A bizarre post office situation
Can anyone please tell me if any part of this sounds normal or has happened to them?.Today I went into my local post office to buy some Euros.I paid on my debit card and so they came straight out if my account.The man behind the counter took a photo from my phone of my passport as I didn't have it with me but had it on my phone.Then he said he couldn't open the till because it was on a timer and for me to come back later or he could come to my home and deliver it ( he doesn't know me well or where I live or my house).I said I can't wait so I want the money back on my card.He said he couldn't do that.I demanded he do it.He said he needed to speak to someone from the post office management on the phone ( then spoke in a different language I couldn't understand and then a mix of English.He then said his manager agreed that my only options were to wait 45mins for the till to open or 7-10 days for the till to open.Does this not sound very odd?.I started to panic and phoned my bank whilst I was in there who told me to wait in there for 45mins.I waited and got my Euros but I do think they thought I was on the phone to the police because I have never come across this before
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This sounds very odd. Sine the late 1990s, I've often bought Euros as Christmas gifts using my debit card at a PO or a local supermarket. I've never had a problem. The offer to come to your home sounds suspicious, otherwise I'd just say banking is changing with it getting harder to receive cash in any currency.
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Was it early in the morning? Some tills are on an electronic time lock to prevent people getting money if they break in overnight. Bank vaults work in the same way.
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Paying by debit card and the money leaving your account straight away is normal for foreign currency purchases. Time locked tills are also a genuine security measure, although staff really should explain this in advance so you know what to expect and give you the option to return when the transaction can be completed in full without delays.
What’s not normal is the offer to bring the money to your home, or the way your passport details were handled. For currency exchange, staff should check your ID properly at the counter and usually need to see the actual passport, not just an image on a phone, and they should simply ask you to return with it if you don’t have it. It’s especially worrying if a member of staff takes or saves a photo of your passport on their own phone, as that can break anti money laundering procedures and create serious data protection risks.
You absolutely did the right thing by calling your bank and staying there until it was sorted out, and I’m really sorry you were left feeling so anxious in the branch. If you feel able, it might be worth reporting what happened via the Post Office’s online complaints page, not to get anyone into trouble, but to help stop this happening to someone else and to make sure staff get the right guidance in future.
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Who knows everything is changing and we are not told my mum went to draw a grand out and she got the Spanish interrogation im really paranoid how the world's going so paranoid
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I once saw a similar issue (not related to currency exchange though, just a withdrawal) happen in a Post Office near me. But that was in the early 90s when computers and the interweb were still quite unusual! I'd have hoped things might have improved.
Post Offices are franchises, which means they have to follow all sorts of rules and guidelines. These are also set both by the central PO agency and the government.
I knew the manager of that post office fairly well and that situation (and similar) led us to occasionally discuss how tightly his hands were sometimes tied behind his back by that arrangement. It's an unusual business model.
The Post Office generally advises informing them in advance if people want to exchange or withdraw much by way of money. Unfortunately that's too late to help here.
It seems to me the person who "served" you made a mistake. If they didn't have sufficient cash to cover the transaction, they should have warned you in advance or they shouldn't have made the transaction. It's not acceptable for them to ask you to wait.
I'd like to hope the cashier offered to take it to your house in part as an apology for their mistake, or just out of good customer service. It's the nature of post offices that their customers tend to live locally to them. It's extremely unlikely they intended any malice, there would be loads of evidence against them. Post offices are full of cameras and must keep very, very tight records of everything!
Fortunately, you did wait and it looks like that fixed it.
In future I suggest contacting the post office in advance. I hope you're holiday is all you'd like it to be!
😎
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TThank You all for your replies.Its put my mind at ease knowing that its not totally out of the question I.e the tills being locked etc.I think what made the situation more stressful is my needing to go and collect my son from school because I have this current situation going on with him threatening to harm himself.As social services are now involved.We are all in agreement its in his best interests that he not make his way home from to or from school.So I needed to be available to get to his school for pick up which is a way off from that post office and was already anxious.It has just been one thing after another lately!
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I think this is really poor practice by the post office staff member to be honest. When I went and got euros I showed my drivers licence and debit card and got the money immediately (it was earlier this year for a school trip for daughter). I also put money on a card for her and that meant two transactions but no wait. She checked with another staff member to make sure she had the euros.
I would put in a complaint.
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Your son was at school on a Saturday? I haven't heard of that before! I hated just the Monday to Friday. 👩🎓
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Afternoon @Chris75_. The original post was actually posted on Friday, but there was a delay in the system until I manually approved it yesterday morning.
@Jane315STARX, I'm glad you got the money in the end. I have experienced tills on a timelock before but they should have made this clear to you in advance. Are you off anywhere nice with your euros?
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Well because my son as you all know has been in this desperate situation I thought I should book a short holiday somewhere abroad next year to give him the incentive to Live.My health and anxiety is not the best for this but its the only thing I could think of to give him something to look forward to.Even this doesn't seem to have worked as of yet and im getting highly anxious at the prospect of it.But it is my only option right now
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That sounds like a lovely and really positive idea @Jane315STARX and a change of scenery might be good for both of you. I imagine it took a lot of courage to book and shows how much you care about your son. I hope once it gets closer, it starts to feel more exciting than scary!
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