An Post - them and us

seosamh

Went to An Post, South Circular Road parcel depot, this evening to pick up my package. Arrived about 5.10pm thinking I had plenty of time to pick up the parcel but the queue was out the door! The poor guy alone behind the counter was struggling to keep retrieving the parcels and was telling the people near the end of the queue that there was no chance of getting served as he had to stop at 5.30pm on the dot and set the alarm.

As is the norm with these depots, you turn up with ID and your slip that the postman left you when he could not deliver the parcel to your house (you were not in/ didn't hear the doorbell). So in the 20 minutes I was there only about 5 people were served. Each time the An Post worker disappeared with the slip but twice in a row he reappeared after about 5 mins only to say 'sorry but I cannot find your package, it's a mess back there, leave your number and I will look again on Monday and get in touch with you'.

Frustration started to grow among the queue and some gave up, realizing there wasn't any point persisting. He again repeated his need to close up sharp at 5.30pm and if we wanted we could call the customer service line and make a complaint.

One woman started to cry, 'I have an 8 week old baby and cannot get out again on Monday and need the package today' She would later leave empty-handed. We wondered as we stood there is this the cutbacks, is this austerity and should we all be just accepting this as the new reality.

Although the An Post worker was trying his best why was he left alone at such a busy time in the week when people leave work early to try to get their parcel for the weekend. He told us that he has asked for help from THEM before but THEY had turned the request down. By the mention of THEM he suddenly tries to be part of the queue and is not interested in being the solitary face of AN Post on a cold, wintry Friday evening. Who would blame him?

We are told that customer service is improving and is way better than during the Celtic Tiger. But An Post must remember that it needs to deliver at each stage of the mailing process and this experience at the end is the one people remember most.

wmpdd3

What a disaster, you should write to the customer services dept and see what answer they give. I always thought it was odd that there was no system for the packages sent back to the depo, usually the guys asks me,'any idea what the pack looks like?'

parsi

seosamh wrote: »

Went to An Post, South Circular Road parcel depot, this evening to pick up my package. Arrived about 5.10pm thinking I had plenty of time to pick up the parcel but the queue was out the door! The poor guy alone behind the counter was struggling to keep retrieving the parcels and was telling the people near the end of the queue that there was no chance of getting served as he had to stop at 5.30pm on the dot and set the alarm.

As is the norm with these depots, you turn up with ID and your slip that the postman left you when he could not deliver the parcel to your house (you were not in/ didn't hear the doorbell). So in the 20 minutes I was there only about 5 people were served. Each time the An Post worker disappeared with the slip but twice in a row he reappeared after about 5 mins only to say 'sorry but I cannot find your package, it's a mess back there, leave your number and I will look again on Monday and get in touch with you'.

Frustration started to grow among the queue and some gave up, realizing there wasn't any point persisting. He again repeated his need to close up sharp at 5.30pm and if we wanted we could call the customer service line and make a complaint.

One woman started to cry, 'I have an 8 week old baby and cannot get out again on Monday and need the package today' She would later leave empty-handed. We wondered as we stood there is this the cutbacks, is this austerity and should we all be just accepting this as the new reality.

Although the An Post worker was trying his best why was he left alone at such a busy time in the week when people leave work early to try to get their parcel for the weekend. He told us that he has asked for help from THEM before but THEY had turned the request down. By the mention of THEM he suddenly tries to be part of the queue and is not interested in being the solitary face of AN Post on a cold, wintry Friday evening. Who would blame him?

We are told that customer service is improving and is way better than during the Celtic Tiger. But An Post must remember that it needs to deliver at each stage of the mailing process and this experience at the end is the one people remember most.

The new dockets show a web address that can be used to re-route the package . Not a bad idea and adds to the facility to send the package to a neighbour.

Hours at the depots seem to vary - our local one (before it closed) was 7.30 - 13:00 which actually was a decent time.

Shelflife

Would it have killed him to hang on for 15mins and sort every one out?

No reason for him to "have" to put the alarm on at 530 apart from his desire to go home.

parsi

15 mins tonight, 15 mins tomorrow, 15 mins the next day etc etc ?

He's not the problem - the system is.

Shelflife

well if its an ongoing thing fine i wouldnt blame him for not waiting, as for having no system ... well why not devise a system that will help him find the parcels quicker himself.

a situation where customers are sent away unhappy will come back to bite An Post and in the long run the employee who turns away customers so that he can go home on time.

daenerysstormborn3

There could be a security reason for him having to put the alarm on at 5.30 on the dot.

