Forum Topic

Post Office to WH Smith

I cannot see how that makes a better service?Smiths will be even smaller and the Post Office is currently in a building some 35 years newer.It is on a busy road with absolutely no Parking for disabled or drop off facilites for elderly.The store exits straight into some of the worst crowds at the 207/83 bus stop where some of the worst behaviour in the area is centered.All the other proper post offices are gone from the entire district justified by the promise that the main office would remain such.Post Office would be better redesigning their often understaffed office or having an american style office situated at the sorting office with customer parking and easy access.Who dreams up such impractical ideas and passes them off as 'improvements'?

Michael Brandt ● 5982d29 Comments

Ridiculous and stupid idea for all the reasons you mention.

Ash Parks ● 5982d

What a stupid idea! I try and avoid post office like the plague as its always packed and very busy, smiths is a very small shop already so where do they think the long queue of people is going to go???The post office has at least 10 counters cant see them having half that in smiths. I find smiths difficult anyway like already been said its a very busy store and as a wheelchair user negotiating ailse and displays is bad enough without the whole shop being compressed into a smaller space. The only winners would be perhaps smiths selling a few more jiffy envelopes. I shall be emailing them!

Erika Griffiths ● 5982d

YEs, I'm sure the driver for this is just money...on both sides. Obviously cheaper for the PO than haing a dedicated building and better for Smiths - more footfall, more unplanned sales

Penny Crocker ● 5982d

Smiths is going to go the same way as Woolworths.They have some real prime locations but there always seems to be a better alternative close by.

G Lord ● 5982d

Smiths has definately gone downhill over the last few years. At one time you could get anything at Smiths, nowadays if just seems to be a glorified paperhshop. Moving the Post Office into Smiths will cause more problems than solve them and ultimately I can see Smiths going the way of the Dodo.

J Smith ● 5982d

Can someone tell me why is moving the PO such an issue?What use do people get from a PO?You can buy stamps at other places, most of those boring forms we sometimes have to fill in are available on line now, some parcel companies collect from your home.Benefits/pensions can be paid into a bank account.So why is the possibly of it moving a potential roblem?

G Lord ● 5981d

Recorded delivery, foreign exchange,car tax and fishing licence.

Arthur Breens ● 5981d

Thank you, foreign exchange can be done at a bank, I think M&S do it as well?Car Tax, recorded delivery, can be done on-line.  (But I do accept that parcels often need weighing and the best oprion chosen)Fishing licence - I simply don't know, maybe you got me there, do you fish?The PO does provide a LOT of services, my question is, does it matter where it is?Even from reading the comments thus far, the issue seems to be how long we wait rather than than where we wait?

G Lord ● 5981d

You beat me to it.Fishing licence can be bought online as well as recorded delviery and car tax.M&S do offer a Bureau de change as well as banks.

J Smith ● 5981d

I'll probably be shot down in flames but surely, te majority of people who use the post office a lot are the poor and elderely (benefits etc) and thos who don't have online access or knowhow.

Penny Crocker ● 5981d

It's a fair comment Penny, do you mean SOME of those who HAVE to use a PO?Would it make any difference to them if the PO is at Smiths or by the 65 bus stop?The PO provides some essential services, I am not disputing that, but the point is that where it physically is located, really, at the end of the day, makes little or no difference.  Once again though, I will make the point that it seems to take forever in some PO's to be served, this has nothing to do with its location.

G Lord ● 5981d

Anyone who ever goes into the post office will tell you that its usually packed and busy its not like its some tiny sub post office thats hardly used, so it is suprising that it should be down sized. I use online services, buying stamps etc but there are still times when you do NEED to go and making the experience longer and more difficult isnt really the best option is it.

Erika Griffiths ● 5981d

I've used the small post office in Uxbridge Road near Tesco's - its is always busy and the service sometimes leaves a lot to be desired.As you say everything can now be got online.

J Smith ● 5981d

Absolutely agree with you Erika, sometimes you have to go to a PO and like you say it's often packed at Ealing Broadway.  But moving it to Smiths isn't making it more difficult to get to is it?  It's only over the road a bit, closer to the station...The issue is the amount of time we, the customers, seem to spend in the queue doing nothing. 

G Lord ● 5981d

Actually, the Post Office is the key link to many home businesses and those who run ebay shops. There is a huge rise in parcel post and small traders do not have enough outgoing packets for a collection service. So the post office is now the only Royal Mail outlet.To locat the only remianing post office with a parcels facility to the back of a shop with no vehicular drop point whatsoever is stupid and will entail in all that business going to DHL or other carriers who will either collect or have drop in depots with parking facilities.To be honest, the post office should have relocated years ago to it's old motor depot in Mattock Lane (Now a Pub) where it could have a facility that would match that of US and European modern postal offices.It is little wonder that the Royal Mail and Post Offices are losing so much business when that are making themselves inaccessible to modern businesses and practices

Michael Brandt ● 5981d

Is there a vehicular drop point currently?Is there one at Uxbridge Road?Ad hoc collections are possible via parcel force but what you are saying is 100% correct.  The PO and Royal Mail do not seem to think from a business point of view.

