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?

[Dulwich dweller]

I use it on a weekly basis for a couple of reasons. It's generally always busy and well staffed. It's certainly more than just a drop off point for parcels and packages. I will use other shops on the lane whilst I'm down there. I'd imagine the PO being there brings a fair bit of footfall to the area. 

 

 

 

 

On 05/01/2025 at 00:02, Sue said:

 

Card payment  is also much easier for the shop. And much easier for customers in a queue who don't have to wait while someone gets their purse out, counts out the money and gives it to the assistant,  who then has to count out and give them their change, which they then have to put away in their purse... 

 

As opposed to having to wait for customer in front of me to get there phone out, type in four digits to unlock the phones screen, then piss about scrolling to find the correct app before they eventually put the phone on the reader. Same in many Instances with cards. If you have such an issue with people using that dirty evil cash then surely the self service / card only tills are your friend!! 

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

4 hours ago, Sue said:

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

Good for you. What happens when you get to sodding Tesco and the crappy instore Hermes terminal is broken, and the store workers aren't trained to fix it, and there's no way for the punter to contact Hermes IT (as if it were our job to fix it)? What happens when you get to the parcel locker to drop off a package and the machine can't scan the label that it itself printed several seconds beforehand? What happens when each shop requires a different bar code, QR code, reference code and ID to send and receive a simply package? These are all things that have happened to me in the last month alone, despite your implications that people who want to use the Post Office are thickies and troglodytes.

It's all a stupid inefficient pain in the ring that is unnecessarily complicated. What is wrong with this country that it can't run a decent, simple post office? 

Edited 14 hours ago by Dogkennelhillbilly

[Sue]

43 minutes ago, Dogkennelhillbilly said:

Good for you. What happens when you get to sodding Tesco and the crappy instore Hermes terminal is broken, and the store workers aren't trained to fix it, and there's no way for the punter to contact Hermes IT (as if it were our job to fix it)? What happens when you get to the parcel locker to drop off a package and the machine can't scan the label that it itself printed several seconds beforehand? What happens when each shop requires a different bar code, QR code, reference code and ID to send and receive a simply package? These are all things that have happened to me in the last month alone, despite your implications that people who want to use the Post Office are thickies and troglodytes.

It's all a stupid inefficient pain in the ring that is unnecessarily complicated. What is wrong with this country that it can't run a decent, simple post office? 

You seem to have had a run of bad luck, but I don't understand some of what you say.

What do you mean by each shop requiring a different bar code etc? Surely you only have one thing to show for each package you are sending or  collecting? Don't you get an email or some other kind of notification which contains the thing you have to show?

Are you suggesting that it would be easier to queue up at the Post Office than do it at a shop? You have to show barcodes etc there as well.

Where did I ever imply that anybody was "thick" or a "troglodyte"?

I did suggest that some people wanted to hang onto the old ways of doing things, like only using cash, that's true.

And it isn't that this country "can't run a decent, simple post office." It's that Crown post offices are losing money by maintaining  buildings which are expensive to run,  whilst no longer providing  the range of services they used to, because for various reasons they are no longer needed.

And the services which are still needed can be more cost effectively provided elsewhere without causing undue inconvenience to customers.

Things move on. 

But in any case, nothing has been decided yet. The closure of the Lordship Lane post office is just a proposal.

2 hours ago, Dulwich dweller said:

I use it on a weekly basis for a couple of reasons. It's generally always busy and well staffed. It's certainly more than just a drop off point for parcels and packages. I will use other shops on the lane whilst I'm down there. I'd imagine the PO being there brings a fair bit of footfall to the area. 

 

 

 

 

As opposed to having to wait for customer in front of me to get there phone out, type in four digits to unlock the phones screen, then piss about scrolling to find the correct app before they eventually put the phone on the reader. Same in many Instances with cards. If you have such an issue with people using that dirty evil cash then surely the self service / card only tills are your friend!! 

I hate self service tills 🤣

[Rockets]

2 hours ago, Dogkennelhillbilly said:

It's all a stupid inefficient pain in the ring that is unnecessarily complicated. What is wrong with this country that it can't run a decent, simple post office? 

