Maniototo residents sending mail will have to wait one extra business day for it to be delivered, after the postal clearance from Ranfurly was changed from 3pm daily to 9am daily.
Naseby General Store owner Marilyn Swinbourn said residents were "a bit taken aback" about the change, which came into effect on June 1. An extra day would be added to the sorting and delivery of post, she said.
"An item of mail left at Naseby on Friday afternoon will not leave Maniototo until Tuesday morning. Surely we can do better than this?
"Roughly two-thirds of the Maniototo population depend on RD collection — that’s a lot of affected people.
"It’s just another little chip in our service."
She said she was not notified about the change to the service and only found out after a customer queried a new sticker on a box in Ranfurly.
"NZ Post just did it.
"I’m a postal agent here and I didn’t know about it."
A New Zealand Post spokesman said a Queenstown area manager visited key customers and postal agents in the Maniototo to discuss the change in May.
Notifications were also placed on postboxes in Ranfurly, Wedderburn, Oturehua and Omakau in late April advising of the change.
The change was brought in because fewer people were using the postal service, NZ Post said.
"We were making two mail return runs [90km one way] from Alexandra to Ranfurly every day.
"The volume of mail carried in our network is falling and did not justify continuing with the second afternoon run.
"The first mail run was maintained to ensure customers in the area received their mail [including parcels and courier products] as early as possible in the day."
The service change would not affect rural customers receiving their mail, NZ Post said.
"There will be no change to rural customers receiving their mail, parcels and courier products in the area.
"Mail picked up from rural customers by rural contractors will be lodged in our network the next working day.
"There have been no other changes to rural services in the Maniototo and customers can expect delivery and collection of their mail and parcels Monday to Friday."
