Talking us down helps no one

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/blog/ ... lps-no-one" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We've just issued our annual results, and the unions and the National Federation of Subpostmasters have responded - just as they are entitled to do.

But they did make some points which just can't go unchallenged, particularly as in making them, they were able to grab newspaper headlines.

They said we were in crisis.

We're not. And saying so is simply damaging to every Post Office business in the UK.

The reality is that in a tough marketplace we are taking significant steps forward.

We've transformed thousands of branches - with more than 1,000 open on Sundays. Opening hours have increased by more than 50,000 a week.

The planned £10m fall in the Government network subsidy underlines our ambition to achieve commercial sustainability.

And our vision of the future was backed by Government last year through a further £640m investment of funding over three years to assist us in transformation.

We’ve also made a commitment to no more branch closures programmes, serve 17 million customers a week and a third of all small businesses, and for many rural communities the Post Office is the only retail outlet.

Simply put, we have an ambitious programme to transform the Post Office - and we are succeeding.

We're investing in our mobile website, a Travel Money Card app, we've entered the Help to Buy, Buy to Let and Intermediary mortgage markets and we are offering current accounts.

We're a challenger brand in financial services and we've announced this week that we're entering the mobile market.

And it is really worrying that anyone would think that using such negative language helps anyone in the business.

Of course we face very tough market conditions. We do need to be easier to do business with. We do need to accelerate our strategy.

But alleging that this amounts to a crisis is not only wrong, it is potentially damaging in a really fundamental way; it could undermine customer confidence.

And we want to work constructively with our colleagues, the NFSP, CWU and CMA/Unite to tackle the challenges ahead.

We face a very challenging period as a business. That much is true.

But we have a plan to tackle it and to face the challenges head on: and to speed up delivery.

Our customers' needs are changing and so are we. That's why we are prioritising investment in our transformation and expanding on our plans for a modern, digital and thriving business.

[cdpete2004]

Haven't been here in a while, been busy switching the side of the door the handle is on to see if my blind customers really were blind (and yes, apparently, some really were ! Who knew ???) and, after getiing caught at the azimuth of my social experiment in the adaptability of the physically not very able, closing down my post office. and taking the network termination program payment, I'm not sure TBT if you opened this topic as a joke. Or if those comments are serious, sorry, but after 8 years of POL, I think I lost all sense of sarcasm, irony and humour, finally. so sorry if I've replied far too seriously to what is intended by you to be a fine piece of ironic prose, but someone has to say something.

TBT, got a few responses to some of your comments.
Firstly, the already very worn-out propaganda statement :

'And our vision of the future was backed by Government last year through a further £640m investment of funding over three years to assist us in transformation'.

Yes indeed, a £640 million investment, which is being used to raise they termination payments on offer to make abandoning the sinking ship slightly more palatable to people like me.
Thankyou, oh benificent and magnanimous Dept for BIS and POL, the extra payment, whilst still robbing me of a sizerable chunk of my original investment amount, will come in useful. Prey tell, TBT, where is the remainder (if any) of this huge investment being spent to help the subbies who are remaining in the network ? Come on, lets get some positive stuff there to lift the morale and spirits of those left behind in a decaying, leaderless, rudderless,m fragmented network.

Next you state :
'We’ve also made a commitment to no more branch closures programmes, serve 17 million customers a week and a third of all small businesses, and for many rural communities the Post Office is the only retail outlet'.

WTF is the network transformation if not a closure program by the backdoor ? My suboffice is gone, replaced by a counter in a local business, which has put no investment into the network business it has acquired, and when this business owner realises exactly what pol expects in return for its' 'gift', he'll have the counter out of there by the end of the year. And pol will no doubt post a notice to the local community reading something like 'sorry, nobody wants to run a post office counter in this village, we tried, but it's a no go, sorry, bye bye. lots of love, PV'. I'll be back in 12 months to see if the network has grown, or decayed further, my money's on the decay.

Your next statement:
'Simply put, we have an ambitious programme to transform the Post Office - and we are succeeding'.

SUCCESS ? Transforming the network into five thousand one-metre-sized counter-ends (with no room for leaflets, no time to give out endless flyers, no clue of the answers to any questions po customer usually have about what exactly they can and can't pay at the counter, or time to advise a first-time ebayer how best to prepare his twenty-odd items he sold this weekend (which could well be the start of a new enterprise for this 'newbie', who could turn out to be a much needed repeat customer of royal mail products through a post office). SUCCESS ?

'Finally,
'We're investing in our mobile website, a Travel Money Card app, we've entered the Help to Buy, Buy to Let and Intermediary mortgage markets and we are offering current accounts.

We're a challenger brand in financial services and we've announced this week that we're entering the mobile market'.

And this benefits the remaining REAL subbies still clinging on HOW, exactly ?

I have never EVER had a more unfortunate, soul destroying, investment destroying experience than that of becoming what turned out to be an indentured servant of pol.

I would like to say a word about the management of the organisation. But there isn't any. Plenty of mismanagement, but management ? leadership ? vision ? I think the last thing I read on the 'vision thing' from Vennells was something like 'we'll have to ask people what they think our vision should be.' Priceless ! Absolutely f***ing priceless !

And by the way, to those of you offended enough by my opening statement, if you think that was in bad taste, how about lying to the local community (those who really have a need for adequate disabled access), about the installation of a wheelchair ramp into the new premises as agreed at public consultation, for the ramp (and subsequent disabled access) to have failed to materialise ? Lovely, plo, start as you mean to go on, eh ?

Lots of love. cdpete2004.

[cdpete2004]

Sorry, one more thing.

You (and pol, if this is what they've actually stated, are in breach of FCA guidelines with your (and their, if this is the case) statement that :

(...Help to Buy, Buy to Let and Intermediary mortgage markets)... 'and we are offering current accounts.'

This is a misrepresentation of the facts, and materially misleading. pol is NOT offering current accounts, it is offering current accounts on behalf of BOI Ltd, pol is not registered as, nor licenced to operate as a bank in the UK. your statement gives the false impression that pol is itself operating as a bank by 'offering current accounts'.

In practical terms for the subbie what this means is they'll get a very very small part of an already small pie paid to pol by BOI, after pol has gotten its greedy sweaty mits into it, and in return for pol offering a very cheap, nationwide (for now) backdoor into the uk banking market for BOI, possibly at the expense of the working relationships it has taken years to build up with the existing network of UK banking organisations. A case of VISION - OFF, I suppose.

Remuneration-wise a subbie would probably be far better off introducing their customers to one of the UK's existing banks when they offer those 'introduce a friend and get £10' deals.)

[Lounge Lizard]

Pete,
Don't shoot the messenger. TBT was simply quoting a statement from the Post Office.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Pete,
Don't shoot the messenger. TBT was simply quoting a statement from the Post Office.