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Counter News
The operations publication for post offices
Table of contents item page
Bank of Government Stock (Gilts) applications 1 3
BT BT bar-coded bills 2 3
BT bills ~ customer enquiries 3 3
Camelot National Lottery ‘Instants’ ~ game end 4 4
Girobank Transcash fee increase 5 4
HM Forces HM Forces Mail ~ BFPO s update (24) 17 13
Horizon Horizon ~ information update 19 15
Moneygram ~ service restriction to Spain 6 5
Cash Value chart 7 5
Daily Despatch envelopes (DNS 16R) 8 5
Individual Savings Accounts ~ top ups 9 6
Parcelforce Worldwide Parcelforce W orldwide inland services ~
a guide to compensation (error) 10 6
Bogus Cash Remittance staff
Bureau de Change Pre-order ~
indicative rates sheet update 18 14
Keyboard covers on ALPS equipment local issues 16 12
‘Life & Earth’ special issue 12 8
Post Office Security Team identity cards 14 10
Travel Ticket and Meals On W heels ~ accounting forms 13 9
‘Botanic Gardens of W ales’ stamp book
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Operational information
I Bank of England. All offices
Government Stock (Gilts) applications
Since July 1998 Government Stock (also known as Gilts) has only been available by direct application to the
Bank of England and is no longer the responsibility of National Savings.
If you require application forms to purchase and sell government stock:
mplease order these from Swindon, and not from The Bank of England, quoting the following reference
numbers:
Application to purchase.
Application to sell .
Contributor: Jim Williams
... BOE Purchase
... BOE Sale.
2 BT. All Automated offices
BT bar-coded bills
The number of errors caused by offices
incorrectly recording the total amount paid by
customers towards their bill is increasing.
The two most common types of errors are:
The miskeying of the total value of the bill paid
This can be avoided by checking the value
displayed on the screen and/ or by checking the
value printed on the receipt before you hand it to
the customer.
Always ask customers to check the value on their
receipts before they leave the counter position.
Value of redeemed stamps not recorded
The value of BT Savings Stamps redeemed as part
payment of the BT bill (in addition to any
cash/ cheque payment) is frequently not being
recorded as part of the total value of bill payment.
When stamps are offered as payment or part
payment towards a BT bill, they must be
recorded as cash,
Contributor: Phil Jeary
3 BT. All offices
BT bills ~
customer enquiries
Customers who claim they have paid their bills at
post offices, but whose accounts have not been
credited, are sometimes advised to return to the
office of payment with their receipts to check that
the post office has processed them.
Ifa customer asks you to do this:
wcheck your BT Daily Summary, or undercopy of
automated payments receipts, for the date of the
transaction to ensure the transaction is recorded
correctly
wconfirm with the customer you have processed it
contact the BT duty in Chesterfield on
GRO {(manual transactions only), or
i(
Licenced automated payments transactions
only) and give the following transaction details:
date of transaction
value of transaction
BT customer reference number, or 24 digit bar-
code number, or 19 digit magnetic swipe card
number
your office name
your office code
Contributor: Phil Jeary
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4 Camelot. All National Lottery offices
National Lottery ‘Instants’~ game end
The following games will end on Monday Unacceptable stock
17 April 2000:
If you have unsold stock activated after the dates
. shown, you will be liable for the value of the
oe stock and must not return it.
70
56
Please remember:
Instants activated before the Post Office Counters
game end date will not be accepted for credit if
the relevant activation slip is not attached to the
wDo not activate any further packs of these games
wPlease make every effort to sell all remaining envelope in which they are returned.
activated stocks of these games before 11.00pm
on Monday 17 April 2000. Keep your activation slips until all Instants from
the pack have been sold.
Acceptable stock ; . ; ;
Disposal instructions will be issued in a future
Stock of these games will not be accepted if edition of Counter News.
activated after the following dates:
‘Squids In’ (game 70) wDo not return activated scratchcards to your
Stock Centre until instructed to do so.
15 September 1999 (Counter News week 25
refers) Contributor: Julie Sharp
Money Spinner (2) (game 56)
14 July 1999 (Counter News week 16 refers)
5 Girobank. All offices
Transcash fee increase
From Thursday 17 February 2000 the standard fee for Transcash payments will increase from 97p to £1.00.
The standard fee must always be collected unless:
the Transcash slip states that no fee or an alternative fee is payable
customers are making payment to a ‘Freepay’ account
a fee change for a particular client has been notified in Counter News.
ECCO offices
On the BOP at close of business on Wednesday 16 February 2000, use the ‘Amend Local Product Data’
function to make the following change:
mamend price of PLU 426 (Trnsc Fee) to £1.00
mTake Software and Data backups and label ‘After Transcash Increase’, date and time.
