Manchester Post Office

Its a huge Post Office in the City Centre of Manchester which offers all postal services, Sometimes it can get quite busy so go at non peak times.

Post Office (city centre branch)
Offers a wide and full range of products. From stamps, credit cards, photo booth, passport checks, driving licence, travel money, travel insurance. When you go in it is often very busy, so you always have to go to the auto ticket machine and select the service you require, which prints you a numbered ticket and you can then take a seat and wait to be called.

In Australia, whenever you go into a Post Office you are guaranteed to be served by a grumpy person who will do their best to not be helpful. The two times that I have been to Manchester Post Office and been served by people who have smiled, been polite AND friendly and who have actually tried to help me. AMAZING. I want to give the staff at the Post Office 5 stars. In fact, 6. They deserve it.
The Post Office itself is a bit of a mess, however. This morning it took me at least a minute to find the ticket machine to be served. For some reason, the planners have decided that putting it in the middle of the room is the best place for it. Perhaps if the room was empty, that would be true, but once you have a large number of people standing around waiting, the machine that looks like every other machine/​box/​card stand in the room doesn’t exactly stand out. And I wasn’t the only person not to see it. As I sat waiting to be served, I watched multiple people walk into the Post Office and stand looking confused and very, very lost. This is great for the entertainment of people waiting to be served, but not so much fun for the people trying to find the ticket machine.

Large Post Office in convenient place near city centre and fairly near all the main shopping area. Only visited a couple times but, as most Post Offices, tends to get busy around lunch time.
This particular Post Office is like a deli in some supermarkets where you get a ticket with a number and wait for your number to be called. The problem I have, and one reason it gets a 3/​5, is that there is 2 main entrances and the ticket machine is only near one entrance. I went into the Post Office, saw the screens with the numbers but couldn’t find any ticket «dispensers». I had to ask someone who told me the machine was at other entrance.
At the ticket machine, you have to select which type of service you want before you get your number. Its was like a work in progress as the user interface was very basic. Usually these type of machine are more user friendly and have help in different languages etc.
Anyway, once I got my number the wait was not too long and the guy who served me was friendly and helpful.

This is one of my favourite post offices because of the location in central Manchester, just off Market Street and the layout with the ticket system and seats to sit down while you wait. With the amount of counters they have, even if you are number 104 and they are serving 80 it will be alot quicker than 24 people being ahead of you in a queue of a normal post office for example.
One thing I do like is the Post and Go machines, even though I experienced a problem I find them very useful being quicker than getting a ticket and being just as good. One thing that angered me with this service is that a message came up saying «Would you like a proof of postage?», I clicked yes and they never told me I had to take my parcel from their to the Express Desk to get my proof of postage stamped. I understand this as otherwise they would not know if it has defiantly been sent but I am really upset no one made me aware of this.
Due to this reason I have to drop my review to 3 stars from 4 but still I would not say to avoid this Post Office, I would recommended it but just remember this if you do need Proof of Posting.

Ah the Post Office. A necessary evil for most people and somewhere which always makes me at least slightly stressed.
But this one does have a few benefits despite it always being packed.
Instead of standing in a queue, you get a ticket out of the machine at the entrance (which tells you there are 47 people in front of you) which means you can take a seat while you wait.
Another good point as a result of this system is there are separate counters for various functions so if you’re only collecting euros for your weekend in Paris etc you’re not stuck behind the ebay guy sending 30 parcels and wanting proof of postage for all of them (I admit that’s usually me).
And finally, if you’re just sending a letter/​parcel there are machines near the front door so you can avoid queuing.
So overall, better than most Post Offices but still busy and stressful!

