Tuesday, April 29, 2014

P Off at it again....

I know. It's been a while since my last post on here. But there we go. Not sure who's reading this anyway anymore since the rise and rise of Twitter etc why would anyone bother?! You see I've been busy, up to me neck in it actually. What with running the shop, attending book fairs, doing PR work, writing magazine articles, sorting out my new storage units, clearing out books from people's houses etc. etc. And that's just Monday mornings! So, bearing in mind how busy I've been, imagine my glee at having to wait over 20 minutes at the good old Angel Walk post office to have my passport renewal checked over. I filled out the form online so as to save time and hopefully avoid any problems. Simple process. Or so they make out. Having waited what seemed like an age in the new non-queue  space age system that they must have spent tens of thousands on, where only chaos seemed the order of the day, with a toddler squealing in my ear as the father got more and more agitated at his uncontrollable, inquisitive son (bless him he was probably excited at the prospect of meeting friendly Postman Pat) I finally get to the counter to be told by a very miserable looking Postwoman Patricia that, because said passport form had been filled out online, they couldn't check it even if I paid the £8 charge. Their system, it seems, would have completely broken down, exploded probably, if they had tried to process my application. I realise that this was partly me getting my wires crossed but the P Off really does have to sort out it's act otherwise it might be more than toddlers screaming at the tops of their voices....

2 comments:

Paul Bailey said...

If you filled in your passport renewal application on-line, why on earth did you want the Post Office to check it? How could they possibly check it anyway if you've already filed it electronically?

My son got the Post Office to check his manually filled in form a few years ago, and no problem. The clerk was friendly and very helpful, and it was well worth him paying the extra fee to have the application checked.

I've always found the staff very helpful at Angel Walk, even though I only visit on Saturdays, due to me working out in the sticks.

JBG said...

I am reading. Got stuck with blogs. Iffy on Facebook. Don't know what to do with LinkedIn. Not going to Tweet. I enjoy your sense of self-deprecating humor.