I remember when I used to like the Post Office...

[swee'pea99]

So I get to the Post Office and of course there's a big queue, but that's ok, I can use the self-service machines, or rather 'machine', since as usual one of them is down. And the other has a bloke assisting, because as well as being hopelessly unreliable, these 'self-service' machines are so hellish complicated that they need a permanent assistant to help people.

So I get in line behind the other three people. Eventually I get to the front. The assistant looks sceptically at the front of my (re-used) jiffy bag, muttering about the remnants of the previous delivery address. I point out that it's been energetically and comprehensively scribbled out with a biro, so that it's now illegible, and the new stuck on address could hardly be clearer. he grudgingly takes it from me, and offers it up to the 'large letter' slit. "I'm afraid we're not allowed to push them through," he says, "It'll have to go as a small parcel." "Wouldn't take much of a 'push'," I think, "It's a jiffy bag, and would go through easily." But what the hell...

Small parcel > signed for > value? £65, I type in, next. "If the value is above £50, we strongly recommend Special Delivery," says my Personal Assistant. "With Signed For you're not covered for anything over £50." "Oh, 50 quid's ok," I say. "If it's worth over £50, it's not covered at all." "Seriously? You mean, if it's £50 I'm covered, but if it's £51 I'm not? Ok, I'll go back and make it £50." (Go Back) Which I do. My PA doesn't much like this, and starts muttering under his breath. "If you had to claim, you would have to prove it was worth £50," he grumps. "Fine - I can do that."

"Scan bar code on self-adhesive sticker." Which sticker? There are about eight. My PA is off peering dubiously at the broken down machine. "Is this the right sticker?" I ask him. "No," he explains, as if to an simpleton, "This is International, see?" pointing to some type I can't read, and turns back to the stricken machine. "Ok," I say, "So which one do I need?" "This one," he says, in a kind of 'just how dumb are you anyway?' tone.

I scan, I stick, my PA returns to take my jiffy bag off me and starts explaining about tracking numbers and the like. "And how will you be tracking your parcel?" he asks, "by phone or online?" "Online," I say. "And who is your service provider? You may not know, but the Post Office..." "Oh Christ, spare me that at least," I mutter, and exit pursued by bear.

Grrrrr......

(I made up the bit about the bear. The rest, I fear, is all true.)

 

[I like Skol]

Unfortunately IME self service is actually a pseudonym for no service. I habitually make a point of using a staffed till because if I am going to spend my money there then I want the transaction to be carried out by someone who (usually) knows what they are doing. It costs me the same amount and gives gainful employment to some one who would otherwise be out of a job. If they gave a reasonable discount for using the self service tills I might reconsider but they don't so I won't!

 

[mjr]

I'm guessing this was a crown Post office? At least the village post offices that remain don't have that sort of nonsense yet. About the only concession to modernity is the pin pad and toughened screen. The good service of most sub postmasters remains.

 

[mjr]

If they gave a reasonable discount for using the self service tills I might reconsider but they don't so I won't!

The incentive is time. Places often won't open all staffed tills unless there's a queue at the robot tills too. Some stores like Sainsbury's actually send staff along the queues pimping the robots (like we've never noticed them and their chorus of "unexpected item - please wait for assistance"!) rather than put those staff on tills.

Another reason to favour markets and small shops instead - and we're on bikes, so can ride between three or four small shops quicker than walking around one of those big boxes!

 

[Crackle]

At least when you send something from the Post Office via Royal Mail you're supporting an employer who offers proper contracts, pensions and other benefits (mostly) as opposed to the zero hour, below minimum wage, Hermes type companies.

 

[mjr]

Except at our local sub-Post Office. You've never met such a miserable and unhelpful bunch. Likely, they're retiring soon...

Sure, there's always some. There might even be a crown post office somewhere with enough staff and maybe even working robot tills!

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Except at our local sub-Post Office. You've never met such a miserable and unhelpful bunch. Likely, they're retiring soon...

But that could see it close, which is the worst option, an open PO staffed by miserable barstools, or a closed PO meaning a journey elsewhere?

 

[marinyork]

A self scan worker needs considerable patience. So what do employers sometimes do? They stick someone on there for the entire 4 or 8hr shift! Out of the window goes their idealised version of customer service!

 

[screenman]

I get really good service from The Post Office that I use, my customers seem happy with the service as well.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

They've sold it as a going concern. It has the added advantage of having a sorting office attached to it, so its future is a little more settled than most.

