Working for the Post Office

[Foxglove8778]

Oh, we CAN.

Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD.... but if you can also get away with it...

[AirHostess]

Yeah the Post Office always seems to have the worst kind of customers.

[UK Worker]

Uk worker, you have my sympathy. I visit the post office quite often, and there are usuaully long queues and people's tempers are getting frayed. The amount of different things you have to deal with, like car tax, various sorts of mail, benefits, TV licences, pensions, insurance, credit cards, bank accounts, passports, foreign currency... Everything must have cut off date, cut off times, identification requirements, proof of this, proof of that.... all must create the suckiest customers imaginable.

Thank you.... At last somebody who understands what we go through. The Post Office offers loads and loads of services and yes we have VERY STRICT requirements when it comes to Identification and Legal requirements.

Of Course I could tax your car without proper Insurance.... I could, but if I got found out I'd get FIRED and probably a VERY HIGH FINE - maybe even Arrested. Of course I'm going to do that for you... must be joking.

The only thing we don't do anymore is the TV License... they took that from us to make more customer pay via Direct Debit. Loads of customers kick up a fuss and BLAME us.... it's just out of our hands.

The Computer System we use is one of the HIGH Tech (NON Government) System in Europe, cost well over £1BILLION and when the SYSTEM says NO.... it means NO there's NOTHING WE can do to make it do something.

Like Parking Tickets for example..... If we scan the barcode on the parking ticket and the system says NO, please tell customer to contact the Council Office.... there's nothing we can do.

Once this guy wouldn't take NO for a answer and just pushed £30 towards me and walked off. I shouted after him and told him that his ticket wouldn't get paid if it doesn't go through the system.

Anyway my Manager let me go early so I could go round to the local council office a few minutes away to pay it for him. I was only in there 5 minutes and I left a hour early

Also if you want to know why when you go to the post office and theres people just sat there doing what you think is nothing... it's because the system won't let you do anything until you've finished the transaction before.

For example, you get some dippy woman ask for £10 T-Mobile phone credit, you put it through and then she goes... oh I meant Vodafone. You give her £10 Vodafone credit and then you've got to Reverse that out of the SYSTEM because your till will be £10 down. You've got 10 minutes to reverse it before it's too late and it takes 5-10 minutes for that to go through. The system locks and you cant do anything until it's finished.

[earl colby pottinger]

You paid it!

Once this guy wouldn't take NO for a answer and just pushed £30 towards me and walked off. I shouted after him and told him that his ticket wouldn't get paid if it doesn't go through the system.

Anyway my Manager let me go early so I could go round to the local council office a few minutes away to pay it for him. I was only in there 5 minutes and I left a hour early

I can't believe you were sent to pay it. This just encourages him to do it again in the future.

Instead the manager should had put the money in an envelope, sealed it, dated it, wrote the man's name and other data on the outside and kept it in the safe (may need to go to the local police station instead) for the next year and one day. Then if not claimed by the man in that time the money should be yours. He did give it to you when told not to!

[UK Worker]

I can't believe you were sent to pay it. This just encourages him to do it again in the future.

Instead the manager should had put the money in an envelope, sealed it, dated it, wrote the man's name and other data on the outside and kept it in the safe (may need to go to the local police station instead) for the next year and one day. Then if not claimed by the man in that time the money should be yours. He did give it to you when told not to!

I know.. but it did get me out of work early, so I wasn't complaining.

[It's me]

The only thing we don't do anymore is the TV License... they took that from us to make more customer pay via Direct Debit. Loads of customers kick up a fuss and BLAME us.... it's just out of our hands.

Okay, I gotta ask: what is a "TV License"?

[Gurndigarn]

Okay, I gotta ask: what is a "TV License"?

Just what it sounds like. A tax on having a TV.

(It's supposed to pay for BBC and similar programming.)

[Rabegwynn]

Man, the Postal Service! I work for them, too, but in distribution instead of retail. You'd think I'd be lucky to not have to deal with the public. Some of the weirdest people you could ever dream up are my co-workers. I really believe the saying "going postal."

[krbe]

Oh, the glorious Post Office... Postal services in Norway are outsourced to the retail stores - but it can't be compared to the real thing (we're just playing post office and bank).

However, we process applications for banks and other companies that require proof of identity, and every time the some of the larger banks reissued cards and the like , they would come to us and pick it up. The routine are to write down the number of their identiy card, the issuer, expiry date, social security number, date, stamp, date, sign (me), sign (customer), archive (first form finished), then wirte dowdown the number of their identiy card, the issuer, expiry date, social security number, date, stamp, date, sign (me), signe (customer) (second form finished), then copy identity card, date, stamp, date, stamp, sign (me), sign (me again), put it in an envelope, stamp, date and send it - a tedious task, witch always ends with a grumpy customer who demands his card at once, and usually finishing it off with a pensioner who are coming to collect their pension:

Me: I need to see some proof of identity madame.
Pensioner: I don't want everybody to know my social security number!
Me: I'm sorry, but you need present an ID card. I can't give anybody their money unless we are reasonably sure that it really is their money.
Pensioner: --Saying something about how easy it was before--
-- Before they give in after a moment: It's usually the same staff they meet every time, and still they need to hear it every time that we cannot give money to someone just because they say they are someone?

