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Woking’s Royal Mail Customer Service Point has seen a sharp reduction in operating hours and now opens its doors to the public on Monday to Friday from 8am to 10am, and Saturday from 8am to 12pm. This reduction in hours “doesn’t help people who work at all” and could “alienate” the community, say residents.
The delivery point is a two minute walk from Woking train station and is located on White Rose Lane. It is used for dropping off prepaid items, returns and collections and for those who might have missed a delivery to their nominated address.
From May 9, 2023, opening hours were reduced to 8am to 10am on a Monday, then from Tuesday to Friday it was open from 10am to 2pm and 8am to 12pm on a Saturday.
Customers have found the change from being open for six hours to two during busy weekdays “disgraceful” and say they are concerned for people who work and will be unable to get to the delivery office in time. Royal Mail are offering alternative services, including collections from the Postie, drop off locations and free redelivery the next working day.
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SurreyLive asked the community in a Facebook post how they felt about the reduction of operations at the Woking delivery office, and how it might impact them. They were not impressed.
One resident said: “This is my local point and I used it very regularly up until last Monday when I arrived at the closed doors in the middle of the afternoon. So, I dropped a prepaid special delivery item into the postbox hoping I won’t need the receipt. Won’t be sending with Royal Mail any more after I use up their stamps which I still have (need to change to barcoded btw!) Plenty of alternatives.”
Another penned: “Apart from Saturday, not much use to people that work normal shifts, and many people rely on Saturday overtime, so these hours alienate them,” while another agreed: “What about when you can only go in your lunch break?”
“Terrible idea. I sometimes have to go but I have a bad spine and would struggle to get there before 10 am,” added one resident.
Victoria, who runs Woking based jewellery shop Shine On said: “As a tiny local business this will have a huge impact on my ability to deliver to customers. I use a postal service that cannot be dropped off at a Post Office without incurring an extra charge.
“I can currently order a free collection but I suspect it won’t stay free for much longer, and I can’t imagine how it will increase the workload for postmen as more people are pushed to do this. I am reluctant to pass on increased costs to my customers in the current economic climate, but I will have no choice. It’s such a shame. I used to use the delivery office regularly.”
Royal Mail has stated that it has a 99 percent successful redelivery rate. Send an item works by using the Royal Mail website to purchase delivery for letters and parcels. It is currently running a promotion, where collections can be made for free when customers book online up till August, 15 2023.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We understand the importance that some customers attach to Customer Service Points (CSPs) as one of a number of ways in which they can access our services. An increase in doorstep services such as Parcel Collect and Safeplace are helping us to enhance customer convenience and deliver more parcels first time.
“In May this year, we also introduced automatic redelivery of parcels the next working day across the UK for customers who are not at home when posties attempt to deliver the first time. Over 99% of parcels are now successfully delivered to customers on the first or second delivery attempt. This is reducing the need for customers to collect parcels from CSPs.
“To keep pace with the changing behaviour of our customers, we are amending the opening hours of CSPs. We have a range of options free-of-charge for customers who want to arrange for an item to be redelivered. Details of how to arrange this can be found on our website here.”
