Another story along same lines:
Post office customers are forced to queue for half an hour after branches shut
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -shut.html
By Caroline Grant
Last updated at 1:08 AM on 30th September 2008
Post office customers in areas hit by branch closures are having to wait up to six times longer for service than official guidelines recommend.
Some are forced to queue for almost half an hour after branches were shut down.
Ministers have told Royal Mail to close 2,500 of its 14,000 branches in an attempt to curb losses of at least £4million a week and cut the network's annual subsidy of £150million a year to £110million.
The consumer watchdog Post-Watch found that London, where 160 branches have closed, was worst hit by lengthy waits.
Times of more than 15 minutes were common in the capital, with some customers waiting for 28 minutes - around six times longer than the Post Office guideline of four minutes and 48 seconds on average.
A study of seven London branches showed average queuing times ranged from 11 minutes to almost 18 minutes, said Post-Watch.
Roger Darlington, chairman of PostWatch's Greater London group, said after meeting senior Post Office managers: 'We understand that Post Office Ltd will be reviewing their performance in this area over the next three months and we very much hope that customers will be able to see an improvement.'
The watchdog had warned that post offices would struggle to cope with the extra customers when the closure programme was announced earlier this year.
It also raised concerns that people may stop using post offices due to the poor service.
A Post Office spokesman said last night: 'We continuously review our service as we want to ensure we are doing all we can to serve our customers as quickly as possible.'
Branch closure plans for the final two areas out of 42 nationwide will be announced next week.
