In a leaflet accompanying my car tax renewal reminder, the DVLA extolled the virtues of renewing by telephone or online and then proceded to have a dig at the Post Office by saying "no waiting in queues". It wasn't necessary and it wasn't clever.
I renewed at my local Post Office. I'd much sooner talk to a nice cashier than use the impersonal alternatives.
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Its is clever, It takes three minutes and costs nothing to renew by internet.
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I'd pay a £10 VED supplement never to have to go to a P.O. and talk to the people who work in them.
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If the Daily Wail is getting het up about UK Post Office queues they should try France. Many official procedures can only be done over a La Poste counter, and it now runs a bank as well. The waiting can be horrendous if you are daft enough to go into a branch in a town.
Recently, La Poste and the government announced a campaign to get the 'average' waiting time down from something like 20 minutes to 12.
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the dvla pay for every car taxed at your local post office,this keeps mine open, so its a case of use your local post office or lose it and trust me when its gone it will never come back.
Anyone who has ever had to use a general post office in a city will know the queues there are beyond a gallon of pail
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I haven't had the need to visit a post office for two years.
Why do we need them?
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I occasionally go in to post something. Other than that it's to pay a cheque into Barclays without having to go to a branch. I rarely get a cheque mind.
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>> Why do we need them?
Apart from posting parcels we don't. Can't think of any other unique service that they provide.
People just seem sentimentally attached to them for some reason - The Lark Rise to Candelford view of the world. They represent part of a mythical past along with friendly bobbies on bicycles giving a cheery wave and pubs where no one ever got drunk and steam trains which always ran on time.
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>> Apart from posting parcels we don't. Can't think of any other unique service that they provide.
In Germany we have "Packstation", an automated facility where your parcels are deposited and you can pick them up 24/7. You can also send parcels from the same facility. The only reason we ever go to the post office is because my wife banks with them.
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if you run a business it allows you to pay cash and cheques into your santander account and withdraw up to £250 in cash a day
non of this going into the big city finding a parking space paying through the teeth for it then queuing in the bank
worth its weight in gold while it lasts
and local jobs for local people thats important to me too
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Oh dear, when the post office goes you will need to deal with Santander directly. Now that will be a PITA. I am surprised you still have access to your old Nationwide account, most seem to be lost in a gigantic computer screwup.
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>> your santander account
That's the old Girobank account then.
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which became the old Nationwide account...
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A&L bought Girobank didn't they... and now they are Santander. In case Girobank failed, their offices in Bootle were designed so they could be turned into a hospital.
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AH right yes AL, still matters not, they are al Santander now.
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>> A&L bought Girobank didn't they... and now they are Santander. In case Girobank failed, their
>> offices in Bootle were designed so they could be turned into a hospital.
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lots of strange buildings in the liverpool area
in the 20 years I've been dealing with customers in Knowsley, I can not remember this building tinyurl.com/33z887a
being occupied, or even advertised for sale or rent. The aerials on the roof are well maintained :-)
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>> I haven't had the need to visit a post office for two years.
>> Why do we need them?
Every time I go to mine I join a queue of people with odd-shaped parcels (e-bayers?). Good luck to them I say if it helps to keep them open.
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>> >> I haven't had the need to visit a post office for two years.
>> >> Why do we need them?
>>
>> Every time I go to mine I join a queue of people with odd-shaped parcels
>> (e-bayers?). Good luck to them I say if it helps to keep them open.
>>
There is no need to queue at a PO to post parcels. Weight the parcel at home, print off the postage online, drop the parcel off at the the PO parcels hatch.
That is the only function of a PO, and it doesn't need a large manned building nor a network of tiny village offices.
Start with the premise that post offices do not exist, then design an efficient parcel delivery and collection service. Who on earth would ever decide that it needed thousands of dedicated offices in every town and village?
DHL, Amtrak, etc don't seem to need "post offices" to run a parcels service - they come and pick them up. As does the post office itself in rural areas - we just leave ours in the porch and the postman collects them.
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>> There is no need to queue at a PO to post parcels. Weight the parcel
>> at home, print off the postage online, drop the parcel off at the the PO
>> parcels hatch.
What about proof of posting - that's what's stopped me from doing it all online, because AFAIK you still have to queue to get that. Or can you do that online as well?
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"Why do we need them?"
Try buying a car that's on SORN that you have to travel to collect and pay for and want to drive home...
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>> Its is clever, It takes three minutes and costs nothing to renew by internet.
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For now until they see off the competition then it'll be a tenner for 'secure' postage.
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>> Its is clever, It takes three minutes and costs nothing to renew by internet.
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In actual fact, if you own an historic vehicle it's one of the rare instances where you get something for nothing from HM government, as they post the disc to you despite it being nil duty!
