On 10 Dec 2013 at 4:49pm Nevillman wrote:
Given the number of post offices that have closed in Lewes in the past few years, you would have thought that someone would have realised that more than 3 members of staff are required at the only remaining one. Presumably the management know that we have no alternative but to wait and this reduces costs so increasing profit which is their objective but even most private companies realise that some level of reasonable service must be provided. This is not any criticism of the staff there who I always find cheerful, efficient and helpful despite being over worked and having to deal with fed up customers.
On 10 Dec 2013 at 4:58pm Earl of Lewes wrote:
I agree, the staff are generally very good and have the patience of saints. I don't envy them.
On 10 Dec 2013 at 5:01pm Clifford wrote:
Yes, always good and helpful staff. Decisions of this kind are made by management, not workers.
On 10 Dec 2013 at 5:28pm Border Control wrote:
I wonder at their new TV advert, where they boast that they deliver over a billion parcels in a year. You'd think they wouldn't need to advertise, wouldn't you ! And will the new owners will bring back franking the stamps, to stop you steaming them off and reusing them. Haha.
On 10 Dec 2013 at 5:32pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
On the rare occasions when I need a post office, I find it easier and quicker to drive to Ringmer than use the local one.
On 10 Dec 2013 at 6:35pm Townie wrote:
I absolutely detest the post office after they shut all the local branches down. The poor old folk in Lewes now have to trapse all the way up to the top of town if they need to use it. Bloody disgrace.
I therefore refuse to use the service
On 10 Dec 2013 at 8:19pm geoff wrote:
trapse? trapse? Oh you mean traipse I suppose. I think you're living in the dark ages when all pensioners had to 'trapse' to the Post Officce to collect their pensions - these are very few indeed, and yes, I feel sorry for these handful of people but that's life these days ruled over by Old Etonians.
On 11 Dec 2013 at 8:47am Merlin Milner wrote:
Geoff, this link makes interesting reading.
Check it out here »
On 11 Dec 2013 at 8:58am Clifford wrote:
Particularly this bit Merlin:
'It should go without saying that a Parliament or Cabinet in which half, a third, or even a quarter of the membership been educated at public schools or Oxbridge can hardly be regarded as progressive.'
On 11 Dec 2013 at 9:33am Merlin Milner wrote:
Indeed. However the trend (see the tables in the article) amongst MPs is declining and within parties so are their respective cabinets. However the press imply that there is an increase all round which is inaccurate.
On 11 Dec 2013 at 9:34am geoff wrote:
Thanks for the link Merlin, but no mention of Old Etonians in it.
Check it out here »
On 11 Dec 2013 at 9:46am Merlin Milner wrote:
If you scroll down there is a table showing historical cabinets and % of Etonians. Current Tory cabinet is 4.3% Old Etonian down from 9.1% under Major.
What to me is more disturbing is that Westminster currently has the lowest number of MPs with a science or engineering background.
On 11 Dec 2013 at 11:14am belladonna wrote:
there's one mp who used to work for the post office. Just to try and bring the thread back on track...
On 11 Dec 2013 at 11:21am Merlin Milner wrote:
I take it you mean Alan Johnson, the chap who introduced tuition fees.
On 11 Dec 2013 at 11:54am Border Control wrote:
I hear it's a woman in charge of The Royal Mail ! Does that tell us anything ?
On 11 Dec 2013 at 2:05pm Sjep76 wrote:
I've always understood that Royal mail and The Post Office were separate companies, so whoever is in charge of Royal Mail has no signifigence!!! Alan John son used to be a postman so worked for Royal Mail not the Post Office.
I have always had good service on the few occasions I need to use the Post Office. The longest I have had to wait is 10 minutes or so, not really a massive chunk of my life considering. As for having to "traipse" to the top of the town I thought all the businesses were trying to encourage people to shop there so not a bad thing.
On 11 Dec 2013 at 5:17pm Border Control wrote:
Royal Mail relies very heavily on the retail services of The Post Office methinks.
On 11 Dec 2013 at 5:56pm belladonna wrote:
I think when Alan Johnson worked for them it was one and the same nationalised entity ? (Regardless of whether he introduced tuition fees (who was it who tripled them...hmmm those lib dems who made a written contract not to....)
Anyway. I have no complaints about either service. The queues at Lewes post office are only long at lunchtime - and even then I never wait more than 10 minutes.
On 12 Dec 2013 at 4:35pm Driver wrote:
I always drive to Ringmer if I need to post something. It's about the same distance as the Lewes post office from my house, there's never much of a queue and you can park for free, no brainer really.
I am mystified though by how whenever I do want to post something, there are exactly as many people in the queue in front of me who are doing something that takes half an hour to sort out as there are open windows. I'm not even sure what it is one can do in a post office that takes so long but people seem to manage it. Same thing happens whenever I need to buy a train ticket from the window rather than the machine, there's always someone right in front of me that needs a three-part, season ticket for themselves and their relatives from an obscure station not on the system to a different obscure station not on the system that requires five forms of ID, all of which are well hidden at the bottom of a deep bag, along with the person's wallet that of course they don't think to start looking for until they've actually een told the prioce of the ticket, 45 minutes after the initial enquiry. There is, I hope, a special place in hell reserved for people who only start looking for a method of payment right at the end of a transaction, right next to the part for people who queue for ten minutes at a busy bar and only when they get to the front decide to ask all their mates what they want to drink.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 9:24am Sussex Jim wrote:
Try using Lewes PO at around 5pm. There is normally no queue.
On 13 Dec 2013 at 3:21pm Clifford wrote:
Sussex Jim wrote: 'Try using Lewes PO at around 5pm. There is normally no queue.'
There will be now!
On 21 Dec 2013 at 1:19pm Bernard Taupin wrote:
Any politician that promised to re unite the Post Office , Royal Mail , and Post Office Telephones gets my vote . The person who devised the single queue in the offices deserves a knighthood ! My record time in the dreaded multiple queues way back in time , was 20 minutes