Why I can’t bring myself to watch Mr Bates vs the Post Office

Sharing is caring!

The Horizon Scandal

What it was really like to work for the Post Office with a faulty Horizon system.

Purchasing a Post Office

I purchased a shop and tearoom towards the end of 2016 with my family. Included was a small part time Post Office with a contract. A contract I had to earn even though I would be purchasing the building. 

This meant phone interviews and an in-person interview with a presentation in my local area of Swindon. In case you are lacking in British Geography knowledge Cambridge to Swindon is not close. And the M25 should never be traversed for a 9am start. 

Once interview, presentation and background checks were successful I was ‘hired’ as Subpostmaster for my small village shop position. Just 9-12 Monday to Friday. We weren’t allowed to open more. No matter what customers understood or asked. If we so much as cashed up after hours we were rung to ask why and told we were being watched. 

I can tell you now 12 is not a great time to cash up when you run a tearoom as well. Lunch rush and counting don’t mix. 

But I had just been assigned to my post and didn’t know this yet. Looking back now I  feel I had been sold a story by the previous owners. But one good thing about the Post Office is a regular, meagre, wage did come as it was a set contract unlike the rest of the business which ebbed and flowed. (It mostly flowed into stock and renovations we never saw a financial benefit too). 

Post Office Training

Before starting I attended a short series of training sessions. From memory I believe it was two. And then we were to have training instore.

Most training focused on the very basic transactions and how to put them through the Horizon computer system.

My in person training didn’t follow the “regular” pattern as trainers weren’t available at the correct times. Instead they showed up over weeks with gaps in between. It was during this time I fell victim to the Horizon system. 

A faulty computer system

I hadn’t heard much about this in the news except that some Postmasters were trying to steal from the Post Office. That is how it was said at the time.

So when £180 went unaccounted I was made to feel like a criminal. We scoured over paperwork, counted and recounted but never found it. I had to pay it back over the telephone. I had multiple phonecalls about it and they made me feel like a big time crook. But it was only my 3rd week. 

When a different trainer turned up a week later and I told all that had happened she said “I wish you had told me, I could have helped“. I was never told to contact a trainer during these phonecalls all though they were aware I was new and not finished training. Never was I warned they knew there were occasional accounting problems. I was made to feel like I had stolen it and there was no other option worth considering. 

The after effects

I paid the £180 back. It’s etched in my mind. The trainer couldn’t help as it had been ‘cleared’ from their system. 

A short while later I received two letters. One asking me to join the legal stand against the Post Office. And one from the Post Office seemingly threatening me not too. 

Both implied there was cost. And after just starting a new business this was the last thing we needed. So we didn’t join. 

I do perhaps regret it now. Mostly from the fact that I believed the Post Office was right. Not that I was a thief. But that I’d pressed some sort of wrong button. Or given someone too much cash. But surely they should’ve have had some level of responsibility for a member of staff not fully trained. 

When we had our own summer staff mistakes were made aplenty and we were forgiving. 

You would think a company based on years of reputation would feel the same. 

How does this affect the Post Office?

Whilst most people don’t seem to understand that Royal Mail and Post Office have long separated. Perhaps the time has come for Royal Mail to complete the divorce. 

Post Office could be such a useful service in communities but not when their heart lies in profit over that community.

After this I had to double check everything going forward with the Post Office. Ups and downs were frequent and generally based on the Horizon systems taking longer to register certain transactions. Although occasionally it was the odd dropped stamp book found sometime later behind the awful standard issue drawers.

I only lost £180 and further increased my anxiety. (Before selling this business, I was diagnosed with extreme anxiety and depression-whilst this wasn’t the cause it certainly didn’t help).

But some Post Masters lost their lives. Spent time in Prison. Broken Marriages. Where is the community in that? No amount of compensation will ever undo that. 

That is why I can’t bring myself to watch Mr Bates vs the Post Office. It might be years old but the wound is still fresh.