What is happening to the Post office?

We are in the North West, and have a local Post Office within Spar supermarket in the village.

They open at 8am and work six days a week. All staff are friendly, professional and helpful.

We would be lost without them.

Curtaintwitcher

I live in a large town in the North and am struggling to find a Post Office. My local one is now only open three days a week and when it is open, there is only one counter and a long queue. It is the same in the centre of town.

Is this happening all over the country or is it just in my local area?

The Post Office provides a public service; is there not a government body to step in and demand that they do the job properly?

I find all of the post office staff to be rude. I have 2 different POs I go to & wish I didn't have to. I no longer use Royal mail for parcels. They are far too expensive & luckily I have never had any issues with my local drop off/collection points. The PO have been done over with the stealing accusations & I imagine they are all peed off with how they are treated. However, there's no excuse for rudeness in my opinion. They are slowly killing themselves off probably unknowingly!

Our main P.O. closed (leaving a large empty building in the town centre) and has a facility in the Stationery store. Inconvenient and always long queues. Luckily I have found a branch of Morrisons in a small local store, that also has a counter and parking!! Even my mail is delivered by someone in a 'private car' rather than red van.

It seems like the situation in my town isn't unique then.

amazonia

I'm in a very isolated rural tourist town in Devon. Our PO will shut permanently tomorrow. Our only mobile bank will stop coming here after Christmas. The Drs surgery is under threat. Will the last one out please turn off the lights..

That is terrible!

Must be quite scary, especially for residents with no transport etc.

I'm in a very isolated rural tourist town in Devon. Our PO will shut permanently tomorrow. Our only mobile bank will stop coming here after Christmas. The Drs surgery is under threat. Will the last one out please turn off the lights..

It varies here in the north east of Scotland. The “main” Post Office in the town I live in seems to have erratic opening hours, sun Post Offices too. Those in shops are better. We only get post every few days …

Our post office closed in April was told it was re opening on Monday it didn't now told don't know when Nearest one is 7 miles away

Our best service is the Post Office van which travels around several villages in Richmondshire and Hambleton. We get about an hour, 4 days a week - they can do all that a normal PO does. Friendly, helpful member of staff. You meet all your friends and neighbours in the queue!

I live 30 mins drive away from our nearest PO, it is a joke lucky I can drive, what about others who cannot, they would have to catch a bus into the town centre! and I live in a big town in the South of UK

Callistemon21

After the dreadful scandal when post office operators were wrongly prosecuted, some committing suicide, others going to prison and not all receiving compensation as yet, I'm surprised anyone wants to do the job.

The most dreadful miscarriage of justice and no-one yet held accountable. The wrong people went to prison.

Quite so, would you really want to work for the post office now, knowing what the management did.

Our P.O. in Sherwood used to be so good. Pleasant helpful staff good service. Since it was taken over by another family it's going downhill fast. Long queue only one person serving not very helpful sometimes rude. They've also boarded up the outside cash machine . We have no bank in Sherwood any longer either. Arnold P.O. isn't much better more like a gift shop with the P.O. as an after thought.

Parcels - don't forget your parcels can be collected by the postman! You just have to weigh and measure to get the right postage and pay online (I prefer Pay Pal for small purchases). You don't even need to print a label. The postman collects on the chosen day and puts the label on for you.

Our PO still works fine, thank goodness (outer SW London). I send any parcels via Click and Drop, and the postman collects, or I take them to the parcel postbox in town if I’m going anyway.
🤞that system has always worked very well so far.

We have a Co-op witha PO - but instead of being open 9-5 it is 10.45-4.

I’m another who hasn’t set foot in a post office for years. I only use a few stamps and buy those with the cards. A friend has told me where my nearest is, should I need it.

We have no post for days, then two or three letters come all at once. In a rubber band.
Birthday cards sent locally can take a week or longer to arrive. Given how expensive it is to post something now it’s unsatisfactory and disappointing.

PS. But when I can no longer drive, heaven knows how I am going to get there.....

Our PO is in a small grocery shop in a SW market town. This replaces a larger PO now closed. Seems to work well. Our nearest PO that does passports is about 10 miles away in W H Smiths - also seems OK.

More worrisome is the unpredictable Royal Mail delivery service which is outperformed by most private carriers.

The main post office in the centre of Newton Abbot closed down several years ago, causing great inconvenience to customers, and opened at the back of a grocery store much further along the street. Big queues and inconvenience don't seem to bother the authorities. The old post office is still standing there empty and neglected.
But I am lucky because there is a good post office/mini- market in the next village along from me, thank goodness.

My nearest main post office is a taxi ride away and has long queues out the door, Fortunately they have a specific position for "business" which I use on the very few occasions I have gone there with parcels to ship. I now have a collection service at my home by Royal Mail for internet parcels.

Ours are private and usually sell a few bits and pieces as well as the usual stamps. They also do photos for passports. All the shopping centres have them as well as several in local shopping strips . Some of them get long queues, depends on how busy the area is.

I must be really lucky then our P.O is in the Spar shop locally. Three counters seem to be always open and no queues. The staff are very helpful and friendly.

My local Post Office is part of WHSmith - long queues, inadequate number of staff and sometimes shut for inexplicable reasons.

There are a couple within other shops near here. I haven't used a post office for years, what do people use them for?