The same thing is true for women in their 40s to 50s - who believe they it's enough for them to tell me their social security number and account number -- is there any other groups of sucky customers who are more irresponsible when it comes to their own economy (we are talking about thousands - up to 3000 EUR in single withdrawals!).,

[SuperB]

Today at work I thought about starting a "Postal" thread.
I'm a PMR for our small office.
Now we only have a couple hundred boxes. The office is a small, one person office and nearly everyone knows everyone else. The guy who drives the mail up is on a contract. He picks up the mail for two offices, two towns away, drives up to the first office and has to wait until their mail is sorted before he hits my office. If it's a monster-mail-day-monday he runs late. The mail is up "normally" (as the sign above the boxes says) by 11am but on occasion as late as 11:20.
Every. Damn. Day.
Well, we have one guy who's life apparently hinges on his daily mail. He will pull up at 10am and ask if the mail is up.

The mail is never up by 10.

He makes comments to whomever is working that we are: too slow, sleeping on the job, someone slept in today (Joe), etc.
Monday was a heavy mail day and I was busting my butt to get it up amid dealing with customers and phone calls. My back was hurting, it was hot and I was literally tripping over boxes and bags.
He apparently didn't like the speed I was going at.
I figured if I was going to catch crap from someone I may as well deserve it. I slowed down.

Another thing that pisses me off are the ones that want their mail handed to them. It may seem like a small, nit-picky thing, but why can't they tell me who they are when they walk in and not after I've walked around from the back? No, they let me get all the way around to the front only to ask me to go back when I could have brought it will me had they just told me who they were and that they didn't have their key! And just today, one did just that only to suddenly remember they were picking up for their neighbor as well (allowed, permission previously given) and could I make another freakin trip while I'm on the phone with tech support over a computer issue and putting the mail up at the same damn time!

Then there's the guy who filed a complaint about my boss because he required specific documentation in order to rent a box. Filed an official complaint! Then he lied about it, was caught lying, was told the boss was right and he was wrong and to go be a good little customer and behave. We haven't seen much of him since.

Way back when I was pregnant one person who had lost their key always had us pull her mail and hand it over the counter. Well I was about 12 months pregnant and her box was on the top row and she wanted me to get up and reach all the way to the bottom of the box (slanted boxes) to make sure there wasn't anything in it. I told her no freakin way am I climbing on anything because you can't find your key. Buy another damn key!

Then there was the nut who would send off letters to herself to test how fast the mail was.

And there's always someone who blames you for the fact that something they're waiting for isn't there yet. Try explaining to them that you, personally, have no control over the mail until it's in your office and in your hands and they still act like you're hiding it from them in the back.

Add in all the crap the Government puts us through which in turn pisses off the customer giving them no one to complain to but us and you have the "Postal" employee.

Thank the Good Lord this job is only part time.

[Pagan]

UK Worker, I don't know if you work for Royal Mail or not, but if you do, after ordering something this summer, I have absolutely no complaints whatsoever about it! I ordered a t-shirt from a shop in Edinburgh. Well, not only did it get shipped Royal Mail, but then it entered US Postal Service. Took only a week! People bitch and moan about how long it takes USPS to deliver things. But if you think about the volume that they handle every day, it's damned amazing how fast things do get around!

Thank Goddess that we don't have to pay a Road Tax like that (NM doesn't have any toll roads) or TV license.

Man, the Postal Service! I work for them, too, but in distribution instead of retail. You'd think I'd be lucky to not have to deal with the public. Some of the weirdest people you could ever dream up are my co-workers. I really believe the saying "going postal."

Are they anything like the ones in "Men In Black II"?

[UK Worker]

UK Worker, I don't know if you work for Royal Mail or not, but if you do, after ordering something this summer, I have absolutely no complaints whatsoever about it! I ordered a t-shirt from a shop in Edinburgh. Well, not only did it get shipped Royal Mail, but then it entered US Postal Service. Took only a week! People bitch and moan about how long it takes USPS to deliver things. But if you think about the volume that they handle every day, it's damned amazing how fast things do get around!

Thank Goddess that we don't have to pay a Road Tax like that (NM doesn't have any toll roads) or TV license.



Are they anything like the ones in "Men In Black II"?

The Post Office is part of the Royal Mail Group and I agree the postal service is very good and not as bad as people make out. A letter to Australia only costs 79p and a first class inland stamp costs 34p.

Until 12 months ago inland mail was calculated JUST on WEIGHT. You could have a small letter weighing less then 100grams and it would cost 34p, you could have a HUGH letter weighing less then 100grams and it would still cost 34p.

But now it's calculated on SIZE as well and we have a guide with slots. Letter, Large Letter & Packet.

I don't know how many times somebody comes with A4 size envelopes, utters first class please and you say 48p.... 48p!!!! it was only 34p last time. It's classed as a large letter, fold the paper next time and put it in a smaller envelope and it's classed as a letter. One person said OH I'm not paying that, I'll fax the documents instead.

The TV License somebody mentioned above is just THAT... In the UK if own a TV set you need to buy a License and costs around £12 a month.

Crazy UK Government...... it wasn't that long ago we had to have a License to own a Radio and even a DOG License was needed years ago.

Don't get me started on TAX the Government put on Petrol..... 90p a litre ($1.8117)

The Country is on it's arse I tell you.

[JustADude]

The TV License somebody mentioned above is just THAT... In the UK if own a TV set you need to buy a License and costs around £12 a month.

Please tell me that you don't have to pay any more than that to get the BBC stuff? There's no actual fees for owning a TV in the States, but we get exactly squat to watch on it that isn't recorded media without forking over some sort of payment that includes FCC taxes.

[cinema guy]

Please tell me that you don't have to pay any more than that to get the BBC stuff?

Other than the TV licence, the BBC is free. That is two free channels if you have a regular TV aerial, more if you can get a digital signal, or sattelite/cable. And because our licence fee pays for it, there are no adverts.

There are also free (and advert free) radio channels. Included the BBC World Service.

[Becks]

Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD.... but if you can also get away with it...

Like I said before...