POST OFFICE IN MOVE 'CHAOS'

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.thisisdorset.net/display.var ... _chaos.php

ANGRY customers, overworked and underpaid staff, and service sacrificed in favour of profit.

This is the "disgraceful" new environment created by WH Smith's takeover of the Post Office, claims the former manager of the Poole branch.

Chris Woods was made manager when the Post Office moved into WH Smith in Poole in November.
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But less than three months later, he has quit his position in disgust at the way the service is being treated by its new operators.

Mr Woods says the move has created "chaos", with customers and staff bearing the brunt in the pursuit of profit.

"The level of customer dissatisfaction was so high I had no answer to it," he said. "Customer service has been almost disregarded in favour of sales.

"Every week, if not every day, we had people complaining and they were right.

"Queues are much worse and it has been chaos."

Mr Woods, who previously worked for the Royal Mail's marketing department, said the drop in customer service was inevitable as staff hours and pay had been slashed in the move.

The hourly rate dropped by £1-2 an hour, while total staff hours fell by more than 100 per week - equivalent to six or seven extra part-time workers.

He said: "The staff work in extremely stressful conditions and have to tolerate abuse from customers when it is not their fault.

"They are doing an excellent job in difficult conditions and it is disgraceful the way they are being treated."

Mr Woods said traditional Post Office services, such as stocking first-day covers, had been sacrificed as there was not enough space in the new office.

He believes an extra bureau de change was installed in the new branch to generate more profit.

"It is now purely a commercial and sales driven culture," he said.

Bournemouth's Post Office is due to relocate to WH Smith next month, though councillors last week raised questions over the validity of the consultation carried out by the Post Office on the move.

Royal Mail maintain they are committed to providing "excellent face-to-face service" to customers.

A Royal Mail spokesman, speaking on behalf of the Post Office and WH Smith, said: "We carefully monitor the performance of all our branches and work together to make sure we continue to deliver high service standards."

A WH Smith spokesman said: "In any new venture there may be a few teething issues but we are addressing them.

"We are committed to providing the best customer service possible. We monitor queue lengths and make adjustments as necessary."

[greynut]

Same all over. Here ii the South East at WH Smith, there are long queues and short tempers. No access to colect mail and no room to do anything.

Absolutely pathetic. But as I have said on numerous occasions, I hope that the public who were slagging us off for striking and are now standing in these long queues, now realise what a couple of w*****s Crozier and Leighton are. And understand that we went on strike because we knew ALL services would suffer.

The only people who are going to make money out of this are those two thiefs.

[Turpin]

Great Show Down At English Riviera OF Torquay WH SMITH have put the main Post office Counter On the top floor the 3rd Floor of there premisis a trolly and all the Towns mail has to come off the top floor great show, how on earth did the Great PO allow this to happen. Customer Care Ha The shop is nice enough the staff are nice enough but is this really enough making the elderly and disabled go to the top floor, Im not so sure.

[norbert]

Great Show Down At English Riviera OF Torquay WH SMITH have put the main Post office Counter On the top floor the 3rd Floor of there premisis a trolly and all the Towns mail has to come off the top floor great show, how on earth did the Great PO allow this to happen. Customer Care Ha The shop is nice enough the staff are nice enough but is this really enough making the elderly and disabled go to the top floor, Im not so sure.

indirectly killed a pensioner off in WH Smith Blackpool -Normal , Tactful and Sensitive Response from POL -which must have been of great comfort to his relatives NOT . Done deal with one of Smith's ex Directors who joined RM just before RM group moved it's Crown Offices to WH Smiths . Brown included him in his honours list this year .

[Lounge Lizard]

Same everywhere I think, if the WH Smith branch has more than one floor the Post Office bit will be on the highest one, and it will always be at the back of the building. Truth is that Royal Mail don't really want the public to use its postal services as they claim they lose money on stamped mail - and does it really matter where they try to sell insurance from ?