Things that irritate me in the UK part 1545

[karohemd]

OK, I haven't actually written any other parts (using that headline) but that's beside the point.

Today: The post office.
This morning, I went to the post office to send off a CD and only two people in the queue ahead of me (about 8 people) had business I would associate with a post office (sending a parcel and buying stamps), all the others handed in some form or other or picked up their pension or pay a bill.
As the name suggests, it's the post office, for sending and receiving mail, for purchasing stamps and other related material, nothing else.

An example I actually know about: Car tax.
Why do I have to fill in a stupid form, write an antique cheque and take them both to the post office to pay my car tax? It's now slightly more convenient for me as the post office around the corner from work now finally does car tax but previously, I had to go to the bloody one in town.
Why is there no way of paying this by bank transfer or even better, by standing order/direct debit (the standard method of paying bills in Germany for the last 40? 50? longer? years)?

Almost everyone has a mobile phone that has more processing power and memory than my first PC and high speed broadband internet but their banking (not to mention plumbing and other things around the house, but that's a completely different rant) is from the 19th century. I really don't get it.

ETA: What it boils down to is an inherit difference in mentality and the administrative (and social) structures/processes between this country and the one I grew up in.
And if I hear the term "historically" one more time as an excuse for why things are as they are, I'm going to scream. There is no reason whatsoever why things can't change, especially not in a period of 50 years or more.

Comments

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

Car tax can now be done online (at least if you have an electronic MOT certificate, which should be everyone within the next few months). At the moment it's done in person or by post because you have to show other documents (specifically the MOT cert, and up until quite recently the insurance certificate -- that can now be checked electronically by the DVLA)

Many countries have non-postal services available at the post office; the UK is by no means unique.

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

(And you have been able to buy car tax by post for at least as long as I have been involved in paying it.)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Which would involve sending documents that should not leave the house (insurance and MOT) by registered post, IIRC.

[borusa.livejournal.com]

Why is there no way of paying this by bank transfer or even better, by standing order/direct debit (the standard method of paying bills in Germany for the last 40? 50? longer? years)?

Because it's also a point of checking that the car is insured and MOT'd. Of course, you can now buy it online, as they've moved the MOT system to being properly computerised.

Given that Post Offices have been providing other services than pure post-related activities for the last century or more, it shouldn't really come as a surprise to you.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm just too German...

[mazzarc.livejournal.com]

Well DUH... you were born there! (I believe)

[lineoutrecords.livejournal.com]

It's crap. It doesn't make it any easier that more and more post offices are being shut down.

[echo-echo.livejournal.com]

If it wasn't for post officies offering 'other' services to post a lot more of them would be shut down too!

The fact that they do offer other services means that they can justify their existence in many smaller towns/villages.

[faerierhona.livejournal.com]

car tax can be done online, in person or by post. I just got my reminder...

As for banking, i can do everything in 2 minutes from my PC, and if I had a better phone could do it from that!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Car tax only recently, though. At least this means that I'll be able to do it when it comes round in October.

Oh, I can do that, too but online banking has only been working properly for a few years. There has been a jump from the dark ages of cheque writing to online banking with nothing in between. There are still people about who don't own/can't use a computer and don't have a net connection, they have to do use the antique system.
If I wanted to, say, pay a one off bill to my landlord's bank account and couldn't do it online, I could go to my bank and do it there but it would cost a horrendous fee (can't remember how much, it was about 10 years ago, but it was at least £15) because he's with a different bank. I don't understand what the problem is because a standing order wasn't a problem and free, too.

[faerierhona.livejournal.com]

I have been doing car tax by post for years!

And as for the paying it in problem - that's your bank. I do that for free

[themadone.livejournal.com]

Or you could go to his flavour of bank and pay money or a cheque in to his account? Sounds like you've got a shitty bank though.

[dr-wez.livejournal.com]

Banks are historically pretty crappy for two reasons:

1. They are late adopters - taking on a new technology means expenditure for them in making sure they aren't going to get a horrible black-eye when it turns out to have a huge and very obvious flaw in it.
   
2. They are there to make money - allowing you to do simple, instantaneous transfers from A to B would mean your money spending less time in a "clearing" account, and so they'd be able to make less profit from investing clearing account funds...
   

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

1. I would see your point if it were a few years, not 50odd.

2. So are German banks.

[nina321.livejournal.com]

There's nothing stopping you going to the DVLA to pay for your car tax. However, their queues are generally longer than in the post office.

As far as I'm aware, banking is just as easy on the internet as it is in the branch, and bills and that are generally paid by direct debit. Mine are anyway!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I'm not driving to Swansea or whereever they are and there is no branch in Cambridge.

Oh, direct debit has been available for years but it's not that everyone uses it. It's a lot easier for everyone involved but it's difficult to change the mindset.

[belak-krin.livejournal.com]

Everywhere (used to) have a Post Office - thus it is (was)the best place to hand out pensions, check taxes etc etc.

Was a great system until they started privatising and closing local branches

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with automatically paying my pension into my account?

[new-brunette.livejournal.com]

You've already had a torrent of people pointing out that car tax can be done online, so I won't repeat the point. More importantly, many small post offices provide community services, such as the distribution of state benefits and central bill payment to those people who've historically never had bank accounts - low-waged, weekly, paid in cash folk, pensioners, etc.

If you removed all of the other non-core services from the post office, it would make many more of them non-viable and they'd have to close, leaving a lot of people in a mess.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Yes, but only for less than a year, IIRC.

I guess what it boils down to is an inherit difference in administrative (and social) culture. The British dislike of change is a well known fact so certain processes have been kept despite being completely unnecessary and out of date.

Which brings me to another point of irritation: The word "historically" being used as an excuse for the state of things.

You know, sometimes I think that being bombed to oblivion and forced to rebuilt and restart from scratch would be a very good thing for a few other countries, too. It certainly helped Germany detaching itself from its past.

[rirekon.livejournal.com]

You've got the wrong end of the stick. You don't have to go to a Post Office, you can go to a Post Office. As you said, why should we have to go somewhere like Swansea to pay it when the local Post Office will accept it too.
The reason it's not done by standing order/direct debit is that the charge changes depending on the vehicle, it's not a standard payment. Also you're required to present a valid MOT with your payment, that can't be done via those methods.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

As I said, different administrative structures. Some like it more complicated than others.

[davedevil.livejournal.com]

Then get back to Germany you dirty foreigner ;)

[eryx-uk.livejournal.com]

I fully agree with you. We are so behind in this country, its bloody stupid. I fear that we're afraid of change for some reason.

*Shrugs*

[whiskeylover.livejournal.com]

Oh get a grip,

Things are fairly shite in Germany too- just recently I was in a supermarket (Karstadt) and they couldn't handle my debit card "try the second floor, I think they can take them there". Let alone the shop opening hours, or the number of places that take 'cash only', while Britain has been on cards for donkeys years.

And it's not like German post offices are much better, "Post Bank" anyone?

Anyway, the post office is a public, state funded place, so if it actually can make itself useful by handing out pensions, ordering passports and whatnot, that is a good thing, rather than having to fork out more money to deal with those things.