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Operational inform ation
Once these changes have been made at the BOP do not allow any autoloading unless the SU/ CTD will
not be used for any more counter serving on that day. (Autoloading may be switched off to control this
if necessary).
w Autoload all CTDs to pick up the changes before the start of business on Thursday 17 February 2000
(Switch autoloading back on if you switched it off).
Contributor: Arthur Harvey
6 Moneygram. All Moneygram offices
Moneygram ~ service restriction to Spain
With immediate effect, the maximum amount that When sending money to Spain ask the customer
can be paid by a bank in Spain using the whether thethe recipent will be collected it at a
Moneygram service is the equivalent of 3000 Euros. bank.If the answer is yes:
sitelephone Moneygram on 0800 783 3221 to
confirm the amount you are sending does not
exceed 3000 Euros.
Banks in Spain will not pay more than this to any
one customer on the same day.
However, there are a number of other agents who
may pay up to a maximum of £5,000. Contributor: Dave Leyshon
7 National Savings. All offices
Cash Value chart
National Savings regularly receives complaints from customers who are told at post offices that the Cash
Value chart is no longer available.
Please remember:
You must keep the Cash Value chart behind the counter and show it to customers upon request.
From January 2000 the format of the Cash Value chart will change, and it will be produced in black
and white.
Contributor: Jim Williams
8 National Savings. All offices
Daily Despatch envelopes (DNS 16R)
National Savings is experiencing increasing Failure to do so will result in delays to the
problems caused by offices failing to despatch processing of these documents, and may result in
National Savings daily summary forms in envelope inconvenience to customers.
DNS I6R.
Please ensure you have an adequate supply of
wPlease ensure you use envelope DNS 16R to envelopes DNS 1 6R. Stock can be ordered from
despatch all daily summary forms. Swindon as required.
Contributor: Jim Williams
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9 National Savings. All offices
Individual Savings Accounts ~ top ups
The annual tax-free allowance for customers investing in ISAs will be reduced to £1,000 from Thursday
6 April 2000.
National Savings will be writing to around 40,000 existing ISA customers that have not yet invested the
full £3,000 to encourage them to make the most of the £3,000 tax free allowance for the 1999/2000
tax year.
There will also be a POPOS campaign from Monday 14 February 2000 to increase awareness.
Please remember:
When customers make a NS ISA deposits, remind them to make the most of their tax-free allowance
before Thursday 6 April 2000, as the limit will be only £1,000 from Thursday 6 April.
Contributor: Jim Williams
1 0 Parcelforce Worldwide. All offices
Parcelforce Worldwide inland services ~
a guide to compensation (error)
Counter News week 45, article 4 contained a misprint. In the ‘Cover included’ column, the entry for
Parcelforce 48 should read ‘£150 (loss or damage) per consignment’
To avoid confusion the whole table has been repeated below.
£250 (loss or damage) Up to £2500 Next working day by 9.00am
per consignment (loss or damage)
£250 (loss or damage) Up to £2500 Next working day by 10.00am
per consignment (loss or damage)
£250 (loss or damage) Up to £2500 Next working day by noon (12.00)
per consignment (loss or damage)
£250 (loss or damage) Up to £2500 Next working day, usually by 17.30 pm
per consignment (loss or damage)
£150 (loss or damage) Up to £2500 Within two working days
“perconsignment _ (loss or damage) ; ;
£20 (loss or damage) Up to £500 Normally within three working days
per parcel (loss or damage)
The Counter News team apologises for any inconvenience caused by this error.
Contributor: Ria MacQueen
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Operations
1 1 Post Office Network. All offices
Bogus Cash Remittance staff
Counter News week 42, article 4 refers.
Due to an error in transcription in the original article there has been some confusion as to what
identification must be produced by CashCo personnel when collecting a remittance.
All offices must follow this procedure when a remittance collection takes place.
All three of the following items must be produced by the collecting officer:
a smoke and dye box
a badge affixed to their uniform
a photo identification pass with a serial number which corresponds with the uniform badge number.
If the collecting officer cannot produce all three of these items:
mdo not hand over any money
mcontact the security team immediately via the helpline.
Contributor: Liz Doherty
1 2 Post Office Network. All offices
‘Life & Earth’ special issue
Periods of sale
Special Stamps and Presentation Packs for this issue will go on sale on Tuesday 4 April 2000.
First Day Envelopes and Royal Mail Stamp Cards should be available for sale at least 7 days before this date.
Tue 4 April 2000 Tue 4 April 2000 Tue 28 March 2000 =©Tue 28 March 2000
Ast NVI, 2nd NVI, 45p,65p £1.95 each 25p each 25p each
Mon $ June 2000 = Mon 5 June 2000 =Mon$ June 2000 ~— Tue 4 April 2000
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Operational inform ation
a
Continued from p:
Requisitions
mUse issue code ‘LIFE’.
