RM office reduced hours again

olgadapolga

Out of curiosity, I checked my local office: open twice a day for two hours on four days, two hours a day on two days and closed on Sundays. I thought that this would be a bad thing as any time I've had to go there, the place has been heaving. 

Today I got there to drop off a parcel, at 9.30am and it was completely empty. In and out within seconds.

soolin

olgadapolga said:

Out of curiosity, I checked my local office: open twice a day for two hours on four days, two hours a day on two days and closed on Sundays. I thought that this would be a bad thing as any time I've had to go there, the place has been heaving. 

Today I got there to drop off a parcel, at 9.30am and it was completely empty. In and out within seconds.

Those are the hours we had until the latest round of hours were implemented and like you our mail centre is now deserted .  I did speak to a small business owner a few weeks back who was dropping off parcels with QR codes, and she was switching to couriers that allowed drop offs as she worked part time (basically 8-2 ) so Royal Mail options for a large amount of parcels were unworkable for her. 

just a few months back, maybe a year ago there were always lots of people dropping off parcels , usually small businesses again like me. When I drop off Evri or Yodel parcels it’s not uncommon for there to be other people dropping off half a dozen packages .  

Grumpelstiltskin

I am lucky in that I have 2 sub post offices within a mile of where I live.
The furthest away is tiny, 6 people inside and it is packed,  I don't know how it survives, it only sells greetings cards as well as the P.O.
The one closer to me is much bigger, it is on a main road with loads of free parking outside.
The main P.O. in town?
Inside W H Smith which is in a shopping centre, closest paid parking 1/4 mile away, closest free parking 3/4 mile away.
Closest bus station 1/2 mile away.
Delivery Office?
At the far end of an industrial estate, about 2 miles from the town centre ,closest bus stop 1/2 mile away but it does have free parking.
I haven't used it for years but I have checked the opening times.

Opening hours

Monday

08:00-10:00

Tuesday

08:00-10:00

16:00-18:00

Wednesday

08:00-10:00

16:00-18:00

Thursday

08:00-10:00

16:00-18:00

Friday

08:00-10:00

16:00-18:00

Saturday

08:00-12:00

Sunday

Closed

So as long as my nearest sub P.O. stays open I don't have a problem

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

soolin said:

Unfortunately not as it would be ideal. We have a wide open drive in Greater London - we need the drive and garage clear enough to pile cars on if we have  several visitors as otherwise it’s London priced meters outside. Security wise it’s not a safe place , neighbours further down the street had Christmas decorations stolen one year, and anything left outside is fair game. 

I just wandered  down to the PO with a few parcels, only one counter open and a queue so I put the large letters in the post box and the 3 parcels on the drop part of the counter. There was nothing over £12 and it’s all pre printed labels which usually have delivery confirmation so I think the risk is low. 

Edit, for any newbies reading this I should clarify. If any of my items are lost or damaged I can’t make a claim as I have no proof of postage , so please make your own decisions based on your own comfort level.

That's a shame to hear. 

Worth a note I've had a claim paid without "proof of posting", most stuff with a QR code should be scanned at some point in the network so Royal Mail can see you've posted it.

If it's Tracked 24/48 then once there's a scan that's proof of the parcel being posted, with 2nd class and the like you can't see these scans so are relying on Royal Mail's integrity... 

neverlikedpeas

The situation for posting  Royal Mail parcels is good  for me (Greater Manchester) .Two post offices in my town centre one of which opens at 7am five days a week.In the city centre, I know of a souvenir shop type place with a royal mail counter that is open at 7.30 am, two others that open at 8am.

 

soolin

I’ve managed to get to my local mail centre twice this week and had a couple of interesting conversations. The first one was brief, a member of staff was talking to someone who was I believe senior management about staffing levels and at one point working hours for a relief was mentioned. The staff member mentioned that a relief after 10am was not overly useful as that’s when the CS desk closed, and the management person actually said ‘we close at 10am? Since when have you closed at 10! 

The second one was much more interesting, some was overheard so not intended for the public. Another senior bod (wearing high vis) was discussing the effort of the CCTV installed at the parcel bag drop off due to theft and saying it was a waste as it didn’t stop the thefts (people walking out with PPI bags left by others) and the whole drop off system is going to be changed. It’s all now going to be done at the CS desk, which is a problem as business customers using mail sacks must be allowed drop off until 7pm but they cannot serve any one else at all. This means that they expect some unpleasant customer reaction to seeing an open service desk but being refused service. 

Some sort of automatic drop off through a slot was being discussed and senior bod seemed completely unaware of what parcel sizes RM had and staff were trying to explain RM sizes to him. 

The staff are quite aware of the shift towards couriers and can see issues with it, but it seems to have passed by some of the senior people.