Depressing post offices

[topcat2014]

Why are post offices so depressing. Why are we all supposed to know their special rules?

I'm in holiday and wanted to buy a stamp. Not post a sack full of vinted sales or get a passport.

Massive queue to the post office bit.

Stood waiting instead by the "shop" bit. Note this wasn't also a newsagent or store etc.

Bolocked by the man "there is a queue over there".

I asked whether this was even to buy a stamp.

Note there were adverts for stamps by the shop till.

Any way, walked out and pondered not even sending my card now.

So glad I tax my car online these days.

Annoying but you’ve rather cut your own nose off to spite your face there!

Go to a supermarket and buy stamps there

I know. I wasn't arsey about it, but I really didn't have time. We're in Wales so supermarkets sparse!

People who work in places where the public go in to are pretty fed up because it’s not easy serving rude and entitled members of the public.

You then get systems developed to serve them in an easier way, and I can bet post office workers get treated like trash.

So I sort of understand, but yeah, it’s not nice for everyone else

This made me laugh. Wales has supermarkets in every town, just like the rest of the UK! I'm sure you mean 'We're in a very remote part of the country'.

Our nearest PO is actually fine. It's usually busy on the rare occasion I have to go in, but the staff are helpful and it's obvious how to join the queue. Plus they have loads of weird and wonderful things for sale in the queue - books of bingo tickets, rubber thimbles, jam pot labels. Like Primark for those from another time.

But if I want a stamp, I'll got to the corner shop.

They are depressing I agree. But all you needed to ask if you could send.this 1st / 2nd class and they would. The queues are so long after the closure of so many banks.

Our local one closes at 3pm every day. I’m in a capital city.

youre right post offices are so bloody depressing. And not only depressing they are so behind the times with absolutely everything.
why is it you can post something with a courier and take 2 seconds out of your day to print a label and hand it over yet you go to the post office to post the smallest thing and it takes 15 minutes of them asking you exactly what blooming material it is and measuring it and weighing it five times. There’s no wonder nobody uses royal mail anymore!!

The staff have taken on more work because of the closure of banks in towns and cities and it’s added to the queues. I feel sorry for the staff tbh.

I’ve discovered you can buy a stamp online and print it off. No post office queues needed!!!

So your actual complaint is "I went into a post office d to buy a single stamp, the queue was long".?

I was going to agree based on the title. Our local one used to be busy, then then the shelves were emptier. Lady home I went in before today the front half was a different business, like rented out the front half and moved the post office stuff to the back. Went in yocsy and that business is gone so all front empty and bleak looking. Back end still a psot office but very little in shelves

This.

I normally send eBay by Royal Mail. I don’t have a printer and the places that take courier parcels by QR code are always full.
The post office has no parking, massive queues and shuts at 5.30 or 12 on Saturday.

Yet I have recently discovered a busy service station not near any town, that has a Royal Mail locker! It’s people getting fuel Greggs and MacDonalds on their travels , so not bringing parcels.
Free to park right next to it, scan a code , label pops out, door opens, in it goes. Sadly less time to drive 12 miles, than 15 min walk each way to my post office. Which it’s hard to do anyway as it’s closed when I’m back from work.

We have a new post office near us, yes you read it right, it’s new.

The staff are lovely, the queues are generally short and when it’s busier they come along the queue to see who they can help sooner (stamp buyers would be in this group!).

They sell all sorts of stationery and useful packaging stuff. It’s bloody brilliant!

I bought a stamp today in post office joined to a Spar. No queue, which helped get over the shock of the cost £1.85..

(Card is for my dad's birthday, otherwise might not have bothered)

Stamps are expensive now and you need to pay more for larger letters or cards. Sometimes the cost of the stamp is more than the card costs if it’s a larger one.
Our PO is very busy every day. It’s been there years , but I suppose it’ll shut down eventually even though people use it instead of the banks because the banks have all closed in our town except for one.

Don't make excuses for them like closing banks - they were awful in the 90s too. They are (along with pharmacies) the last bastions of Stalinism.

You have to queue there - it's the law.

I remember going to a crown post office in London in my lunch-hour. When I walked in there was a bit of a queue with four cashiers. Two promptly clocked off and disappeared and I waited half an hour. Heaven forbid that they actually staff the place properly over lunchtime. That branch has long gone though I was amazed to find another one still exists in another part of London I used to work in.

And then there's the pharmacist who took something off the shelf for me and then told me to go back in 30 minutes to get it. That was pre-covid, they'd probably have told me to go back the next day now.

Our post offices tend to be in a local small shop these days. There is only ever 1 person serving and its quite depressing when you have to queue for ages. One time I sold a 1st class stamp to the guy behind me for £1 as he was in a hurry.

Agree. Went to post my daughter's birthday present. All the people in front of me were getting cash out.

But counter staff often don't help themselves either by being rude or unhelpful, i.e. just grunting and no manners etc. Our village post office is a case in point. They have the social skills of a slug and often can't even be bothered to utter a single word, just grunt and point to the screen to show how much you need to pay. I, and lots of other customers, are pleasant and polite, I always "Please" and "thank you" but they never reciprocate.