I recently had the misfortune of having my wallet stolen and had to replace my credit cards. I had cards from different banks which each had different postal addresses, so I had to collect the cards from two different post offices.

Collecting the cards from the first post office was straight forward – I produced the delivery notifications along with my ID and the cards were handed over. However, attempting to collect from the second post office turned out to be extremely frustrating.

The teller had to authorise the collection with the manager – all in order so far.  But then the manager refused to authorise the collection because the notification showed my initial and surname while my ID showed I had a middle name. When I queried this the manager told me she would only release the cards if the notification showed both my first and second initial, or alternatively if my ID did not have a middle name. I asked her if she could confirm that I was the correct owner of the ID documents and she agreed that I was, but still refused to release the cards.

I then showed her the SMS notification on my cell phone sent by the bank telling me the cards were ready for collection at that particular post office. She agreed the SMS was for the cards I was trying to collect but still refused to release the cards. In the end I had to leave empty handed. I arranged for the bank to send the cards to my other address so that I could collect them from the first post office, which I subsequently did without any problems.

Sometimes people are put into positions of authority who are seemingly unable to exercise any sort of discretion when they need to make a judgment call, and it can create a nightmare for the people they are supposed to be serving. In my case it was a relatively simple, if somewhat frustrating, matter of making alternative arrangements with my bank; but what happens with people who aren’t able to make alternative arrangements? I can’t really lay all the blame with the manager because any organisation placing someone into that sort of position should be providing the training they need before letting them loose on the public, and from the service I received at two different post offices it would seem the Post Office doesn’t do that.

Arno is one of the directors of getclosure! Arno has extensive experience in IT design and development and was responsible for creating the getclosure! complaints management system. Click here to read more about Arno.