Post office rant...

[grandpa_spec_F6]

Originally Posted by nstg8a

thats why i dont use them lol... they save money by not having to pay as many checkout chicks...

I for one am in opposition to this, as not only will less young people be allowed the opportunity to enter the workforce, but there will be less pairs of breasts to make my time in the queue less boring

[Revolver]

Originally Posted by GavL

Why carry around $80 of cash to just pay for petrol when you can just pay on your card with all the money you have?

More servos should get card readers on the bowsers like at Mobil. No waiting in queues then

Must have missed the 3rd paragraph! For this reason:

Originally Posted by Blue Beast II

Carry cash on you, its quick, easy, you dont have the problem of your card not swiping & you cant find out the hard way that you dont have enough money in your account. You just look in your wallet, & "oh I dont have enough money, I cant get that" - this saves everyone troubles, you, me & the people behind you. What alot of people also dont realise is that every bank takes its eftpos lines down for scheduled maintaince, of which its customers (merchant & general account holders) are never notified. Of which the merchant (coles, a servo, etc) cannot conduct business on eftpos. Whether it be your bank or the merchants. When this happens, (& we always have signs up, but people never read) & it does decline, they say, "oh what do I do now?" & look at me to solve the problem, because they dont have cash! Its not like I can drain the fuel back into the servos tanks.

If the eftops is down, not even the ones at the pumps work. Im also talking in general for all purchases, not just servos. You'll be wishing you had cash then... Especially when you need it.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by Blue Beast II

If the eftops is down, not even the ones at the pumps work. Im also talking in general for all purchases, not just servos. You'll be wishing you had cash then... Especially when you need it.

most servo's have an atm!

if i can't pay with a card because the server is down, then that becomes the servo's problem. even when eftpos is down, you can still pay by visa the old fashioned way.

i'm not one of these people who just puts a few dollars in each time. i fill my tank every time. i use 98 as well. sometimes thats heading toward $100. like RG and many others have said, its a lot easier to just have one small piece of plastic in your wallet. it is 2010.

[Jim Goose]

Considering how many bank accounts have a certain number of free transactions then they start charging, plus some places have a surcharge for purchases under $10, it never ceases to amaze me how people would prefer to pay fees and surcharges instead of using actual money?

How hard is it to withdraw say $100 a week for "petty cash" and keep it in your wallet and use that money for small purchases.

Standing in a line waiting for someones card to work for a $5 purchase gets annoying time after time.

Sometimes "convenience" becomes laziness..... and this preference for living in debt day in and day out.

if i can't pay with a card because the server is down, then that becomes the servo's problem. even when eftpos is down, you can still pay by visa the old fashioned way.

Actually no its your problem.... there is no law requiring a servo to have an EFTPOS machine. This is not a cashless society

[auMatt]

At least with my local post office you can pick up parcels from the back entrance between the hours of 8am -10am weekdays which is a godsend.

I cant believe how many people have no idea about paying there bills by phone or internet. I have no choice where to go to pick up my parcels, but these people have a choice of paying they bloody bills online.

I remember walking into a a post office in one of the richer parts of Melbourne a while back and watched 4 or so 20 something aged people paying bills. Seriously if you can live in these areas and drive a $250 BMW or Porsche surely you can use the internet.

Matt

[RG]

Originally Posted by auMatt

At least with my local post office you can pick up parcels from the back entrance between the hours of 8am -10am weekdays which is a godsend.

I cant believe how many people have no idea about paying there bills by phone or internet. I have no choice where to go to pick up my parcels, but these people have a choice of paying they bloody bills online.

I remember walking into a a post office in one of the richer parts of Melbourne a while back and watched 4 or so 20 something aged people paying bills. Seriously if you can live in these areas and drive a $250 BMW or Porsche surely you can use the internet.

Matt

Yeah, how dare they excersize personal choice.

[Iggypoppin']

Originally Posted by auMatt

At least with my local post office you can pick up parcels from the back entrance between the hours of 8am -10am weekdays which is a godsend.

I cant believe how many people have no idea about paying there bills by phone or internet. I have no choice where to go to pick up my parcels, but these people have a choice of paying they bloody bills online.

I remember walking into a a post office in one of the richer parts of Melbourne a while back and watched 4 or so 20 something aged people paying bills. Seriously if you can live in these areas and drive a $250 BMW or Porsche surely you can use the internet.

Matt

Yeah, might as well shut down the post offices bill paying facilities then. I, like many others, use a post office to pay my bills and that's because it's convenient. The Internet might be there, doesn't mean I need to use it.
I withdraw all my pay at once, I use my bank card 4 times a month. Much easier to keep track then.

