.

Dear Postal Service Sweden:

HERE IS MY FRONT DOOR

See? Number 126 and NO CODE!!! I closed the door to take the photograph but inside you can see all the doors and windows which were being replaced at the time, with builders in and out of the building all day. This door is unlocked all day every day.

Yesterday I made another complaint. No reply. I phoned the Postal Service. No one could help me, even though I have an active ongoing case against the delivery service in my area. So my question is this: are they delivering all my parcels to another address entirely? Or are the postal workers not even bothering to leave the depot, sitting on their nice warm chairs, drinking coffee and writing that I am not at home and the door is locked? Do they even bother to fill out parcel slips?

I have to do all the tracking and policing of parcels myself. It has happened that our local postal depot closed on a Sunday just for me so they could go through every single one of the hundreds of parcels to try and find mine. All the postal agencies I deal with know about my problem and they all know my name and the problem as I am there so often but they cannot do anything because the delivery service is operated by sub-contractors.

I have a good mind to order a few more items and phone the local newspaper to follow the progress of said parcels from their original location and sit outside my front door and watch as the status is updated to ‘Just attempted delivery. Door locked with a code’.

I have just calculated the postage I have paid for these parcels to be in the thousands of kronor which the sender has to claim for if I am to receive any compensation. So if I want to claim I have to contact each vendor about each of the 13 items and they have to fill out a form and apply for a refund of postage, which they then have to pass on to me. A huge amount of admin. Why should the vendors and I have to waste more time fixing a problem with Swedish Postal Service???

The companies who have been affected by the Swedish Postal Service’s inability to actually deliver a parcel to me are: Filofax Benelux, Gillio Firenze, four private people, two Amazon.com sellers, TeNeues and Scripta-Paris. Each company has had to contact their local postal service (particularly when the items have been returned to them) and keep contact with me constantly through all my battles to get my parcels.