"Some customers don't know what to do. You must know better than them."

A new man with a beard came to Kam Tin Post Office. The enthusiastic postman guided him carefully and attentively, guiding him one by one on the attitude of customers, the operation of the machine, and even the movements of his left and right hands when collecting money.

Enthusiasm is very enthusiastic, and he is careful enough, but sometimes he is too careful, which makes people feel that every move must be carried out according to his instructions. Newcomers will find it disgusting! ?

As an ordinary person, I am very happy and can get enough information every time I come. How to send mail cheaper and how to package it appropriately. A good trip will not be in vain.

One day I brought a package that was three times the size. The enthusiastic uncle said, "Just using tape to stick the two items together does not meet the specifications. It is very easy to lose one of them. Sending it separately will be very expensive. You should go to Yuen Long to buy it first." It’s a big box. We have a small business here and have few resources, so we have to go to Yuen Long to buy it.”

Yuen Long Post Office? No, I would rather send it to Tsuen Wan.

In the past two years, by chance, I have sent mail to almost all post offices in Hong Kong. I sent some thoughts. They are both government departments and provide the same services, but the ones provided by different post offices can be vastly different.

 The following comments are purely personal feelings and do not have any reference value. Just take a look. Just finish reading it.

Yuen Long (Firecracker Square)

"No ar No ar. Every one late now. No message no letter." I remember that the first wave of the epidemic had just ended, and the Yuen Long Post Office was still in Pao Chiang Fong.

A foreign domestic helper sister ran to the post office window with a piece of note paper. Her renewal certificate was registered at her home, but she did not receive it. Counting the days, she realized that her certificate was about to expire. She anxiously asked the counter to check whether her mail was in the bureau.

The postman at the Yuen Long Post Office shouted through the glass window: "No ar, come back next week la. All mail delay 14 days. Many people are waiting."

Indeed, the number of people waiting in the bureau is several times greater than that of the district council voting. You have to take your temperature and clean your hands. The doors on both sides only open on one side, and the entrance and exit doors must be separated. The route is extremely complicated and narrow, which makes everyone in the bureau very upset.

When it was my turn, the postman lady returned the packet with the same attitude as if her son had failed in the exam: "You didn't seal it. Go back and seal it before passing on."

As soon as I was stunned, she just sealed the fist-sized package. Seeing her attitude, I didn't dare to speak, so I asked, "Is there any tape here? I'll come back after sealing it."

"Isolation window shopping! Let's finish it first."

Just forget it if you don’t help seal it. Do you have to pay for the tape yourself?

Kennedy Town

The impression that the post office helps seal tape comes from the knowledge that one day I went to the Kennedy Town post office with my meme colleagues to mail letters.

The meme colleague is a small one, 150cm tall. When talking about the word "I", he always replaces it with me. In 2019, we sent 40 subscription gifts and took two large boxes of packages to the Kennedy Town Post Office.

All 40 boxes are the smallest post office cartons. I was responsible for sending it to the post office from the company, and my colleague Meme was responsible for the payment. She took one box after another, bending down and holding the box over her cheek to the window. We didn't know the rules, so we thought we could just cover the small box without any tape sealing it.

The postman weighed the items silently, pulled out a piece of tape of just the right length from the big red tape holder, sealed it with one hand, and put a postage label on it, which was quite neat.

The post office is in Sai Wan. Students often spread out their luggage and buy cartons directly from the post office for packing. Occasionally they bring a Cantonese translator with them, but this is totally unnecessary. The postmen's biliteracy and trilingual skills reach international standards. I'm afraid it's even more even than the Central Bureau, and it wouldn't be surprising to say that some of them understand French and Japanese.

The postman sometimes asks us what's in our small package. My colleague Meme doesn't know how to describe it, so he asks him to open it. If possible, he would help reduce the postage cost from 14 yuan to 13.7 yuan. Then seal the box silently.

From 2019 to 2022, the meme colleague actually put his elbows against the window and waited for the postman to process the mail.

