Is the Post Office truly crap?

Fedz

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Thomas_Crown

geordie_joe wrote: »

I agree, but to be fair they do open 9 - 5.30 and on saturday morning. Not as good as some shops, but a lot better than my bank.

geordie joe, you must be referring to a Main post office & not a sub post office. A typical sub post office opens Mon-Fri 9.00-12.30 & 2.00-5.30 but has half day closing on a Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon. Then Saturday 9.00-12.30.

My local sub post office closed 4 years ago & the nearest one, about one & a quarter miles away keeps the above hours BUT is closed Wed/Thurs/Fri afternoon!

Fill_7

gt94sss2 wrote: »

Just off the top of my head - after spending 20minutes in a queue on Saturday to post a recorded delivery item.. in order to get shorter queues for when other people do need to talk to PO staff, I would like to see is:

having 15 years experience working in a PO, posting an item is one of the most time consuming 'frequent' services we do.

-Some sort of ATM machine/supermarket self service type machine with scales attached. Therefore if someone has to post a letter they can simply put it on the scales - press the appropriate tariff/destination, pay (by debit card or cash) and receive a sticker/stamp for their mail.

a good idea in principal. however, it would be my educated guess that such a machine would not be queue free on a saturday morn so u could come in whistling your favourite tune, 'simply' put your item on the scale, select your service, swipe your card, off you go in 2 mins. i am 99% sure i could serve you quicker than such a machine could. it only takes 1 person to be unsure on how to operate said machine(s) to cause even bigger queues. unexpected problems could be sorted by a person, not a machine.

- 'drop off' boxes' in Post Offices for sending recorded/special delivery mail - so its not necessary to queue just to get a 'proof of posting' sticker - some form of barcode reader could be used when you put an item in those boxes.. I actually think the 'drop off' boxes idea is under consideration by the Royal Mail given a survey I filled in some time ago on their website though they may be planning to only limit it to people who print their own stamps and the survey was asking how much extra I would be willing to pay for such a facility (should be free imho)

any customers at my office that regularly or infrequently post bulk items can leave them with us, saving them having to queue, or hold up the queue, and we will happily service them at quiet times. if this applies to you, have a word at your local post office. if they are unhappy to assist, bring your items to mine, your very welcome.

- I would actually like people to be given a 'discount' if they print their own stamps..which would encourage people to take up that service as well - just as businesses do with franked mail.

but then, encouraging ppl to print their own stamps will end up in post office closures, then u might have to travel miles to post your items.


Also, sometimes when I post things at a counter they will print off a sticker and attach it to the item (I presume this is the 'newer' system) - at other times, they start hunting through their stamps to attach the correct combination (as they always have)

Regards
Sunil

the PO aint that bad really. ok, their image isnt great, but thats no thanks to the amount of threads incorrectly slaggin off the PO for lost mail items. its Royal Mail that deliver post, not the Post Office!

hth

thor

Fill_7 wrote: »

the PO aint that bad really. ok, their image isnt great, but thats no thanks to the amount of threads incorrectly slaggin off the PO for lost mail items. its Royal Mail that deliver post, not the Post Office!

hth

Fair enough. So it's RM that is p*sspoor then!

Fill_7

IMO, they dont do a bad job considering the volume of mail they handle. all the threads about missing mail is prob down to 'a few bad apples spoiling the pie' within RM. that and dishonest ebay buyers saying they havent recieved the item, so getting compensated.

baby_fuzz

I'd agree with most of the posts here - it appears postal service you receive depends on whether you are lucky and have a good postie (which we do!)