«I sent a letter to my mother, on the way I dropped it, Post Man came and picked it up and dropped in in my pocket… pocket…pocket «— I couldn’t help but hum this song while writing my review about the Post Office (Call me silly if you want to).
Some of you may ask a Post Office is a Post Office and it does its job, what’s the need to write a review? Well trust me after having experienced quite a few, I know how some can be better/​worse than the others. Manchester Post Office in Portland Street is the one which I frequently visit because it is just convenient and very close to my house. It looks more like a travel shop than a Post Office from outside because there is a news agent inside (I guess the point is – you can buy some groceries after dropping your post: p). The news agent thankfully stocks envelops, pens and white transparent sheets, paper (to aid the forgetful ones like me, I guess). I thankfully did not have a situation where my item got lost when I delivered it from here (yet). The space is big enough to fit a long queue when there is one, most of the time I did not have to wait for more than 15 minutes (very handy).
My only complain would be – The staff could do with a smile on their face while serving, anyway they are just sitting by themselves in their cubicle. I always like a bit of a banter with customer service people as it just makes the boring task (going to the Post Office) a little more bearable and interesting (may be).
Verdict: Does its job and there is never a long wait!

Hell hath no fury like central Manchester in the office lunch hour. I despair, I really do. And often I found myself here having to post things off while I was working at Spinningfields, so once I’d jostled through the crowds the last thing I wanted was apocalyptic queues whilst standing like a lemon with my parcel.
Thankfully, this is a particularly large post office. It sells what you’d expect — envelopes, stationery, stamps, the works, but with a great many kiosks it means you’re never waiting a ludicrously long time to get rid of your items. The staff are helpful too, I was talked through the ins and outs of how many stamps I should put on a card to enable it to reach Fuerteventura, for instance. Its location just next to the Tesco Metro makes it a very handy stopping off point if you happen to be in town.
I worked this out when I had to head here today to post off a box and a letter, both recorded delivery. I’m around a mile from a Post Office, no matter what direction I walk in. The shop opposite my apartment building closed down a long time ago, and now I’m at the mercy of Mocha Parade (gimme me flamin’ giro), Soviet, sorry, Salford Precinct (Gorky Park) and this. This is my default. I’d like to take a moment to announce that I’m a dumbass as well. Ticket systems? Lost on me. I become like a doddering old grandmother that’s been handed an iPod for the first time. Don’t worry, this happens at cheese counters and in hospital queues too. Small ballots of paper bewilder me. Anyway, I realised that I shouldn’t have sauntered past the friendly-​looking bloke stood next to the ominous looking machine. And the lady who handled my parcels was super friendly.
It’s quick and easy. Worth a visit if you’re parcel-​sending this Christmas. Although by now you’re probably too late… sorry, there was no need for that. I reckon you are though. Okay, I promise, I’ll stop now.

I felt cheated by the counter service. I was served at counter no. 20 by an Eastern European guy (I think if you are going to work in the UK at least learn some manner and courtesy). I was posting a square shaped large letter, but because it was 2 mm wider than the template in the width, it was charged at packet price. I find it absurd that someone posting an A4 sized large letter would be charged lower than my smaller square letter.
He was adamant and at that point I should’ve just left the place for another because I have never had this sort of upselling forced upon me in my local post office. And he was smirking throughout as well. The guy at the next counter just listened without intervening. If it’s an across the board thing then sod them. They will lose my future business because I post alot due to ebaying, and will take my parcels elsewhere.
I am indifferent about the ticket system (it’s the first time I saw it in a posties), it makes you feel like a number but at the same time gives the impression that you are being served efficiently. There are a lot of staff there and some patrolling to help but I get the feeling it’s for security as well.

In the future when we’re all robots, all Post Offices will look like this one! Almost everything is computerised, but there are still staff members standing around to help you when the computers inevitably break down!
I quite like the new automated parcel posting machines; they make despatching items quite easy for an eBay junkie like me! However, there are some Post Office services that aren’t so easily automated. So there’s still the old-​school counters offering Bureau De Change and other stuff. These days, you take a ticket and wait for your number to be called instead of queuing. But you can still expect to wait a while to be seen if you pop in after work or at lunchtime. This place gets packed out!