I was surprised: "Huh? Have you grown taller?"

"Tsk. I'm 3cm taller. Did you notice it first?"

The possibilities are endless with Covid -19.

Kowloon City

The number of items sent each time is quite large, but not 100 items can be mailed in large quantities. About 20 to 30 pieces. Mail with the same weight and specifications will be handled by skilled staff as follows:

． Small mail x 20 pieces

However, some staff are worried. Considering that they will be held responsible if the postage is a few cents short, they will weigh the items one by one, and the receipt will become:

． Small mail x 1 piece

． Small mail x 1 piece

． Small mail x 1 piece

． Small mail x 1 piece

． Small mail x 1 piece

． Small mail x 1 piece⋯⋯

The postman uncle from Longgang Road is a very nice guy, he is a bit old and has a big belly. He is one of the uneasy ones. The 20 pieces of mail were processed one by one, making the receipt longer than an A4 piece of paper, causing the accounting staff to complain and curse.

He was not in a hurry, and there was no one behind him. He executed it in the most stable way. It doesn’t matter if you divide the orders into two or three. The postman has no pressure. Located in Kowloon City, it has the laid-back feel of a rural post office.

Fanling, Mei Foo

The Fanling and Meihu post offices were unexpectedly crowded, and the staff had developed extremely fast skills. Even faster than the Central Post Office.

The General Post Office often asks a lot of questions, very carefully: "Do you want to register? Ordinary mail without tracking? How do you want to invoice?" before starting to take action. The Central Post Office is also divided into two floors, with the lower floor handling bulk mail and the upper floor handling individual customers.

Fanling Mobil will not do it. It will be sent by ordinary mail without registration. How many copies? Completed, place order. The location of the post office is difficult to find. One family is in a complex, and the other is nestled in the corner of Wah Ming Estate. Mobil is nominally at the exit of the MTR station, but it is between the exit and the exit, under the bridge, and near the garbage station.

Every afternoon after 3:30, there is always a long queue and overcrowded people. After waiting in line one after another, I am afraid that the post office will be closed if it is too late. The "Safe Travel" staff guarding the door had no time to intercept them, so they had to step forward to check them one by one. After checking and being reminded of social distance, the formation suddenly dispersed.

Fortunately, the instructions were straightforward and simple: "The limit for each order is ten years. If it exceeds the limit, please queue up again. Come forward to pay, Octopus cash?" Even if there are eight people in front of ten, it doesn't take ten minutes for it to be my turn.

Tsuen Wan

"Why don't you take it out and show it to my colleagues? This is not a parcel, it's a small piece of mail. If you want to contact me, I can send it to you. I'll tell you how much it costs. Well, it's only 190 for delivery. Over there Just send 119. When you send it, fill out the form. When you send it, get a piece of white paper and write it on the box. You can read it yourself!"

One day I bought an M1 box at Tsuen Wan Post Office. After packaging and sealing the box, I took it to the parcel department and was read for two or three minutes. I almost wanted to retort: ​​"Your colleague sells that box more than me!"

There are many windows at the Tsuen Wan Post Office, and each one only has five or six people at most, but I don’t know why I have to queue for twenty minutes. The transparent grids that should be filled with forms are often short of paper.

I waited in line for 20 minutes to buy the M1 box, packed the seal and filled in the customs declaration paper, and waited in line for about ten minutes as instructed. But ended up with such a steal.

In the past, most EMS was sent to Shek Wai Kok. Once there was no one there, there was no need to wait. Secondly, I mailed it twice a week, which was too much. The postman understood me as soon as he saw me and finished it quickly. The company is 20 minutes away from Shek Wai Kok, so I can walk back and forth and do some exercise.

After the epidemic, the company showed great kindness and was willing to apply for transportation allowances for colleagues who went out to work, so they went to Tsuen Wan instead to buy afternoon tea. Speaking of which, the company is not unkind. Why doesn’t everyone receive transportation allowance? Since there are company cars, in principle everyone can reserve a driver to take them out and in.