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>> >>
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>> In actual fact, if you own an historic vehicle it's one of the rare instances
>> where you get something for nothing from HM government, as they post the disc to
>> you despite it being nil duty!
>>
Or an agricultural machine - I've got one of each.
(Memo to George:
Must slap on a £10 admin charge for processing any vehicle tax or SORN application. DC)
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I always renew online. Fast, easy, and I don't get accused of forging my insurance certificate, or have my documents passed around between counter staff with loud comments along the lines of "Do you think that's dodgy, or what? Looks iffy to me, dunnit?". I've also been threatened with fines for buying my disc on the day it expires, with this (older) "gentleman" banging on and on for what felt like hours that I would be hammered with a big fine, and I should tax my car earlier, and it's not right etc etc. If I'd not had my young daughter with me at the time, he'd have had it with both barrels.
Our local PO really has some of the most officious, obnoxious staff I have encountered in any modern business. And to top it all, this kind of rude, pious treatment usually comes after the privilege of queueing for 10-15 minutes beforehand.
One of the downsides of Ebay trading is having to deal with these morons every time you want to sell something, or (heaven forbid) Parcelforce, who are even worse.
The online service is fast, efficient, and just works. I strongly recommend it for those who have yet to try it.
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eBayers send their things through shippers who collect - cheaper than the PO too.
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Spot on mapmaker. The carrier I use is just £6.65 for a parcel the size that would take a couple of dvd/hard drive recorders with a weight allowance of 30kg.... they collect from me, deliver next day and it's trackable online.
At the PO counter that cost would get me just a 2kg packet for signed next day... and there's no full tracking available.
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Funny, I spent ages looking for this service, couldn't find it and resorted to Parcelfarce instead, then I find the answer I was looking for back then on a motoring forum! :-)
It's a mad world!
Are these local firms?
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>> Its is clever, It takes three minutes and costs nothing to renew by internet.
Couldn't agree more.
Does the gastropod live in some beautiful island of thirty-years-ago charm, service and civility?
The main post office at Notting Hill Gate, where I used to renew, has become an astonishingly useless and inefficient machine for making people wait unnecessarily for twenty minutes, then annoying them. It used not to be like that but it is now and has been for several years.
One can't blame the counter staff of course. But someone upstairs is to blame, and they deserve at least six months in the stocks.
The more I am annoyed by pompous stupidity, jobsworthism, h&s gone mad and general creeping dishonesty, now almost universal, the more I think the stocks should be reinstated.
Some people's dignity and human rights really need to be violated in a systematic manner. Otherwise we will all end up in the deepening cess-pit yawning at our feet.
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>> >> Its is clever, It takes three minutes and costs nothing to renew by internet.
>>
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>> Couldn't agree more.
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Read my original post. What I said was it was neither necessary nor clever of the DVLA to have a dig at the Post Office in the leaflet accompanying the renewal reminder. If the DVLA couldn't say something nice about the Post Office then they shouldn't have said anything.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Fri 22 Oct 10 at 14:45
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Does that apply to us too Escargot?
Perhaps the DVLA feels as I do about the post office. Some might think that would be the pot making racist remarks about the kettle of course.
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>> Does that apply to us too Escargot?
I'm saying nothing!
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>> >> >> If the DVLA couldn't say something nice about the Post Office then they
>> shouldn't have said anything.
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Any organisation offering a service is entitled to point to the shortcomings of its competitors and show how its own service is superior.
Except in the model village of Upper Snale where all the cheerful shopkeeprs are happy to recommend their rivals' wares.
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Woolworths were in most High Streets and failed - they offered lots but were not very good at any specific area (except Pick'n Mix!) Woolworths were dieing over many years it was not an overnight failure.
Post Offices are everywhere but with a few exceptions are not particularly good at any area.
There are others who offer some of their some of their services and are better at it.
RFL - on-line - less than 5 minutes
Stamps - Costco/Makro buy 30/60 stamps and get a fractional discount (better rate than many banks offer for a savings rate)
Parcels - TNT etc - Or better still buy on-line and get your present delivered to 3rd party (often foc)
Banking / Foreign Currency - myriads of competitors
Envelopes / Stationery - local Pound Shop
Bill paying - Local corner shop with Paypoint (or other supplier) - open long hours and few queues (Post Office lost TV licence Tax to Paypoint as PO wanted too high a fee,)
Unless you have a local Sub PO with a dedicated local owner (who adds value to his services) then you are probably better with 3rd party suppliers than the Post Office.
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>> Does the gastropod live in some beautiful island of thirty-years-ago charm, service and civility?
:-D
Water off a snail's back, Armel Coussine, water off a snail's back!
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DVLA has a dig at the Post Office - Zero
