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Return to Sender
July 14, 2008
I remember a time when I would go to the post office, stand behind a few old women who smelt like soup and shuffed in a manner similar to a wind up Doozer, bought a few stamps from a kindly grandma/pa type person behind the counter and left.
Over the last few years the post office service has deteriorated dramatically.
Local offices seem to be shutting, so the queues at the ones that are open are horribly long. Their staff have turned from helpful old codgers to relatively unhelpful sales staff who try to upsell you things even though you only pop in for a stamp.
Over the last few years I’ve even had an enthusiastic attending in a multicoloured waistcoat and long dirty fingernails ask me “Would you like to send this letter via ship?”
um…no. It’s not 1920. I would like it sent via plane as normal, and I would like it to arrive at it’s final destination in a few days, not three weeks and with a suntan.
Today I went and wanted to post one item, a CD. I told them everything they needed to know, that is it’s a non-valuable item, standard first class, UK. I then got a barrage of questions.
Are the contents over £38?
No - I told you it’s non valuable.
Would you like special delivery or signed for?
No - I told you standard first class.
Would you be interested in home or credit card insurance?
No - I would not be interested in either. I told them simply ‘Nothing else today, thanks’.
Only for the rest of the month you’ll get £50 off on home or credit card insurance.
Still nothing else today, thanks!
I know they are trying to make money, but surely closing the out of the way offices has saved them a bit. Surely they would also have a higher turn around of customers, not to mention happier ones with less queuing, if they didn’t try to upsell you things?
Comments
13 Responses to “Return to Sender”
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HA! Hilarious! To be honest, I think that even the big POs aren’t even making money nowadays, so they’re being told to sell, sell, sell! You do know that you can print out your own postage online now, right? It’s a blooming lifesaver!
But how do you know how much it weighs? My keyboard doesn’t have any scales?
Mxx
*rolls eyes*
I knew you were going to say that. For a start, you just kind of know after a while. Before that, does your workplace not have a little scales for weighing post before it’s franked?
We don’t have a franking machine. We don’t send that much post really, and have another office where we send post if we need to - but as the item I sent today was personal I had to take it to the post office myself.
I googled scales as I thought it may be nice to have a tiny set. Not sure why, then, I googled ‘USB scales’ - as if USB are going to make them any more functional.
Silly boy.
Silly boy!
And I see your issue indeed. Well, it was worth a shot anyroad.
Finally found the nested comments button then?
Mxx
Sometimes I’m just not paying attention. Frankly, I have better things to do with my time!
“(Comments wont nest below this level)”
Erm, but they still are!
I can’t be bothered to comment on this entry. (But it was a fun story to read.)
I thank you for your apathy :o)
Mxx
No, they aren’t.
Nested would mean the comment response appears within the comment box. i.e. This response should appear within the box of your 2008-07-15 15:10:29 comment to be nested, and not in the box it does appear in, which is 2008-07-14 15:40:54.
Mxx
Talking of post offices and mail, could you print off a postal redirection form. The post office i went to this morning had no forms at all, useless. Also, I found a record under our mat this morning, wrong address and looks like it’s been there for ages. Sxx
You’re welcome. And you’ll be happy to know (???) that I knew what a wind up Doozer was without clicking on the link. XD