Sunday 20 February 2011

impatient in the post office

(no not me this time...)

I went to the post office yesterday, the one in Chelmsford is located in W H Smith :o(

The post office was due to open at 9 am I got there at 8.50 and was the fourth person in line and more people joined the queue behind me...

9 o'clock came and still there were no staff to serve us, at 9.01 they slowly started going to their cashier stations so they could get ready to start their day, but they were clearly in no hurry...

The person at the front of the queue was being quite sarcastic by saying "can I chose which cashier to go to?" and I dont think that hurried them along any faster either...

Now onto the impatient old bag biddy...

...there was an old woman about eight people behind me who was getting quite impatient (it must have been 9.05 at this point) and she was shouting or rather speaking loudly what with British reserve and all of that cr@p), saying that it was unfair to say that they are open at 9 when they werent even ready to serve us...

At 9.10 they finally started to serve us and I took my parcel to the counter, the lady serving me said that the parcel should get there in three days, my Mum will be attacking the postman when she sees him with her package as LOL she loves marmite as much as I do ;o)

5 comments:

Connie T. said...

I agree with the old lady. If they say they are open at 9 then they should be ready to help people at 9. That was rude of them to make you wait. But when they close they probably have to help whoever is in the line though.

Eileen H said...

I have a different opinion here. I run a shop that opens at 9 and unfortunately it is sometimes just after as there are lots of preparations to be made beforehand. I am sometimes slowed up by people banging on the door at anytime after 8.30 asking what time do we open. Once customers know the staff are inside they want to come in ready or not !

Al said...

I can see both sides from this one. If somewhere states that it will be open at a certain time then they should at least try to be ready for that time. To have the cashiers just to start setting up at this time obviously isn't going to achieve this. Unless there was some vitally important staff meeting beforehand that ended up running late then there's no excuse.

However, working and often opening a department which opens later than the store does I know what customers can be like. Just because I'm there getting everything ready they expect to be served, despite the shutter being down, there being no overhead lights on and a sign on the counter stating that we don't open until 7am. 99% of the time I manage to be open at or slightly before 7am but there are times when I can't be (a delay in getting the keys or something like that can be all it takes).

At the end of the day though, the staff should do everything they can to be ready on time, and if they can't be then they should be as close to it as possible. If I couldn't get the keys before 7am I wouldn't just wander down there and turn up at 10 past, I'd get down there as soon as possible. However, there was no need for the customer to behave in the way she did, yes it was probably frustrating, but there are more constructive ways of making your displeasure known.

In summary, they were both at fault!

chocolat lover said...

I dont tend to get impatient unless someone is blatantly taking the p1ss out of me...

And also I get narked if I am being held up by someone being slow if I am in my lunch hour, at the weekends I am fine because I am in no hurry (most of the time anyway).

I was just surprised at the old woman moaning because old people tend to like having a captive audience for them to discuss their ailments and pets and grandkids etc ;o)

Kelly said...

I was in the post office the other day and there was no line! I was thoroughly amazed. I'm glad you didn't lose your cool, Amber, it isn't becoming ;)