Post Office

Crappy service (the lady behind the window counter — station 4 — told me to leave my parcel in front of the parcel station and left it there for over 10 minutes! I was watching her because my gut feeling said that she will forget it and surprisingly she did! Outrageous! So I went back in and personally took the parcel from the counter and hand it over to the another staff — ridiculous!) The queue and the whole post office looks pretty depressing. Probably will go to Hermes next time.

I’ve recently grown very fond of Post Offices with anything to do with food attached to them. Bear with me, I’m approaching my thirties and a smug grown-​up and things like this please me. A Post Office is as a Post Office does, but when you think about the fact that we have a dear friend who runs one of these joints near Buxton and buys in Cheshire Cheeses to sell as well as offering fresh sandwiches made with the best bacon in Christendom according to my better half, you get an idyllic impression of such little shops.
So I was chuffed when, needing to run a postal errand on the day of a Breakfast Club, that this adjoins Gabriel’s Grocery, temple of pancakes. After stuffing ourselves silly I assume that you can’t get from one to t’other through the door between them (look, experience has taught me that such doors are usually locked) and I head for the front door to slip into the drizzle for a nanosecond before entering the Post Office.
‘Er, Em?’ Chris says.
I turn around, and he’s holding open the very door I thought I wouldn’t be able to get through with a wryly raised eyebrow. Facepalm. So over I shuffle, and experience Post Office glory. Second blonde moment of the day comes when I join the Bureau de Change queue instead of the normal cashiers, another thing my dear boyfriend has to point out to me. It gets pretty queuey on a Saturday, word to the wise. Be prepared for a lot of foot-​tapping and waiting. But at least I had Christmas songs to amuse me and sway to, and Chris had that Infinity Blade game on his iPhone.
The cashiers were very lovely indeed, and it didn’t cost me a pretty penny to send my little envelope to the States. All round, a good PO experience indeed, and one I’ll happily repeat as I’m oft to be found gorging at Gabriel’s.

It’s about 18 years that I’ve lived in Chorlton and used the post office on Wilbraham Road. I work as a self-​employed artist working frequently with community groups and in public settings, so I need the services of the post office, as most of us do. Now and then I might grumble quietly, as everybody tends to, when faced with a long, long queue but most of us accept that’s just how it is, especially at certain times. No complaints. They all seem very friendly and helpful in there anyway… well so I thought!
Today however, it wasn’t queuing that presented an issue for me at all. It was the service. I was so taken aback by the attitude and rude comments of the girl serving at the shop counter that I found it difficult to believe it was really happening.
I asked at the shop counter if I could purchase stamps (to save queueing for a cashier) and the girl replied that she’d just run out but would go to get some for me. Fine. I asked for 10 first class stamps.
When she returned she presented the stamps together with my change. «There’s just one thing» I said, «I need a receipt as well, please». «Sorry, I can’t give you one» she replied. «Well, I need one» I said, «because its a business expense». She replied «Well you should have told me that first, your mistake» and then turned and spoke to the next customer waiting to be served.
«I’m sorry» I interrupted, «but you haven’t finished dealing with my transaction. I still need a receipt.»
To which she re-​affirmed that I’d made a mistake in not requesting a receipt first, before asking for stamps. Annoyed, I asked her «Have you never heard the phrase: the customer is always right?» Her reply was «Yes, but you are wrong. It was your mistake not to ask for a receipt first and you should be saying sorry to me. That would be the polite thing to do.» I told her that in the circumstances I had been exceptionally polite (and I could see from the expressions of other customers nearby in the main queue that they agreed!)
Finally, she produced a till receipt and I left the shop feeling quite unsettled. I don’t enjoy confrontations very much. So I think I’ll be using Clarendon Road post office from now on. It is a little further to walk but the exercise will do me good and anyway, there’s rarely much of a queue there. Although, now that I’ve written this, that might not be the case for much longer!!!

I used to dread going into this place. It was always packed no matter what time of day it was, and in my experience the staff were incredibly inefficient in dealing with routine queries. I went in there to post a package to Germany. For some reason the man behind the counter found this fact hilarious and proceeded to talk to his colleague in his native language for a good couple of minutes whilst gesturing at me. The staff seemed more focussed on selling the disco balls and ghastly home decorations and assorted electrical goods available in their ‘shop’ which took over half the post office than they did in serving customers.
Goodbye and good riddance lousy old post office. Hello and welcome to new posh post office complete with electronic ‘cashier number three pleeeease’ system, friendly and efficient staff and a small shop which sells useful things such as jiffy bags and sellotape. Just how a post office should be. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t make a special trip to this post office if it wasn’t just at the end of my road, but it is soooo much better than the old post office.