Because our posting, banking and counter services needs have changed and the Post Office and Royal Mail can't compete with the myriad of parcel delivery services (none of which make any money either) that are there to satisfy our every immediate delivery whim and then when we decide we don't want said goods we block up the Post Office trying to return them for free. Or the sense of dread when you realise a parcel has been sent by Royal Mail and you get the text that says: we will be delivering between 7am and 7pm today (or maybe tomorrow or the day after but we will only tell you that at 6.59pm) and if you want to change your delivery click here and we will put you into an endless loop of clicks that don't let you change anything.

I sense this is why our local politicians offer such a weak response as they know the system is broken and there is nothing they can do about it and they don't want to put their necks on the line.

P.S. I am using the Royal "we"!

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

10 hours ago, Sue said:

You seem to have had a run of bad luck, ... the services which are still needed can be more cost effectively provided elsewhere without causing undue inconvenience...

I haven't had a run of bad luck. I have had to deal with the systematically rubbish private courier market because I send and receive a lot of parcels.

This country's approach of dumping this vital economic activity in the hands of the Barclay Brothers, Jeff Bezos and various other spivs has failed. It's a rubbish outcome for consumers (for all the reasons above), it's a rubbish outcome for workers (many of whom are placed under massive pressure to work stressfully and dangerously by shame subcontracting arrangements), and it's a rubbish outcome for businesses that rely on volume deliveries (as their stuff gets dumped all over the place and their clients get annoyed).

Post Office branches are a vital front door for that sector.

[Sue]

9 hours ago, Rockets said:

Because our posting, banking and counter services needs have changed and the Post Office and Royal Mail can't compete with the myriad of parcel delivery services (none of which make any money either) that are there to satisfy our every immediate delivery whim and then when we decide we don't want said goods we block up the Post Office trying to return them for free. Or the sense of dread when you realise a parcel has been sent by Royal Mail and you get the text that says: we will be delivering between 7am and 7pm today (or maybe tomorrow or the day after but we will only tell you that at 6.59pm) and if you want to change your delivery click here and we will put you into an endless loop of clicks that don't let you change anything.

I sense this is why our local politicians offer such a weak response as they know the system is broken and there is nothing they can do about it and they don't want to put their necks on the line.

P.S. I am using the Royal "we"!

To be fair, I have found the system for changing a Royal Mail delivery very easy. But Royal Mail deliveries have nothing to do with the potential  closure of some Crown post offices!

45 minutes ago, Dogkennelhillbilly said:

I haven't had a run of bad luck. I have had to deal with the systematically rubbish private courier market because I send and receive a lot of parcels.

This country's approach of dumping this vital economic activity in the hands of the Barclay Brothers, Jeff Bezos and various other spivs has failed. It's a rubbish outcome for consumers (for all the reasons above), it's a rubbish outcome for workers (many of whom are placed under massive pressure to work stressfully and dangerously by shame subcontracting arrangements), and it's a rubbish outcome for businesses that rely on volume deliveries (as their stuff gets dumped all over the place and their clients get annoyed).

Post Office branches are a vital front door for that sector.

The "vital front door for that sector" doesn't have to be Crown Post Office branches.

[malumbu]

Good to have debate, just like the forum of old!  Like most I use post offices a few times a year, usually Forest Hill Road, occasionally the Village, Forest Hill or Sydenham.  All of these are wider businesses, Sydenham is quite successful but sells a right load of tat 😊 

Does society want to keep them open as a service to the community making a load or as a streamlined business which may disadvantage us from time to time, think the dwindling number of branches of banks with less and less staff on hand.

I have parcels delivered from time to time by Royal Mail and others, usually good but if course parcels have been left in the wrong places. Both my usual postie and the RM parcels chap are good and friendly although preferred the regular morning delivery not tea time.

Labour opening up parcel deliveries to competition in 2006 hammered Royal Mail but we are where we are.  They are catching up the digital age. 

Meant to post a link but copied and pasted someone else's post below sorry... 

The unsavoury side to all this is inefficiency of the need it now customer and the try on and return customer.  I expect many are guilty!

And the dreadful gig economy.....