| Goodbye to our Post Office | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 10 2013, 02:41 PM (1,992 Views) | |
| caissier | Jul 10 2013, 02:41 PM Post #1 |
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Very sad ..... yet another of our affectionately-shared national institutions being flogged of, partly to some of ourselves, but mainly to deteriorate and turn into a rip-off business, probably owned by a foreign corporation. ...... and goodbye to the universal service. You live in a remote place and on limited means? Tough. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/10/royal-mail-sell-off-daylight-robbery?commentpage=1 Edited by caissier, Jul 10 2013, 02:43 PM.
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| rumbaba | Jul 10 2013, 02:52 PM Post #2 |
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Yes, it's sad. Interesting how this Government claims to want to go back to 'traditional values' and then goes about dismantling the few things that are left. What will people in rural areas do now if they don't have a car? The privatisation of public transport means they can't easily get anywhere and the lack of local services like post offices means their lives will be further disrupted. |
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| Mobson | Jul 10 2013, 03:09 PM Post #3 |
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2 proper post offices and one sub-post office near me...my favourite PO closed down years ago - it was right opposite St James's Palace, cute and diddy....I was gutted when it turned into a Kall Kwik printers & stationers...surely I asked you could have kept the PO running...as they do now in the Haymarket at the back of Ryman's stationers.... My parents swear by their little local PO at the side of the Co-op...hope that isn't going to close - will no doubt be informed if it is Most of my post comes other than Royal Mail these days....
Edited by Mobson, Jul 10 2013, 03:12 PM.
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| rumbaba | Jul 10 2013, 03:16 PM Post #4 |
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I imagine you have a team of personal messengers, Mobs, fetching and carrying, according to your whims
Edited by rumbaba, Jul 10 2013, 07:56 PM.
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| Mobson | Jul 10 2013, 03:30 PM Post #5 |
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Now now, Rum! No...I've noticed other mail servers are used more frequently - looking at today's post, for example, TNT, Prime Post, City Link and UK Mail .... I've said before I use the RAC post office in the Mall...the smallest PO in the UK...let's hope it doesn't become the only PO in the UK!
Edited by Mobson, Jul 10 2013, 03:44 PM.
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| caissier | Jul 10 2013, 03:41 PM Post #6 |
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All sorts of exciting innovations to look back to ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHPl2RGSLFM |
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| becky sharp | Jul 10 2013, 04:51 PM Post #7 |
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This was our General Post Office in the centre of town.![]() It is now used for picking up parcels ..I was there this morning picking one up.. The business was transferred to W.H Smiths roundabout 5 years ago.It is now located in the basement there. There was a protest at the time against it being moved to Smiths but the answer to that was .... "The decision was a commercial one, there can be no ‘public debate’ and there is no need for public ‘consent’" |
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| AmosBurke | Jul 10 2013, 05:40 PM Post #8 |
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In Stourbridge, the Post Office still have a building in the High Street, which like Becky's is just used for parcels. There is always a long line when I walk past it in the morning on the way to work. Most of the people in the queue are British Gas men. It's not usual to see a dozen vans parked outside. Further down the High Street, there is a shop which they've hired and converted into a Post Office, with six counters. There is one small counter at the front, which this week is selling mobile phones; last week it was general tat. Occasionally, the side door to the main Post Office building is open, and inside you can see a row of counters all unused. Which begs the question. Why are they renting additional premises when they have perfectly good but unused counters?
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| rumbaba | Jul 10 2013, 07:59 PM Post #9 |
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We got a letter the other day, saying we can no longer pick up parcels ( the one actually in the town closed years ago, made into flats). We have to arrange redelivery. |
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| caissier | Jul 11 2013, 10:28 AM Post #10 |
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I bought some shoes online ..... first time for me - seemed like a good idea ...... and it took four visits, lorries trundling about the country, taking about five weeks ( for them finally to be left with the neighbours ) and that was a private carrier. Vince says the universal service will be preserved ..... yeah, right, we can trust promises like that, can't we ?? The PO for me is like the BBC and the NHS ..... it's ours, a social service ...... people like us working for us, not shareholders or corporate interests - not so much the spirit of 1945 as the mutual solidarity of 1940. It's not perfect but there can be some basic trust that it exists for our benefit. |
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| rumbaba | Jul 11 2013, 10:36 AM Post #11 |
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I hope you didn't have to send them back, Caiss . Did you see my post a while ago about the piece of wedding cake that got delivered to the wrong address and had to be sent back by the PO but there was no originating address, so it was sent to Ireland and then another cake had to be made and blah, blah... |
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| caissier | Jul 11 2013, 10:55 AM Post #12 |
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Yes, I read the Saga of the Cake, rum ..... like an Ealing comedy . No .... they were ok ..... size 12 black-on-black Converses ..... I was desperate for them - the previous pair were disintegrating. They refused to just leave them in the porch and said I had to be in when they delivered them. When would that be ? Didn't know
Edited by caissier, Jul 11 2013, 10:57 AM.
