Post Office Rubs Salt…
All the 22 Post Offices ear marked for closure by the Post Office in Oxfordshire have now been closed. You can imagine how the postmasters feel when they see the chief executive Adam Crozier, trousering £3 million. Especially when they all have very strong views on how much better run the organisation could be. I agree - the Post Office does not even know how profitable individual offices are. And now comes this e-mail, to show how appalling and crass the Post Office has been to the offices it is closing, including forcing them not to use the word post office, re-directing their mail and cutting off the phone!! Incidentally, the postmaster who wrote this had been promised a personal visit to tell him whether he had survived or not. In the end, all he got was a call from a call centre.
Further to our chat this afternoon, herewith just a few of the frustrations we are facing:
1. Change of Name
At no point before or during the Consultation Process were we advised that we would have to change our business name. In October of last year, we had a rerun of stationery printed “X Post Office & Stores” - this will be of no use in 3 weeks time when we are closed and I now have to fund printing of new stationery, etc.
Post Office Ltd have advised in their closure letter to me that
“as part of the process to close your Branch, Post Office Ltd will, with effect from the date of closure, redirect any mail addressed to the premises in which your Branch is located that includes the words “Post Office” in the address, to the nearest Post Office branch. If you have any personal mail or private business mail that could be affected by this redirection, then as soon as the public announcement is made regarding the closure of your branch you should take steps to ensure that with effect from the closure date at the latest, this mail does not include the words “Post Office” in the address.”
In addition to the above, contained in the information pack regarding the procedures we are to follow for the actual closure of our Branch was a note regarding our telephone line.
“Post Office Ltd will arrange to stop the telephone line to your branch 7 working days after your last day of service. If you wish to retain a telephone line at your branch you should contact BT on 0800 800 150 (for Residential Services) or 0800 800 152 (for Business services) to request the transfer of the line approximately one week before the scheduled closure date for your branch.”
I have to date, at my expense, written to all our customers and suppliers advising them of the above, and the fact that our business name will change . However, I received a call from British Telecom today advising that whilst they are able to change our business name , they are unable to take the words “Post Office” from our address as the Royal Mail Postal Address File (PAF) lists X Post Office & Stores as the premises name.
I consequently contacted the Post Office Network Change Office to ask how I could effect the change under these circumstances. Needless to say they didn’t understand the problem!!
I then contacted the Royal Mail Address Management Unit in Sunderland, explaining my dilema, and advised that we wished X Post Office & Stores to be removed from the PAF file and our new name added to it. They advised that I cannot do this, it is the Post Office who need to contact them to have their details removed!
After 2 hours on the ‘phone today going backwards and forwards I have no resolution as to how I can comply with the Post Offices Terms and Conditions of closure regarding ensuring that our post reaches us by making sure that the words “Post Office” are not contained in the address, nor how I can ensure that our ‘phone line is not disconnected.
As you can imagine, this is a very trying time for us Postmasters facing closure, and I believe that the above issue is something that the Post Office should be sorting out and not left to us to have to spend our time and money doing it!
Other somewhat irritating points regarding our closure include:
- Being told that we will not be sent any more cash (float) from this point forward until we close (some 3 weeks!) but how imperative it is that we continue to service our customers as normal until closure!!
- Being told that we are to shred all the Post Office Manuals and other sensitive information that we hold here - when they still haven’t sent us a shredder. Something that should have been sent weeks ago!
and the list goes on!
canvas said on May 28th, 2008 at 6:58 am:
I was in my local post office yesterday and I was baffled by the unusually long Q. As I patiently waited for half an hour to get the counter it was interesting to listen to so many people complaining about their local closures - sadly they were mainly OAPs. It seems the people who are suffering the most from Post Office closures are the elderly. This can’t be right. Labour policies are really hurting the poor and the elderly - what is going on? It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
canvas said on May 28th, 2008 at 6:59 am:
“get to the counter”
Ed, please get an EDIT button!
Sharon Morgan said on June 1st, 2008 at 6:47 am:
Words fail me with regards to this Government. It seems the only people it cares about are the thieving MP’s. I am not a labour supporter in any shape or form, but this must be the worst labour government in history.
Dont ALL MP’s have to sign the official secrets act, including no doubt Cherie Blair - does this become defunct upon leaving office? Surely she and the rest of the money grabbing ex ministers who have written books revealing information they shouldnt should be thrown into the Tower!! and they expect a Post Office employee to keep quiet about the injustice………….. SHAME ON THEM!
As for the Chief Exec, it seems that the more you screw up the more you get remunerated for it these days. Doesnt anybody take responsibility for anything…. its always somebody else’s fault.
I will stop ranting as I could fill a computer hard drive………