Post Office Lunchbreaks

Poppy9

By the time we retire - which if the 2 B's have their way we will be 70 with no pension. All pension schemes will have gone bust, state pension will be just £10 per week so all the problems highlighted in previous posts regarding OAP will disappear.

We will be too poor to have a car, go on public transport, go shopping or to leisure facilities. We will have to walk everywhere, put newspapers inside our clothes to keep warm.

Anyway enough of this depression. What about the motorised scooters zooming around towns and shops. Has some plague happened that I don't know about? Has everyone lost the use of their legs? I think they should have 3rd party insurance, number plates to identify the owner etc.

jellyhead

my nan's just bought one of those scooters, it cost 2 thousand, she got it on credit at the age of 85!

Spendless

my nan's just bought one of those scooters, it cost 2 thousand, she got it on credit at the age of 85!

over how long? No wish to offend jellyhead - just curious

Savvy_Sue

You are a bit out of date. Post offices which do road tax are online to the DVLC.

But they still hand-write on them from a pile, don't they? I'll check mine in the morning, only bought it last month!

Savvy_Sue

If your GP sends you for a blood test you have to go to the local hospital. No appointments just turn up between 8am-12pm. Well as I don't get time off work for GP appointments (Local Govt. worker) I have to go before work at 8am.

But isn't this a hospital appointment?

I only ask because I used to have very similar conditions to local govt and we had flexitime. We were expected to arrange GP, optician, dentist etc outside 'core hours', but anything over which you had no control - like going to wait for a blood test - would be recorded as 'other' working time.

I'd still have expected my staff to go as early as poss, but would not have penalised them if they'd not been able to get in for the start of core hours.

Savvy_Sue

Maybe there should be a "fast track" queue just for stamps/postage?

They often do, and of course you don't have to buy your stamps at the PO any more - which could be why so many have had to close because we are all buying stamps at the corner shop!

Or how about a "road tax only" queue on the last day of each month?
It is really helpful when post offices put a "you can tax your car here" sign in the window. There is nothing worse than queueing for ages, to get to the front & be told "sorry, we don't do that here"

That's a good idea, although I bet some car taxers would try to sneak into another queue to get served faster! And having been caught out a few times I would now always ring to check whether I can do my car tax at a particular PO or not.

Savvy_Sue

It's not just the post offices, the sorting offices (or whatever they're called) have the most stupid opening hours if you need to collect a parcel.

You decide to collect the parcel, then discover the opening times are 9am-1pm closed 1-2pm, then open 2pm-4pm...which is when you are in work, and which is why they couldn't deliver the bloomin' thing in the first place ::)

You're lucky. Our sorting office near work shuts at 11 am, and as you have to leave two hours between their attempt at delivery and going to collect it, you're stuffed until the afternoon, when I think they're open 1-3 pm! Fortunately they don't often manage to deliver before we get to work! ;D

I'm sure the Royal Mail must waste £££ every day sending delivery vans to people who are in work, and then having to re-deliver on a Saturday (at Royal Mail's own cost), because they only deliver and open the collection office during 'official' work hours, & loads of people just can't be available at that time.

Why don't they have evening deliveries? Or open the collection office in the evenings? Surely it would save them money & in this age of 24 hour everything, there must be plenty of people willing to work in the evenings.

And of course, the Royal Mail has people working 24 hours a day, they just don't want to be bothered with the public for more than the absolute minimum.

In their defence, in some areas they are now offering the option of re-delivery to your nearest PO. Which would be wonderful if they hadn't closed the PO nearest to work, and were about to close the PO nearest to home. Fine if it's a small package, not so hot if it's a large heavy one and you don't have a car!

Edinburghlass_2

Can I just post in defence of the local village type PO without whom many people simply wouldn't manage?

My local PO, owned by my boss's wife, so perhaps I am somewhat biased, but they are great! No closing for lunch although they do close on a Wednesday and Saturday afternoon, they do car tax and have a poster in the window to say so! You can get your holiday money, insurance etc at the same time as actually posting a parcel, lol.

But the best thing about them is they KNOW their customers, always take time to help people, especially the elderly and make sure their money is safe in their purses before they leave. They ALWAYS work out the cheapest way to post a parcel and check if insurance is required etc.

People live much busier lives these days but they take the time to check that all is well with their customers.

16011996

Can I just post in defence of the local village type PO without whom many people simply wouldn't manage?

My local PO, owned by my boss's wife, so perhaps I am somewhat biased, but they are great!  No closing for lunch although they do close on a Wednesday and Saturday afternoon, they do car tax and have a poster in the window to say so!  You can get your holiday money, insurance etc at the same time as actually posting a parcel, lol.

But the best thing about them is they KNOW their customers, always take time to help people, especially the elderly and make sure their money is safe in their purses before they leave.  They ALWAYS work out the cheapest way to post a parcel and check if insurance is required etc.

People live much busier lives these days but they take the time to check that all is well with their customers.  

you sound very lucky to have them.

Poppy9

As a working parent on reduced hours using flexi time for medical appointments is hard. With the inflexibility of school hours the possibilty to work back the hours taken is hard. I work part - time hours. Start at 8.30am and finish at 3pm with 1/2 for lunch. Earliest GP appointment is 9am. Unless you know you are going to be ill in advance usually offered mid morning appointment or afternoon is just turn up and wait. No scope for me to work extra hours, doctors and dentist closed weekends so I have to take annual leave to attend. Difficult keeping kids occupied if you have to take with you as you are always kept waiting. Also no privacy. Since this system introduced sickness levels have increased by 15% for all staff. Rather than lose hours for medical appointments people take the day sick.