Durham Post Office

very inconvenient opening hours, meaning that Saturday is the only day we can go. Turns out on Saturday is the busiest and there's only one member of staff working, which causes massive queues and have to wait at least for 30 min to post a parcel. Also, self service does not work.

Terrible service in terms of opening hours. Changed their hours on Saturday to close an hour earlier - no warning given, just a sign stuck in the window of WHSmith. Went down on Sunday instead, well within the usual opening hours, to find another sign stuck in the window saying they were completely closed all day. Tried again for the third time today - no sign in the window but on entering found it to be closed yet again over an hour before the closing time. Asked a staff member in WHSmith who just informed me that the post office is short staffed and I should come earlier in the day.

Clearly there are staffing issues, I just don't understand why they can't work out a temporary timetable, communicate that to their customers and then stick to it! At the moment they're just closing at random hours so it's impossible to know whether they'll be open when you visit. This is really unacceptable given the next nearest post office is a considerable distance away. I don't wish to criticise the staff who I'm sure are doing their best, but the management side of this situation just isn't good enough.

Attempted to send a parcel yesterday at around 3pm. Queue was 3/4 of the way up the stairs, and one member of staff on duty, obviously overworked. Tried to use self service and all 3 machines were switched off.

Returned at 5pm to find that the post office was closed (open 9am-5:30pm) and was informed by a member of WHS staff that the post office worker had to go home early as she felt unwell but would be open today at 9am.

Returned this morning at 9am to find that the post office is closed due to no staff and was told by WHS staff that it may be open at 10am.

Absolutely shocking service, staff so overworked that they end up going home ill and no staff to open the following day. Would give zero stars if that was possible.

Update.

Just been again to attempt to send parcels to find that the Post Office is closed between 12pm-1pm (i was there at 11:40) spoke with another member of staff from WHS who said that the post office only have one member of staff who has had to close early because of the amount of customers, then will be on her lunch until 1pm. Noticed a temporary opening hours sign that has the afternoon hours as 1pm-4pm (closing is 5:30pm)

Four times i have attempted to send parcels since yesterday afternoon (while on my work breaks) and have now had to ask my partner to collect them from my office and send them from our local post office (which i would rate as 5 stars)

Considering that this is the main post office for Durham City, the service is beyond pathetic. Feel sorry for the lone member of staff who is so badly over worked, i would quit if i was her, before she ends up in an early grave.

Disgusting service. Avoid like the plague

I’m sure they’re understaffed and that this contributes to the problem, but this post office seem to open and close pretty much whenever they like. This has been my local post office for three years and it’s pretty much always a 60/40 chance they won’t be open when you go down, regardless of whether or not you’re aiming for their actual opening hours.

I feel sorry for the staff who have to work in the basement of WHSmith, with no access to natural light or enough of them to actually deal with the amount of people coming in.

The post office used to be around the corner in its own (above ground) shop. If the Royal Mail believed at all in providing a good customer service, it still would be.

My only hope is that WHSmith will eventually go out of business, and the post office will be forced to find a more human premises to operate in.

In the past few weeks I’ve been to the post office three times. Each time I’ve waited more than 20 minutes in a queue. There’s only ever been one member of staff on the counter and one very unhappy lady on self service. The staff all look so fed up and aren’t at all friendly or helpful. The third time there were a lot of disgruntled people in the queue saying this was the norm now. Why aren’t they taking on more staff? Plenty of people are looking for jobs. Would rather travel further to a different post office than go again.

Yet again all the self service machines are down. Only one person working behind the counter and 17 people in the cue. It’s going to be another long wait. They should provide chairs if they can’t employ anymore staff or fix the machines

Post office is in the basement of WH Smith shop, no elevator, no disabled access, the lady there is too old to handle customers, her English is not adequate to understand people, she gets confused too easily, she finds it hard to sort her paperwork, customers wait longer than they should, because she takes a long time to help each one of them and she does not know her job. I needed to sort a British Gas meter card , I had text message from British Gas with analytic directions on what she should do, which I did show to her, and she refused to help me. Disaster!! I think she gives Post Office a bad name. I sugges you try another place.