SINGAPORE, Jan 29 — Just two weeks after it apologised for "service failures" over the year-end peak season, postal company SingPost has come under flak again after undelivered mail was found in a dustbin at Ang Mo Kio.

Facebook user Alyce Kathlyn posted a series of photos on Monday night (Jan 28), showing unopened letters from government agencies such as the Land Transport Authority and the Ministry of Health's Community Health Assist Scheme, addressed to residents of Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 and 5, all lying in public dustbins.

As the post swiftly went viral, SingPost sent a team to Ang Mo Kio the same night to comb the area for the undelivered mail, but told TODAY it was not successful.

"The bin was located and the team expanded its search to every bin within the vicinity, with no success of locating the letters. Letter boxes were also opened to check if these letters had been delivered to affected recipients.”

The postman on duty is also being questioned, SingPost added.

SingPost said its customer service team tried getting in touch with the Facebook user on Monday night but did not receive a reply.

On Tuesday morning, Ms Kathlyn wrote on Facebook in response to a SingPost statement that the lost mail, which had been found at a dustbin at Blk 179 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, was placed at the nearest letterbox for residents to collect them.

She also said that SingPost should have contacted her personally, instead of reaching out to her through her Facebook photo thread.

Shortly after Ms Kathlyn’s latest post, SingPost said it will be retrieving the letters immediately.

The postal service company said that investigations are ongoing and that it will provide an update as soon as possible.

This is the latest in a series of public complaints about poor service quality that SingPost has had to deal with.

In a viral post last year, a SingPost postman was caught on camera discarding returned letters and direct mail at a condominium. He was later fired.

On Jan 14 this year, SingPost made a public apology for its "service failures" over the holiday period, citing unexpectedly high volumes of mail.

The apology also came after rumblings on social media about poor service by postal workers. One netizen said he had to chase after a delivery man to claim his parcel, when the man left after knocking at his door for a "few seconds".

Last year, Communications and Information Minister Yaacob Ibrahim disclosed in Parliament that a postman has to deliver mail items to an average of around 20 Housing and Development Board blocks, or about 2,000 dwelling units, in six hours.

SingPost currently processes an average of 3 million mail items a day.

While the Info-Communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) does not limit the number of letterboxes each postman serves, SingPost is required to deliver 100 per cent of all basic letters within two working days of posting, which is part of the IMDA’s Postal Quality of Service standards.

Then, SingPost had told TODAY that it conducted a review of delivery routes in May 2017, which takes into account factors like the number of dwelling units, routing, and geographical spread, so that the postmen can complete their deliveries daily within six hours without compromising health and safety. — TODAY