Post office closures cause half-hour waits

[johnnyp]

Waiting times in urban post offices are hitting nearly half an hour at peak times as the closure of thousands of branches starts to bite.

Campaigners say that the problem is going to get worse when a further 2,500 branches are axed.

The Royal Mail insists that a customer waits four minutes and 48 seconds on average. But an analysis of 363 branches undertaken by Postwatch, the consumer watchdog, shows that the average wait time is artificially lowered by quiet Tuesday afternoons, and remote rural outlets.

Those particularly badly hit live in the London area, with the Croydon High Street branch, for example, suffering from average queue times of 17 minutes and 30 seconds, rising to 26 minutes on Saturday morning.

"The truth is an awful lot of people are only free to visit a Post Office at lunchtimes or on a Saturday morning," said Andy Frewin of Postwatch.

In London overall, two out of ten people have to wait more than 10 minutes to be served.

"This just would not be tolerated in most organisations like a supermarket. There if the queues get too long, they open another till," said Mr Frewin. "It's called customer service."

The research also found that, on average, only 60 per cent of available counters were open.

Campaigners are very concerned that this poor customer service will deteriorate as more outlets close.

Between 2001 and 2006, 3,400 outlets closed and the Government has announced that a further 2,500 will shut. The first branches in this latest wave of closures have already closed their doors.

Meral Ece, a councillor in Islington, north London, is campaigning to save the three post offices earmarked for closure in the borough.

"All the customers will end up having to go to the Crown Post Office on Upper Street, where the queues already snake out of the door on most days. This is no fun if you are frail or old," she said.

Earlier this week Gordon Brown's rural advocate, Stuart Burgess, gave warning that two million rural people living below the poverty line had been "forgotten" by the Government. Their situation had been made worse by cuts in services, especially Post Office closures.

However, campaigners argue that urban areas are likely to be hit just as hard by the closures.

Across the capital, 13,805 Londoners are competing for every branch compared with only 1,409 per post office in the Scottish Highlands and Inverness, according to online directory locallife.co.uk.

A spokesman for the Royal Mail said: "We put huge effort into ensuring customers are served as quickly as possible."

He added that the closure of 2,500 branches should not lead to a deterioration of customer service as the Post Office network was now serving 24 million customers a week - four million fewer than two years ago.

"Customer numbers have unfortunately fallen. That's one of the reasons why the Post Office network is losing £3.5 million a week."

[norbert]

The House of Commons has three post offices within 100 yards of each other , I'm sure they don't have to wait in a queue . Makes me laugh .

The problem is with London that it's more lots of villages , highly populated villages at that , joined together as a metropolis the size of a county , there isn't really a heart to the city , Mayfair might have been once .

POL has to remember it's not just shutting down PO's in the middle of nowhere with London .

[Albethere]

I have found PO waiting times have always been dismal, AND they never have all the tills open. I'm so glad I don't ever have to use one anymore now that I can renew my car tax disc on-line! Most PO staff look miserable in the job and always have a frown on their face. How sad. They should take a look at some of the Banks and learn how to provide a more efficient service WITH A SMILE! Banks have to attract customers because they are in competition with each other, but the PO attracts NOBODY, it is such a boring boring boring place to visit!

However, we are all human, and I do sympathize with any PO staff who may be worried about their job - so good luck, and hope your lot improves.