Now I'm worried you live around the corner from me, that is just what has happened to our local PO which is a sorting office

 

[screenman]

Now I'm worried you live around the corner from me, that is just what has happened to our local PO which is a sorting office

Ours is the same and was on the market, it may have been taken off though. .

 

[Deleted member 35268]

Our post office has more signs than the M25. For example.

STAND BEHIND THE LINE
PLEASE WAIT TO BE CALLED UP
PLEASE DO NOT USE YOUR MOBILE PHONE
STAFF ABUSE WONT BE TOLERATED
DON'T LOOK AS MISERABLE AS US

I might have made the last one up.

 

[marinyork]

The incentive is time. Places often won't open all staffed tills unless there's a queue at the robot tills too. Some stores like Sainsbury's actually send staff along the queues pimping the robots (like we've never noticed them and their chorus of "unexpected item - please wait for assistance"!) rather than put those staff on tills.

Another reason to favour markets and small shops instead - and we're on bikes, so can ride between three or four small shops quicker than walking around one of those big boxes!

My old store manager used to joke about the good old days in the 80s and early 90s when all staffed tills were open. Why did he do this? Reality is unless you are in a smaller or medium sized shop this is fairly unlikely to happen. There was a day 24th of December 2011 which was a Saturday where we actually ran at full capacity. That was I am told the last day that the checkouts ran at literally full capacity (something I can well believe). I remember it well because the queues were building up and up and for some reason the duty manager decided to go on the tannoy and tell everyone repeatedly that we were running at full capacity and apologising every 5 mins. We actually removed a number of checkouts since then and still aren't at full capacity! This is fairly normal a lot of larger stores have removed capacity. A lot of stores neglect the basket tills for self scan which is a shame because if you get someone on there who can scan 25+ items a minute and tell people with trolleys to stop trying to use it you do a pretty good job.

Ironically enough to some people if you look at your lambda values over time and other factors, your small shops can be a lot more suited to self scans than the benefits of a larger one.

 

[marinyork]

[QUOTE 4566137, member: 45"]Does anyone know why Lidl will announce closure of a till, just to open an adjacent one, or reopen it before it's closed? It often in my experience doesn't relate to queue length.[/QUOTE]

You could always ask them.

I would imagine someone is finishing their shift/a break/dinner/other duties and they've got a queuebuster or whatever you wish to call it. Or the reverse process and queuebuster is going and the other person has arrived/returned. In larger shops most checkout workers you see on checkouts don't actually work on checkouts at all, it's just people think they do. In a small or medium shop like aldi it's a bit different.

The latter (c/o employee turns up) happened often in my old job. About half the time they'd take over from you and the other half they'd find another till. There were a myriad of reasons why they would do this as you wish to know I shall list them; if people got too spread out it created queues (yup), if people got spaced too close together it created queues (yup), people had their favourite tills (yes really), some people preferred left mode, others preferred right mode, some people had medical reasons they could only do one mode, some people refused to sit in the coldest till (near a door), some people were kept nearby so the supervisor could keep an eye on them, checkouts would break and then close, the supervisor is trying to be clever and save time and open a till before the other is closed.

Re-opening tills happens all the time when a very poor checkout captain panics or it gets very busy. There are good reasons for this. If you are running a checkout system and there are a lot of people with 80-160 item shops, then if you open another till it won't make a difference for a while as that person says ah wonderful a checkout opens. You say well what's the big deal. The person generally panics as they realise they have to load all those items onto the conveyor belt and then barks at the checkout operator to scan and pack their bags simultaneously. This then drags your IPH down from 20 odd to maybe 11 if you're a crap checkout operator it might drop into single digits. Meanwhile person sat next to you is merrily scanning away at 20 items a minute and a new customer neatly stacks their goods onto the end of the conveyor belt and maintains that speed. After time on the newly opened till becomes efficient. With Aldi it is probably smaller shops but similar constraints apply but as the shops gets smaller and smaller opening a new checkout becomes more efficient in one of the variables. Re-opening tills is fine, but if you have a panicky supervisor who is totally pants they'll do it again and again and again and before long that break you were going to have never happens, you're late home unpaid and so on.

 

[postman]

I remember when i used to work for the Post Office,i had to check when it began calling it Royal Mail.I once worked for Consignia,but only for a short time.