Goddamn Post Office!

[swee'pea99]

Firstly, Royal Mail does have a price finder http://www.royalmail.com/price-finder that would have told you exactly how much it would be to send. Secondly, your post office (Post Office is now an entirely separate organisation since Royal Mail was privatised) does not need to have 'stamps in anything other than the most basic format'. They can and do print out labels with the individual price for each item. Anything other than your basic 1st or 2nd class doesn't need you to put a stamp on it if you go to a counter (or 'post and go' machine in branches with those). And if they don't know pricing, they should- you can and should complain, the branch should have all the necessary information on postage to pass on to you & they didn't- simple as. No need to be rude about the entire organisation.

Firstly, I know they have a pricefinder: I used it. Which is how I knew it would be £2.25. Secondly, all your comments about the post office are by the by - the point is, there's absolutely no reason why I should have to have any dealings with 'my branch', local or otherwise, in order to send a letter to NZ. Thirdly, I stand by my comment that the website which easily could, but doesn't, enable me to do what I need, as a customer - ie, to easily and straightforwardly price and then purchase something I want to buy from them - betrays, as I put it 'an organisation with the mindset of the monopolistic public sector dinosaurs of the '70s'.

If you call that rude, so be it. I say if the hat fits...

 

[StuAff]

Firstly, I know they have a pricefinder: I used it. Which is how I knew it would be £2.25. Secondly, all your comments about the post office are by the by - the point is, there's absolutely no reason why I should have to have any dealings with 'my branch', local or otherwise, in order to send a letter to NZ. Thirdly, I stand by my comment that the website which easily could, but doesn't, enable me to do what I need, as a customer - ie, to easily and straightforwardly price and then purchase something I want to buy from them - betrays, as I put it 'an organisation with the mindset of the monopolistic public sector dinosaurs of the '70s'.

If you call that rude, so be it. I say if the hat fits...

As you have demonstrated already, you are clearly wrong about that. You found the price online. You could have set up a prepay account, and used the rest of the money for sending further items anywhere else in the world at a later date. And I'll say it again- two separate organisations. You, and others, seem to be conflating Royal Mail and the Post Office and it's not always clear which you mean, when. But neither deserves to be described as dinosaurs that don't care about customer service. Most large organisations have lazy good-for-nothing jobsworths (etc). Royal Mail has them for sure. But we also have a lot of hard-working dedicated people trying to do their best every working day, and more often than not succeeding.

 

[swee'pea99]

As you have demonstrated already, you are clearly wrong about that. You found the price online. You could have set up a prepay account, and used the rest of the money for sending further items anywhere else in the world at a later date. And I'll say it again- two separate organisations. You, and others, seem to be conflating Royal Mail and the Post Office and it's not always clear which you mean, when. But neither deserves to be described as dinosaurs that don't care about customer service. Most large organisations have lazy good-for-nothing jobsworths (etc). Royal Mail has them for sure. But we also have a lot of hard-working dedicated people trying to do their best every working day, and more often than not succeeding.

Nope, I'm spot on. The key word being 'should'. I do have to deal with them; I should not have to. I should be able to find out it's £2.25, then pay £2.25 and get it. I can't.

I never described either the Royal Mail or the Post Office as 'as dinosaurs that don't care about customer service'; I said the website betrayed the mindset of a '70s dinosaur. And it does.

 

[StuAff]

But you are talking about Royal Mail & that just wouldn't inconvenience the customer enough like when you have to pick up a parcel "oh I am sorry sir we are only open when you are at work"

You can have it redelivered. You can collect it from a nearby post office. You can pick it up from a caller's office (many of which are open long hours, including Sundays). Someone else can pick it up, with proof of your ID....
Does any of the competition offer that many options?

.

 

[StuAff]

Nope, I'm spot on. The key word being 'should'. I do have to deal with them; I should not have to. I should be able to find out it's £2.25, then pay £2.25 and get it. I can't.

I never described either the Royal Mail or the Post Office as 'as dinosaurs that don't care about customer service'; I said the website betrayed the mindset of a '70s dinosaur. And it does.

Please reread your own original post. You could have paid for it online yourself and you didn't. You'd have had £1.25 of your own money available to spend on postage at a later date.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

You can have it redelivered. You can collect it from a nearby post office. You can pick it up from a caller's office (many of which are open long hours, including Sundays). Someone else can pick it up, with proof of your ID....
Does any of the competition offer that many options?

.

