Friday, September 28, 2012

P'd Off with the PO....

Masses of people are stopping in wonder at Mr. Books shop window which can't be a bad thing can it? One or two have even been in to say how lovely it is and how, in their opinion, it has "lifted the High Street." This is of course music to my ears. That said I'm having one of those days when nothing seems to go right. I've even had (another) bust up with one of the post office workers over having to wait nearly half an hour in the queue. If it was genuinely really busy in there then you could just about stomach it. But to wait that long when the reason seems to be that only 3 counters out of a possible 8 are open then that becomes totally unacceptable. There were 4 windows serving, which is bad enough, but at least 50%, then one just disappeared off to her break! I'm sure some of you will sympathize with them and say "Why shouldn't they take their break on time?" but in any other business, when it's that busy, you put more staff on the tills let alone take one off. The trouble is I can complain (and blog) until I'm blue in the face but what can you actually do about it? Take my business elsewhere? Oh that's right they have no competition and they've even closed most of the sub post offices down. I've probably said this before but when I first moved to Tonbridge there were no less than five sub PO's south of Tonbridge railway station alone. Now there are none because we were told that they are unprofitable and we don't need them. Well that's hard to take when the queue lengthen by the day at the central PO. They need to sort this mess out and quick. The only excuse they had was "We're trying out the new work rotas!" The lady at the desk actually said this to me as she continued to serve me with the false politeness she's perfected over the years to placate moaning customers such as me, smiling through gritted teeth when she probably felt like screaming at me that it wasn't her fault and that I should foxtrot off or something like that. Well I can tell the Post Office right now: your new work rotas ain't working! In short I'm P'd Off with the lot of em!...

5 comments:

Paul Bailey said...

I've not had a bad experience in Tonbridge Post Office and have always found the staff helpful and courteous. I do though question the decision taken by the top Post Office management to carry out the savage cull of sub-Post Offices in the way they did.

Totally off subject TB, you don't seem to have taken note of the damming complaints made by various commentators, including myself, about the Captcha gadget. It's almost as though it's designed to prevent comments of any sort being possted!

hallum said...

Well said Paul. I came across the same system on another large site recently. The letters were much clearer than Tonbridge Blog, and there was an optional button to bring up an alternative set of letters if preferred.

failed first time .... second attempt....

Outraged said...

Post offices". Yes I agree the staff in the Angel Walk PO are good, but Paul, you are so courteous , there is no top management in the PO, the service is run by a bunch of imbeciles. Have you also noticed the gradual reduction in collection times? The Sunday collection went a while ago, then the last Saturday collection went from 5pm to 3.30pm and now 1pm. . How's this for another fact, in living memory no fewer than 14 sub Post Offices have been closed down inTonbridge! See if anyone can name them?

Paul Bailey said...

I agree with your sentiments Outraged, about the sad decline of a once great British Institution, namely the Post Office. I have to admit I wasn't aware that Sunday collections had been abolished, or that the last Saturday collection had been brought forward. However, I am not surprised, and each time the service is cut (and the cost of posting a letter raised), more and more people are switching to e-mail, and other forms of electronic communication.

Unfortunately, I see no way out of this situtation for the Post Office. My father spent all his working life employed by said organisation. He is appalled by the sad shadow, of a once great institution, that the Post Office has become.

Outraged said...

Yes Paul I can imagine your fathers feelings! Sadly the general shabby appearance of the postmen these days is outrageous, I am sure your father would have been the proud wearer of his uniform. No doubt lack of interest from the goons running the show. While letter post is in serious decline, I do wonder why the Post Office has not captured a larger chunk of the small packet and parel business generated by mail order on the Internet. Poor management I guess.