David Emery Online

Best laid plans

25 July 2007

So today’s post was scheduled in to be a bit of a photography post, with the focal point being the rather lovely new camera case I’ve just bought. Maybe slightly boring, I guess, but it’s actually very rare that I plan a post more then about a day in advance so I was kind of looking forward to it. The case was winging it’s way from Australia (for some reason the only country Canon has blessed to sell this case) so it’s been over a week since I ordered it; plenty of time to plan a post.

Enter problem 1: Instead of a little parcel of camera-joy on my desk yesterday morning I instead found a Royal Mail slip, pleasantly informing me that I needed to pay £14.07 custom fee. The camera case is only worth about £40 (depending on the exchange rate) – I can’t for the life of me see how I can owe £14 odd but I have no real choice; I’ve already paid for it so I loose either way.

Enter problem 2: So, off I trudge (in the rain, of course – it is summer after all) to the postal depot which is, as is always the way with these things, in a slightly inconvenient place.

Enter stage left the main thrust of today’s rant: the post office depot opens from 08:00 to 13:00, nicely avoiding the two times of day – lunch time or after work – most people would be able to make it there. And this is not out of the ordinary – in fact, almost every post office I’ve ever tried to go to has been shut. There’s one I walk past most lunchtimes, in fact, which closes 13:00 to 14:00 – the only time I would really get a chance to go there.

It’s quite wonderful in its perversity.

This absurdity isn’t limited to post offices, of course – it’s rife throughout most non-commercial public entities, of which I count banks as well as they’re one of the prime offenders. Banks are in the brilliant position of not really having to give a shit about their customers, as they’re all rubbish. I do love the way most don’t open on Saturday or Sunday, as no-one would ever want to do anything do to with money on either of those two days.

What I would dearly, dearly love is somebody to shake up both the banking and postal systems; they both suck, and we could so easily have something much, much better.

Neither of them care about their customers.