The last time I had to pick up a parcel which was last week there was no option to pick it up from a post office only parcel force have ever offer me that option, everyone else I know is working like me so they cant pick it up and I cant have it left there because no one will be in. Yes they are open late 1 night and open Saturday mornings & the place is rammed to the rafters on those days and the office is on a trading estate with parking for about 10 cars and yellow lines everywhere else. What I cant understand is why are they not open every night the depot is staffed 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

If we are talking about parcels then yes the competition is Collect + and around here they are open until 11pm 7 days a week I always use collect + if I am sending a parcel unfortunately I don't have any control over who people use who send me parcels.

 

[John the Monkey]

But we also have a lot of hard-working dedicated people trying to do their best every working day, and more often than not succeeding.

FWIW, our local staff are great - from the posties who do our delivery, to the delivery office staff, I've had good service from all of them, and frankly, I wish more places would offer me the chance to choose Royal Mail for the things I order (rather than DPD, or Home Delivery Network, or Amazon Logistics, all of whom have their issues with unpredictable delivery times, difficult rescheduling, and far flung depots should one need to collect a parcel (RM's office is two miles away, and a reasonably pleasant ride, most couriers seem to be 10-20 miles distant, at the end of dual carriageways)).

I've not found online postage too much of a hassle, personally, although I already had an account from arranging redirection following a house move, so perhaps had fewer hoops to jump through than the OP. It may also be worth remembering that a lot of those online services date from the time when the Government was keen to show how poorly RM was doing in public hands, and how desperately it needed to be sold off to their chums delivered into the rigour and efficiency of the private sector.

 

[StuAff]

The last time I had to pick up a parcel which was last week there was no option to pick it up from a post office only parcel force have ever offer me that option, everyone else I know is working like me so they cant pick it up and I cant have it left there because no one will be in. Yes they are open late 1 night and open Saturday mornings & the place is rammed to the rafters on those days and the office is on a trading estate with parking for about 10 cars and yellow lines everywhere else. What I cant understand is why are they not open every night the depot is staffed 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

If we are talking about parcels then yes the competition is Collect + and around here they are open until 11pm 7 days a week I always use collect + if I am sending a parcel unfortunately I don't have any control over who people use who send me parcels.

Did you get a card? All you need to do is ring the number and they'll give you the available options. Also see http://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/redelivery
Most callers offices are like that- the Portsmouth one is. Unfortunately (and I've tried explaining this to customers in person) deliveries and processing are separate operations. Just because the mail centre- if it's on the same site- is open 363 days a year they think there should be someone in the caller's office. Sadly, no. And increasingly, they aren't on the same site at all.

 

[MontyVeda]

But you are talking about Royal Mail & that just wouldn't inconvenience the customer enough like when you have to pick up a parcel "oh I am sorry sir we are only open when you are at work"

My local GPO is open from 7am-5pm weekdays, with late night on Wed 'til 8pm, Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

My local GPO is open from 7am-5pm weekdays, with late night on Wed 'til 8pm, Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons.

I wish ours was !!!!

 

[swee'pea99]

Please reread your own original post. You could have paid for it online yourself and you didn't. You'd have had £1.25 of your own money available to spend on postage at a later date.

Please reread my post. I wanted to pay £2.25 for what I wanted. Why shouldn't I be able to? Why should I have to 'have £1.25 of my own money available'? I didn't want to 'have £1.25 of my own money available'. I just wanted to buy something. For its price. But I couldn't. No offence, but every time you post you absolutely typify 'the mindset of a 70's monopolistic public sector organisation', as I said earlier: this is how we do it, and if you don't like it, you can fark off.

 

[StuAff]

Please reread my post. I wanted to pay £2.25 for what I wanted. Why shouldn't I be able to? Why should I have to 'have £1.25 of my own money available'? I didn't want to 'have £1.25 of my own money available'. I just wanted to buy something. For its price. But I couldn't. No offence, but every time you post you absolutely typify 'the mindset of a 70's monopolistic public sector organisation', as I said earlier: this is how we do it, and if you don't like it, you can fark off.

£1.25 of your own money sitting in an online account waiting for you to spend it at a later date. Annoying, perhaps, but hardly an onerous burden either. No need for the abuse.

 

[swee'pea99]

'There's none so blind as them that won't see.'

 

[StuAff]

'There's none so blind as them that won't see.'

Tu quoque.

 

[swee'pea99]

Blimey. Latin. I'm outta here. Have fun in the '70s won't you.