Shelflife

Maybe but i fail to see what security risk would be there at 5.45 that wasnt there at 5.15.

All im saying is that times are tough and customers are fickle, if this worker is unflexible and pisses off customers on a regular basis because hes a jobsworth they will go to other couriors and he could end up out of a job altogether.

that said im not saying that he should let himself be walked over either.

juan.kerr

This is the sort of 'customer service' you get with a monopoly, regardless of the guy closing up at 17:30 or 15 misn later, it's institutional.

How many threads have we seen where the postman has the slip written up before reaching the door. It regularly happened with my old postman, he was even caught out once - he left the slip, I spotted it before he drove off, when I went out he didn't have the parcel.

It the postmen did their job less people would need to visit the depot.

Common sense would say the opening hours should better suit the customer. The people queuing missed the original deliveries, probably because many were at work, so getting there before 17:30 is an inconvenience.

Pretty Polly

From experience i have found the parcel depots at Drumcondra and Fairview to be very efficient. The South Circular depot doesn't sound well managed or else they need a better system!

Shelflife

To be fair to An Post, I've always found them excellent to deal with, and their sorting depot is usually quick and speedy for dealing with things like this (I'm in Drogheda).

Only one time I've ever been turned away without a package, and that was due to the driver not being back to the depot on time (which is fair enough, it's not exactly a common issue and it's not down to laziness or such).

Shelflife wrote: »

Would it have killed him to hang on for 15mins and sort every one out?

I don't understand why he would be expected to.

Paulw

Shelflife wrote: »

as for having no system ... well why not devise a system that will help him find the parcels quicker himself.

The guy on the desk isn't always the same person. So, there is a standard system in place that any employee can follow. But, this doesn't always work perfectly.

Also, sometimes the person gets to the depot to try to collect their item before the delivery driver gets back, so the item is not there.

The customer service desk closes at 5:30pm, but in many instances the delivery drivers don't get back until sometimes near 7pm, so the item isn't available for collection until the next day.

I've found that in many cases the guys in An Post are brilliant and go out of their way to help. But, the system can let them down.

Your recourse is to write a letter of complaint, not about the employee, but about the system.

longhalloween

Shelflife wrote: »

Maybe but i fail to see what security risk would be there at 5.45 that wasnt there at 5.15.

All im saying is that times are tough and customers are fickle, if this worker is unflexible and pisses off customers on a regular basis because hes a jobsworth they will go to other couriors and he could end up out of a job altogether.

You don't know what kind of security procedures they could have.

Poor fella was rushed off his feet and alone at the busiest postal time of the year. Probably glad to get off at 5.30.

Also it's not his problem if there's a queue, he just has to work his rostered hours and thats it. No point working for free because a rush of people came in half an hour before closing.

Same thing with the tax or social welfare office. They close the doors half an hour early so the people inside can be dealt with and no one else.

foggy_lad

Shelflife wrote: »

Maybe but i fail to see what security risk would be there at 5.45 that wasnt there at 5.15.

All im saying is that times are tough and customers are fickle, if this worker is unflexible and pisses off customers on a regular basis because hes a jobsworth they will go to other couriors and he could end up out of a job altogether.

that said im not saying that he should let himself be walked over either.

If he gives an extra 30minutes he will never see them again! If he was ten minutes late the next morning he would be reprimanded for it! If he suggested he add that time onto his lunch break or leave early the next day he would be told that half hour was his own time as him working late was not sanctioned by an post.

He could be the best postman in the world but to an post management he is just someone else they must watch and bully as if he and all his colleagues are fiddling their times.

cofy

Shelflife wrote: »

Maybe but i fail to see what security risk would be there at 5.45 that wasnt there at 5.15.

All im saying is that times are tough and customers are fickle, if this worker is unflexible and pisses off customers on a regular basis because hes a jobsworth they will go to other couriors and he could end up out of a job altogether.

that said im not saying that he should let himself be walked over either.

It's more likely to be a question of insurance. The premises may not be covered if the business stays open longer than it should.

dxhound2005

Not that it's any consolation to the OP but this problem is not unique to An Post. In a recent edition of On Your Behalf on Radio Ulster there was a report about a Royal Mail depot in Belfast which sounded a lot worse than the one in Dublin.

