Forest Hill Post Office - Fit for Purpose?

I witnessed a unique incident last night in the Post Office at Forest Hill.

I got to the Post Office at approx 17:05 . I joined a queue of some 12-15 people that grew quickly to around 20 people.

A number of people had parcels and the remainder had larger envelopes and the like.

At 17:20 a Royal Mail postman emerged from the counter area, pushing a cage full of post and made his way to the lift.

Immediately at that point one of the Post Office employees behind the counter announced to the next customer that he could no longer receive parcels.

Naturally the customer protested but the PO employee stated, “it will take too long to process your parcel”.

Further protest brought a different response - " it does not matter - your parcel will not go anywhere tonight, it is too late, the collection by Royal Mail has been completed".

He then went further “Come back tomorrow, parcels cannot be stored here overnight”.

No amount of protest from other customers would alter this PO employee’s view. He was abrupt, verging on being rude when people protested that they had come from work - to be answered with a dismissive “you can visit any Post Office tomorrow”.

So - is this official policy ?

Is it the case that Post Office and Royal mail rules mean that the Post Office can no longer receive, store, manage and deliver our mail if it means that the posted items have to be stored in Post Office premises ?

Or was this a unilateral decision backed up by nonsensical statements.

Have you raised this complaint directly with Royal Mail? Sadly I think they’re unlikely to see it here.

Have not done so yet - but think it is more a Post Office issue than one for Royal Mail - they are separate entities. Not even sure that the PO there is a shop-in-shop franchise run by the newsagent.

I solved my problem by insisting the PO counter staff prepare my items for Air Mail and then hand them back to me - I then went downstairs to the Royal Mail postman who was still loading his van and he very obligingly accepted them from me.

My action however would be of no help to the others in the queue.

I despair anytime I have to go to that post office. So much so I have to go to that “other” post office after to recover.

The problem with the Post office is that 97% are franchises. I assume that the post office you are referring to is the one in Ryman’s, who are notorious for employing incompetent and rude employees - I wonder how much they are paying them.

I consistently have a negative experience with the Post Office on Brockley Rise, which is part of an off licence. They keep trying to sell me more expensive products than what I need. Recently, I asked for a small parcel to be sent to Italy standard and the owner gave me the options for a tracked or signed and tracked delivery - signed and tracked does not even work in Italy. Before that, I asked for 2nd class stamps and they tried to sell me first class. They are extremely rude, refuse to take return Amazon parcels, they have really over estimated their powers. We have complained with the Post Office more than twice but nothing has been done…

I find the staff friendly, and I am puzzled by the refusal to continue serving customers until closing time and store parcels as necessary.

It concerns me that the posting box outside the building is not fit for purpose, frequently it is full to overflowing and I have to post mail elsewhere - which usually means the inconvenience of taking the mail with me on the train and posting at my destination, as I usually post mail on my way to the station.

I don’t find any hard-sell at Forest Hill post office, but I do resent the changing nature of post offices generally, where sales staff are trying to sell me insurance, internet service etc

I used to use the main PO in Forest Hill regularly and then after it became a WHSmith franchise. Sadly unless you want nothing more than a stamp, it’s nowhere as good as it used to be as a Crown PO.

I now go to the one in East Dulwich which is still part of Post Office Ltd and had a refurb in 2015. An example of how a PO should be operated. Not once did I have issues renewing things in there and know exactly what they’re doing. However they have large queues this week due to Christmas.

Too many people are still unaware of the convenience and lower cost of sending small packets and parcels by Post Office competitors like Hermes, Collect + and Parcel2Go who offer drop-offs at local shops and supermarkets that are open from 7am to 10pm.

This time of year the FH Post Office is always at breaking point (as are most other POs). They don’t have much storage space since the their consultation room was fitted (not their choice I believe). I’m not sure whether or not there is a policy against storing parcels there overnight, I doubt it - I think it is probably more of a capacity issue.

It’s odd, but the last collection from the office and post box upstairs is 5.15pm. The last collection from the post box outside is 5.30pm. If you are there after 5.15pm, you might be better off asking for your letter back and posting it outside instead.

Also, WHSmith sell stamps, so you can just buy stamps downstairs and save having to stand in the queue.

My guess is there’s a practical cut off for parcels. If that royal mail cage has been collected then there’s not much storage area / risk of the parcel being lost goes up. Hence they don’t want to hold it.

My understanding was Post Office franchises used to be a bit of a cash cow back in the day. But now some of them definitely struggle. Hence why they are under staffed and miserable.

I think this storage issue at Forest Hill P.O may have been going on for sometime although it may just be during the Christmas period. A couple of years ago when I wasn’t at home to take a Parcelforce delivery on Christmas Eve they took it to the sub-post office on Stanstead Rd. When I queried why they hadn’t taken it to the nearest post office ie Forest Hill I was told it was because Forest Hill weren’t accepting any items from Parcelforce at that time.

I think that stems from Parcelforce and PO being split for competition purposes, albeit it was then friendly. Less so now!

The guy who runs my local post office in Battersea is so rude it’s almost an experience. I find it quite funny. Even funnier are the google reviews…

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=post%20office%20battersea&oq=post+office+batters&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0l4.2087j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&npsic=0&rflfq=1&rlha=0&rllag=51474174,-159823,911&tbm=lcl&rldimm=10445932072154399506&ved=0ahUKEwiwpsHijZvYAhWB3KQKHTyUAxsQvS4ISzAB&rldoc=1&tbs=lrf:!2m4!1e17!4m2!17m1!1e2!2m1!1e3!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:4#lrd=0x487605715a0c9cc7:0x90f767dfec9f8312,1,,,&rlfi=hd:;si:10445932072154399506;mv:!1m3!1d12349.921357567222!2d-0.1598236!3d51.466990149999994!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i296!2i477!4f13.1;tbs:lrf:!2m1!1e3!2m4!1e17!4m2!17m1!1e2!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:4

Has anyone ever seen the financial services consultation room being used? I certainly haven’t!

Going to have to make the trip to experience this

@ChrisR In my experience all Parcel Force parcels go to Stanstead Road, I don’t think FH Post Office ever takes them.

I have never seen anyone in any Post Office consulting room ever. Such a waste of money, resources and space. And they are ugly.

At least there is a chair in the consulting room!

That’s very direct.

I made no comment in my original post about anyone in the sorry tale being ugly.

The consulting room partitions are ugly.

Ah - got it.

On a positive note, I have always found the sub post office on Stansted Road (bottom of Blythe Hill Lane ish) very good and very friendly. Take your business there if you can.

I’m a regular “drop & go” customer so am aware of the problems faced by staff. People should give them a break they do their best.
They have very little storage space for parcels. They can’t use the financial services consulting room for storage - they wish they could and have in the past. It is simply not secure.

I was in there on Monday 18th around 4,30 pm. Queue half way down the stairs, I heard staff they were going to not allow anymore people to join queue after 5.10 pm. Basically it’s not big enoiugh to cope with the heavy Christmas demand.

That may be the case, but at other times of year it is painfully empty and over staffed. The staff tell me some days there’s hardly any trade at all.

I dream of visiting that day.

I frequently go in on weekdays at lunchtime. Rarely more than one person ahead of me, often none.