[Riksta]

I really don't care whether people are paying cash or card in front of me, never bothered me. Unless they're a derro who tries to buy smokes at the servo when I'm in a hurry to get my fuel and their card declines, so they get the attendant to try three more times, as if more funds magically appeared in their account. Yes, its happened.

But I do agree with the post office thing. I've been there to pick up packages and every time it staggers me at the amount of people wanting to pay bills in front of me while all I want to do is pick up a package and get out of there. Its so easy to pay bills these days people, you don't even have to leave home to do it!

I always thought the POST OFFICE was for just that, the mail. Seems not these days.

And the other thing on a similar line that really got me raging inside is the service stations these days. I thought they were for petrol and minor conveniences. I once had to wait for the cashier so I could pay for my tank of petrol for 15 minutes - all I wanted to do was pay and run. What was the only cashier in the store doing? Making coffee for one woman who seemed to be purchasing enough coffees to feed an entire army battalion!

[pottery beige]

where is the love.......

[Riksta]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

where is the love.......

[vik351]

Originally Posted by Riksta

I really don't care whether people are paying cash or card in front of me, never bothered me. Unless they're a derro who tries to buy smokes at the servo when I'm in a hurry to get my fuel and their card declines, so they get the attendant to try three more times, as if more funds magically appeared in their account. Yes, its happened.

But I do agree with the post office thing. I've been there to pick up packages and every time it staggers me at the amount of people wanting to pay bills in front of me while all I want to do is pick up a package and get out of there. Its so easy to pay bills these days people, you don't even have to leave home to do it!

I always thought the POST OFFICE was for just that, the mail. Seems not these days.

And the other thing on a similar line that really got me raging inside is the service stations these days. I thought they were for petrol and minor conveniences. I once had to wait for the cashier so I could pay for my tank of petrol for 15 minutes - all I wanted to do was pay and run. What was the only cashier in the store doing? Making coffee for one woman who seemed to be purchasing enough coffees to feed an entire army battalion!

I've been there to pick up packages of p--n

vik... Cant wait to get home eh...???

[GS608]

Originally Posted by GavL

Why carry around $80 of cash to just pay for petrol when you can just pay on your card with all the money you have?

More servos should get card readers on the bowsers like at Mobil. No waiting in queues then

Yeah I don't understand why that never took off, having it so you can pay at the bowser like that is awesome. Stops me going in and buying useless **** i don't need like smokes

[WMD351]

The self serve checkouts are awesome.
I just wish I could stack the shelves and duck out into the bakery section, fire up the ovens and cook some bread for em while I'm at it.

[duaned]

Originally Posted by XR-CHIEF

Yeah I don't understand why that never took off, having it so you can pay at the bowser like that is awesome. Stops me going in and buying useless **** i don't need like smokes

Agreed. Since these servos are like mini supermarkets now they think of themselves as one. All those last minute goodies and counter top items = extra profit so they love it when you enter their shop. I also enjoy the eftpos at the bowser with Mobil, but if Coles or Woolies had it, how is one to use their discount voucher?

[Spudz27]

Thankfully we have 2 post offices in town, but the main one is the distribution centre and they have a collection hatch. It is open from 7:30am till 5:30pm and you just go to a door and ring a bell. Thankfully I can also post the mail from work at the same hatch as often the post office has people out the door.

[Joshmcmillan]

I walk into the post office, owner of the store is usually at the front with a newspaper and a coffee, he usually says something about my car like, "hey, hows the towns latest rev head".. anyway, walk down to the post office and they've usually got it on the counter ready for me, "2 letters and a parcel for you today Josh".. haha, love living in country towns.

[seduced_xr]

Originally Posted by prydey

i'm one of these people that rarely carry cash. i'd be surprised if i ever hold you up though. these days at my local woolies (not sure if its the same elsewhere), i can swipe my card, enter pin, and select 'sale amount' while the operator is scanning the items. when he/she is finished scanning, its all done ready to go. if there's not much of a queue at the self serve bit then i'll use that. you can save a few dollars on those if you don't have a conscience. instead of paying over $20/kg for postachio's(sp) you put in brown onions which are less than $1/kg.

you may just be the smartest person i know!.. i cant wait to do my food shopping this week lots of brown onions coming home

aenrt i lucky i have no conscience

[prydey]

Originally Posted by seduced_xr

you may just be the smartest person i know!.. i cant wait to do my food shopping this week lots of brown onions coming home

aenrt i lucky i have no conscience

best to do it when its busy. less chance of being noticed as there is normally always someone watching.

same with tomatoes. take home premium ones but pay for cheap ones.

you didn't hear anything from me though

[Fled74]

And I thought it was only me who did that.

[Bluefreak]

Ferntree Gully mail sorting centre is always dead, 2 mins start to finish when collecting parcels... As for eftpos Vs cash - I've lost count of the number of times I've been caught behind some numb nuts woman emptying out herv handbag looking for cash, never been help up by long transaction times and never encountered a situation where eftpos is down - never had eftpos go down at our restaurant either...

