A CITY centre post office has received criticism from customers for long queues and wait times.
The post office, located in and managed by WHSmith’s on Winchester High Street, was left as the sole post office in the city centre following the closure of the Upper High Street Post Office in November 2021. Customers have criticised the post office for long wait times, with some people having to wait for more than half an hour to be served.
Criticism has also been levelled at the new opening hours for the post office, which sees it closing early on Saturdays and not opening on Sundays, with some claiming that the new hours have not been made clear.
Carolyn Beech, of Southgate Street, is one of the people who has criticised the post office.
She told the Chronicle that she believes the problems are due to WHSmith cutbacks, saying: “I think they’ve just cut back and cut back on staff such that, on Tuesday (February 28), they had one young lady in there and I felt it was unfair on her to have that pressure of all those people in the queue.”
She continued: “I left home at 12noon, and I only live ten minutes out of Winchester, specifically because I had a 1pm meeting and I thought I’ve got a good half hour in the post office before I need to leave, and the queue hardly moved in half-an-hour.”
Carolyn told the Chronicle: "When I first moved to Winchester there were probably four staff members in there everyday. Recently, it's gone down to two, and that's been for several months.
"They need to staff it up properly."
Responding to the criticism, a Post Office spokesperson said: “Winchester Post Office has recently been temporarily closed on Saturday afternoon and Sunday due to ongoing staffing issues. WHSmith, who operates the branch, has been working hard to recruit additional staff and we’re pleased to share that vacancies have been filled and new staff are currently undergoing training.
“We would ask customers to continue to be patient whilst the staff continue to work through this exceptional period. The opening hours in branch have recently been adjusted to Monday to Friday: 10am until 4pm and Saturday: 9am - 1 pm in the short term and we hope to return to normal trading hours soon.”