Post Office Rant

[steve threlfall]

Has anyone else used the "print postage online" service? I've used it several times now to send large letters of varying weights, and if you can shove it through the post box's slot, it saves a lot of time cacking around at the Post Office (making sure you don't under-weigh it though).

Our local post office has a hatch where you can put the bigger items too. No need to wait in the huge lines (longer lately due to the small branch closures).

Now I feel your pain Salazar, I really do, but the Post Office staff aren't monkeys. The training required to serve on the tills in a post office is extensive to say the least. Far more so than most till roles.

It is also part of the job to push additional financial products and 'add ons' (Stamps, Jiffy bags etc) to customers. Batteries in Maplin, Terrys Choc Orange in WH Smith etc etc. They are all at it these days. It is common sense of course to use discretion with these point of sale conversations in peak times (though this is now all day, every day in my local PO).

[Behemoth]

A firm 'No thanks' from my customers is much nicer than to have them stand there, let you talk about whatever extra it is your trying to sell to them and then have them be rude to you about and how whatever it is your offering is a rip off etc.

It's all well and good to have a go at us for doing our jobs, but sadly the decision on what goods and services we sell are not controlled by those of us who are customer facing.

I'd love to see our company directors muck in with the rest of us on the shop floor and see how hard it is to work with some of their crackpot ideas, it might make them think twice before bringing in another one.

[santa claus]

Geez guys I dunno, do you think we moan too much these days? There's only one thing for it: a spirit raising speech a la Aragorn from Lord of the Rings:

Gentlemen of Hexus! Of Great Britain! My brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when servitude in the Post Office fails, when they forsake their customers and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered green shield stamps when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand up for your Post Office, Men of Hexus!

[peterb]

Geez guys I dunno, do you think we moan too much these days? There's only one thing for it: a spirit raising speech a la Aragorn from Lord of the Rings:

snip---->

A very good point - and perhaps we are a little intolerant of other people occupations and the stresses and pressures that they are under. The same could be said for how we treat cold callers in another thread.

We also tend to complain more than we praise - and perhaps that is because we take good service for granted (as we should) and therefore complain when it falls short of what we expect.

As for the poor old Post Office, which has been in decline for some time. The growth of electronic communications has undermined it, and yet when it comes to getting a physical object (a legal document, a greeting card or a package) - for most of us it is the only option. True, some legal documents can be sent by fax, when it is the information that is required, but for the physical document, we usually turn to the post office.

And this is a nationally service that has been under attack from both competition in a partially de-regulated market (in itself not necessarily a bad thing) but also the owners - the government - who have forced otherwise profitable post offices to close, has removed some of the banking options and services it provided (Girobank which it sold) and so reduced its revenue generating streams.

And yet it wasn't until I needed my local post office (in a corner shop) that I discovered that it had been closed over a year earlier! No big deal, the next one was only a mile further on, but shows how little I uses it! But for all we moan about the service, for a small fee, I can send a letter almost anywhere in the UK, with a high probability that it will arrive intact, and (with a slightly less degree of certainty) within a couple of days. Or I can pay more a guarantee delivery to the doorstep.

And although it faces commercial pressures, it has generated business, Amazon and other retailers use RM for deliveries, and those e-tailers that use it offer a very cost effective delivery service for small components. (I needed a Sata cable recently - cost about 90p, delivery by RM, about the same. Delivery from another e-tailer by courier was over £5.00)

Which makes the proposed strike even more incomprehensible. Just as RM may be making a last ditch effort to remain viable, the people whose livelihoods depend on it seem determined to drive the last nail into the coffin.

Like it loathe it,take notice of it because I fear it will be something whose value we won't appreciate until it has gone.

[Dragonclaw]

Yea, i can see RM going down the swanny! Lots of firms are going to use other couriers during the proposed strike period/s. This will surely hurt RM a lot and maybe even drive many companies away from them for good!

