strange things overheard at the PO

Hermia

Claire_Bear wrote: »

Yeah, the guy can't have been stupid enough to think his package would have gotten to where he wanted it to go without an address? That's really scary, why would anyone want to do that kind of thing?

He was this very friendly gentleman in his fifties. I think he was one of those people who are utterly insane, but come across as being completely lucid and charming. I did wonder if he was a regular.

pretzelnut

This thread had me spit my tea all over the computer - how can people be so stupid?

All i ever overhear is little old ladies shouting out the pin numbers to their bank accounts.

LO lady: Have i put it in the right way
SA: yes love, now put yur pin in when your ready,
LO lady: (shouts) SEVEN, FIVE, NINE, TWO (not her real pin i must add)
SM: how much would you like to take out?
LO lady: how much is in the there?
SM: (whispers so no one in the queue can hear)
LO lady: can you speak up my love
SM £7920 (i remember it was almost £8000)
LO lady: (shouts) £7920 - ooooh i shall need to take out £2 to get some bread and milk.

When the LO lady opened her purse to put the money in she had her pin number in big red pen written inside her purse. :shock:

I almost wanted to go running after her and warn her about the security of her pin and that she should be more careful. But i doubt she would have understood a word - bless her.

grunnie

In my PO there is a clip board behind the counter in full view of everyone that has the pin numbers written down of all the folk who forget their number. I have heard someone being asked - Do you want us to write it down and keep it for you? It probably saves loads of time but !

soolin

I think I must have been the subject of gossip once as I had a problem at a PO that I had never used before.

I went in as usual, did my posting had everything labelled and then got out my card to pay. The SM said 'OK, our card readers don't work you'll have to pay cash', but my bill was about £30 and I had less than a fiver in my purse.

I gave one of those nervous laughs and asked what they suggested and the SM just said, you can't leave until you've paid, and just couldn't understand that I wasn't able to magic cash out of thin air. I asked them why they hadn't warned me their card readers didn't work, and they sort of shrugged and said that all their regulars knew and who uses cards anyway in a PO?

It ended up with me bright red standing at the counter and the SM behind the counter just staring at each other, he wouldn't let me leave to try and get cash and I couldn't see what else I could do. In the end they sent me to a local supermarket, about a 4 minute walk away where they had a cash machine, but said if I didn't go back they would consider my parcels forfeit and would keep them themselves.

Obviously i made a formal complaint, got the usual 'our staff will be retrained approrpiately' but the sub PO was gone a few months later under one of the rounds of cuts. I'm not surprised with that attitude and I always wondered what exactly they did without working card readers, they couldn't do any pension or benefit work, or large sales so I suppose the guy sat there all day selling small books of stamps or such like.

jenniewb

Not over heard much myself as I seem to be permanently attached to my earphones!

But have overheard...

An old lady being asked to put her card in the machine- after pressing the card onto the machine (face onto the keyboard) the lady behind the counter came around to help. Once in, the lady went back behind the counter and asked the lady to type in her pin. The lady began repeatedly pressing the same number- not sure if it was a shaky response or if she wasn't sure she was pressing the number hard enough, but needless to say it did not work, pin was wrong. Lady asked her to take her card out and put it back into the machine. Lady takes out the card and again presses it face down to the keypad. Again, same thing happened before the lady behind the counter explained that "no you can't keep pressing the same number like that, you have to press in one number once at a time....

Another time a lady was trying to post something very long and thin (about 1-2 meters long), when asked to weigh it she was told it was too long to be posted via the PO and what was it.
She replied it was a fishing rod. (obviously unprotected:eek:)

kevinyork

Reading this thread has sort of made me miss the old days of going to the PO with my parcels. Moving onto PPI bulk mailing has taken the stress (and fun factor) away completely.

yeslek

soolin wrote: »

The passport story reminded me that I saw something like that last summer. A person was arguing that the PO were misleading by offering their checking service for passports, she thought that they would check and issue it there and then. When she was told it would arrive in about 3 -4 weeks she was furious, she was going away next day and was obviously being discriminated against and she was going to write to her MP and demand they compensate her for the lost holiday etc.

She made so much fuss and kept saying that she was an intelligent woman and if she had misunderstood what the PO role was then they were obviously wrong in the way they presented their checking service.When she finally gave up and left , after actually spitting at the poor guy behind the counter the crowd broke out in a discreet round of applause.

when I was the grand old age of 16 and getting my first full passport, thats what I thought it meant - that you could pay an extra free and get the PO to check and issue it faster (maybe a couple days pick up type of thing)
luckily, I thought to double check with Mom first :rolleyes:

still, a full grown woman spitting. at people...tut tut

PasturesNew

I was organising host families for foreign students once... and I was one family short and they were due to arrive in just 3 days' time .... went to the post office to post the letters to my families and a small boy came in and went to the counter - he said to the woman behind the glass that he was sent to the PO to send back a parcel for his mum to a catalogue company ... and she couldn't come as she was waving off her foreign students.... I grabbed him, spoke to him, got his phone number, phoned his mum - and had her signed up as one of my host families within an hour

Talk about cutting it fine!

montyrebel

PasturesNew wrote: »

I was organising host families for foreign students once... and I was one family short and they were due to arrive in just 3 days' time .... went to the post office to post the letters to my families and a small boy came in and went to the counter - he said to the woman behind the glass that he was sent to the PO to send back a parcel for his mum to a catalogue company ... and she couldn't come as she was waving off her foreign students.... I grabbed him, spoke to him, got his phone number, phoned his mum - and had her signed up as one of my host families within an hour

Talk about cutting it fine!

wow, in my post office that sort of thing would get you arrested lol :rotfl:

bellsmum

Hi all love this thread

At my P.O. its not what whats said but more of what was seen
Ive been there this morning to drop a few things off
there was peoples sneeze splats on the glass of the counter :shocked:
Its monday and they haven't cleaned it over the week end

Needless to say I won't be going to to that one again