Let's see, in the past I've used the Post Office to:
Tax my car
Buy postage stamps
Send parcels
Obtain forms for DVLA etc.
Pay money into National Savings accounts.
All of the above I can now do via the Internet, even parcels can now be collected from your home for national delivery.
I appreciate that in small villages the Post Office can be a local hub, but that in itself can't be a reason to keep funding them at a loss, can it?
They're all pretty much dead in the water, and no doubt the ability to tax a car online was the final blow.
Sad? Yes maybe. It's not nice to lose part of our national heritage, but times are changing very quickly.
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They're all pretty much dead in the water ...........
A lot of older people haven't got a computer. There are regularly queues in our small-town Post Office, even when there are three cashiers on duty.
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I agree totally L'escargot, I cant pay a cheque into my Barclays account via the internet though I can any Post Office.
Yes, I always renew RFL via the PO to support them.
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Our village Post Office is closed, so I won't be travelling five miles and then find somewhere to park.
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If anything like a post office, bank, local shop, etc is willing to provide free and easy parking...then i'm your man. If not...i'm not using it, unless I absolutely have to.
In this country if you go to any local town with intent to say buy something in WH Smith's as I did yesterday....you have to pay to park in a pay and display, cannot park anywhere near the shop you want, worry about the car being left/how much should you pay on the ticket/ know there's no leeway whatsoever with a parking attendant.. in fact you'd be forgiven thinking you're doing them a favour
is it any wonder so many people shop via the internet
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Many Post Offices had to close because the Government gradually withdrew many of the services offered, such as senior citizens' pensions collections (people were "persuaded" to open bank accounts).
Another reason was to cut down the number of serious armed robberies occurring at so many Post Offices.
The majority of such robberies involved a getaway car (Motoring link!)
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Nothing to stop you paying at a Post Office by post;just address it to the postmaster.
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My local Post Office opens after I've gone to work in the morning and is closed before I get home so consequently doesn't get any of my custom.
I would suggest that any convenience retail business that is dependant on its clientele making one visit a year only during office hours is probably an iffy business model.
IMHO the Post Office has so far missed a big opportunity to get customers through the door with the advent of increased online shopping. The biggest drawback of internet shopping is that someone has to be available to take delivery, now, if I could nominate that delivery address to be my local Post Office and know that it would be open in the evening for me to collect any package on the way home from work then I would gladly pay for that service rather than have to trek to wherever the parcel company deems to place its depot to collect. I'm sure if that became a standard service then Post Offices would be rammed with people and while there they would do a lot of other business that Post Offices can offer, such as VED renewal.
After all, even my local GP surgery is now open 8 til 8, 7 days a week!
And, yes, I do appreciate that someone has to work to provide that service. I've been in the service sector on 24 hour call all of my working life, my wife and eldest son both work in the banking sector, one working hours between 8am and 10pm Monday to Saturday, the other working 24/7 including Xmas Day. A lot of my family were/are firefighters and police officers with an odd nurse thrown in for good measure so we've never really known anything other than a 24/7 working life throughout the family. If we can do that to provide service then should it be too much for a little flexibility elsewhere?
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>>After all, even my local GP surgery is now open 8 til 8, 7 days a week!
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My surgery is open about 8 - 6, 5 days a week. I would guess yours is unusual in having those hours.
I still use my walking distance local post office. I have to go a further mile for the RFL.
I am happy to get the RFL in my hand and then stick on the windscreen alongside the current one. Job done. Avoids post men and their walk outs.
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A lot of older people haven't got a computer. There are regularly queues in our small-town Post Office even when there are three cashiers on duty.
Mostly they will be queuing up to collect their pensions, that is also unnecessary these days (they're all paid directly into bank accounts now, of course), although I fully understand why the old folks still do this, for social reasons.
Plus, not having a computer is going to be increasingly difficult to do as time goes by. Hence talk of the "digital divide" in the media. Everything is going online, and if you can't get there, neither the government nor companies seem to care.
Even so, I'm pretty sure that most, if not all public libraries offer free internet access, so it's more a case of having computer literacy, than having a computer at all.
I for one don't miss the hassle of driving into town, finding somewhere to park, trudging through the rain (this is Britain, after all) to the post office and arriving at the counter to renew my car tax, only to find I brought the wrong insurance documents with me (or forgot the MOT, another favourite of mine) and getting the old "rolling eyes" from the counter staff... :)
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I always renew online as it's so much more convenient. It saves digging out all the paperwork and then standing in front of some gimlet-eyed harriden who gives you the feeling of trying to catch you out.
Coincidentally, I have just fished the SORN reminder for my old Conquest from my letter box and have renewed it with 5 minutes of opening it. With my memory, that is a big plus.
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The advantage with the Post Office is that you can wait till the last day of the month before getting your road tax. You then have your tax disc before the money has left your bank account (assuming you use a cheque).