Stanip. Design ltent code
ECOS/Ballymena NVIS
Web of Life/ London Zoo _ NVE
Earth Centre/ Doncaster = PAS.
Project SUZY/Teeside «GS
You will need to refer to the Counter News Workaid for Royal Mail Special Issue and Philatelic Items,
which was issued in week 30 (14 October 1999).
Stock Centres, Philatelic Counters, Collections and Post*Shops+
Please refer to page 7 of the Workaid
wOrder the above items immediately.
All other offices
Please refer to page 7 of the Workaid.
You will receive a standard supply.
wKeep a small supply of stock for each of the Millennium issues to meet customer requirements
throughout the year.
Accounting instructions for stock receipts
w Please refer to pages 8-12 of the Workaid.
ECCO offices
For Ist class stamps............ select Spl Ist
For 2nd class stamps .......... select Spl 2nd
For 45p and 65p stamps .. . select Stmp Spl other
Horizon offices
Please note:
Until the iconss are visible on the system, enter the 45p and 65p special stamps onto the system
using the ‘Special Other’ icon.
Withdraw al instructions
mPlease refer to pages 13-16 of the Workaid
If you keep any stock of this issue and need to return it at a later date, you must send it as a normal
stock return and not with future Millennium returns
Returns forms VSW/ 63 and P2613(a) will be provided for this withdrawal:
If you do not receive your returns form VSW/ 63 or P2613(a) by Tuesday 23 May 2000, please contact
your regional stores.
wPlease ensure you enter your office code on the appropriate part of the returns form
wDo not include any other items.
g
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Operational information
Offices served by Hemel Hempstead SSO except Stock Centres
wReturn stock during the Cash Account week shown in the table below:
ffi
D code
ending
12 14 June 2000
14 28 June 2000
* The following offices are still served by Aberdeen Stock Centre and should therefore continue to
return stock to Aberdeen:
129/820, 131/820, 141/820, 161/820, 162/820, 166/ 820, 171/ 820, 173/ 820, 176/820,
177/820, 178/820, 179/820, 180/820, 185/820.
w Despatch following the instructions given in the Workaid
w Mark the grey one trip pouch ‘Life & Earth’.
Stock Centres
Instructions for the withdrawal and destruction of I #Enter the total of stock destroyed in the Cash
‘Life & Earth’ special issue stock items will be Account Payment Table at line (10)03 ‘Locally
issued to all Stock Centres. Destroyed Stock’
All stock should be received from offices by w Despatch the Destruction Certificates with the
Monday 3 July 2000. Cash Account during the week in which the
stock is claimed
wKeep a small amount of supply stock and
Send f th iliation form t
destroy the rest by Monday 10 July 2000 meng’ @ copy OF the Peconematonsam
Transaction Processing, Chesterfield by Monday
wUse the specially designed Local Destruction 31 July 2000 at the latest.
Certificate .
Contributor: Jas Panesar
1 3 Post Office Network. All offices except offices issuing Devon Countywide tickets
Travel Ticket and Meals On Wheels ~
accounting forms
Weekly Summary form (LSI) is the only post office form that should be used to account for local Travel
Ticket and Meals On Wheels schemes.
With immediate effect:
mplease destroy all other post office accounting forms used for local Travel Ticket (Bus and/ or Rail)
and Meals On Wheels schemes.
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Continued from {
Do not destroy any supplementary summary forms (eg. those for Centro, London Boroughs Freedom
Passes (P4342, P4396 and BDI etc.). You should continue to use these as required in addition to the
Weekly Summary forms (LSI)
Devon Countywide scheme
Please note:
Exceptionally, offices that issue travel tickets for the Devon Countywide scheme should continue to
use the existing accounting form (CW4) until further notice.
Contributor: Andy Pike
1 4 Post Office Network. All offices
Post Office Security Team identity cards
The Post Office Network Security Team has been issued with new identity cards which include the
following security features:
Front of card: Back of card:
expiry aserialnumber I
date 31 opposite the I : ; _
December ~“* = > expiry date, which I a signature
2002 ~ is repeated on the I anda
photograph I oe telephone
the holder’s :
name i : : the cards are blue, and as
printed an added security feature,
~ when they are tilted the
words ‘genuine’ and
fs covet ‘secure’ can clearly be seen
V num ber for
enquiries
on the back
under the
The cards do not prove identity, and do not allow automatic entry into the secure area. Visits by the
Security Team must be arranged in advance, and the name of the visitor and nature of visit must be
supplied.
There may be exceptional circum stances where visits cannot be arranged beforehand. In these
instances, if you are in any doubt or you are suspicious of any visitor, confirm the reason for the visit
with the Security Team via the helpline.
