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Jobsworths


lord_seagrave
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All of us are just trying to get along, so why do these people take such delight in “the rules”?

How infuriating. Any other day, an identical package (specially purchased to comply to the maximum ‘Large Letter’ dimensions) would have been cheerfully processed as a Large Letter. Today, a vengeful Co-op assistant took maticulous glee in demonstrating that, because it required a bit of a push to get it through the hallowed piece of Perspex, they would “have” to do it as a ‘Small Parcel’ (thereby doubling the postage price).

Apparently I could “always try another Post Office and see what they say”.

They did at least have the sense of shame to not use the exact expression “more than my jobs worth” themselves, but I filled in the blanks for them. 

I feel like Victor Meldrew :lol:

On a serious note though, Lady Seagrave works damn hard on her online shop, and the extra couple of quid of postage each time would eat up nearly a fifth of her profit.

Lord ‘Disgusted, of Milton Keynes’ Seagrave

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I find postage costs almost a lottery at my local.

 

That said one of the counter girls is fantastic and always seems to charge much less than some of the others, if I have a lot to post and she is not on I just buy fruit and come back again another day. If I still had my royal mail shares Im not sure i would feel the same way about it. 

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Made me smile Lord Seagrave as it reminded me of a mate who deals on eBay a lot. He has postage’s worked out and knows them by heart, so when someone at the post office did the same as you describe in your post, he simply squashed it flat and handed it back to them and said ‘now try it’.  It dropped through the Perspex much to the apparent annoyance of the jobsworth. 

I understand of course the squash technique may not be suitable for all bulky letters.  

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Mangle ?? you've got to love a jobsworth.... A few years ago I was with a group of guys who had been cleared to shoot problem birds at a local international airport. On one visit a security vehicle pulled up mid shoot and the guard who got out searched us to make sure we didn't have any knives.

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my good lady has these problems , but only when visiting post offices that she doesnt usually use . 

if it doesnt need to be insured or any kind of special delivery , just drop it into the post box , the post box never argues :).

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The Roya Mail postal charges are a farce. Their 'letterbox' that they use to check package sizes is ridiculous. Also, it's not just the weight of the package anymore, but the size as well. I sent a tanned Fox tail to a friend of mine, and was charged £4.26. The weight was hardly anything, but as soon as the assistant saw the padded envelope, she stated that it would have to go as a large package.

I now use Parcel2Go.com which offer you a range of couriers. I usually go with MyHermes, and packages the size of the Fox tail one would only cost me around £2:70.

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1 hour ago, lord_seagrave said:

All of us are just trying to get along, so why do these people take such delight in “the rules”?

How infuriating. Any other day, an identical package (specially purchased to comply to the maximum ‘Large Letter’ dimensions) would have been cheerfully processed as a Large Letter. Today, a vengeful Co-op assistant took maticulous glee in demonstrating that, because it required a bit of a push to get it through the hallowed piece of Perspex, they would “have” to do it as a ‘Small Parcel’ (thereby doubling the postage price).

Apparently I could “always try another Post Office and see what they say”.

They did at least have the sense of shame to not use the exact expression “more than my jobs worth” themselves, but I filled in the blanks for them. 

I feel like Victor Meldrew :lol:

On a serious note though, Lady Seagrave works damn hard on her online shop, and the extra couple of quid of postage each time would eat up nearly a fifth of her profit.

Lord ‘Disgusted, of Milton Keynes’ Seagrave

I have exactly the same problem myself at our local PO.

Surely, if it goes through, freely or not, it meets the requirements.

We don't have the option to shop around as the next nearest PO is 5 miles away. Problem is, the local PO knows that as well, so it's a case of take it or leave it.

 

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13 minutes ago, mel b3 said:

my good lady has these problems , but only when visiting post offices that she doesnt usually use . 

if it doesnt need to be insured or any kind of special delivery , just drop it into the post box , the post box never argues :).

I agree with you Mel.

However, my fear is, if someone checks elsewhere in the system, they could charge the recipient extra to make up the supposed short fall.

Result, very unhappy customer.

Edited by moondoggy
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27 minutes ago, steve_b_wales said:

The Roya Mail postal charges are a farce. Their 'letterbox' that they use to check package sizes is ridiculous. Also, it's not just the weight of the package anymore, but the size as well. I sent a tanned Fox tail to a friend of mine, and was charged £4.26. The weight was hardly anything, but as soon as the assistant saw the padded envelope, she stated that it would have to go as a large package.

