By Declan Curry BBC business presenter

Are we getting a straight deal from the Royal Mail?

The cost of stamps is rising sharply. Yet many customers think the service is getting worse.

On BBC Breakfast, we put the man in charge of the Royal Mail on the spot.

But as well as answering your questions on air, chairman Allan Leighton also took part in an online discussion.

Complaints poured in: about the safety of our mail, the speed of the service and the time it is delivered each morning.

Many wanted to see the return of the second post. Others though the post should be delivered when more people are at home - and made easier to collect if no-one's in.

But there was also praise for the Royal Mail, and its hard-working postmen and women.

And the boss said he was making changes to make life easier for his customers.

Lost mail headaches

One viewer, mrx9, said he had lost several items of post, some of them registered. What was Royal Mail's top boss doing about it?

Undelivered mail could be collected from post offices, not sorting offices

Mr Leighton insisted the vast bulk of our mail - 99.92% - arrives safely, but added that losing one letter is losing one too many.

He said he's tackling the problem of missing mail by cutting the number of casual workers employed by the Royal Mail, and he's dealing with stolen mail by checking if potential new employees have a criminal record.

Another viewer suggested Mr Leighton should put CCTV cameras in sorting offices.

One postal worker noted that many letters described as "lost" are simply not addressed correctly. Mr Leighton praised the specialist team at Mount Pleasant sorting office who redirect letters that don't have a proper address. He says they can track down the rightful owners of half of the letters they deal with.

Late delivery

Many viewers complained that the morning mail arrives much later than it used to.

It's a widespread grievance. The National Audit Office says four out of ten people now get their post after 10am; a few years ago, when we still had the second post, it was only one in ten.

James, in Nottingham, wrote: "All we know if that it will arrive somewhere between 8am and 1pm, and at least once a week we get something intended for someone else."

Business owner Phillip Wright said his post arrives at random times between 11.30am and 1.30pm, and his complaints to his local delivery office have been ignored.

The key thing is we're making progress Allan Leighton, Royal Mail chairman

Mr Leighton said local offices will try to arrange delivery times that suit. Anyone who was still unhappy should contact him directly.

And what about those "while you were out" cards that we get when we're not in to collect bulky items or post that needs a signature? It means a trip to the sorting office to collect the mail.

One viewer, in Rhondda, complained that they're never open at a convenient time. Mr Leighton said he wants to change the rules for undelivered post so we can collect it from post offices, which are open until later afternoon, rather than sorting offices which shut at lunchtime.

But he ruled out evening deliveries. That, he said, is when post for the next day is being collected and sorted.

And he said he did not want to use other services like milkmen or corner shops to get our post to us at more convenient times - because he sees them as his competitors.

Rivals

Some viewers thought the Royal Mail's problems stemmed from competition: opening up the postal service to rival operators and ending the monopoly that the Royal Mail has enjoyed for hundreds of years.

Neil Hughes claimed deregulation allowed competitors to "cherry-pick the most profitable parts of the postal service".

Mr Leighton disagreed.

He admitted that competition had cost him business. "Every single one" of his major customers, he said, had transferred some mail to the competition.

Allan Leighton says things will get better

The Royal Mail has already lost a million items to rival services, Mr Leighton says, with the figure set to reach 3 million items this year.

But he defended competition robustly, saying it made the Royal Mail sharper.

And it wasn't all criticism and brickbats.

He was thrown a bouquet by Nick, who said the Royal Mail did "a fantastic job" and called it "one of the best value services... anywhere in the UK".

Another anonymous viewer said the Royal Mail was the "one public service that's actually well-run and value for money".

The chairman said he agreed - but there was plenty more to do to make the service better.

"It can be better," he said, "but the key thing is we're making progress."