# An Post Opening Hours and service



## mobileme (20 Jun 2006)

Our local postman has taken to putting a parcel collection note in the door for anything more bulky than an envelope. So, I've gotten these notes in the door to go and collect 'parcels' in the local post office within three days for a *CD *that is* definitely* small enough to fit. Fine if the post office was open when I am at home but their opening hours are completely unsuitable for people who work full time.

I've had a look at An Post's website and most post offices opening hours are similar to the one near my home. They are open from 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 5.30pm. Fine if you are at home all day but not if you leave home for work at 7.30am in the morning and don't get back till 7pm. I've complained in the post office that the postman won't put small packages in the door and that I have to drive 25 mins from work and 25 mins back at at time other than my lunch hour to collect them and guess what...the postman doesn't work for me love is the response that I got. Anyone else feel that An Post is stuck in the 17th century?


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## Swallows (20 Jun 2006)

*Re: An Post Opening Hours*

*Mobileme, *yes they are stuck in the 17th. century, especially around here. I know we live in a rural area, but getting your post every day at 3 to 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and 6 around xmas is a bit much. Probably not the postmans fault either as that is his round and someone has to be at the end, although there are two more roads after ours. Anyone else get their post this late?


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## Guest127 (20 Jun 2006)

*Re: An Post Opening Hours*

letterbox at end of lane same as other countries would solve some of the  problems. in Portugal last year I noticed that postman delivered all the letters for all the villas on 'our' road to one set of postboxes ( about 20). Think it might well work here, if vandals didnt smash the boxes of course


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## Berlin (20 Jun 2006)

*Re: An Post Opening Hours*

Swallows, I'm in the same boat as you. Post arrives about 4pm, by ass-and-cart I think. Even worse is the out bound service - 2.30 from the post box (1.5 miles away) and 3.30 from the P.O. (8 miles). I know we're in the country but its still a bit much. Stayed in Land's End a couple of years ago and the post there arrived before 9am.


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## RainyDay (20 Jun 2006)

*Re: An Post Opening Hours*



			
				mobileme said:
			
		

> Fine if the post office was open when I am at home but their opening hours are completely unsuitable for people who work full time.
> 
> I've had a look at An Post's website and most post offices opening hours are similar to the one near my home. They are open from 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 5.30pm.


Isn't the collection from the sorting office, not the post office. Last time this happened to me, I was able to pick up the package at the sorting on the way into work around 8 am.


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## Bamhan (21 Jun 2006)

*Re: An Post Opening Hours*

The post office is open for a half day on Saturday also.


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## nelly (21 Jun 2006)

*Re: An Post Opening Hours*

i try get items delivered to my work address as i did have the experience of an A4 envelope with 4 pages in it get held for collection, i was so cross because it clearly would have fit if folded over for the second it went through the letterbox. 

Only some post offices are open on saturdays as far as i know.


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## ragazza (21 Jun 2006)

*Re: An Post Opening Hours*

It's not just An Post which is terribly unreliable.
The following happened to me where I live:

I ordered a book and CD from Amazon, and requested that it be delivered to my work address. A week later I got a letter at work saying they couldnt deliver it, since the package was too big to fit in the delivery motorbike, and to pick it up at the depot.
The depot was miles away in a location with no public transport, so I rang and asked could they send it to a depot accessible by public transport.
They said I needed to go to the depot to sign a form if I wanted to request that! They obviously didnt see the irony that if I went there to sign the form, I could just pick up the CD.

So, still wondering why my package was so big, a friend drove me to pick it up. When I got there, the package was tiny. When I asked why it didnt fit in the motorbike, the girl shrugged helpfully and said the bike must have been full of other packages. Never entered their head that they could have made two trips. Grrr!


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## mobileme (21 Jun 2006)

*Re: An Post Opening Hours*

Thanks for the replies. There doesn't seem to be light at the end of the tunnel on this one.

The parcel is held in the local post office for 3 days then sent back to where it came from. So yes, my local post office is open on Sat morning from 9am-1pm but if my parcel arrives on a Monday or Tuesday it will have gone back to sender if I wait till Sat. Makes my blood boil. Will An Post ever realise that times have moved on, people aren't sitting at home all day waiting for the postman to knock on the door. Their opening hours are a joke.

I could get my post delivered to work but anything that is not marked private and confidential is opened by receptionist so its not a route I want to take.

My parents live in the country and they only get post approx every 2nd day - its not official but we reckon the postman just skips the awkward areas sometimes and holds onto their post until the next time....for example if it is lashing rain, they will NEVER get post that day.


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## MandaC (21 Jun 2006)

*Re: An Post Opening Hours*

Our post in Lucan is terrible.  Some days post is delivered at 4.30pm, some days there is no postal delivery at all.  On a couple of occasions over the last couple of weeks, there have been no deliveries for up to three days, and then a big bulk of post delivered on Saturday.


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## Bamhan (21 Jun 2006)

I am extremely lucky, I get my post early in the morning, usually before nine and if there is a parcel and I am not at home the postman will deliver it to my mother's or my sister's house no problem at all.
If there is a parcel they cannot deliver to any of these addresses I ring them up and ask them to drop it to where my mother or husband works.
They are extremely accomodating.
I only realised how bad the postal service was in other areas when I attempted to post a parcel, a small parcel at that to a friend in Stepaside in Co Dublin. Dublin post is appalling.


