Tag: UK

New deal for British Gas bill and prepayment customers at the Post Office

Posted by | Aug 7, 2007 | |

Post Office Ltd and British Gas have signed a new deal running to the end of December 2010, which allows British Gas customers to continue to benefit from the convenience of paying for and towards their Gas and Electricity at Post Office branches.

The agreement will enable five million British Gas customers to pay for their quarterly bills by cash, cheque or debit card at any of the UK’s 14,000 Post Office branches. Around 99 per cent of the UK population lives within three miles of a Post Office branch.

Customers can also continue to save towards their quarterly bill by making regular payments using their British Gas payment card in Post Office branches. Furthermore British Gas customers can also continue to credit their gas prepayment meters at all Post Office branches and, at 7,500 branches equipped with the Post Office pay station terminal, add credit to their electricity key meters.

Over 24 million people visit the Post Office each week and last year there were 270 million bill payment transactions made for a wide range of utilities and local councils. Five million British Gas customers pay their quarterly bills at the Post Office every year and a further one million pre-pay towards their bill. It’s free to pay almost any bill at the Post Office.

In addition to paying bills, customers can access a wide range of other services at their local Post Office, such as banking and financial services including free cash access over the counter, travel services including travel insurance, passports and commission-free currency, and mail and postal services.

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Postwatch: Postal strike hurting customers – resolution needed urgently

Posted by | Aug 6, 2007 | |

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has announced further strikes, to take place in the period to 17th August. Postal customers – and the postal industry – have suffered from industrial action since 29th June.

Postwatch, the consumer watchdog for postal services, urges Royal Mail and the CWU to resolve the dispute and avert further disruption.

Post boxes and, for the most part, post offices are still open, but post is nonetheless being delayed. The longer industrial action continues, the worse problems will become. Customers who cannot use alternatives to mail are being inconvenienced.

Some businesses are moving to using other forms of communication, and more will do likewise if strikes persist. Mail volumes are already decreasing year-on-year: strikes will only worsen problems for the UK postal service.

Postwatch advises customers to be aware of the strikes, consider what postal disruption will mean to them, and then act to minimize inconvenience. That might mean using other communication methods.

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Post offices accused of second blackmail

Posted by | Aug 5, 2007 | |

Post office bosses were last night accused of a second blackmail after thousands of staff has been offered GBP 1,000 bonuses to keep quiet about branch mergers.

It comes just days after the Daily Mail revealed that Post Office bosses considered spying on sub-postmasters to ensure they were cooperating with their closure programme.

Thousands of post-office staff have been offered GBP 1,000 bonuses to keep quiet about branch mergers

Alan Cook, the Post Office’s managing director, has sent a letter to all staff who work for ‘crown’ – or main – post offices threatening to withdraw the bonus if they oppose the mergers.

Mr Cook’s letter is set to provoke fury among staff as it comes amid reports that he is in line for a GBP 1 million bonus.

The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) has warned that workers who switch over to WH Smith are facing pay cuts – as the company pays just over the minimum wage of GBP 5.35-an-hour – and reduced pension provisions.

Many employees were told in July whether theirs was one of the 2,500 branches to close – but were warned not to update customers for another three months.

From January next year, Royal Mail is to start closing 2,500 of the country’s 14,300 post offices in a move which it says is essential to ensure the long-term prospects of government-owned company.

The Royal Mail first announced the WH Smith plans last year.

Under the proposals, around 85 crown post offices will be replaced with a post office counter at their nearest branch of the retailer.

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Post Office apology for ‘closure’ penalties

Posted by | Aug 4, 2007 | |

The Post Office on Friday apologized for threatening postmasters with the loss of thousands of pounds in compensation if they did not stick to an official script on closures.

The Conservatives accused Royal Mail bosses of using secret police tactics “to demand Maoist conformity to their line”, after the letter, from Sue Huggins, the Post Office’s director of the network change programme, was leaked to the press.

The letter, and an accompanying “lines to take” document, sent to all postmasters, set out official answers to questions customers might ask about 2,500 planned closures. It then went on to threaten recipients with financial penalties, including losing compensation packages, if they did not co-operate.

It warned that undercover staff would be sent around the country to check postmasters’ replies to questions.

On Friday, the Post Office apologized and insisted it would not be carrying out anonymous checks.

The Conservatives seized on the letter’s publication. Alan Duncan, shadow business and enterprise secretary, said: “It is shameful that the government, which is closing thousands of Post Offices, should blackmail hard-working subpostmasters into parroting the political spin of Gordon Brown to customers.”

George Thomson, general secretary of the National Federation of Sub-postmasters, said it accepted the letter had been “an error of judgement” by the Post Office.

Plans to close 2,500 post offices were announced by the government in May after Alistair Darling, then trade and industry secretary, said that the network could not be sustained with losses at GBP 4 m a week.

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