I now use Parcel2Go.com which offer you a range of couriers. I usually go with MyHermes, and packages the size of the Fox tail one would only cost me around £2:70.

This, I'm amazed anyone who posts stuff regularly still uses royal mail, like someone else has said if it goes through the window it goes through??

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1 hour ago, moondoggy said:

I agree with you Mel.

However, my fear is, if someone checks elsewhere in the system, they could charge the recipient extra to make up the supposed short fall.

Result, very unhappy customer.

That was one of our concerns to begin with , but , lin has sent up to 20 envelopes per day like this , and so far we haven't had any issues. It appears to be over zealous counter staff that get a bit picky , having said that , they probably have pressures put on them that we don't get to hear about.

Edited by mel b3
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Most 'post office' counter staff are not employed by  Post Office PLC any more, they are employed by the shop in which the post office is located. All our main post offices closed in the past few years.

When my youngest son was still living at home he sold off hundreds of his football programmes, DVDs, CDs and games on ebay. to raise money for a car. Because he was at work all day I used to post them for him. It probably cost me more in lost time than he was making on the sales but I encouraged him to do it because he was showing a bit of initiative.

It soon became very apparent to me that one sub post office near us, but hard to access, was always cheaper than the one I would have preferred to go to because the parking was easier. Can't remember the exact figures but a typical DVD or game was about 99p at one and £1.47 at the other.

Edited by Vince Green
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The PO counter staff always ask me what the parcels contain,  they always get the same reply toys, then a pause then children's toys.

 

Do they really think security is enhanced by this annoying question and someone sending something not permitted would tell the truth?

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I have an American friend who is heavily into historic weapon use. He's always moaning about the lack of decent gun flint in his area, so I wander down the beach, find a big Sussex flint nodule, whack it with a hammer and then wrap some nice shards in tissue paper, put them in a padded bag and off to the Post Office.

" What's in the envelope please?"

" Flint"

Blank..totally blank look "What?"

"Flint, like a stone, you know"

"I need to look on the banned/hazardous list"

" What on earth for?"

Gets clipboard out.." If it sparks, it could be inflammable material"

" It won't spark unless the 'plane crew climb into the cargo hold, rip my parcel open, unwrap the flint and hit it with a piece of steel "

I took the envelope back and later stuck a fresh label over the contents description. Next day I checked to see if see if the same lady was serving at the counter. All clear and the parcel went off to the USA no problem marked " Geological material sample"......:lol:  But it did cost me £12  (weight-air freight)..:| 

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My wife had a shopfront business plus on-line service and there was village post-office we avoided like the plague as they couldn't get the charges correct even when envelopes passed nicely through 'Gods little bit of plastic' however on one occasion when I was forced into using said PO there was a lovely moment when a guy was asked what was in a small package by one of the regular little Hitlers only to be told it was gun parts! Time stood still! The guy, a local gunsmith, explained this was his business, gun spares are essentially small engineered bits of steel and he had been posting these 3/4 times a week for many years using the same PO. This was back in 2007/8 when the GPO had listed in all sub-PO's excluded items but here little Hitler decided to ask the question. Anyhow after a few 'phone calls they accepted this was ok but there was a distinct smell of soiled underwear for a few minutes.

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1 minute ago, norfolk dumpling said:

My wife had a shopfront business plus on-line service and there was village post-office we avoided like the plague as they couldn't get the charges correct even when envelopes passed nicely through 'Gods little bit of plastic' however on one occasion when I was forced into using said PO there was a lovely moment when a guy was asked what was in a small package by one of the regular little Hitlers only to be told it was gun parts! Time stood still! The guy, a local gunsmith, explained this was his business, gun spares are essentially small engineered bits of steel and he had been posting these 3/4 times a week for many years using the same PO. This was back in 2007/8 when the GPO had listed in all sub-PO's excluded items but here little Hitler decided to ask the question. Anyhow after a few 'phone calls they accepted this was ok but there was a distinct smell of soiled underwear for a few minutes.

I always say sports equipment. I used to post hundreds of fired cartridge cases to Wales years ago plus powder and primers when it was legal. Least said, soonest mended

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