BOO HOO!
We are all having prices increased by Royal Mail and VAT slapped on top. Things change in business you can have your cake and eat it.
If you put all your eggs in one basket then thats your bad choice!
Stop moaning and get on with it.
Not exactley a very mature or balanced response there. "Stop moaning and get on with it" ? - hmm, sounds like the sort of comment you used to get from the Tories back in the bad days.
The concept of helping out the Royal Mail is ridiculous. It is a failed institution that is badly managed, losing vast sums of public money, and did not itself move with the times, and it has been doing this for decades. I recently saw a Panorama programme that was indicating that a great deal of the Royal Mail's revenue is coming in from junk post. Something that the majority of us do not want to recieve. Now is that a good business approach?. I , as a taxpayer have no choice in my funding of the Royal Mail/Post Office - in fact not once, but twice. First by general taxation and secondly as a customer.
When my wife recently had some post that had been ripped open and a gift , and a card stolen from it , whilst in the postage system ( that was sent by Royal Mail's Recorded delivery service, that she paid extra for.), she eventually got a letter saying it had been 'referred to' , and a book of first class stamps. She has heard nothing since, and that was months ago. The value of the items was considerably more than a book of stamps. Great service eh?l. If a private concern did that you could do something about it, but with the Royal Mail, you get nowhere.
You would not have that happen in other services, but we all accept it, because it is our beloved Royal Mail. If you took away the Royal connection and it's history , we would not be so easy on it. But have no fear, because when our Government eventually have thier way and privatise it, at no doubt well below it's real value, it will taken over by a series of profiterring concerns, that just like our rail companies, will continue to get state funded subsidies. It will change hands every five years , until it's purpose will be seen as redundant, and end up as a memory - no doubt rose tinted , with visions of cheery post men wearing proper uniforms in shiny red vans, "Postman Pat, Postman Pat ...............". Not as a memory of a concern that did a pretty shoddy job and cost the tax payer vast amounts of money - anyone recall the failed rebranding of the Royal Mail with the swirly logo?. It was clearly bad, as I cannot recall what they renamed it.
And so this is the institution we are happy to give a monopoly on passport photos to? You get a bad service from a shop, you have a choice. Choice, variety and service is what you get in a free market. Do retailers who do your passport photos get supported by the public?, no, because if they fail to do their job properly and give a bad service, they go to the wall. No one is going to have forgiving rose tinted memories of them. The shop closes and if it ever reopens as a shop it becomes another betting shop or a fast food outlet.
If standing up for and highlighting to people something that is a potential threat is 'moaning', then it says alot for this country's approach to democracy. Forums are there for individuals to discuss things in a fair and adult way. Which is why I brought it up on here.
Now, I am sure I will get some bricks chucked back at me, that is to be expected. But I hope that some of you might, just might, see the points being raised here by myself and others who are concerned about this situation. Furthermore, that you might support the campaign, 'Save the Photographers'. We care about the industry we are in, wether it be as a supplier or a retailer.
There you go ,and I wasn't being rude or off hand either.
Thank you.
