Post Offices

[jam]

As I approach the counter the Post Office girl is rolling a ciggy. She tuts and says, "God, every time I try and roll one somebody turns up"
"Can I send these please?" I ask.
"If you really want to," she huffs.
There's a bit of confusion over prices, it seems very expensive at £27. "How much does it weigh?" I ask. "A kilogram isn't it?"
"No it's more than that, it's 940 grammes."
So I explain that I'd like to send this parcel by airmail economy. "Oh, ecom... ecomo... e...c...o...m...ony is eight pounds."
A couple of parcels later and I'm done. I just need proof of postage.
"I hate doing this bit," she grumbles. Then after staring at a parcel for an uncomfortable length of time she says, "Which word is the country on this parcel's address?"
"France."

And so on. Wish it wasn't all true.

[Sie-Fly]

report her

[SirSlim]

report her

Marry her.

[jam]

Marry her.

Brilliant

[mr sayers]

report her

I'm with you on this one Sie mate...There's plenty of people on the dole who would gladly do her job!

[Paul-K]

yeah report her. its not like that in any post office i use in Bham.
they tend to roll their eyes when they see massive bags of post, but be polite and freindly and eventually they warm to you.
i think they get used to dealing with rude idiots all day long, which must take its toll.
also, its worth bulk buying stamps. that has saved me hours in the queues. £2.80 a 12", £1.17 a 7".
plus another tip, if selling t shirts, fold them and then put them in a zip lock bag, squeeze all the air out and lock it. goes down to large letter at £1.17. rather than small parcel. plus then you can stamp it and chuck it in a post box. saves £1.63 so well worth the 8p ish per bag and a little extra bit of time.

i spend a lot of time packing and posting.

[amidar]

Half of me has a lot of sympathy for the post office and half of me is infuriated every time I use them these days. Our nearest postmaster retired and shut down when the new rules came in at the start of the year. When the last price rises came in he was so apologetic I had to reassure him it wasn't his fault. I have to go into town now where they are a bit more brash.

'What's in the parcel?'
'Nothing that is on that list'
'I need to know what is inside'
'Is my word that its nothing on that list good enough'
'If you don't tell me what is inside I cannot accept it'

Only recently they refused to accept a parcel from my mother in law after she informed them it was a musical cake slice.

Sigh...

[babycart]

I like surly and miserable counter assistants. They are an essential part of the fabric of British life.

Every time i return to the UK I´m struck by how fake-cheerful, and insincere counter staff are increasingly being forced to be, grinning frantically and offering you shitty special offers you don´t want in terror of mystery shoppers, robots and millions on the dole who´d do their job for a bag of nuts.

The general public are a bunch of fuckers who always turn up when you´re rolling a fag. why pretend otherwise?

[treeboy]

Maybe he's heading for a new career

[someblokecalledfuz]

Maybe he's heading for a new career

Ha - That reminds me, he's still in "business" as of a couple of weeks ago.

I dropped by Flashback and out of curiosity went to see what had become of Haggle, and to my surprise it was still open although I was the only customer. I hunkered down and started going through his piles of cheapies under his "proper" stock, as is my want... only to be interupted about 15 minutes later by him.

"Make sure you put them back neatly, if they're not neat then I have to pile them up... and I've got bad thumbs." Although the piles I had been through were tidier than when I started, he then proceeded to shuffle them about using his bad thumbs, looking authoritive and giving himself something to do.

"I will" I said... and he slunk back off behind his desk eyeing me suspiciously...

Half an hour later my knees couldn't take it any longer and I stood up to inspect about 8 records I'd fished out a little closer, and in doing so placed the ones which weren't holding my immediate attention on top of his stock.

He came dashing out from his desk once more to chastise me for doing so. Now I've been in the shop before and am well aware of his reputation, so I asked him quite calmly...

"Do you actually want me to shop here?"

He answered me with a world weary sigh and a shrug of the shoulders, indicating that he'd been at this crossroads before, and said "Absolutely not." whilst staring at the ground...

So I left him to his shop, being careful to put the records I'd been considering buying back on the floor in a place which would require the use of his bad thumbs.

Could it be that he has bad thumbs because he spends so much time twiddling them waiting for customers to annoy?

[Headless mermaid]

I'm with you on this one Sie mate...There's plenty of people on the dole who would gladly do her job!

This

[SirSlim]

Bagpipes?

[Headless mermaid]

[relkeel]

There used to be five Post Office branches in Leeds City Centre, now there are two.Spent 40 minutes waiting for counter service. First world ,First world prices. Third world service.

[eine]

One of my French students: "One thing I cannot understand about your post offices. Why are they in shops like Wilkinson and WHSmiths? In France they are important and serious. They are like the government, here they are nothing, just like coffee shops."

Me: "That's cuz our Queen in Britain is from the WHSmiths family. Kate Wilkinsons has just joined the family. It's state busine$$. First class cuppachino$$"