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Original poster

I got banned from the Post Office!

74 replies

doobyooby · 06/02/2019 23:07

Took a fat A4 envelope to the post office today, have been there loads and have ebayed thousands of items in my time so have seen a lot of bad service at post offices over the years, including them not listening to what you ask for.

Asked for "first class large letter signed for"...£4.45 says he.

I said "that's expensive, it should be two pound something".

No, £4.45 says he and he prints out the label and sticks it on while I am trying to work it out.

I'm thinking about it and I ask him if that's the large letter rate and he says "no it's the small parcel rate".

So I ask him to cancel it....and he refuses. Says he can't. "The system won't allow it."

So I replied, calmly, that "I asked for large letter rate and yes, the system does allow a cancellation as I've seen it done many times before and please can he cancel it". I take my parcel back to look at it and to check it is no bigger than the large letter slot,.....and he demands I give my parcel back to him as he can't cancel it and therefore I should pay the £4.45 or he's keeping the parcel. The parcel has the only copy of my signed Will in there so I'm not having him just keep it and not send it off!

So I said, "well yes you can cancel it, I've seen it done before, you made a mistake as I did say large letter, and you just need the label to do it", and I peeled it off (plastic envelope jiffy so easy to peel off without damage) , but he demands I give the whole envelope back so he can keep it.

I replied that no, "the envelope is my property, not your property, I hadn't asked for small parcel rate and I wasn't going to pay it and therefore he should cancel it on his system using the label I had just given back to him" (undamaged)

.....and he told me "to get out of his shop and never come back!!!"

Which is a pain because it's my local. So, AiBU? It's only a couple of quid but I hate the post office and it's upselling and the way they don't listen to you when you say large letter, it happens regularly. Being told to never go back to his shop like I'm some sort of thug or criminal. I never even raised my voice let alone swore. I know I could complain but the post office authorities will do f all. This why I usually use one of their competitors but wanted the signed for thing today. Ffs,

OP posts:
IncrediblySadToo · 06/02/2019 23:49

I could do you a deal... I regularly have to send stuff to Australia. I SWEAR the local PO changes the rules everytime I go in. The wife is great, the husband is a knob. Postage this Christmas cost fortune, I swear it would have been half the price if she had done it....you work out what mine should be and I’ll take mine & yours to the PO.

I’m pretty sure the PO would have something to say about him refusing to serve you...IF he says anything next time you go in, ask him if he is sure he really wants to escalate this...bloody knob.

JustOneShadeOfGrey · 06/02/2019 23:50

Use the Hermes or other courier service online. I've never had a parcel queried yet. They have loads of corner shops accepting their parcels and handing out receipts.

Redpriestandmozart · 06/02/2019 23:52

Use Royal Mail online, pay the postage, go in and get them scanned, it's very simple. If he objects tell him by using his service you are keeping the post office open and him in a job!

PennyandVince · 07/02/2019 00:02

is it a local shop for local people?

i.gifer.com/FzDt.gif

btw - all system transactions can be reversed. He just couldn't be arsed. He's a tin pot Hitler.

StoneofDestiny · 07/02/2019 00:27

Get the rest of the village to boycott the post office.🤪

BeachtheButler · 07/02/2019 00:32

I have never had any of these problems at our small local PO (one of the few remaining). Sounds like you have a right oddball there!

Bloominglovely · 07/02/2019 00:34

My local post office is somewhere to be avoided too. The two women who run it are so rude. One chats to 'regulars' endlessly regardless of the queue standing there and the other is incompetent and whatever you ask her to do she says it can't be done and mutters how she is too busy to do it.

If you go back in, do you choose a time when it is busy or very quiet? If busy, you run the risk of being asked to leave in front of people and if it is quiet, you run the risk of him being even ruder to you without an audience?

showmeshoyu · 07/02/2019 00:37

Sorry to hijack but this reminds me of Boswell Grin

Maybe travelling forward to today was the key to cracking the code?

redredrobins · 07/02/2019 03:02

i had this at my village PO Owners husband tried to ban me because after i'd being waiting in the line at his counter for 5 minutes, he told me to join the other line. I rolled my eyes and sighed. That did it, he screamed at me, put his face right up to mine and told me I was banned.
I went home, phoned post office complaints and asked if he could do this.
The post office is a government subsidised service you have to do something REALLY bad to get banned.
I went in next day, said "I believe the area manager called you" and posted my parcel! He was not happy, but dare not have a go at me, because his wife could lose the franchise if they got more complaints. So, phone and complain, you have the power, he does not!

