On Friday I trotted up to the bank in the village to pay in a cheque, only to return home and find that the postie had delivered another cheque to me. That means at some point tomorrow I’ll be strolling back down to the bank (Hopefully not trudging through the snow) to pass another piece of paper over the counter.
It amazes me quite how many companies still use quaint old payment methods involving pieces of paper. I forget how many years ago we were promised a paperless office, but we’ve not even managed to fully transition to paperless payments yet, although personally I can’t remember the last time I used a cheque book, certainly not in the last eight years but probably longer.
Electronic payments aren’t all that good either. We hear constant complaints about PayPal and that occasionally PayPal withdrawals still aren’t instant. It’s just the same with electronic bank payments though. BACS payments still aren’t instant and when someone tells me they’ve paid me I’m never quite sure if the money will be instantly available in my account, whether it’ll be the next working day, or whether the funds will magically materialise about three days later.
I should say I’m all in favour of getting paid. Please don’t think I’m complaining, I’ll take payment by any legal means whether it’s PayPal, Bank Transfer, BACS, Cheques or even good old cash. It just amuses me that we’re now in 2013 and some companies still use payment methods that not only aren’t instant, but also probably cost more to process than if everyone switched to electronic payments.
6 Responses
Post Offices should be legally obliged to give queue priority to those using mail services.
They should not be wanabee banks. Let the pensioners, benefits claiments, form fillers, and other users of admin services, all wait at the back of any post office queue. That should encourage the use of electronic payment methods by those who currently don’t!
Every Monday the Post Office feels like a doctors surgery. Is this the impression a thriving growth business such as Royal Mail wants to give its customers? Rather than one of giving its true customers priority.
Think how long it takes to go to the Post Office. Time is money. I now mail the bank the very few cheques I receive. They are usually low value anyway, and not worth the time and hassle factor of going to the Post Office.
A queue is always a problem – especially if you are stuck at the back of it. However apart from the busiest Post Offices usually there are times in the day when the queue is either short or non existant. So just time your visits to the quiet times rather than first thing Monday Morning when there is a rush.
I bank with Santander(the old Alliance & Leicester Business Bank). They supply large numbers of pre-printed envelopes so you can post cheque and other documents to them(they still need a stamp). So if I am not going to the Post Office it only needs a stamp and I can post the cheque to them.
As far as the form fillers. The Post Office has for many years been the centre in most towns and villages for such as Forms and Buying your Road Fund Disc. Surely if you drive this business away it will mean a significant reduction in Services for a large proportion of the population?
Surely to safeguard the long term future of the Post Office Network we need more services via the Post Offices not less or we could see more closures. What they could do with is in the busy Post Offices is more staff and at busy times more windows.
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