[Georgy291]

i know how to solve royal mail striking issues

STOP SENDING SPAM

[steve threlfall]

Geez guys I dunno, do you think we moan too much these days? There's only one thing for it: a spirit raising speech a la Aragorn from Lord of the Rings:

Gentlemen of Hexus! Of Great Britain! My brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when servitude in the Post Office fails, when they forsake their customers and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered green shield stamps when the Age of Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand up for your Post Office, Men of Hexus!

Good point Santa as usual, but you do your own distribution and dont have to rely on the PO. Think of the children who will be writing to you soon. They will be forced to stand in line at the PO for about half an hour, just to send you a letter.

[TheAnimus]

Wait a minute, it all makes sense, he is on the pay of royal mail to promote their services to the younger generations. That is why he isn't outraged and appalled at their behaviour.

[Dragonclaw]

Well, i said RM were ok here. Correction, monday a parcel was sent to me via 1st class recorded delivery. Wed today and it still hasn't appeared!!

[santa claus]

Good point Santa as usual, but you do your own distribution and dont have to rely on the PO. Think of the children who will be writing to you soon. They will be forced to stand in line at the PO for about half an hour, just to send you a letter.

Thanks Steve. I hereby guarantee that whatever the PO get up to this Christmas, ol' Santa will deliver all pressies on time. I have lots of little helpers called Mums and Dads. I am also magic...remember how it always worked out when you were little?

Wait a minute, it all makes sense, he is on the pay of royal mail to promote their services to the younger generations. That is why he isn't outraged and appalled at their behaviour.

Lol, everyone always has an ulterior motive eh TheAnimus? Tbh, I just think the whole Country is getting entrenched in moodiness and misery, not without some reason but let's keep a lid on it . Apologies to the OP, I'm off topic.

[jim]

A firm 'No thanks' from my customers is much nicer than to have them stand there, let you talk about whatever extra it is your trying to sell to them and then have them be rude to you about and how whatever it is your offering is a rip off etc.

It's all well and good to have a go at us for doing our jobs, but sadly the decision on what goods and services we sell are not controlled by those of us who are customer facing.

I'd love to see our company directors muck in with the rest of us on the shop floor and see how hard it is to work with some of their crackpot ideas, it might make them think twice before bringing in another one.

Who do you work for?

[Behemoth]

Who do you work for?

For all my sins, Curry's There are times when its good in there and there others that aren't, I'm sure you've seen some of my rather long winded threads about it.

[chris8vb]

Hate the Post Office, glad I don't have to deal with them too often.

Recently wen't into the local post office, arrived just as it opened. They had just added a new ticketing system, a couple of snooty women instantly shoved a ticket in my hand upon walking in. But I needed an envelope and time to write it out, they wern't happy when the ticket was called and I wasn't ready, so I made a point of taking my time and making the cashier wait 5 mins. Couldn't serve anyone else whilst waiting for me, fancy new system and its slower than the old one.

[TooNice]

Did you consider that by 'making your point of taking your time', you are also wasting everyone else's time? Two wrong doesn't make a right etc.

[cleaverlch]

Hate the Post Office, glad I don't have to deal with them too often.

Recently wen't into the local post office, arrived just as it opened. They had just added a new ticketing system, a couple of snooty women instantly shoved a ticket in my hand upon walking in. But I needed an envelope and time to write it out, they wern't happy when the ticket was called and I wasn't ready, so I made a point of taking my time and making the cashier wait 5 mins. Couldn't serve anyone else whilst waiting for me, fancy new system and its slower than the old one.

The new system if most likely faster but appears to be very badly designed if it's unable to jump to the next ticket.

[steve threlfall]

Hate the Post Office, glad I don't have to deal with them too often.

Recently wen't into the local post office, arrived just as it opened. They had just added a new ticketing system, a couple of snooty women instantly shoved a ticket in my hand upon walking in. But I needed an envelope and time to write it out, they wern't happy when the ticket was called and I wasn't ready, so I made a point of taking my time and making the cashier wait 5 mins. Couldn't serve anyone else whilst waiting for me, fancy new system and its slower than the old one.

So you thought that you would be an utter tool?

I hope for your sake that you made this little story up to look cool on the internet