[GK]

Originally Posted by WMD351

The self serve checkouts are awesome.
I just wish I could stack the shelves and duck out into the bakery section, fire up the ovens and cook some bread for em while I'm at it.

Right on!

I hear you man, I've often got a desire to mop their floors! Anything we can do to increase their profits and minimise their service to shoppers! LOL!

GK

[GK]

Originally Posted by prydey

best to do it when its busy. less chance of being noticed as there is normally always someone watching.

same with tomatoes. take home premium ones but pay for cheap ones.

you didn't hear anything from me though

May I pay the brown onion price for your wagon you've got for sale, or do I need to pay the pistachio price?

GK

[grandpa_spec_F6]

I think woolies will be slightly alarmed when they realize 20 metric tons of "brown onions" walked out the door :P

Just be aware that there are terms and conditions of using the self serve checkouts, and just like it is your responsibility to be familiar with the road rules, simply saying "I didn't know" won't get you out of the deep end :P

Putting misleading information into those things is the same as theft and a breach of the T&C's that you agreed to upon entering the store, and they can get REALLY nasty about it, starting with detaining you and calling the police immediately.

Other than that... just make sure you put you "brown onions" through when a fresh shipment of them arrives so that it isn't as obvious haha ;) (joking )

[Feathers]

Dad pays his bills at the post office, and for the business there are generally a few of them at a time, but even if he could use the internet, he won't.

He doesn't trust computers, and is wary of identity theft, (it happened to his mother just before she died - they got $70k), so he won't use a credit card online or over the phone, nor enter bank details.

We forever get calls from people wanting to set up websites and stuff, and they're all floored when he says we don't have a computer at work, and no email address either.

So it's also easier for me to hand him my bills with the cash to pay them, and he does them all at once.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by GK

May I pay the brown onion price for your wagon you've got for sale, or do I need to pay the pistachio price?

GK

somewhere in the middle would probably be fine, but i get what you are doing aand for what its worth, i'm an honest person and have never done it myself.

the person i got the idea off has actually been caught a couple of times but not much became of it.

[Franco Cozzo]

I like self serve checkouts, but on principle I won't use them, have a look at your local supermarket, its an army of teenagers running the joint with lots of them on checkout.

10 years time, we'll have no army of teens running the place, just self serve checkouts who which if you try to start a conversation with them, they don't respond haha.

[Revolver]

I have to say I'm a recent convert to electronic bill paying. It became mandatory when one of the stores I made regular payments at shut down & as far as im aware isnt another in a 20km radius from work. I used to cash my cheque (yes cheque, the owner doesnt believe Direct Debit...ugh) walk next door, put what I need for any DD's in my bank for the week, go upstairs to the PO & Store (also next door to each other) & pay my bills. Now its gone I see no need in waiting in line for 20mins of lunch time to pay one or two bills when I pay one over the net now anyway. So whatever i can do over the net, I do now. Saves everyone time & me fees.

Originally Posted by prydey

most servo's have an atm!

I'm not saying to pay with cash all the time, I use my card, but always have enough cash to cover just in case in the rare event (& it is rare, but can happen) that it doesnt go through. If your financial institution shuts it's eftpos lines down, any electronic transaction for you wont work. Full stop.

Originally Posted by prydey

if i can't pay with a card because the server is down, then that becomes the servo's problem. even when eftpos is down, you can still pay by visa the old fashioned way.

How is it the servos problem if a customer isnt prepared & has not other way to pay? I just keep going on with my work while they find a solution. If they decide to leave its filed as a drive off, reported to police, where they are contacted & in most cases are given the choice to settle the bill or be charged sometimes its both depending on the amount. More & more banks are no longer accepting manual imprints from merchants. Which has led to all sorts of problems when the machines go down.

Im not saying that eftpos is a bad thing, its easy & for the most part secure. but society has been so brainwashed into keeping our money safe that it leads to over-spending because you cant see it till your at the servo when it runs out, & your bashed to death because you only had $20 in your wallet.

[Revolver]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

I like self serve checkouts, but on principle I won't use them, have a look at your local supermarket, its an army of teenagers running the joint with lots of them on checkout.

10 years time, we'll have no army of teens running the place, just self serve checkouts who which if you try to start a conversation with them, they don't respond haha.

Not to mention the fact, how are some teens able to develop entry level retail skills for other sectors when there are none.

[WMD351]

The thing that really grinds my gears with the self serve checkout is if I'm doing the work I want a discount! It should be cheaper if they're not paying someone to serve me.

[Jim Goose]

Just remember the more we automate things to make "life easier", the less jobs, the less people skills our growing teenagers have.