It’s a nightmare in here. Seeing as it’s the central post office though, nothing less expected. I’m not being down on the service and the staff here. But the machines are confusing and the whole feel of the place is hectic.
Official letters and official duties just remind me of being a real grown up and the post office is always met with the same haste. When you grab that ticket for your turn at the counter and it reads fourty numbers away, it’s just never a good feeling. However staff are ready to meet your mailing needs and it’s a good feeling once left.

As someone who generally hates post offices and any kind of self service ‘unexpected-​item-​in-​the-​bagging-​area’ machines, I was pleasantly surprised by the new post office. I walked in and a guy asked me what it was I wanted. I explained I had a parcel to weigh and post and he pointed me to the right machine and it was (literally) done in a Jiffy.
The new post office is clean and light with an air of efficiency and ease that is so unlike any other post office I’ve been to before. I saw people queuing but they all seemed to have genuine questions or things that needed a person to deal with them, and anyone who has a simple request like mine were in and out in no time at all.

I always avoid this place. Everybody is really agitated. Gives me a strange feeling all the time. It’s not enough light inside, and massive queues all the time. They’ve tried to make everything easier and modern for everybody, but some people get so confused and by the time someone comes and explain the situation, you waste half an hour.
The staff is not too nice. Just once I spoke to an old man, that was lovely and explain to me how to send a package cheaper. The rest of them were just rushing me around, being rude and inappropriate. Didn’t like that at all. That’s why nowadays I usually call a company online to pick everything for me, and to be honest, it is much much cheaper, and less hassle. If you can go there just to buy an envelope or some stamps, do that. Try to avoid the place for any other things.

I guess I have mixed feelings about the Post Office in Brown St. The building is not at all exciting, and for many years I had to queue up in line that would curve and curl but somehow managed to retain the order. In spite of this, there seemed to be a lot of free space at any time.
That was before the major overhaul. Now they shut one entrance, so you can only walk in from and walk out into Brown St. Where there used to be a queue are now a few seats. You have now got to issue yourself a ticket and wait for your number to be announced. There isn’t enough seats, so the «pedestrian» area is always occupied by standing folk. Annoyingly, a lot of people regularly decide not to stay in the queue, and when their number is announced they are no longer there, yet everyone, including the cashier officer, has to wait until the voice on tape recorder gets to the next number.
Quite frankly, this is not the worst thing that could happen to the post office. After all, there are countries where the ticketing system has been in use for at least 10 years. If anything, one has to wonder why it had taken the British postal service to get in line. And, of course, it does take time to implement things and to get them work properly.
On the plus side, the staff have always been very lovely and polite. And despite many a complaint against the postal service these days, I can state that my parcels always reached their overseas destination promptly and safely.

Kudos for trying, I suppose. Building a load of intimidating machines to the bidding of their cruel human masters is possible a step in the right direction away from getting intimidating old ladies to do it, but at least they could explain themselves to you rather than beep or error or crash when you do something a bit wrong.
It does speed up the queues, but it removes the human element from the Post Office. I always thought that was sort of the point, so you could ask Mavis how her son was doing at university, rather than all this ‘BEEP BOOP I am a machine’ nonsense.

