Winter is coming

Winter is coming, or more precisely Christmas! It's that time of year again, when I complain at the British public for not knowing how to use the postal system. Over the years I have given much advice; the original post here, the update here, and Christmas posting in the time of coronavirus here.

We currently have 4 boxes of surcharges waiting to be paid and collected. It's not hard. If your letter looks like this, more than a few mm thick, it needs a large letter stamp:

Do not think that you will get away with this, when you buy your online postage:

Your item will get one of these:

and your friend will get one of these:

They will ignore it, and then the item will get sent off to the returned parcels office in Belfast and never be seen again, because if you are not competent enough to put the right postage on the chances are that you didn't bother with a return address either.

Post extra early this year. The pandemic is still ongoing. We had a mini outbreak in the office in the last few weeks (one colleague remains in hospital as far as I know). Add in the shambolic revision and you begin to get a picture of the chaos ahead. As I said to a disgruntled customer recently, everyone in the office is working as hard as they can, but there is more stuff coming in than we have human being to deliver. New staff have arrived, but people are moving on almost as fast. Show your postie some love; I don't necessarily mean a Christmas tip (though a lovely lady came in on Friday with a tub of choccies), I mean just thank them for doing a great job. It is surprising how much a kind word of appreciation lifts you.

Stay safe. Be kind. Appreciate your postman.