Day 586, Where's the post?

Scoping out the Post Office in advance of sending off ebay items I discover the Post Office has gone.  Not physically gone, the building is still evident, but the activity that took place there is no longer happening.  There's no sign to indicate what has taken place to cause this change, and neither was there information to say where it had gone.

Google helped though.  There was a Twitter user with a history of 15 tweets, a handful of followers and following, and a photo of a Post Office sign with the correct name now hidden in the back of a paper shop.

I've no idea why this move has taken place, but I'm going to pin it on privatisation as that is a handy hobby-horse.*

In other postal news the actual Royal Mail (if it is still called that) delivery hasn't yet arrived, and it is approaching 4.45 in the afternoon.†  Privatisation again, fewer deliveries and a larger amount of post for each operative to deliver.  Probably.

In further postal news a competitor of the Royal Mail managed to deliver a 'sorry you were out' card to someone else's house.  At least the email telling me I was out went to the right address.  Their website helpfully had a phone number to contact them in the event of any enquiry.  This phone number also helpfully only had an automated menu with no option to speak to anyone, and there was no option for "you are a bunch of clowns, please try again but this time with the correct address."**  Eventually it was possible to subvert their automated customer avoidance system, but only again after using Google - and also by having prior knowledge that their delivery depot was in Rotherham.  This enabled me to make a more effective search for a telephone number, and this number lead to a real human being.  A brief conversation, a laugh, a joke, a court case, and the driver returned with the item I wasn't expecting.

This story would be complete if I could add that I hadn't ordered the surgical support from the thoroughbred stallion which recently competed at Doncaster's Town Moor racecourse, the home of the St Leger, and that some unknown person is going to be very disappointed.***

ebay item

* Isn't it donkeys that normally get things pinned on them?  Maybe this should be sitting on the hobby-horse.
** Strictly speaking this is the owners of the company that are a bunch of clowns, it would be unfair to apportion this accolade to the employees who are probably being screwed by management in some way.
***  But that isn't true.
† The post arrived at 5.50pm.

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