Stroppy Post Office counter staff

steviebabes

Is it just me or are the post office counter staff getting worse? Today I send a special delivery using a used yet serviceable jiffy bag. The person at the post office said I should always use a new unmarked padded envelope for SD, she would let it through just this once!
Recently I have had:

• No staples allowed, health & safety issue
• 15 identical LL's, each one had to be weighed individually
• Slapping the labels on anywhere but top right
• Insisting that Airsure cant be used for Ireland (it can)
• Person who hand wrote 4 certificates of posting instead of adding the postcode & number to the receipt

They all know the ins and outs of travel insurance/broadband/credit cards but not many know about Royal Mail's services.

bap98189

I guess it depends on the Post Office, but the staff in our local branch are all pretty helpful.

Unless it's a Crown Post office, the staff in the post office are all employed by the postmaster of that branch, not by the Post Office Ltd. Try writing a letter to the postmaster of the office in question. Include some specifics and ask if the advice you were given by his/her staff was correct.

custardy

steviebabes wrote: »

Is it just me or are the post office counter staff getting worse? Today I send a special delivery using a used yet serviceable jiffy bag. The person at the post office said I should always use a new unmarked padded envelope for SD, she would let it through just this once!
Recently I have had:

• No staples allowed, health & safety issue (try having your fingers sliced many times by staples,great fun)
• 15 identical LL's, each one had to be weighed individually (well who would be at fault if they were underpaid and not weighed?)
• Slapping the labels on anywhere but top right (anything that cant be read by machine has to be hand sorted and is far more labour intensive,its poor training/realisation im afraid)
• Insisting that Airsure cant be used for Ireland (it can)
• Person who hand wrote 4 certificates of posting instead of adding the postcode & number to the receipt

They all know the ins and outs of travel insurance/broadband/credit cards but not many know about Royal Mail's services.

as for all the services,unfortunatly counter staff are under massive pressure to constantly offer all that crap

fuzzgun19

I have been 'told off' twice by this ol' bag in a small PO for daring to print my own label (paypal), and not printing the certificate of posting too!

When I asked for a certificate of postage, I got "we're not supposed to do this.. you should print it yourself". and
"We don't get anything for doing this you know"...

I bit my lip, but felt like telling her to complain to RM then, not me!

boombap

If you're not sending items out recorded or SD then I recommend buying a large variety of stamps in bulk and 'stamp up' your parcels in the comfort of your own home.

I just print out a list of all the addresses of recipients on an A4 sheet and get the PO staff to stamp that as a certificate of postage when I hand over my bag of packages.

S

soolin

I had a bit of a run in with my PO today. I had a large letter, it fitted through the slot when I tried it at home but the Post lady said she couldn't accept it unless i paid for it as a packet.

I told her it went through and showed her on my side of the counter, but she took it held her gauge horizontal and sort of plonked the item on the top of the slot and it wouldn't go through, I explained it needed to be straight, not even a single sheet of paper would go through if you let it fold over, but she insisted.

Usually I just pay the extra but I had sold this and calculated the costs as a large letter, another 70p + would have taken a quarter of my profit so I bought it home stuck enought stamps on it to cover th epoastge and dropped it in a box.

Unfortunately with more to sell it is back to the Crown PO tomorrow as they are more than happy to accept this item as a large letter.

vangirl_2

I too am getting fed up with being told off by counter staff about printing my own postage.

I explain to them that unless they stop putting my large letters through as packets or sighing at me if I have more than 3 items I will continue to do so.

I understand that they are under pressure, but isnt everyone?

adam2484

my local po love ebay customers. normally i can dump my parcels and have them print labels. when i pop back i pay and they put them in a sack. they weigh and do it all for me.

i know staples arent allowed because of posties and machines.

i know that if you send recorded or sd then they can't be put in the system quickly anymore like they did in the old days - they have to be scanned individually.

who cares where the labels go - parcels are usually hand sorted anyway. your's are ll though so might be different. Just so long as they don't go near the return address lol otherwise the plonker postman will post it back to you

Airsure can be done to Ireland it says so on their computer and in all the royal mail booklets - just ask for one and then stick 2 fingers at them.

sometimes they cancel the receipts - when that happens there's no way to have them printed. so a manual one is just fine. you can only claim the same amount anyway.

and lol at ur last comment.

i think all thats right - ppl will probably say if it's not.

hamsterholly

I was told a few weeks ago at our local post office there not allowed to put stamps on customers letters/parcels

kprigg

I put my own stamps on a few small things & also needed to send a couple of parcels so popped to the post office. While there I asked if I could send one of my already stamped items recorded, & the postie said no. I asked why & he said they cant for already stamped items, but Im sure he is wrong - after all Im sure Ive returned something to a company using one of the company's envelopes & sent recorded.
I darent argue though as he gets the hump if you have more then 2 people waiting behind you!

custardy

you can send pre stamped items and get a COP