It's just that my boss fired the driver shortly after I joined the company.

Standing staff at the gate of government agencies will guide you to the window number you should go to if you want to do something. In particular, large post offices often have ten windows, each of which only handles one or two businesses, and it is difficult to understand the names on the windows without knowing how to interpret them. Stationery for small letters and packages...Do cartons count as stationery?

After I queued for window number 4 again and was told to go back to the package place, I got angrily and took a ride to Yau Ma Tei. There was no queue, which was super cool. Sent in three minutes.

Kowloon Central Post Office

This is a regular visit. After taking stock at the bookstore opposite, go here to send the gifts, or go over to take stock after sending them. I also send thirty to fifty pieces in the same way.

More than ten to less than a hundred pieces of the same email is an embarrassing amount. It cannot be done in one go by mass mailing. It is necessary to weigh and measure the thickness of each piece one by one, print labels, affix postage, place mail bags, and print out receipts...

"Believe me, they all weigh exactly the same. One single pass?"

"Yeah, can you have three ITEMs? 10 pieces each?"

"Okay! I'll weigh it three times. Bring it here."

The postmen here are very quick and can finish the job in one order no matter how large the quantity is. But there was only one person at the window, and it took five minutes to process just thirty copies. If there are passengers behind, it will cause trouble for the postman - Hong Kong people wait thirty seconds before complaining.

After sending it a few times, the postman recognized me. The agreement said: "Each of us will apply half of the labels." I readily agreed. After all, it would speed up the process and I should also share my work. The most important thing is that the work goes smoothly.

The most important thing is that for some reason, as the post office in the center of Kowloon, there is no queue here for a long time. Maybe I'll arrive at tea time. Whether it's buying cardboard boxes, sending small mail, or buying stamps. Maybe it's just luck.

But there is no one here to help seal the package. Ball pens are often in short supply, and I have to wait to write a customs declaration paper. Recently, electronic customs declaration has started to be required when shipping to the mainland. There is no instruction and the postman will occasionally get upset if I ask too many questions. In addition, they invented paper notices to ensure that the mail package does not contain contraband, and the queue is at the tip of the customer's nose.

Boss, can I sign the agreement?

Other post offices

"What are you looking for?" The postal clerk from Whampoa Garden spoke Mandarin to me when she entered the door. I was stunned and said she wanted to buy a box. She found out that I was from Hong Kong and looked apologetic.

In fact, I don't care, it's a trivial matter. After I purchased the box, I borrowed stationery from the bureau and sealed it in the usual way. She came over enthusiastically: "No, it's not that. Wait for me."

Use the tape to seal all areas where air may enter or leave the box. One-third of the entire roll of tape is missing. She proudly said, "Okay, I sent it." I awkwardly thanked her.

I printed postcards at the beginning of the year. In order to collect the special postmarks, I visited Wan Chai Airport and other post offices. These mailboxes are not easy to find. In all of Hong Kong, only the Wan Chai Post Office gave me clear instructions to find the mailbox.

It was also the only experience where English was spoken throughout the whole journey at Wyndham Road Post Office. It’s not that they look down on you or deliberately make things difficult for you. There are foreigners in front and behind you, and everyone responds in English very naturally.

Even if it is the same government unit and the same business, there is a big difference just whether there is adhesive tape in the bureau. If the clerk is willing to explain more, he will have to make less trips and the mail will be sent out faster. I don’t often send letters, I’m not familiar with them, and I only talk about one issue at a time. I tried to make two or three trips before I finally managed to send an email, which was very torture.

I finally bought a box that day and returned to Kam Tin to send letters. At ten o'clock in the morning, the newcomer seemed to be on his own, handling mail alone at the counter. I handed the box over and he said, "It doesn't meet the regulations. Wrap it in a plastic bag, otherwise it will fall out."

scare? What? I was stunned, it was hot in autumn, and I went to 7-11 to buy a lemon tea. Come on, let’s go out to Kowloon and watch a show.

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