The Post Office.

wndsr

wndsr

wndsr

Soldato
Joined
10 Jun 2013
Posts
3,638
Location
Manchester, UK
Last night I thought I would skip the Post Office queue by weighing my parcels and purchasing delivery online rather than standing in the queue holding everybody up. I entered the weight, the destination and said how much it's worth. I paid for my delivery with no trouble at all.

Today I head down to the Post Office and the woman explains that despite me doing it all online, they still need to weigh them and process them in their system meaning that actually it takes exactly the same amount of time to do.

To make matters worse, they said that as my parcel was wider than the 'Royal Mail Guidelines on Small Parcels' that I would have to pay more. I explained that online it only asked me about the weight of the package, not the dimensions of the box.

Anyway, I said balls to it - I'll send them via Parcel2Go which has cost me slightly more but was zero hassle at all.

In short - wndsr buys postage online. Post Office say postage wrong. wndsr unhappy. wndsr use alternative method of posting.
 
Post offices/royal mail are actually getting worse.

The post office local to me is a hardware store that has a post office in it. Queues are pretty much out the door every day. Under staffed and they always appear to be going as slow as possible.
 
Beerbaron said:
Post offices/royal mail are actually getting worse.

The post office local to me is a hardware store that has a post office in it. Queues are pretty much out the door every day. Under staffed and they always appear to be going as slow as possible.
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Sounds like mine. Ours is a shop/convenience store too. Average age of employee is 90 and average age of customer is fossil.
 
I use online postage daily, and yes they do have to enter everything in the system at the post office, which is rather inefficient. But most items are small enough to post in the post box.

I took an A3 envelope to be posted in the post office a month ago, which comes under the definition of 'large parcel', paid online, but they measured it and said it was 7mm too long, despite the fact that it could be 80mm high, and I was only using 5mm of that height. The 7mm bit was just a piece of the cardboard flap that could be folded over, but they wouldn't accept it, I had to drive back home and tape the flap back over before driving back.

/rant
 
tom_e said:
You also spelt your own user name wrong.
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Sold my keyboard keys to fund extortionate postage fees.

Edit: Oh I see what you mean now, I put 'wndsr' not 'wndzr' - it's because my OcUK is the only place I use the 'z' so it gets confusing.

Longbow said:
I use online postage daily, and yes they do have to enter everything in the system at the post office, which is rather inefficient. But most items are small enough to post in the post box.

I took an A3 envelope to be posted in the post office a month ago, paid online, but they measured it and said it was 7mm too long, despite the fact that it could be 80mm high, and I was only using 5mm. The 7mm bit was just a piece of the cardboard flap that could be folded over, but they wouldn't accept it, I had to drive back home and tape the flap back over before driving back.

/rant
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That's what makes absolutely no sense to me. The item can be up to a certain weight and up to a certain height but it can't be 1mm over in width, for example. Ridiculous.
 
I have the distinguished pleasure of a post office depot being the closest post office. Still if you ever go to collect anything they have no idea. They never look out the back for anything, they just say they will attempt delivery again. Not great if you work, they close before I get home. Fat stacks of red cards dough.
 
Our post office was burned down in the summer, no one's bothered replacing it yet.

They were always pretty useless though.
 
neil_g said:
if in doubt their website does have the maximum package dimensions on the service description pages.
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Indeed, although they use the 2 words "parcel" and "packet" interchangeably which confuses the situation. When you pay, you select "large packet", but on the page that shows the dimensions, it lists "large parcel".
 
wndzr said:
Sold my keyboard keys to fund extortionate postage fees.

Edit: Oh I see what you mean now, I put 'wndsr' not 'wndzr' - it's because my OcUK is the only place I use the 'z' so it gets confusing.
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I was just being a **** couldn't help it :D but yes I find post offices pretty much useless if I'm posting anything bigger than a letter I'll always try to use a courier not only is it cheaper but they take it straight from my porch.
 
tom_e said:
I was just being a **** couldn't help it :D but yes I find post offices pretty much useless if I'm posting anything bigger than a letter I'll always try to use a courier not only is it cheaper but they take it straight from my porch.
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A **** on OcUK GD? No way, don't believe you!

Think courier is the way forward for me now. Yodel - who admittedly I have never been fond of - quoted me about £8 for a 24 hour service. Let's just hope they don't give me any grief about it being the wrong size/weight/colour!
 
I can't bear going into the post office. Every time I go in there for the most menial of tasks it takes an absolute age. Half the time it is due to the amount of 4000 year old customers though so I can't blame the post office entirely!

In their defence, I got carded again today for a missed parcel but was pleasantly surprised to find they have extended their opening hours at the sorting office that you can collect it for the upcoming week :)
 
wndzr said:
A **** on OcUK GD? No way, don't believe you!

Think courier is the way forward for me now. Yodel - who admittedly I have never been fond of - quoted me about £8 for a 24 hour service. Let's just hope they don't give me any grief about it being the wrong size/weight/colour!
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I had to send some walking boots a while ago and used Hermes booked it as a 2kg parcel as that's what the original packing slip said, weighed it just before they picked it up and it was nearly 2.5kg so well into the more expensive weight category but nothing was ever mentioned turned up spot on time for the price I'd paid.
 
Ah the sorting office - something else that baffles my mind.

It astounds me that they haven't yet considered changing the layout of their office to make it easier for the staff to get parcels. Currently, I hand my card to a colleague who then walks across the room, through a door into a corridor then into the holding room. It takes about 20 seconds to walk from the counter to the holding room then 20 seconds back.

All that time wasted walking is just ridiculous. 20 seconds doesn't sound like much but it sure adds up and there's definitely a much better way of doing things.

Definitely doesn't work in process improvement...
 
wndzr said:
Ah the sorting office - something else that baffles my mind.

It astounds me that they haven't yet considered changing the layout of their office to make it easier for the staff to get parcels. Currently, I hand my card to a colleague who then walks across the room, through a door into a corridor then into the holding room. It takes about 20 seconds to walk from the counter to the holding room then 20 seconds back.

All that time wasted walking is just ridiculous. 20 seconds doesn't sound like much but it sure adds up and there's definitely a much better way of doing things.

Definitely doesn't work in process improvement...
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Isnt this the whole problem with Royal Mail, a lack of modernisation.
 
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