If you use the internet, you'll probably renew a week earlier.
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Blimey , I'm not that hard up!
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 07/10/2009 at 20:06
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I got my tax disc online too it came the next day I was very impressed :). I didn't win the Ibiza though.
My local post office is a big of a joke since it was taken over by a private firm, it used to be run by the post office itself.
The older generation are dying out and sooner or later 99% of the population will have internet access. Ok there will still be a need for post offices but perhaps not in every village/suburb.
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"The older generation are dying out "
Yes, but they're being replaced! :-)
JH
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"The older generation are dying out " Yes but they're being replaced! :-)
And the replacements will be as comfortable with using a computer as their forbears were using a telephone....or even driving a motor car.
The last time I set foot in our local post-office [circa 2007] there was a queue outside the door caused by women of a certain age with sacks of parcels - Amazon traders I guess. Thank goodness for the online services!
Bye bye snail mail - it seems to be mainly an unsolicited advert/circular distributor these days. I am thinking of putting my paper rubbish box directly below the letter box....
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Just renewed one of my car's RFL this week actually, did it online Monday and it arrived this morning - fantastic!
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It's not a matter of being hard up. Its a matter of I rather have it in my bank account than the Government's. They take enough tax off me already!!
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I use my local sub post office every day, parking is easy and free...in my drive at home, he's only 100 yds away. I don't do car tax there, he hasn't got that facility. I collect pensions, forms and send parcels. All sorts of things, in fact.
An added bonus is I get a cup of tea and a couple of samozas, together with some light-hearted banter and abuse on both sides. Ali is on first name terms with the bulk of his clientele and a real helper to his elderley customers together with his wife and staff.
Long may he flourish !
Ted
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I forgot about that post office, probably a lot better than the main one, I might try them next time I need to send a parcel.
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Oh yes, and I forgot the other problem (reminded from other posts here), you arrive at said Post Office only to be told that they don't issue car tax, you need to go to another Post Office 3 miles away...
Only it's your lunch hour, so you'll have to try again tomorrow...
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"There are regularly queues in our small-town Post Office"
And that's why I avoid them like the plague. Which is what you're likely to catch standing in a long queue of miserable, moaning, coughing, spluttering old bid-bods.
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Lose it I say no use to me whatsoever now I can tax my car online
My car. That's alright then.
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Rattle, Tell him you're a pal of mine...then he can put some commission on your bill for me...hehe.
Ted
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My car. That's alright then.
I have taxed my mother's car for her online for the last 4 or 5 years and I used to tax my mother-in-law's car for her without physical access to the documents, in both cases unable to get to the post office.
I appreciate the need to preserve post offices in general but they need to update their business model to survive. Extending opening hours and expanding the range of services is a more likely route to survival. Also agree with the earlier poster about parking availability affecting people's use of local shops & post offices.
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Thank goodness for renewing over the phone. Arrives pretty quick. DVLA cross references insurance and MOT. And you don't have to be on tinternet.
Going to a post office: I have to dig out the insurance certificate, get to the PO then stand in a lengthy queue behind old biddies who want to chat to the cashiers about their latest op or Mrs. so and so who's died. Or the benefit scroungers and teenage chavvy mothers with their shouting, normally down a mobile, and out of control offspring. Or the local "businessman" who operates in cash who has bags of coins to bank.
No thanks, I'll do it from the comfort of my armchair.
Edited by Webmaster on 08/10/2009 at 02:39
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My Post Office (the only shop in the village) closed five years ago when the owner died. We probably have a higher than average OAP content, and all have survived quite happily. Things change with progress, that's why we don't have many Blacksmiths or Thatchers anymore.
Aside from that, Post Offices, even the main ones, are generally the most decrepit hovels in any high street with their peeling government issue puke coloured paint to stare at while you queue.
Car tax online for me.
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The last couple of times I have renewed by phone or web I have been minded to come on here and post about how pleasingly efficient it is (but then the feeling goes away and I post some other tripe). I think it's about the best example of a complex transaction that is now automated and is better for it.
The last time I went to the PO it was like a mini-branch of Staples which is fine by me -they will survive by changing. I buy my milk at the petrol station and my petrol at the supermarket.
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I agree. I was quite frankly amazed at how easy it was and how much thought has been put into the design of the automated system. One of the few examples of real progress.
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I think post offices are a complete anachronism nowadays, and the sooner they all close the better. Apart from the fact that everything you can do in a PO is better and faster done elsewhere, the staff haven't the slightest notion that they are there to provide a customer service. They sit happily bored behind their grills while queues build up, and then close half of them in time for the lunchtime rush.
Every time I have to wait more than about half a minute at my bank they apologise for the delay. When did you ever hear a PO cashier apologise for the delay?
