Poste Italiane Faces Legal Troubles Over Telegram Delays and Privacy Violations
The endless story of service failures that characterize the relationship between citizens and Poste Italiane has once again occurred in the Arco area, involving an incident that could potentially be of interest to the judiciary, as it involves suspected criminal acts.
Privacy Violations and Criminal Allegations
Clearly, privacy violations are part of what happened, but there may also be elements of fraud against a consumer who was knowingly promised something that would not be fulfilled; possibly extortion or interruption of a public service: a lawyer and the consumer association are currently addressing the issue.
The problem concerns telegrams that are no longer delivered due to the absence of couriers. The recent story, whose protagonist we avoid naming, revolves around a funeral.
Telegram Delivery and Storage
Many convey their participation in the family’s grief in person, either at home or during the funeral. Many others, unable to do otherwise, rely on telegrams.
Between 9 a.m. on December 7 and 7 p.m. the same day, 20 condolence telegrams arrived at the post office of Arco. Carefully bundled, they remained on the counter for four and a half days amid general indifference: at the recipient’s residence, they were delivered exactly at noon on the 12th, in a single opened envelope (so that anyone could read its contents), and without any postal stamp.
In addition to the 20 telegrams from December 7, there were two more, one from December 8 and another from December 9. Thus, on the 12th, a total of 22 telegrams had arrived.
The following day, December 13, another delivery consisted of two opened envelopes — the first without a postal stamp, containing three telegrams received by the post office on December 9, before 11 a.m.; the second, stamped December 12, contained a telegram received the previous day, December 11.
When postal services were still a government-run enterprise, before privatization, restructuring, and more efficient responses to citizens’ needs, telegrams were delivered by a courier, if not immediately upon arrival, certainly within a few hours.
There is no evidence that, at the time of accepting the telegram, the clerk accepting payment informed the sender that the message would be transmitted immediately but that no guarantee could be given regarding its delivery.
The incident has been reported to the head of the Trento post office, Dr. Carlo Ferreri, and a lawyer has been involved, with contact made to the consumer association. Private couriers thank for the cooperation: their future is secured.