Miserable Post Office Worker

larmy16

There was PO near to me and behind the desk were the most miserable looking harridans you could ever imagine. One had jet black dyed hair and one bleached blonde - both in their sixties. They had a similar attitude to some doctors' receptionists eg. that you have a cheek even going there (apologies to any pleasant doctors' receptionists reading this!).

Recently however, they must have both retired, as they have been replaced by two very polite and friendly clerks, and I let them know how much I appreciate their helpful attitude. I stopped using it when the other two were there and drove to one further away.

Bargainbabe_2

Seriously folks you think you've got it bad! You ought to come to my local PO and experience the truly awful service I have to endure. The Postmistress never talks, she grunts! There's no pleasantries, no good mornings, no manners, no eye contact. Just snatching and grunting I don't use her for my eBay packages anymore as I find it very difficult not to react to rude and obnoxious people. Unfortunately, my postie takes all my parcels there if I'm not home and to be honest, it beats going miles into town to the sorting office, so I shut up and put up!

I do mystery shops in PO's, so if I do receive bad service, I can always give a very honest opinion of their service:p on one of my secret visits. I'm still waiting for my local PO to come up for a visit

justpaper

Mandles wrote:

Not to mention that i have been short changed or parcels mispriced a fair few times.

talk about mispriced i thought that couldnt happen,.. but the other day i sold a sander which cost 5£ ish to send,.. then i sold another sander same one (i had 2 of them) i went too the same PO and was priced £7.20 for it,. both sanders where in england mainland,..i dont trust that PO no more,.


kinda off the topic but....

How much dose a PO make i hear its not alot for all the paper work they have too do,.. the local PO around here has closed and i was looking too opening one, anyone got any info ... i know u have to go too thru a vetting process, well from what ive hear whole family has too,

Contains_Mild_Peril

Sorry I have no idea about running a post office. About mispricing, though... I once sent my mother a birthday present, which was duly weighed at the PO, but when I saw her about a week after her birthday, it still hadn't arrived. Eventually, she got a postcard thingy saying she'd been sent a package with insufficient postage, and if she wanted it she'd have to go to collect it and pay the alleged underpayment along with a surcharge. This should not have happened since it was weighed at the PO, and I'm surprised that they evidently have time to go checking parcels to see if there are any which are actually a couple of grams over the weight they're stamped for. I was quite !!!!!! off, since I could have saved money, and saved my mum money and hassle, if I'd just kept hold of it and given it to her next time I saw her. I spent money on postage because I wanted her to get it by her birthday.

Jet

I can see the other side of this. My ex husband used to own a village shop and post office. Yes, sometimes he could be a miserable so and so and that's one of the reasons I left him :rolleyes:

But some customers were downright rude. I can remember him getting serious abuse from a male customer who refused to remove his crash helmet when asked (bearing in mind my mother-in-law had just been through a serious armed robbery for the second time and had to retire from the stress, and the customer knew this), he swore at my husband and said he suggested my husband make him take the helmet off and then threatened physical abuse. He repeated this behaviour many times and was even caught shoplifting. We tried to ban him from the premises but was told by the post office that we weren't allowed to ban him from our own shop!

There were many times when customers would shout abuse when they had to wait more than a few minutes because my husband was dealing with a complicated transaction.

The attitude of a lot of the members of the public was that they had a right to have a post office and as such my the post office and my husband were public property and they would talk to him however they liked.

As for the payment for parcels, when my ex husband was running the post office (about 4 years ago), it was literally pennies that he earnt from postage. I can't remember the exact percentage rates but after tax and NI, he was barely getting minimum wage and bearing in mind that rent and all the overheads that come with running a shop have to be taken into consideration from that net amount. Any shortages from mistakes had to be made up by the sub postmaster and help and support from post office counters (as it was then) was almost non existent.

While I am not saying that anyone here has been rude or abusive, I do understand sub postmaster or mistresses being stressed out by the general public.

pug_in_a_bed

My PO is ok mostly but there is onw woman in her early thirties I guess who is unbearably rude to older customers, she gets really frustrated when thye have a few problems entering their pins with their cards. Its getting to the point where I see her being so rude so often that I think she needs a good smack in the face with one of my heavier parcels...

catherineblack

Jet wrote:

There were many times when customers would shout abuse when they had to wait more than a few minutes because my husband was dealing with a complicated transaction.

The attitude of a lot of the members of the public was that they had a right to have a post office and as such my the post office and my husband were public property and they would talk to him however they liked.

While I am not saying that anyone here has been rude or abusive, I do understand sub postmaster or mistresses being stressed out by the general public.

I have to agree with you Jet. While I find rude PO workers annoying (bad service is unacceptable) the public can be very unfair. My local postoffice is really friendly. The staff take their time to complete the transaction properly and go out of their way to be helpful. On a few occasions I've had to wait in a very long queue - but at least I know I'm going to get excellent service.

What annoys me is the people who tut and moan about the length of time someone is taking. I've heard them comment really loudly 'for goodness sake hurry up' and worse. I would agree if the staff were incompetent but they aren't. I'm ill and find standing in the queue quite exhausting - but hey that's life. It's a shame for good workers getting hassled like this.
On the other hand, bad customer service is just not right - I wish everyone had as nice PO workers as I do in my local PO.

allycat999

The woman that runs my village post office is rude and horrible, go to the next village post office now for all ebay and stamps as she is really lovely. My village post office is always empty - serves her right.

Hermia

catherineblack wrote:

What annoys me is the people who tut and moan about the length of time someone is taking. I've heard them comment really loudly 'for goodness sake hurry up' and worse.

Oooh, yes, that annoys me too! Of course, no one likes queuing, but the people who have lengthy transactions have a right to be using the P.O. too. I usually go to the P.O. during my lunch break and I get really annoyed by the people who are obviously just out shopping moaning that it is so busy during the lunch hour. Don't go during the lunch hour if you don't have to, you idiots! When I go into town on my day off I try to go to the bank/P.O. outside the dreaded 12-2 period. If I have no choice but to go during lunchtime I just stand there and grit my teeth!

The family who run my local P.O. are lovely. They even take parcels on a Sunday. Despite the fact that they are strict Hindus they spend the whole of December trying to force-feed everyone with mince pies and Quality Street.

Me: I want to send this parcel first class.
Them: That will be 97p and there are some mince pies there.
Me: Thanks, but I don't fancy a mince pie at the moment.
Them: Quality Street?
Me: Errr, no thanks.
Them: Is this more ebay stuff?
Me: Errr, yes.
Them: Are you sure you don't want a mince pie? don't you like mince pies? Why don't you take some Quality Street and eat them later?

December is certainly a long and calorific month at my local P.O....

black-saturn

My local post office used to tut and huff every time I went in there with ebay parcels so I stopped going in there. Seems everyone else did too as they shut down about a year ago.