The notion that there is a happy "community" of queuers all enjoying the social occasion is laughable. More usually it is a disgruntled collection of people taking precious time out of their lunch break, and cursing themselves for not having done it all on line.
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Not at the Post Office but I had a questionnaire from someone else saying many people enjoyed the "queuing experience" and did I? They got a resounding "NO"!
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. Apart from the fact that everything you can do in a PO is better and faster done elsewhere the staff haven't the slightest notion that they are there to provide a customer service.
Err, where else can you post any letters/parcels that are larger than the standard size, then?
I'm not a fan of them either, especially those damn queues, but I don't know anywhere else you can send packets and parcels at a reasonably cheap rate... Though watching the news today the postal workers seem determined to kill themsleves off by striking over the Christmas period... nuts!
I fully agree re Customer Service, though, they have completely lost touch where that is concerned, my local one in the CoOp have a staff of three who are determined to see us queue as long as possible whilst doing not a lot behind the tills... which is why I very rarely tax my car there now...
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I'm thinking ahead to the time when I might not have a car but would still need a Post Office for all the other services that they provide. The fact that there are queues at times just points to how much Post Offices are needed by certain sectors of the community.
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And that's why I avoid them like the plague. Which is what you're likely to catch standing in a long queue of miserable, moaning, coughing, spluttering old bid-bods.
If you're fortunate you'll live to that same ripe old age, and then be only too pleased to have the services that the Post Office provides.
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"If you're fortunate you'll live to that same ripe old age, and then be only too pleased to have the services that the Post Office provides."
Unless they start serving vodka shots and lap-dancers, I seriously doubt it.
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What other services will YOU need that can't be handled elsewhere??.Went into our main PO recently for special stamps,queued for about twenty minutes,got to the front to be told that that type of stamp was only available at the Travel Money counter-went there-only one person in front-but he was collecting $100,000 in $100 bills(presumably pre-ordered) and they were counted out,one by one.I got my stamps eventually!!Our main PO used to have a seperate counter just for parcels and stamps(excellent) and lottery but it went when it was reorganized.Now I walk another 1/4 mile to our last remaining local office.Not only have they taken away our local PO's but also our local Post boxes so I now get plenty of exercise.
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Err where else can you post any letters/parcels that are larger than the standard size then?
There are parcel carriers who will happily collect from private addresses, for free, and then do nationwide delivery. In fact, they tend to charge less than Royal Mail...
International is presently a little harder, you'd have to find a branch of a parcel carrier that has a customer desk, not as easy a Post Office, I'll grant you. But give it time, and you'll be able to have international stuff collected too.
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Our local "copying/fax" shop is an agent for one of these companies.
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The main Post Office in Bath is very civilised - you get a ticket when you walk in, then sit in a comfy chair until your number is called. Loads of staffed tills as well when I've been in to post eBay stuff - not sure how easy that would be without a PO.
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I renew my car tax at the Post Office too. The last time I renewed it online the disk failed to arrive. I called the DVLA who sent a replacement; this failed to arrive as well.
I called the DVLA again who could only suggest I go to the local office in Bristol - I had to take an afternoon off work for this. The DVLA didn't seem at all interested in what had happened to the two disks lost in the post.
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"The last time I renewed it online the disk failed to arrive. I called the DVLA who sent a replacement; this failed to arrive as well. "
Stolen by someone in the post office probably
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Surely it has to be better to do online or by phone.
Look at the PO scenario from the viewpoint of the regular users or those wanting to post parcels or letters. They probably get the hump stuck behind the equivalent PO mimser. Motorists adding to the the queues each month holding them up when they only visit once or twice a year. So Mr. Snail, its best for everyone all round for motorists to renew online or over the phone. We only add to the frustrating wait in line. You'll get to the front quicker as well.
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I got sick of our local Post Office counter staff pulling my insurance covernote to bits, scrutinising it, and one time all but accusing me of presenting a forgery. In every case, it was the item sent by the insurance company, which had been kept flat, in a folder, in perfect condition. One time, I taxed my car a day after the disc had expired, and was lectured about it, and told to expect a fine in the post. I lost my temper, walked out, and did it online, which I've done every time since.
Also avoids the need to get the paperwork out of the file, avoid losing any of it, and then putting it back again. Perfect.
That was 3 years ago, and the last time I went into a Post Office.
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I concur with DP's experience ('gimlet-eyed' also mentioned previously) regarding being treated with suspicion - particularly when I was a young 'un.
One more PO gem: I recently went out in the afternoon to post a parcel at a local (to work) village post office - which turned out to be shut for half-day closing. The rest of the 'open all hours' shop was, of course, open.
'No problem', I thought, and drove four miles to the next nearest village post office. Yes, you've guessed - shut for half-day closing. Ok, let's try a third, another three or four miles away...... yes, shut for half-day closing.
Why on earth couldn't they stagger their anachronistic half-day closing days?
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