West Australia = efficient government services

[sundaymorningstaple]

JR8, just think you managed to tick of two people with a single post, one a moderator and the other a newbie (on this board but I doubt he was born yesterday). I believe he knows what his post count is as that was the reason he question your basing your premise on the number of his posts as if that designated something other than the number of actual posts he has made here. Did you ever stop to think that he might be a reader and not somebody who has to pump up his post count with 5000 utube links to music? Oh, is he supposed to be a mind reader? How is he supposed to know that you are physically hampered? Consider.

[JR8]

Isn't anyone who has to spend 2hrs trying to buy a stamp, physically hampered?

[x9200]

It is enough to live here on your own for a few weeks to notice that the post services do not work on Sundays. No mail gets ever delivered on that day. Already enough to expect that also no mail gets collected on Sundays. This would be my starting point. The fact that the post stamps are not sold in many places is the matter of convenience only. I don't see this with any solid link to efficiency.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Consider the fact that the post office isn't open after 1 pm on Saturday until 8:30 Monday morning. Consider the fact that mail is not collected from ANY post box, INCLUDING the ones in the wall of the post office, are not collected after 7 pm on Friday and not collected again until 5~7pm on Monday. Why would you be worried about finding a stamp on a weekend? And why would you already know this as we all know you are very adept with search engines so the SingPost website surely wouldn't have posed a problem.

Physically hampered because they spent 2 hours looking for a stamp? No, but maybe hoist by your own petard would fit.

[PNGMK]

Stop picking on JR8, he is a landlord after all.

(Actually I like JR8 and I do get a wee bit pissed off at MODS who don't live in Singapore any more being, well, MODS).

[JR8]

X9:
I appreciate that there isn’t mail collection/delivery on Sundays, that is pretty much the same worldwide. I suppose what I didn’t expect was the difficulty at buying stamps. In Europe you tend to be able to buy them at newsagents, and convenience stores, supermarkets, garages, banks, and so on, hey even post offices. Post Offices have vending machines (on the outside, not inside as here!) so you can buy stamps out of hours. All of these options are targeting a market (just like me), who can’t, or would prefer not to go to a physical post office, during it’s opening hours. So on the one hand you could argue that the diffuse market I desire should not exist, on the other you can say, well, much of the rest of the 1st world already caters for it.


SMS:
Well as above, I just wanted the job off my list. The document was a legal deed re: a property transaction, something that’s been going around and around between lawyers for a year or two+ now. All of these documents are potentially acutely time-sensitive. Turning around documents from my lawyer back home takes about 2 weeks, and at that point, I start to get nervous. I’d imagined (yes, my mistake) the nearby convenience store would have stamps; after all, that would be the case in most 1st world countries. I think it was my wife who subsequently mentioned the SAM or AXS machines*, I have never used either of those before, and didn’t know what they were.

We probably all come from places where you can get stamps from a dozen convenient places. But here you can’t. Here you get them from the post office, or a vending machine which is likely located next to the post office, and doesn't take cash lol.

I am grateful to ZZM for the link to ‘stamps on line’. The striking thing with that is I don’t recall it’s existence being hinted at during the time we spent online trying to figure out where to get stamps. That could be most useful if I find myself in this corner again.


*It is she, rather than me, who is adept on the internet. I am decidedly archao-pedestrian :

[kookaburrah]

I post maybe four letters a year (my condominium cheques actually). But when I do need to post a letter, like you, i really need to do it.

With this in mind I went to those vending machines and bought a few stamps using a fat, stuffed envelope as a rough guide to how much weight i'd need to post. They issue stamps by class, not amount (much like the UK) therefore they're protected from price increases. I keep these in my wallet, ready for use when needed.

[x9200]

JR8, you emphasized somehow the importancy and kind of indirectly urgency and it simply does not click if you know it is not going to be send that day anyway. It could be very well the way it is, is more efficient than having more selling points. Efficiency is also about resources management.

IMO in the other countries selling post stamps in the places different than PO is closely related to postcards. Here, you have to have some profound knowledge to buy a postcard outside top tourist area. Selling post stamps alone probably would make hardly any profit and be an extra hassle.

[Hannieroo]

I don't find stamps a problem but post boxes appear to be hard to find. I'm sure there is a plan to it and you'll always find one next to a whatever but I haven't figured it out yet. But I have a teenager with a bike I can send out so I care not. The fresh air is good for him.

[zzm9980]

I don't find stamps a problem but post boxes appear to be hard to find. I'm sure there is a plan to it and you'll always find one next to a whatever but I haven't figured it out yet. But I have a teenager with a bike I can send out so I care not. The fresh air is good for him.

And here I was hoping you came to this thread to tell us your herpies were itching again.

[zzm9980]

I don't find stamps a problem but post boxes appear to be hard to find. I'm sure there is a plan to it and you'll always find one next to a whatever but I haven't figured it out yet. But I have a teenager with a bike I can send out so I care not. The fresh air is good for him.

Walk to your nearest clump of HDBs. I see one every few buildings.

[Strong Eagle]

Stop picking on JR8, he is a landlord after all.

(Actually I like JR8 and I do get a wee bit pissed off at MODS who don't live in Singapore any more being, well, MODS).

Gee... to whom might you be referring, as I am a mod and not in Singapore, and what would be pissing you off... other than my warning you about your late night untoward behavior on this board?

[JR8]

An added irony is that I have a post-box 50 metres away, in front of a 24hr convenience store, but no way to buy stamps within a mile

[Wd40]

I find the idea of having to paste a stamp itself so vintage. In this digital age, the postage stamp should have been outdated by now. It should find place only in collections.

The Indian postal department very recently phased out the Telegram service. Good they did it.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/07/15/ ... n-service/

[x9200]

Higher likelihood of post boxes is near petrol stations and bus stops but this is still a likelihood, not a code of practice. I think there is one at every MRT station.