Wokingham Post Office

Knowing of worries about the possible move of the Post Office counters service from the Broad Street premises to a local shop, I am chasing an answer from the Post Office on why they wish to do this and what level of service they think they could supply with such a change. There is understandable apprehension that service could be worse if they refuse to engage and provide us with the rationale.

5 Comments

  1. Alan Jutson
    November 21, 2018

    Was unaware of this possible change.

    They have just spent a small fortune in the last few years altering the layout of this office.

    The population of Wokingham is growing rapidly with more and more home deliveries and collections, which I would have thought would have played into the hands of a large post office counter rather than a smaller one.
    Main post offices are often the only place to get some transactions completed, as the smaller shop based offices usually only perform a more limited service.

    Yet another nail in the coffin for traditional customer service.

  2. John Kingston
    November 22, 2018

    This sound like national policy.
    In Beeston, Nottingham, the Post Office has moved from a useful prominent position to the back end of a very poorly lit W H Smith.
    Nobody appears to like this arrangement.
    It begins to look like the death throes of a hitherto-loved business.

  3. ChrisShalford
    November 22, 2018

    There’s a parallel situation in Guildford. The leaflet inside the Post Office (in a non prominent position) consists of six A4 pages written by the Marketing Department to sell the move rather than give facts. They tell us, for example, that there will be five counters, but leave out that this is a reduction from the present seven. There are usually long queues now, so they are bound to be even longer in future.

    There is no indication of the length of the contract with W H Smith. What happens at the end of the contract? What if W H Smith hit financial problems? The leaflet is silent.

    It looks like another piece of the downward spiral in Post Office services.

  4. Alan Jutson
    November 23, 2018

    I see Barclay’s Bank in Wokingham is going for restricted opening hours as from 26th November in its announcement today.

    It say’s it will not open at all on a Thursday.

    On a Wednesday not opening until 10.00am

    Yet another nail in the coffin for Customer relations/service for yet another business.

    How long before it closes this branch completely ?

  5. Cliff. Wokingham
    November 24, 2018

    I used the Broad Street post office yesterday.
    It was fairly busy in there but, perhaps that was due to only having two service windows open.
    It seems bonkers to have so few windows open given the number and types of transactions on offer.
    You only need someone to be getting a passport and another wanting to buy some foreign currency and the number of people waiting really backs up.
    There seems to be a policy to push people towards using the self service facilities, this has also become so in supermarkets. I don’t like it myself to be honest.
    I notice that the Post office in Bracknell is also in W H Smith’s.

    Reply I took them a plan some years ago to extend the number of counters by using more of the front building for retail/service, but they did not pursue it. There is usually a queue when I go in.

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