Post office priority should go to paying customers

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RE: OKEHAMPTON Road Post Office, Post office staff won't take man's mail, Echo, November 23.

Mail acceptance at post offices has been a contentious issue since on-line mail customers were told they can use post offices for pre-paid mail. Of course, where else is there to go?

Let's put this into perspective. Sub post offices are private businesses, unlike Crown Post Offices which are run by Post Office Ltd with salaried staff.

Sub postmasters get paid for the amount of sales generated at the counter. No sales equals no income. A good proportion of that income is from postage. If they don't sell postage they get no income.

If all of the daily post office queues include people who have bought their postage on line, the sub postmaster earns little or nothing, but he is still expected to offer his services. This is a ticket to bankruptcy.

The Post Office and Royal Mail will say the sub postmaster is paid for accepting mail, which he is, but it is a small fraction of the sum earned for postage and no sub postmaster can survive on it.

The sub postmaster who is fully trained in offering postal services cannot refuse to take pre-paid mail.

The Post Office, for whom he is an agent, insists upon it.

If the sub postmaster has a queue of people who want to buy the 'full monty' — payment for postage after checking the mail and its contents are valid for the intended destination — the service is a correct one; these customers should get priority service and do so.

Most heavy postage users make arrangements with their local sub postmaster about the best way to accept postage and to minimise queue disruption.

However any 'customers' who have paid someone else for the postage deserve to be given the non-premium service, and they should be asked politely to stand aside until a counter position becomes vacant.

This is the level of service that these customers have chosen by by-passing the sub postmaster.

Steve Pile

Charmouth Post Office, Dorset.