To think for myself, Post Office staff?

[EugenesAxe]

Having two small DCs I buy online postage for parcels to friends as family, so I don't have to queue.

The other day I popped into the PO to drop off my 'medium-sized packet' by the window. The woman in the booth said in response to my 'I'm just leaving this for collection; it has postage': 'No you can't leave that there; you have to wait.'

So I queue up, fucked off as queue is long and I left DCs in the car; I had only expected to be a few seconds and DD was asleep. I left it though as I could see the car and I had to post that day or the postage would invalidate and I didn't have another opportunity to return.

I eventually get to the counter and the guy asks me to put it on the scales; he says the usual 'You don't want this signed for?' 'What's the value? You don't want to insure?' - to all of which I reply 'No.' Then he says 'Actually, the postage is wrong...', so I apologise and said I priced it as a medium-sized packet, 855g etc. He then says 'No nothing's wrong - it's just it's only insured up to £20 if it gets lost.' ('???' thinks I). So I say 'No - I don't care; if it gets lost then never mind.' And he finally lets me go with a proof of posting that I didn't want.

I was pretty calm throughout but when I got out I was having such a brain rant.

AIBU to think FUCK OFF YOU VULTURES? Don't judge me about the car please.

Downstairs - precisely. Other companies enable you to make a declaration about what you're posting but apparently the PO aren't happy until they've rained misery over everyone's day. I'm still a bit annoyed, can you tell?

Its not just British POs either.

I was in Germany discussing (in my excellent decent German) about how I wanted to send a parcel to china and insure it for €x. The woman insisted on speaking to me in English, despite the fact that she wasnt very good at it (so much so that I couldnt understand) and I'd asked politely if we could continue in German, to which to scowled and said "NO PARCEL IN CHINA IDIOT" and shoved the parcel back at me and pressed the button for next customer...

Maybe its just working with letter that makes people grumpy.

My small local POs are usually quite helpful, but I stopped going to the main one in town owing to the utterly unpleasant attitudes of the staff: shouting at old ladies, wandering around for 20 minutes talking, etc. The queueing I could handle.

The final straw was when I enquired about foreign currency and was told: "What do you think this is, a bank?"

I worked in a VERY high pressured customer service environment and would never dream of speaking to a customer so rudely. If anyone has a problem being courteous on the most basic level, then maybe they should become a landscape gardener or hermit or something.

There is no excuse whatsoever for 'giving attitude' to customers and says more about the staff than the customer.

H ha Albert, I was just coming on to post that you haven't experienced true grumpy service in a post office until you've had grumpy service in a German post office! It's a whole new world of gratuitous rattiness!

Melaniecheeks.

If you have a proof of posting, get a lost item form from the PO (yep, you'll prob need to queue to get it) fill it in and send it to customer service dept. they will look for it. Afaik, undelivered parcels end up in northern Ireland and are held there until claimed.

Re my 'giving attitude' comment.
A few customers, I'd say less than 1%, already have the preconceived idea that we are all miserable old hags and that conveys across the counter, I'm only there doing a job and it's horrible to see from a customer, anyone in a customer facing roll who says that doesnt get their backs up is basically talking bullshit. Give me a bad attitude, talk to me like I'm stupid, demand that I give you road tax without you having the right paperwork, or expect me to serve while you rudely chat on your phone and you'll not get the courteous polite attitude that over 99% of the customers expect and get from me.

It's not a miserable job, over 11,000 branches are located in small communities where the customers are local residents, I know loads about them, their families, most of them you can set your watch by and are a pleasure to serve, I have a right laugh at work with most of them and go that extra mile to help them with things other than my work duties.

I'm well aware I've prattled on enough about my job, but ime, it's more about how badly customers behave.

Brilliant, thanks Tulla. I'm in Norn Irn myself, maybe I can pop along and rummage through the lost parcels.....

Lol, aye good luck with that. I'd imagine it's a pretty big pile!

Tullahulla, as you point out there are over 11,000 post offices located in small communities. By that figure alone, there's a minimum of 11,000 staff, and many more in actual fact. So the chances of getting someone serving who is a miserable grumpy sod is quite high. They can't all be sweetness and light.

I've have been served by both pleasant and nasty people in Post Offices, in some cases it's the luck of the draw what you get.

Our PO staff are nice. Friendly and helpful and generally cheerful. It has changed recently though. There was a woman who was an absolute cow. One example: I took our passport forms in for checking, she rushed through them, told me I'd done something wrong and had to take them home and redo them. When I took them back, she then found an error further on in the form, and told me I had to do them again. I asked her if she could just check them to the end so I could rectify all errors at once. She refused.

Since she left, the staff have been much nicer.

No, we don't miss you at all, you xxxxx.

(Sorry I've wanted to say that to her for a loooong time.)