No change at Gloucester PO as people queue for 45mins

[TrueBlueTerrier]

No change at Gloucester post office as people queue for 45mins

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Despite apparent advancements in technology it seems harder than ever before to post a letter at one Gloucester post office.

Queues are regularly seen piling out the door at The Oxbode store in the city centre, with would be customers regularly walking away after seeing the lengthy lines.

Customers have complained of waiting for 45 minutes to be served after the store made a number of voluntary redundancies over the Christmas period.

It introduced self-service machines for customers but these do not seem to have had an effect on the long waiting times, with users criticising a lack of seating for the elderly or disabled.

City centre residents Byron Phelps, 23 and Kamisha Brown, 21 use the store on a regular basis and told the Citizen they are queuing regularly, sometimes for 45 minutes.

“The queues are terrible,” said Byron.

“It seems daft when it happens three or four times a week.

“You hear a lot of old people there complaining there’s no seats.”

Kamisha added: “There’s not enough staff and they could do with a cash machine outside.”

Other customers suggested it was the closure of outlying post offices that was causing regular backlogs in the city centre.

Terry Bourne, 77, from Minsterworth, walked straight back out of the post office after visiting on Monday after seeing how long he would have been waiting.

Terry and Margaret Freeman live in Tuffley but use the store every week to collect their pensions

“I think it’s a right mess to be honest. It’s worse than ever,” said Terry.

“Something needs to be done. You hear the same complaints from everybody.

“We’re prepared to wait but I can’t see anything changing. It’s terrible.”

He suggested the problem may have started after they moved from the ticketing system.

“Maybe they need more staff,” he said.

“You get an excellent service but the queues are quite regular.”

A Post Office spokeswoman said: “We are continuing to monitor service levels at Gloucester Post Office branch and are further increasing staff levels.

"We are also installing an ATM to make it easier for customers to make cash withdrawals from partner bank accounts or from their Post Office card account.”

[GT750rider]

"We are also installing an ATM to make it easier for customers to make cash withdrawals from partner bank accounts or from their Post Office card account.”

There was an ATM in the wall outside, but it was taken out of service about 5 years ago. So why the change of heart ?