Imagine a future where our bidding is done by machines. Machines to weigh your parcels, machines to print out stamps (that look *nothing* like actual stamps, and barely have old Lizzie’s face on) machines to tell you how to queue. And a bolshy woman to rule them all.
Imagine? I don’t need to imagine! I just need to go to the Post Office for the most stressful sci-​fi experience of my life. Last time I ventured there, to do my Asos returns (my life is one long Asos treadmill…) was the first time since the refurb. And it was scary.
We walked in, saw the counters, where the old ones used to be, but shinier, and headed that way. But NO! The bolshy Queen of Machines physically stopped us, herded us back about five paces and said «what do you want?» Er, we would like to post a parcel. She herds us back another three paces and hands us a ticket from a machine. Our number is 012. We are told to take a seat, our number will be called. It’s like being in a doctors waiting room, it’s a secret queue.
This all confuses me. I don’t see what was wrong with the old system. I mean, I don’t like queuing, nobody does. But the Post Office experience has always been, y’know, a test. A battle of wills between yourself and the person behind you who you suspect is trying to edge ahead in the queue. The Post Office experience is supposed to be hard. It separates the wheat from the chaff, survival of the fittest. Only those who are strong enough, will be allowed to post their parcel. This isn’t like that, this is like waiting in Purgatory or something. Bland, with a hint of malevolence.
The machines, I’ll admit, are a good addition for those who are in a rush, but while we were waiting, we saw one machine totally baffle a young bloke, while another continuously beeped whenever the lady using it put the parcel on the weighing platform, causing the Queen of Machines to abandon her post to open the machine up and poke around inside it. Considering both customers were still there when we fled, I think they might need some tweaking…
Sure, it’s shiny and new and feels like the inside of a giant robot, but it was fine before. It’s like painting a toilet blue. People might think ‘oh that looks nice’ but it doesn’t really matter, because they were going to use the toilet anyway. People use the Post Office whether its a skanky hole (Hathersage Road) or a shiny pantheon of expenditure.

Pushing Royal Mail forward into the 21^st century at last is this newly refurbished Post Office, right off Market Street in the centre of Manchester.
Gone are the queues. Well, kind of. What you do now, you see, is get a numbered ticket on entry, and then sit in one of the comfy red seats and wait to be called up to the counter. Which if I’m honest could still be half an hour because this is still a post office right in the middle of Manchester. But it’s better than standing in a traditional, physical queue.
Just before Christmas it was so busy that I got my ticket, went off and bought my girlfriend a present, and then came back to find my ticket number was only two minutes away from being called. Sheer luck, but very satisfying indeed.
Further queue busting credit is won by the introduction of three self-​service machines for large letters and packets.

As someone who is based in the city centre and has an eBay online business i have to confess the Post office was renowned for long queues with a 1960s counter design but now it has undergone a massive refurbishment. The big bulletproof like perplex glasses separating the customer from the staff and have been replaced with short, crisp 40 cm high by 80 cm wide perplex partitions. This i think has also improved customer service relations.
The place is very clean, open business like feel with comfortable brown leather sofas in the middle. They have installed ticketing system machines on both entries whereby you can choose which service from counter services, passport check and special delivery collect your ticket and wait for your number to be called out and which counter will be serving you. The counters are also labelled alphabetical with red LED display signs. Special delivery is given the highest priority and then counter services (i.e ordinary mail and payments).I like Plasma screens they have installedthey show your number and people waiting for that service plus the ticket also tells you how many customers are in front of you in the queue, gone are irritating post office adverts.
The service self service parcel sending machines are also a great relief if you can’t be bothered waiting only if you know how to use them but not worry staff are always eager to help.
Once everybody gets used to systems and more staff are brought in which i daunt in these uncertain times and when some people stop paying their bills at the post office and start using their phones, banks and the internet .i think only then will long queues be a thing of the past. only time will tell.

This is the one of the only post offices left in the city centre, it has everything a usual post office would have but it sells printers, basic computer equiptment and stationary. The staff are really helpful but the only problem is THE QUEUES AAARRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!! You will literally wait for a full half an hour before getting served and sometimes there is a leak from the roof when the weather is bad. This is why they have to stop closing post offices!

Its the BIG ONE!!! Avoid this place like the plague at all times especially christmas!!! There are many other P. O’s around Manchester that you can go to! At opening times there is usually a whole folck of people waiting to get in and the queues are pretty much mahoosive all day!!! Waiting times can be up to about 30 minutes at really busy times!!! Whats more is that the staff usually have a really bad attitude!