Posting changes

In this day of email and electronic payment as a business we find little need to post things, however some things still need to be done the old fashioned way and that means a trip to the local post-box.

This particular one serves the needs of the estate and therefore many businesses so it was with some surprise that I noted the new sign placed over the old collection times - From 21st September the last collection from this post-box will be at 4pm.

That's instead of 6pm. Now stop and think about that for a moment, this serves businesses. Businesses that often post things on the way home, businesses that mostly finish at 5pm or later. Oh but of course they realise that as they've added a little note underneath that we can instead use the Lombard Street post-box set outside the Co-op because the last pick-up from there is 5:15pm. Thanks, that makes all the difference.

Okay sure the roadworks are causing problems, but we've ordered stationery twice this week from a provider on the 'wrong' side of the divide and chatting to them they've simply adapted their schedule to take that into account. So why can't the Post Office do the same? Because when it comes to standard post they've got a monopoly, and when you've got one of those you expect your customers to adapt to your needs and not the other way around.