Tortoise like service at Aston Manor Post Office

KG HALSE writes:

On January 19 at about 11:15am I went to the Aston Manor Post Office to pay some of my accounts.

On arrival, there were three people in front of me in the queue. After about 15 minutes my optimism began to fade as the queue had not moved at all and I was still number four.

The reason for the queue not moving was the incredible slowness of the person behind the counter processing the documentation of the person at the window. The queue might have moved a little bit faster had there been more than one person attending to the customers but as usual there was only one (very slow) person behind the counters to serve the customers. Two more people were at the back of the serving cubicles standing there talking to each other.

After about 20 minutes I excused myself from the queue and went to the window to enquire why the service was so slow. The person behind the glass panel just looked at me as if I was from another planet and did not say a word.

I then asked the person for her name as she did not have a name tag. She totally ignored me and carried on with the tortoise like service to the person who was at the front of the queue.

I requested to see the supervisor and again she did not acknowledge my request.

At this point she completed serving the person at the front of the queue and started serving the person in front of me. I decided to get back in the queue as I was now the second in line to be served.

All the people in the queue applauded me for my efforts to speed up the service but assured me this was normal service when you came to the post office. Some of the people in the queue decided they had had enough and left in disgust. In fact, some people came in the door and made a U-turn when they saw the queue and the fact that it was not moving.

Finally, the person in front of me completed their business and after 30 minutes I was now at the counter to be served. I passed my documents under the glass partition only to be told the system was “suddenly” off line and my accounts could not be processed, so I left in disgust.

It was strange to me how the people in front of me managed to get their business completed and also the people behind me but when I was at the window the system was off line.

While in the queue there was a discussion among the people lamenting the incredibly poor service and all wishing there was some alternative. I later mentioned the incident to my customers and friends. They all said they had also experienced dismal service there.

While discussing the poor service many said we should organise a demonstration outside the post office to protest the lack of service, as demonstrations and protests seem like the only way in South Africa to improve things.

The sad side of this story is that a large amount of their parcel business has been taken away by courier companies and electronic communication. And the dismal service being experienced by customers will make them find alternative ways to conduct their business, which will lead to the demise of the South African Post Office along with 17 000 jobs.

To the management of the South African Post Office: It would be appreciated if you could advise what is going to be done to speed up the disgracefully slow service.