G Lord ● 5981d

This is a perfectly serious question: what do people do in post offices that makes for such long queues? The days when people collected their pensions are long gone, aren't they? Stamps are available anywhere or can be printed off the Internet. All those things like car tax we used to do there are also now much more quickly and simply done online. I don't set foot in the post office from one's year's end to the next.

Susan Kelly ● 5981d

In answer to your question, most of the queues are due to the slow service.

J Smith ● 5981d

Yes but is the slow service down to the staff?When I eventually get served, the whole transaction is usually done in a few seconds.The staff seem to be going as quickly as possible.  I can't see why, especially in Ealing Broadway, there is such a massive wait.But its the same in banks isn't it?  Wait in the queue and when you get served, they stamp a bit of paper, tap a few buttons and the jobs done in seconds.What does seem to annoy customers in both places is that there are many windows closed whilst the queue backs out onto the street....

G Lord ● 5981d

In our small business we do as much as possible online, but couriers are uneconomic for many of our deliveries, so the only solution remains a trip to the Post Office. There is always a queue; doesn't that indicate that there's a strong demand for the service and insufficient resources? How on earth will moving to smaller premises improve things?

Isabelle Clark ● 5975d

We haven't said that there isn't a demand for the Post Office, there is. But a lot of things can now be done online (stamps, car tax etc)and payments can be made into bank accounts, such as pensions etc. If this were to be done then the only thing left to physically do would be parcels etc which would mean shorter queues and less space used.

J Smith ● 5975d

A huge amount of the queuing at Ealing Broadway is down to the vast population of students and in particular, overseas students who are the bread and butter of TVU. Unlike many universities, TVU has no campus post office.Many students use the post office for all sorts of things that cannot be done entirely securely on college computers or safely to lodgings.

Michael Brandt ● 5975d

But there always seems to be a long queue at Post Offices, in a smaller space this would seem even bigger.We should be thankful that there is a Post Office and that it may only be moving just across the round(ish).  Some places there isn't one at all or the nearest one is a bus ride away.

G Lord ● 5975d

Queues are probably down to the low margin nature of much of the business. You aren't going to invest much in staff if the amount of money they bring in is minimal. Hopefully WHSmith see the deal working because they will increase footfall in their shop and won't have insufficient counter staff because it will damage their revenue.

Andy Jones ● 5968d

Ealing's Post Office move is a done deal There are concerns that a 'consultation' about the relocation of Ealing's main post was no more than a sham.(Consultations are usually a done deal and shams, They are to make us think we are participating in decisions, but the fact a Consultation occurs usually confirms the decision)The six week 'consultation' period - and deadline for comments about the move to WH Smith - ended on June 11, but the High Street branch has already been cleared of stock and staff have been told they will be moving into the new location by August 2nd.The MP for Ealing Central and Acton, Angie Bray,has outlined her concerns in Parliament. Speaking to the Leader of the House of Commons, Sir George Young, she said:''I wonder whether the Leader of the House is aware that, in Ealing, the Post Office is engaging in yet another consultation on a major proposal to close down a post office in one place and move it to another. ''Even while the consultation is going on, it appears that some of the preparatory building work is taking place at the proposed site. I wonder whether we can have a further look at how the Post Office conducts some of these so-called consultations.''Sir George has promised to raise the issue with the Secretary of State for Business. Angie has also raised the issue with the Chief Executive of the Post Office and with Consumer Focus.The Post Office say they need to move to safeguard services and the new branch will have improved facilities.

Peter Chadburn ● 5948d

We cold ask what parliament will actually do about an isolated incident involving the post office. It can hardly be on top of the agenda.

J Smith ● 5948d

I totally disgree with idea of putting the Post Office in WH Smith. Smiths will be smaller and at the moment it is to small. The post office is always over crowed and has long queues. Improve the Post Office it self. The move will not be any better but worse. The move will not make things better.

Tom Maramaros ● 5943d

As we have found over the years Consultation is a tick box exercise to justify a decision that has already been made. The results will be twisted to suit the answer required. Interesting that this falls within a Conservative constituency. Will any action occur, I hope so.

Peter Chadburn ● 5942d

One of the most interesting Consultations I have been involved with was the Tram one. very little feedback was taken on board and also the surveys that showed overwhelming support included large numbers of people who did not live a long the route or anywhere near it (i.e. Kingston). So perhaps when you see the words Consultation look very carefully at the questions as they are loaded. It perhaps should be that Consultations are devised and ran by a truly independant body.

Peter Chadburn ● 5941d