PAXI: REASONS NOT TO USE PEP PLUMSTEAD

If there had been an option to choose a negative rating, I would have chosen it. As soon as I heard the lady at the counter next to me say "This is the last time I use PAXI" I should have known that my experience would not be a good one.

Absolutely shocking service from Pep in the Checkers Centre, Plumstead. I arrived at the shop during loadshedding, but the power came back on while I was still in the queue, so there is no excuse for what happened when I reached the counter. I shall not name the person who "helped" me, but I will say that his English was extremely poor, his communications skills non-existent, and his speed was sloth-like.

It seemed like I was supposed to read his mind as to what was happening on his side of the counter, as he offered no reasons for the inordinate amount of time that the simple process of sending a parcel via PAXI to Rembrandt Mall in Paarl was taking.

When I first got to the counter, I was asked to write down the details of the person who I was sending the parcel to and the branch it was being sent to. Then I was asked what size bag I wanted. I seriously thought this was a joke, as the parcel I was sending was on the counter between us. I told him that I had no idea of the dimensions of the bags that were available, but I told him that obviously I wanted a bag big enough to hold my parcel.

Then I used my card to pay, and my pin accepted, but after a couple of minutes, after just standing around waiting, I asked what the problem was. He mumbled a few words, most of which I didn’t get, but I did catch “it’s just processing quickly”. “But it’s not processing quickly at all, is it?” I said. Then I had to go through the whole process of paying again before my receipt was printed out.

I was then asked for the details of who and where the parcel was being sent to, and I had to refer him to the information that he had asked me to write out right at the beginning. I suppose he had an excuse for forgetting, because it was so long ago.

Then the computer wasn’t working, so the guy had to use a handheld device, and my granny could have captured the information I gave him faster than he did.

He opened up the bag, put the parcel in and then asked me to pull the st******* the sticky end of the bag before he sealed it. I did it, but, confused, I asked him why he couldn’t have pulled the st******* himself. He didn’t answer and I had to ask the question twice more before he said that it was so that he could see that he didn’t remove anything from the parcel. Really? After I had removed the strip, he sealed the parcel, so this point was completely lost on me.

This is my first experience sending something via PAXI, but I feel that for an additional R30 it is much better to send any future parcels via PostNet. The time it takes them to process and pack a parcel is ten times faster and the agents are so much more efficient and friendly. If I do use PAXI again, it will definitely not be at Pep Plumstead.