Be prepared for extra long queues in the PO from Tuesday

rdp1980

aqueoushumour01 wrote: »

some excuses:

That made me laugh.

But catch me in the wrong mood, and if I had already said no to whatever the cashier was trying to sell me, and he/she tried to ram it down my throat or sell me another product/service I would be tempted to tell them that if they don't give me a break and just accept my items for posting it will be the last visit I pay their Post Office branch.

I realise that in this day and age the PO is trying to make more money by offering a range of services, and how POs are closing down because they are not viable, but I really do wonder if people received better service in Post Offices more people might use them, rather than using PayPal postage, or a courier, for example.

If I want to be harrassed by sales people I can take a walk down any town centre high street and get pounced on by commission earning sales people posing as charity workers, without the need to spend 10 minutes in a queue for the privilege!

custardy

rdp1980 wrote: »

That made me laugh.

But catch me in the wrong mood, and if I had already said no to whatever the cashier was trying to sell me, and he/she tried to ram it down my throat or sell me another product/service I would be tempted to tell them that if they don't give me a break and just accept my items for posting it will be the last visit I pay their Post Office branch.

I realise that in this day and age the PO is trying to make more money by offering a range of services, and how POs are closing down because they are not viable, but I really do wonder if people received better service in Post Offices more people might use them, rather than using PayPal postage, or a courier, for example.

If I want to be harrassed by sales people I can take a walk down any town centre high street and get pounced on by commission earning sales people posing as charity workers, without the need to spend 10 minutes in a queue for the privilege!

totally out of their hands
they really are pressurised into this so no point taking it out on them

rdp1980

custardy wrote: »

totally out of their hands
they really are pressurised into this so no point taking it out on them

Custardy, while I do appreciate this, I also expect that once I have been offered something and politely said no, that should be the end of it.

I normally don't take things out on counter staff or call centre staff when I have a complaint, as I know that the person I am speaking to is not to blame. However if enough people express their dis-satisfaction then perhaps this will be fed from branch level up to management and somebody somewhere might take notice.

I have never had an issue so far, very occasionally I go to the Post Office and they ask me if I would be interested in a credit card, usually when they have some offer or campaign running I suspect, and I politely say no thanks, or take a leaflet if it is something that I might be interested in at a later point in time. I've never had to suffer anyone being pushy, but if I did, and kept on at me once I had (politey) said no thanks, I would vote with my feet and go to the next PO that was about a mile away and give them my custom instead.

Mayday

rdp1980 wrote: »

However if enough people express their dis-satisfaction then perhaps this will be fed from branch level up to management and somebody somewhere might take notice.

You'll find the PO staff have been set sales targets - and no, the management will take no notice of any customer complaints about the harassment of customers -they are the ones driving the sales offers.

Having worked in a Littlewoods contact centre for 8 1/2 years, I hated having to do the add-on/extra sales sales pitch - but I could have lost my job if I didn't. Littlewoods make 10 times more money out of these extra sales than they do from the other sales!

Pssst

I know...why dont they bundle a sub branch of the job centre with the Post Office? They could benefit from positive synergies. The newly and highly trained Post Office sales people could identify the many lifestyle dole hoppers who call in once a week and before handing over state cash to them,they could try and sell them a job?

I dont go to the PO anymore. I print my postage off the Royal Mail website and do as much business as possible via the internet.

CBo

It's obvious though this has semi worked though. Post office was in the black first time in 20yrs. Also, by annoying everyone the queues will be reduced as well!

rdp1980

CBo wrote: »

It's obvious though this has semi worked though. Post office was in the black first time in 20yrs. Also, by annoying everyone the queues will be reduced as well!

Fantastic way of reducing queues, annoy the customers so much that they don't come back.

I'm sure Custardy will clarify, but wasn't it Royal Mail that was in the black, not the Post Office? Are they not technically separate entities?

I am sure the staff hate being forced to try and flog customers products and services they don't want, but that isn't much good to the customer who's been queueing to post a parcel and then gets harrassed by having offers and deals shoved in his face which he was not expecting.

If the counter staff are polite, and accept no for an answer, then that is fair game. The problem is a lot of people are too polite just to say no, so the poor counter staff end up waffling on about some product because the customer says they "may" be interested, and then has no intention of following through and goes home to "think about it" and dumps the leaflets in the nearest bin. That is what will hold the queues up and waste everyone's time. The PO staff get no sale, and the customers get annoyed.

custardy

IIRC post office counters (seperate from RM) are in profit however just like the group as a whole in real terms its a small %
however RM are not great at transparency in their figures

Saffronsmum

There was a huge cue in the post office on monday but our post office has just got a new machine/self service counter for posting letters and parcels so i managed to sort all my parcels out without talking to anyone.