MrsCatE · 07/02/2019 03:32

I've had similar experience in my local corner shop franchise. I'm sure only the owner is trained up (ha! another story) but he's hardly ever behind the counter. Instead, it's usually his poor wife who has rudimentary English and doesn't understand any transaction more complicated than "a book of first class stamps please".

I was sending Christmas cards to various oversea addresses; that was a laugh. She didn't understand the different airmail tariffs, I ended up doing a combination of mime and showing her the addresses but she couldn't read either. I felt sorry for her, she looked on the verge of tears.

Instead of reporting him, I go out of my way to a 'proper' PO.

SusieQ5604 · 07/02/2019 03:33

SOMEBODY is in charge of him. Complain.

ambereeree · 07/02/2019 03:35

Did you see Boswell there? Grin
Sorry

SuchAToDo · 07/02/2019 03:41

I would private message royal mail on twitter (if you don't have a twitter account make one just so you can do it)...I've had issues and they have helped in the past....just tell them everything, and which post office it was etc and they will help you out

2birds1stone · 07/02/2019 03:51

@coolwalking wtaf I have old only just forgotten bloody boswell now the stupid writ is going round me head....

RhiWrites · 07/02/2019 07:17

When I had issues with my local post office and contacted the Royal Mail they accused me of lying because I hadn’t produced a receipt. I sent them the receipt, no further response from them. They are shit.

Strugglingtodomybest · 07/02/2019 07:25

I had a run in with the guy in our local post office over passport photos. I was so wound up, I couldn't go back in, so sent DH who came back and announced he'd been banned. We've since found out he has a reputation for being a little Hitler (Post office guy, not DH).

Shallishanti123 · 07/02/2019 07:26

Mine does this also. I often wonder if they get a portion of the postage, so they bump it up.

I sent a copy of my certificate and an application form via recorded delivery and they tried to charge me a small parcel for it. I mean 6 pieces of paper in an envelope isn’t going to be a parcel!

grumiosmum · 07/02/2019 07:41

The ladies at my local rural post office are lovely!

I will appreciate them even more after reading some of the awful stories on this thread!

MiniCooperLover · 07/02/2019 07:41

The two ladies behind the counter at our local little PO are terrifying but thankfully now I've been taking work post in for a while they've thawed slightly (only slightly mind you and it's been two years or so 😂).

TatianaLarina · 07/02/2019 07:45

I would get a Royal Mail account and use your kitchen scales. You can get slightly discounted prices online.

That way you’re just dropping a ready addressed parcel and he can’t really argue with that.

Mayrhofen · 07/02/2019 07:50

I thought it was just ours that had an unfriendly miserable biatch behind the counter! I always take mine to a different PO these days, one two miles away with terrible parking but the man who has it is a saint, sweet and lovely and looks like an old fashioned postmaster with big long sideburns.

Dothehappydance · 07/02/2019 07:53

One of my locals is like that. Always states the 1st class price as a given and scowls at you if you ask for 2nd.

I often post on a Saturday, if you post 2nd it still gets there Monday, I may have said to ds that there was no point with 1st as it wouldn't get there any quicker. It arrived the Wednesday (after my sister's birthday) I am absolutely certain he kept it on the side and made sure it missed the Saturday collection (I was there well before it)

werideatdawn · 07/02/2019 07:55

Go in disguise

ReflectentMonatomism · 07/02/2019 07:56

One of my locals is like that. Always states the 1st class price as a given and scowls at you if you ask for 2nd

Indeed. The latest practice in several of our local post offices is to initially offer the full bells and whistles signed, tracked, before 1pm service, and then only grudgingly admit that alternatives exist (as you’re sending a cheap pair of trousers your child didn’t pack when they went back to university, or something).

They can’t go bust soon enough. Crooks.

RabbityMcRabbit · 07/02/2019 07:59

I often post on a Saturday, if you post 2nd it still gets there Monday,
Mind=blown!

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