Lordship Lane Post Office Closure

[Alec1]

11 hours ago, Jellybeanz said:

I find the post office massively helpful for posting parcels, either one on Lordship Lane or Gt Portland Street. Not all couriers collect and we don't have an Evri that close to my knowledge, Co op formerly Barry's does Yodel but Evri or parcel force are most reliable in my experience. 

For working people there is always a queue when we have time to go (lunchtime) and I've rarely known there not be a queue. For the retired yes you can be more flexible at quieter times. 

Royal Mail will come and collect your parcels from your home if you book/pay it all on their website.  You can even print out your own postage for letters/cards.  I did all of my Christmas cards that way this year rather than hunting down physical stamps! 

[Jellybeanz]

On 05/01/2025 at 00:39, Alec1 said:

Royal Mail will come and collect your parcels from your home if you book/pay it all on their website.  You can even print out your own postage for letters/cards.  I did all of my Christmas cards that way this year rather than hunting down physical stamps! 

If you don't know the weight this is very difficult, so I find it easiest to pop to the post office (usually one by work in the west end is easiest as I am mainly in the office).

[Alec1]

I just use electronic kitchen scales, or for heavier, body weighing scales, but if you don't use LL post office then you escape their madness too! 

[Earl Aelfheah]

On 05/01/2025 at 00:39, Alec1 said:

Royal Mail will come and collect your parcels from your home if you book/pay it all on their website.  You can even print out your own postage for letters/cards.  I did all of my Christmas cards that way this year rather than hunting down physical stamps! 

I wasn't aware of this, thanks

[Cancerian]

I’ve viisited the lordship lane post office  a couple of times over the past few years and found them so grumpy and unhelpful. One nearly falling asleep whilst people in the queue waiting! Very poor customer service. 

[tiddles]

Tried going twice yesterday - queue was out the door both times… 

[Moovart]

18 minutes ago, tiddles said:

Tried going twice yesterday - queue was out the door both times… 

Well doesn't that just show that there are services being provided in the post office that people need.  Where will those services be provided if there is no post office in Lordship Lane? 

And before someone says it's all old, IT illiterate people unnecessarily causing those queues, the people I saw in the queue last time I was in it, seemed to range mostly from 30 to 50ish.  So let's chuck out the unhelpful stereotypes and stop making assumptions about why people using a service are needing to use it.

It may not be a pleasant experience but I still assert that it is an essential service in Lordship Lane and ED will be worse off with no post office.  A high street cannot survive on coffee shops, bars and expensive food shops and restaurants alone!

 

https://www.change.org/p/save-lordship-lane-post-office

[Sue]

2 hours ago, Moovart said:

Well doesn't that just show that there are services being provided in the post office that people need.  Where will those services be provided if there is no post office in Lordship Lane? 

And before someone says it's all old, IT illiterate people unnecessarily causing those queues, the people I saw in the queue last time I was in it, seemed to range mostly from 30 to 50ish.  So let's chuck out the unhelpful stereotypes and stop making assumptions about why people using a service are needing to use it.

It may not be a pleasant experience but I still assert that it is an essential service in Lordship Lane and ED will be worse off with no post office.  A high street cannot survive on coffee shops, bars and expensive food shops and restaurants alone!

 

https://www.change.org/p/save-lordship-lane-post-office

Yes there are services being provided in the Post Office that people need.

I had to queue for ages to collect an Amazon parcel from there recently, because it was the only option offered other than home delivery (when you can't be sure you will be in).

That doesn't mean that those services can't be provided elsewhere - sub post offices, shops, parcel lockers for example, and that's just for collecting parcels.

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

6 hours ago, Moovart said:

someone says it's all old, IT illiterate people unnecessarily causing those queues, the people I saw in the queue last time I was in it, seemed to range mostly from 30 to 50ish.  So let's chuck out the unhelpful stereotypes and stop making assumptions about why people using a service are needing to use it.

Well said. I don't think much of that post office's business is Mrs Miggens withdrawing £7.34 in cash from her pension because she can't be doing with the new-fangled computers. That's a stereotype.

I'm terminally online and digital but when you're dealing with physical objects (like bloody parcels or cash!) sometimes you need to drop them off and pick them up from somewhere. That's especially true for international items.

I don't want to do that at Tesco or Ken's Korner Kabin where you have to piss around with some deadbeat courier's app which never works, and where you can't yet the courier on the phone and the poor guy in the shop doesn't know how to fix it and is only being paid 13p for the transaction. I don't want a million white vans being driven up and down the same street every day by insecure workers in the gig economy being paid peanuts. I want to drop my stuff off and pay the fee at my local post office, and I want my stuff to be delivered by my brilliant friendly postie who knows me and my neighbours and where to leave stuff safely.

And judging by the huge queues out the door at Lordship Lane PO it seems there are plenty of people who end up coming to the same conclusion.

Rant over...for now.

[Sue]

1 hour ago, Dogkennelhillbilly said:

Well said. I don't think much of that post office's business is Mrs Miggens withdrawing £7.34 in cash from her pension because she can't be doing with the new-fangled computers. That's a stereotype.

I'm terminally online and digital but when you're dealing with physical objects (like bloody parcels or cash!) sometimes you need to drop them off and pick them up from somewhere. That's especially true for international items.

I don't want to do that at Tesco or Ken's Korner Kabin where you have to piss around with some deadbeat courier's app which never works, and where you can't yet the courier on the phone and the poor guy in the shop doesn't know how to fix it and is only being paid 13p for the transaction. I don't want a million white vans being driven up and down the same street every day by insecure workers in the gig economy being paid peanuts. I want to drop my stuff off and pay the fee at my local post office, and I want my stuff to be delivered by my brilliant friendly postie who knows me and my neighbours and where to leave stuff safely.

And judging by the huge queues out the door at Lordship Lane PO it seems there are plenty of people who end up coming to the same conclusion.

Rant over...for now.

I've never once had a problem with collecting parcels from shops. Perhaps you don't know how to use the relevant app/s?

 Royal Mail deliveries by the postie (my regular postie is lovely as well) have nothing to do with the Crown Post Offices. But I can't understand why you would want even more stuff delivered that way when the delivery service seems to be struggling already? And many people living in terraced houses in this area don't have a place to "leave stuff safely".

I imagine that the huge queues out the door in Lordship Lane are there for a number of reasons.

These could include:

very  slow service by some members of staff,

lack of alternative options (such as parcel lockers)  offered for you  to collect parcels you don't want delivered to your home,  

people being unaware of some of the alternative options there are for sending a parcel,  eg being able to print a label at home and have a parcel collected from your home.

people not being able or willing to go to the Post Office at less busy times (often  I have not had to wait at all).

I genuinely can't understand why some people are so keen to see the Post Office continue to lose shedloads of money by running high street offices at a loss when there are other suitable ways to provide their services locally.

What is so special about the Lordship Lane post office (and other Crown post offices)? Do they hold treasured childhood memories for people, or something? Is it a fear of change, or what?