Cotham Hill Post Office

Normally avoid this post office like the plague and visit the Tesco branch which is much less convenient for me. However, after paying a nervous but necessary visit today I felt obliged to leave a review. I award 2 stars to what is usually a 1 star experience as I received a smile today for the first time in 7 years.

When trying to find a local post office I thought it was ammusing that this one only had a two start rating. A lot of the reviews here are about the behaviour of staff, however from my recent experience the staff are all both well mannered and polite. Maybe the offending staff have moved on? Therefore, I thought it was only fair to give them 5 stars to reflect the current experience.

So reading other reviews I've got to say I was scared to use this post office, but it's so close I had to take the risk. Twice I've been now within a few days and both times the staff has been lovely and super helpful. There may have well been someone there in the past causing trouble, but they must have either left or changed their attitude!

Have used this branch many times, and have been met with rudeness and irritation in the majority of cases. Finally, I have decided to write a quick review.

As mentioned in previous reviews, the staff here have terrible demeanor in dealing with customers and do not understand their own postage rules and customs - refusing to supply proof of postage and attempting to overcharge customers by claiming their parcels are too heavy or too large.

The 'Postmaster', Mrs Preeti Shah in particular, could not have a worse attitude to customers; making the simplest of transactions arduous and frustrating.

You are much better off paying for another delivery service if this is your local Post Office.

This place undeniably deserves its 2 star rating. I wouldn’t bother with this post office. If you live nearby, go up to the one at Tesco’s Whiteladies instead! The staff there are nothing but genuinely helpful, professional and courteous. I have been to a panoply of post offices across the UK as a business person and I’ve never once encountered a problem at all, yet the customer service standards in this particular post office branch stands out as it’s frankly abysmal. There is a woman in particular, with reddish brown hair and glasses who treats customers with utter contempt and disdain. It’s therefore no surprise that she has been mentioned repeatedly here in the reviews.

Anyone who has had the misfortune of dealing with this particular staff member would know exactly what I mean. Not only is she incredibly unprofessional, she consistently exhibits passive aggressive behavior - rolling of eyes, huffing and puffing when someone has too many parcels to send, making sly comments under her breath, tossing receipts and cards towards customers, and having general discontent for her job, that it almost borders on bullying. She makes customers feel as though they’re outright pests and enemies, unworthy of being treated with any shred of dignity or respect and frequently takes out her frustration with her job on customers. Like many others who’ve commented here, every single visit to this post office has caused me, my friends and my employees nothing but heightened distress and trauma.

Similar to another commentator’s experience in this review section, I have had to send one of my employees down to drop off our parcels last December, to which I was astonished by how much she’s made her cry outside the post office after the ordeal. This is entirely unacceptable and unhinged. I’ve personally also had abrasive experiences with this woman myself and was left feeling completely mentally scarred, gobsmacked and traumatized by how I was treated. It’s vile, and no words can describe how horrifying it is to be treated this way, especially when customers haven’t done anything remotely wrong to warrant such hostility.

If the people running this post office have any clue how business works, they would know that their apparent condoning of unprofessionalism and abusive behaviour is a surefire way of losing customers and directing business to competitors. As someone who has worked in retail and client-focusing roles for years, I’ll say this: the customer is NOT your enemy. Had I personally demonstrated this level of unprofessionalism and hostility towards innocent customers when I was working in customer service, I would have been fired right on the job by my manager. If this staff member isn’t careful, she might potentially be sued one day from someone of caliber and status. There needs to be a thorough investigation conducted into this post office branch with immediate effect regarding their workplace conduct and standards. Throughout my years of trading goods online, I’ve never encountered such an unpleasant and disastrous experience as this.

I would avoid this post office at all costs; getting a normal staff member who treats you like a human being is a luck of the draw. If you do, record any interactions you have with this staff member should anything be used or taken against you. Being nice and treating a human being with respect doesn’t cost a single cent.

I have now gone back to the PO at whiteladies road, where me and my staff have established great relationships with the post office members there, who’re honestly extremely lovely and sweet. It’s near ashgrove road, and a visit there has always been a heartwarming and pleasant experience.

If you’re in doubt, just peruse through the barrage of reviews here left by other patrons of this post office about this particular staff member, and the 2.3 star rating this branch has accrued for itself over the last few years. They clearly have no consideration or respect for their customers, and their replies reflect a clear sense of dissonance and ignorance to customer feedback.

Oh boy am I not a fan of this location, It's tired, you feel like you are a nuisance to the staff and they are often downright rude to you. Even as a younger kid doing errands for my parents was I harassed and bullied due to me making small fixable mistakes before being talked about by the cashiers in front of my face. My Post cost £2.50 more than it should had because I had to get a hot chocolate to calm my 12 year old nerves. Still hate it there and would highly recommend the post office in Tesco's just up the road. They are professional and the Italian man especially is polite and friendly.

LOVE THIS POST OFFICE. The two lovely ladies that have worked there for years are wonderful. They must have to deal with some grumpy cliftonite people day in day out.

I very rarely leave reviews, but my experience here has been so atrocious and unpleasant I feel obliged to warn others of what to expect from visiting this post office.

Whilst 2 of the ladies working here are lovely, there is one woman who works here, the lady with brown hair who works on the far left encounter usually, has made every trip unnecessarily uncomfortable, to the point where I feel extremely anxious before entering the store. I am gobsmacked that someone working in a customer facing role can be so rude and unpleasant when carrying out tasks they are paid to complete, she is dismissive regardless of what you are posting, and has consistently made me feel like an annoyance when I'm just trying to post a single parcel. I am choosing to reluctantly walk an extra 20 minutes in order to avoid the stress caused upon interacting with her, if that doesn't speak volumes of how dreadful her attitude is I don't know what else does - it is a shame as this is my local post office, but I cannot deal with the anxiety she causes me.