If you had 365 bags of coins to pay into the Post Office.....

I admire your patience and this others in the queque! I’m surprised you didn’t have a crowd with pitchforks waiting for her outside!

Were you in a rush, Monica ...?

That’s life!

Some people are thoughtless.

I am surprised that they didn't ask her to come back on another day if it wasn't urgent.

I was in a queue in a gift shop the other day waiting to buy two items and anxious about time because I had to catch a coach.
A lady came and stood next to me, edging me out of the way and when the assistant was free she said 'I know this lady is in front of me but serve me first please, I only have one thing'. She then turned to me and said that it was difficult to stand with a walking stick. I was going to say that I had forgotten my walking stick so was finding it even more difficult.
I refrained from hitting her with her own stick.

Maybe she was working or collecting the coins for a charity during the week and had no other opportunity to deposit them other than Saturday morning ?

In which case she should have gone to one of the several local Post offices that always have multiple tills staffed and all have convenient parking. She brought the cash to the till in a Co-op trolley (our post office is in the little local co-op) so she had obviously arrived by car.

I wonder if she had done that savings scheme that someone mentioned on another thread? Save 1p on 1st January, then double it up each day throughout the year?

Why should she have to go to another PO ? She has a right right to go to anywhere she wants just as you have .
How do you know that she drove there - perhaps she carried the cash as far as she could until she reached the trollies ?
Could you have not gone to one of the other branches that you are familiar with , or done your transaction at a quieter time of the week if your time is limited ?

Why were you posting right up to the wire on the last posting day before Christmas M0nica. Surely what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. You are just assuming your need was greater than hers aren't you?

I certainly didn't infer from M0nica's post that she felt her need was greater, or that her time was limited in any way. She was simply surprised, as I would have been, that someone was inconsiderate enough to monopolise the post office counter for a full half-hour on one of the busiest days of the year, seemingly oblivious - possibly even uncaring - that a queue was building up behind her as a result.

But they have just as much right to do what they need to do when they need to do it. It is the inference that they were being inconsiderate that made me ask if she had thought her need was greater than theirs. If not why even comment.

maybe it was the only time she had to go to the PO,I often went llast thing at night with a huge pile of mail all needing weighed ,I had no alterbative and it was just too bad for folk in the queue behind me.Maybe THEY could have gone at a different time ?

Yes, the person had every right to do this, but it wouldn't stop me from thinking she was being thoughtless at the very least. We have a similar setup in our local PO with only the sub-postmaster serving. He often has an eBay seller turn up at about 4.30pm with dozens of parcels. The last Royal Mail collection is at 4.50pm and there's tasks to be done at the last minute in time for that collection. The sub-postmaster has asked the customer to come a bit earlier, but he just ignores him. Anybody hoping to catch the last post will probably be out of luck.

You might think this is all rather unimportant, but postmasters make their money by the amount of transactions they have. Also, the more income a PO takes, the more services it is permitted to offer. If someone goes into their local PO and can't get served in a reasonable time because of something like a customer taking a really long time, they might not bother using their local PO again. This is one of the ways local POs end up closing down.

The hows and whys of my being at the PO are irrelevant, they were brief and did not hold up other people unduly. My need was no more important than anybody elses, but it was not just me, it was also the people all queued up behind me, about 10 of them, not to mention those who gave up and walked away. Ours is only a small PO at the back of the Co-op with one till and one teller, but it is busy.

I quite agree that the lady had a right to be there doing what she did when she did, but I regularly have to make a large mailing of about 100 journals. I never take them to the PO all at once. I take then 10 at a time and try to choose times when the PO is likely not to be crowded and I let people past me if they only have one quick thing to do and if a queue does build behind me, I apologise. I do nothing that most people do when they have time consuming operations at a bank or Post Office.

As much as anything it was the indifference of the lady to the inconvenience she was causing that annoyed me, and others muttering in the queue; an acknowledgement that she was causing a bottle neck, a quick apology 'sorry, I can only pay in on a Saturday' or some acknowledgement of the inconvenience she was causing, would at least have have indicated that she was aware of the problems her long transaction was causing and had some thought for other people.

We need an eye-roll emoticon! Talk about molehills and mountains!

Oh, come on, do not take it too seriously. I merely posted a quick query after an exasperating trip to the Post Office,

I will now return to the far more serious matter of Phoenix and her gammon

You could have shoved her aside M0nica, like that woman did to me in the gift shop.

Just in case anyone else has to pay in masses of coins our bank has a machine where you simply pour all the money in and it gives you a slip of paper to take to the tellers to have either the money or pay it in. It would save holding others up like this. If you do this do check the amount you are paying in first because our machine got stuck and I insisted that the helpful person stay until I had all my money.

Nonnie - same here.
But there's often a similar buildup at our post office - I think some people go there to have a chat with the person serving, and advice on their financial problems.

Perhaps it is reaching that stage in the Silly Season where we're all a bit ratty and frayed around the edges ...

I'll put in a word for M0nica! We've probably all, during our long lives, both been held up in a long queue by someone doing something time-consuming and been the one doing the holding-up. However, it seems to me that the point is not the rights of the person doing the holding-up, but the fact that she didn't acknowledge the effect of her actions on everybody else. As M0nica says, it is possible to, at least, smile and apologise. Then everyone feels better, which is surely a good thing at this time of year!

or get the PO to put on another member of counter staff

I'm with M0nica on this one. I stood in a queue likewise for nearly half an hour one Saturday whilst a young newly wed couple had their passports checked, hers was in her maiden name requiring all sorts of administrative activity to align the pair of passports. Very exasperating for all of the rest of us in that queue. As in the case cited in the OP, this was a local sub post office with one counter open.

I do wish people with complicated issues would attend one of the larger POs where they can take their time without unduly delaying the rest of humankind. We are only four miles from a large town with an excellent transport system.

Rant over.....