Because of the problem of people not being at home to accept deliveries it said Royal Mail and Parcel Force all over the UK were looking again at being able to leave parcels with neighbours. This is strictly against the rules in An Post as is leaving parcels on porches etc but it has gone on unofficially over the years.

foggy_lad

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Not that it's any consolation to the OP but this problem is not unique to An Post. In a recent edition of On Your Behalf on Radio Ulster there was a report about a Royal Mail depot in Belfast which sounded a lot worse than the one in Dublin.

Because of the problem of people not being at home to accept deliveries it said Royal Mail and Parcel Force all over the UK were looking again at being able to leave parcels with neighbours. This is strictly against the rules in An Post as is leaving parcels on porches etc but it has gone on unofficially over the years.

If an post are unable to operate in such a way that they cant deliver parcels and small packets during the day they should make arrangements to deliver these after 5 or just have their depots open early and late so people are facilitated!

Cheshire Cat

Something like this http://www.dhl.de/en/paket/privatkunden/packstation.html would do the trick. Dead handy. You get a text to tell you that your parcel has arrived and pick it up using your PIN. Any time - night or day.

Might not work everywhere but would be perfect for Dublin and other bigger places.

Nolimits

Cheshire Cat wrote: »

Something like this http://www.dhl.de/en/paket/privatkunden/packstation.html would do the trick. Dead handy. You get a text to tell you that your parcel has arrived and pick it up using your PIN. Any time - night or day.

Might not work everywhere but would be perfect for Dublin and other bigger places.

Was reading up on these a few weeks ago, the aim is to have one no more than ten minutes walk from everyone, obviously won't be possible in a lot of rural areas but would be great all the same.

Pythia

Anytime I've gone up to the one in Ballyboden at that time it's been almost empty.

Solair

It seems that Cork City's delivery offices were reorganised to ensure the maximum possible difficulty for customers to get to them.

We used to have delivery offices in the city centre and in convenient locations around the city.

The entire Northside of Cork City, including all the city centre businesses north of the river now has to go to a large delivery office in Hollyhill about 3km from the City Centre and quite inaccessible.

The delivery office is located in an industrial estate that looks like a scene out of some hellish movie. It's a rundown kip, rubbish everywhere, barbed wire fences, concrete bollards. It's like something you'd expect to see in a documentary about the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It opens conveniently from 7:30am to 1:30pm Monday-Friday.

Quite honestly, I dread going up there and now avoid using An Post where possible for deliveries of packages as I just find the whole experience so unpleasant and depressing.

It's nothing to do with the recession. It's clear that An Post simply do not care and think they're still a monopoly.

Items like registered letters and small packages should be held at your local post office and very large items should be redeliverable.

Convenient location : http://g.co/maps/j2mwv

Welcoming entrance : http://g.co/maps/yt2ae

Distance to City Centre areas it covers : http://g.co/maps/h595e

seosamh

Returned to the depot again after the debacle on Friday. Again the queue was out the door. Retrieval was again taking about 5 mins and at least one was 'sorry I cannot find it, give me your number and I will contact you when I find it later'. Some people came, saw the length of the queue and turned on their heels. One gentleman suggested that a young mother with her buggy should be allowed to the top of the queue. Fair enough, chivalry and all, but there was also an old lady on the queue and standing for a half hour is arguably more of a strain for her than the young mother.
In fairness, just after I was served a second An Post employee arrived and started serving. Still, the way the parcels are stored and retrieved is like finding a needle in a haystack. Come on An Post, you can do better.

Sidetracker

Cofy, I think you hit the nail on the head.

Mr. Presentable

seosamh wrote: »

Returned to the depot again after the debacle on Friday. Again the queue was out the door..

Was this also after 17:00? The depot is open all day. Any time I go in to my local it's packed after 17:00, but if I'm in in the morning or from 14:00 to 16:00 it's empty.

Sidetracker

Another anomaly that I have experienced in my local An Post depot is payments. I went to collect a parcel in my local An Post depot and was informed that I had to pay duty on it. No problem. The duty was €36. I gave the person €50 note but the lady said that she could not take it as they were "not allowed to have cash on the premises" and could not give me change. She suggested that I go across the road to the laundry. When I entered the laundry the assistant said
"change for the post dept". Everyone comes in here. It only occurred to me later, if they were not allowed to hold cash on the premises, what was she going to do with my €50 ?

cofy

Sidetracker wrote: »

Another anomaly that I have experienced in my local An Post depot is payments. I went to collect a parcel in my local An Post depot and was informed that I had to pay duty on it. No problem. The duty was €36. I gave the person €50 note but the lady said that she could not take it as they were "not allowed to have cash on the premises" and could not give me change. She suggested that I go across the road to the laundry. When I entered the laundry the assistant said
"change for the post dept". Everyone comes in here. It only occurred to me later, if they were not allowed to hold cash on the premises, what was she going to do with my €50 ?