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| rumbaba | Jul 11 2013, 11:15 AM Post #13 |
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Had to google 'b on b converse' ![]() I never buy anything for wearing via the internet, unless it is for delivery to a shop, M & S or whatever, so I can return it without problems. I quite like getting parcels but, till now, they have usually left stuff on the doorstep or we could nominate the sub post office round the corner for collection. That's gone now but nothing to do with PO closures. An entire estate, with a shop/sub post office was cleared out, people rehoused and everything boarded up, ready for a big redevelopment. Then there was a legal issue, I think something to do with the Neville estate making some sort of obscure feudalistic challenge and everything stopped. I only every went round there for the shop/ post office so I don't know what's going on but I would have noticed trucks and plant if there was any action and I haven't. I must take a wander round to see what's happening. I remember, months ago, wandering round to buy some milk or something and seeing these weird, aluminium shutters on the windows. I didn't realise at first what was happening but a lady, from the hairdressers where I go, was walking her dog and explained it to me. Edited by rumbaba, Jul 11 2013, 11:16 AM.
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| AmosBurke | Jul 11 2013, 11:50 AM Post #14 |
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I buy stuff online regularly and the delivery experience varies. Amazon use Royal Mail (I like them) and if I'm not home, the postie leaves me a little card and I can collect the parcel at the post office. I bought some shirts a few weeks ago and the company used to use Royal Mail. The company has changed to a courier, who left me a little card to say the parcel "was in a secure location" with "behind bins" scribbled in by hand. Sure enough, there it was, soaked through on account of the heavy rain. Why they didn't leave the parcel in the bin is a mystery. The postman has done this on occasions, which is OK by me. |
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| caissier | Jul 11 2013, 12:21 PM Post #15 |
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Yes .... if you have a regular friendly postie they know you and you know them and they can judge how safe it is to leave things and where, knowing you will look for it there. |
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| rumbaba | Jul 11 2013, 12:25 PM Post #16 |
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I know someone, from work, who had a parcel delivered that was put in the bin but no note. He did actually find it, after phoning up to enquire about it, but it was a close thing. |
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| Lurkalot | Jul 11 2013, 05:58 PM Post #17 |
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This is what Tories do best! I'm not so sure it will be a trusted organisation in private hands. well how times have changed from the origins of the post office and BT .. Ah it's good to sell em off and a bit of windfall for some too. |
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| Caro | Jul 11 2013, 09:57 PM Post #18 |
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Post offices are really struggling now. Ours was privatised a while ago though they were still contracted to daily mail (except for Sundays). Our Post Offices were 'rationalised' in the 1980s, and there was an outcry, but people coped in a country with far more isolated areas, which have no public transport at all. In my small town, there is a postal agency attached to the small supermarket; mail has to go to Dunedin 100 minutes away for sorting; just in the past month this agency has been selected for closure and it will now go to Christchurch five hours away. If it is really local, I think they sort it themselves (possibly not totally legally) and the postie takes it from there. Our postal services are going to go to three days a week sometime soon, just not getting the mail volumes, and the increase in parcel postage doesn't make up for it. I don't personally think that matters - people say 'what about the elderly?' but they can wait a day for their letters. More bothering is the fact that the mailman takes the newspapers to areas without shops, and people do read these. I read NZ news online but it's not the same experience at all really - for a start the news is from all over via Fairfax media which owns most of our newspapers, and it includes a lot of celebrity stuff and silly nonsense which is sadly only too easy to get sucked into and has a lot of intolerant comments underneath. (On the other hand it has lots of interesting travelly bits.) I don't get the paper daily, but if that is what you are used to, it will be a real disruption to people's routines. |
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| Robbie Singh | Sep 13 2013, 08:40 PM Post #19 |
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its effing sad you know. the post office is part of our culture and new dey want to sell it . How you can you privatise the queen head? |
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