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## bb12 (21 Jun 2006)

I'm just glad when I actually get my letters...It took a letter over a month to get from Kill in Kildare to me in North County Dublin recently. And a week for a letter to get from Dublin city centre...next day delivery my eye! 

Post offices around me close for lunch at 1pm  and don't re-open again till 2:15pm!! Terrible opening hours!


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## southsideboy (21 Jun 2006)

Yeah An Post really need a major shake up. Opening hours are crazy and always have problems with parcels. My parents noticed a few weeks ago they hadn't got post for 4 days which was very unusual so they rang the local sorting office and were told that the postman was on holiday and theres nothing they can do about it! Unfortunately theres not much the public can do about it really. An Post is a heavily unionised inefficient monopoly where nobody seems accountable for anything.


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## Bamhan (21 Jun 2006)

Our post office does not close for lunch.


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## podgerodge (21 Jun 2006)

*Re: An Post Opening Hours*



			
				mobileme said:
			
		

> Will An Post ever realise that times have moved on, people aren't sitting at home all day waiting for the postman to knock on the door. Their opening hours are a joke.



They don't seem to realise that if you were able to collect the post at the collection office during the times they offer, you would have got the post at your house in the first place!  In this day and age when so few homes are occupied during the day, it would make more sense for collection offices to open from 7am.


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## Swallows (21 Jun 2006)

*MandaC,* whats this about a Saturday delivery? we've *never *had post delivered on a Saturday. It's interesting that some postmen hang on to the post for a few day's until they have a pile to deliver. No point at all going with just one letter!!! I know this not to be true of our man because we see him in the area every day, he even has to deliver silly things like leaflets.


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## Joe1234 (21 Jun 2006)

*Re: An Post Opening Hours*



			
				Bamhan said:
			
		

> The post office is open for a half day on Saturday also.



Yes but it's not that long ago that they used to be open ALL day on Saturdays.  The only time I ever saw Saturday deliveries of post was the Saturday before Christmas.


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## Dinky (22 Jun 2006)

I discovered when I used to work from home that An Post rarely bothered to even try to deliver parcels.  On several occasions a we-couldn't-effect-delivery note came through the door with the regular post, clearly delivered by the postman without anyone even trying to get the package to me.  Each time I went out after the postman, only to be told "Sorry love, that's not my area... you'll have to contact the sorting office".  Every conversation ran along the lines of:

"But you delivered the note.  How come no one bothered to try to deliver the package itself?"

"Ah, they must have come out yesterday and forgot to leave you the note when you weren't in."

"I *was* in.  I work from home.  This is the nth time they've mysteriously come and gone while I was in the house.  And this is the nth time they've 'forgotten' to leave a note."

"Sorry, love, you'll have to contact the sorting office.  See ya!"

Wasters.


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## roxy (22 Jun 2006)

I got one of these yesterday in Kilcullen. A parcel to be delivered. I asked for one of those dosing cups from Persil or one of them places and have a funny feeling thats it!  They are holding it for 3 days in Naas, another funny opening hours place and I don't get home till after 6. Does anyone know if they'll send it on to a work address for you? May invest in a large lockable postbox for the future as I've I'm planning ordering with screenclick and CDwow soon.


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## Glenbhoy (22 Jun 2006)

Postal system diabolical here - i blame the unions myself, but that's another story.
Now, what's this about saturday opening, I have something coming to me  which I need by sunday (tickets for sunday's game), so I was resigned to the fact that if they had'nt arrived by friday evening that I could'nt get them - if they have'nt arrived can I call to the local post office (wherever that is) on saturday morning and get them?


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## CN624 (22 Jun 2006)

Regarding services provided I remember going into a post office with a letter I'd written expecting to be able to buy an envelope there. 

I was laughed at by the two ladies behind the counter.
"Why would we sell envelopes?? We're a post office" 

Not sure if its still the same now?


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## roxy (22 Jun 2006)

CN624 said:
			
		

> Regarding services provided I remember going into a post office with a letter I'd written expecting to be able to buy an envelope there.
> 
> I was laughed at by the two ladies behind the counter.
> "Why would we sell envelopes?? We're a post office"
> ...


 
Do they not still do the white SAE's? They are usually about 60c I think. Madness if they don't sell them anymore


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## Bamhan (22 Jun 2006)

When applying to the CAO many moons ago it said we needed a POP envelope included as an SAE with our application.
Being green I had no idea what a POP envelope was......but asked the post office staff....I must have been the 110000th person to ask that question that day and the woman behind the desk was greatly aggrieved at having to sell me one....
It was POst office Preferred she told me and available in any stationary shop....
I could not understand why they would not sell them if they were the type of envelopes they preferred!!!!


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## MandaC (22 Jun 2006)

I have at least on three occasions over the last two months got a huge batch of post on Saturday.  I asked the Postman in work if he knew what the story was, as he lives in Lucan too.

He told me that there are not enough postman to cover the Lucan area, especially all the new Estates.  Post has never been delivered to our Estate until at least 4 o clock every day, and sometimes nothing at all for days.  When the post has not been delivered for 2-3 days and is backed up, someone does overtime on the Saturday, hence the Saturday deliveries.


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## Swallows (22 Jun 2006)

OK,* MandaC,* I just thought we might be missing out on something in this neck of the woods.


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## Guest127 (24 Jun 2006)

an post sell envelopes with postage paid for 53c which is probably not too much of a mark up. used to sell postcards too but not sure about this one anymore.


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