The only reason I can think of is that payments are put into a drop safe. These safes have a slot for cash but only one person holds a key. I have only seen this system in one business.

JADMIX

well they do have a system, all parcels are placed on shelves in alphabetical order (surname). as for the postie not being back in time that should not happen as he has to put a time and date on the slip as to when the parcel will be available for collection, this is usually the following day, also posties on bikes don't do parcels or packets so you would have a van driver delivering packets etc on a post where you have a postie on a bike, so he could be out late because the van driver could be doing the postal routes of say 10 cycle postmen if you know what i mean, you would not believe the amount of people who turn up to collect a parcel within a couple of hours of receiving a slip telling them to call the following day, I work in an post.

mikemac1

Sidetracker wrote: »

It only occurred to me later, if they were not allowed to hold cash on the premises, what was she going to do with my €50 ?

As said above drop safe. If they didn't then a PO depot is a fairly obvious target for gangs

I had a similar system when working nights in hotels. No cash or change at all, everything in the drop safe



In Dublin I've used Artane, Fairview and Kylemore Rd and the staff were all great, no complaints

I reserve my rage for the clowns who decided to put the Galway depot out on Tuam Rd.
No buses. Not even a footpath. It's downright dangerous walking out there on the busy road on a dark winter evening. You walk inside the dashed line, no footpath there for you

How do elderly people who don't drive get out there? I can walk/cycle it but not everyone can.
Taximen in Galway must be getting great business for trips out there

dee.

I feel bad for the OP but at the same time, the man in an post did his job. Maybe the people higher up (his managers) should look into hiring another person for the evenings if it's that busy all the time.

When I lived in house A, our old postman would leave any small parcels with the neighbour. Anything big, he would put a slip in the door..without even checking if we were in. I moved to house B earlier this year and he used to leave packages on the doorstep which annoyed me so I started opening the living room window wide every morning (it's next to the doorstep) and he took the hint and would throw them in there.
I've now moved to a large housing estate with over 200 houses in a new town, and we have two postman (one for letters, one for parcels) the guy who delivers parcels leaves them outside the door if nobody answers. We had a package delivered with very expensive items and it was sent via registered post. Packages from that company usually only take 2 days so when it hadn't arrived in over a week and a half I got worried and checked the tracking number online - it was marked as delivered and signed by me! I wasn't even home that day. Luckily the company refunded me as a gesture of goodwill but considering mr.postman lied and said I signed for it, I could have been out all my money. I'm going to try stick with companies who use DHL and the like. I have found the DHL driver very efficient and he usually arrives before 9am and gives a phone call to let me know when he's on his way!

dee.

Another thing related to an post but not the same issue the OP had -

I sell quite a bit on eBay and usually send about 10-15 packages twice a week. The cost of posting the packages is about €100-€150 each time.
The post office in the town I used to live in was in a small rural village and wouldn't be the busiest of places. The only time I seen people there was a. People collecting social welfare payments or b. Paying bills. I would have thought they would be glad that i was spending so much money in there. Not the case!
I went in with some packages one Thursday afternoon and joined the line of people (there were about 4/5 people collecting SW payments) when I reached the counter the woman actually scolded me for coming in on a Thursday as it's their busiest day due to SW payments and TOLD me to come in on Monday's in the future.
I switched to bringing things in on Monday's and Wednesday's, all the while feeling like an inconvenience. I also got scolded for coming in at evening time..presumably because she was tired and not wanting to do her job. I arrived at 4.30 and the PO doesn't close until 5.30.
Thank heavens I no longer have to deal with her.

mikemac1

I've gotten the same from the local postmistress

You'll get a scolding if you arrive near 5.00 as she'll be counting up her till
But she doesn't close until 5.30

Felt like a schoolchild

And it's the local PO so I can't go anywhere else
You don't cross the postmistress, she knows all your business and knows more gossip and info for the area then the local garda sergeant