Contributor: Liz Doherty
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Operational inform ation
1 5 Royal Mail. All Philatelic offices
‘Botanic Gardens of Wales’ stamp book
On Tuesday 4 April 2000 a new variety of stamp book containing 4 Millennium Ist class NVI definitive
stam ps, will go on sale.
These books printed by Walsall, will contain a special label celebrating the National Botanic Garden of
Wales.
Period of sale
Stamp book
Tuesday 4 April 20000 oo
‘£1.04 I
‘Tuesday 3 April 2001
Requisitions
Philatelic offices only
Requisition in
Ttem code multiples of
SB4F BOTAN Packets of 50 books = PT
Please note
The price of this book does not reflect the proposed tariff change in April 2000. Instructions for
uprating these books will be supplied with other details of the tariff changes if necessary.
Contributor: Jas Panesar
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Local issues
I 6 Post Office Network. All ALPS offices in London area
Keyboard covers on ALPS equipment
Due to the high level of keyboard failures in ALPS offices, and resultant engineer charges, keyboard
covers are being fitted by the engineers when the ALPS equipment is electrically tested.
We have received reports that some offices have removed the covers after the engineers have left.
These covers have been fitted, at a cost to the business, to prevent keyboard failures as a result of fluid
spillage, or paperclips and coins lodged between the keys.
The covers must not be removed once fitted.
If you remove a cover and the keyboard fails for one of the above reasons, this will be viewed as wilful
damage to post office property, and the costs will be charged back to your office.
Contributor: David Arnold
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1 7 HM Forces. All offices
HM Forces Mail ~ BFPOs update (24)
Please cut out and keep this information for reference and destroy any previous tables.
BFPOs
The following BFPOs are currently in operation:
Letters Parcels HM Forces
Standard Feouomy Acrogram mes
BFPO no. Air Snrface Zonei Weight Zone! Weight Free of Charge
(04 tan-03 Dec 00 = Outside Europe = Yes_—© (12/ max 30kg Yes. UK/max 30kg = No
02 Jun-070ct'00 Outside Europe ‘Yes -10/ max 30kg Yes. UK/ max 30kg = No
“17 Jan-19 March 00 = Europe co Nes 9/ max 20kg Yes. UK/ max 30kg No
15 Jan - 1 March *00 Europe Yes 9/ max 20kg Yes. UK/ max 30kg = No
8 Nov ‘99 - 31 Mar 00 Earope Yes 9/ max 20kg Yes. UK/ max 30kg No
Ongoing a Europe Ne 9/ max 20ke Yes. UK/max 20kg Yes
Ongoing Europe Ne No Yes. UK/max 30kg Yes
Ongoing Europe No 9/ max 30kg Yes. UK/ max 30kg = No
Ongoing Europe No 8/ max 20kg Yes. UK/ max 20kg = No
Il Jan- 11 Feb “00 Europe Yes 9/ max 20kg Yes. UK/ max 30kg = No
05 Feb -24 March 00 = Europe Yes ——-9/ max 20ke Yes. UK/ max 30 kg No
Ongoing II Europe No No Yes. UK/ max 20kg Yes
04 an - 01 Mar 7000 Outside Europe Yes -12/ max 30kg Yes. UK/ max 30kg = No
Ongoing Outside Europe ‘Yes (12/ max 20kg Yes. UK/ max 20kg_ = No
Ongoing — Outside Europe = Yes._——™ No “Yes. UK/ max 30kg No
31-Mar-28 Apr’00 = Outside Europe = sYes -12/ max 30kg Yes. UK/ max 30kg_ = No
04 Jan - 28 Apr 700 Outside Europe Yes 12/ max 30kg Yes. UK/ max 30kg No
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Operational updates
HM Forces Free Aerogram mes
In addition to those listed in the table overleaf, the following BFPOs are also entitled to receive HM
Forces Aerogrammes free of charge: 655, 801-825, 492 and 494
Temporary Forces Aerogram me service
In addition to the usual HM Forces postal services, a temporary free Forces Aerogramme transmission
service is available for the following BFPOs:
215, 228, 259, 274, 309, 327, 375, 379, and 433
Please note:
Forces Aerogram mes (Misc. 54) must be issued to customers free of charge upon request. Postage
must be paid at the time of posting, unless they are posted to one of the BFPOs entitled to receive the
free transmission service (see list above).
Contributor: Steven Lambert
1 8 Post Office Network. Bureau de Change pre-order offices
Bureau de Change Pre-order ~
indicative rates sheet
This rates sheet is for information only and gives an indication of Post Office Counters Ltd exchange rates on
Friday 28 January 2000. Daily rates can also be obtained by contacting First Rate on 0845 30 10 100.
(10,4533
(3.1104 I E
26.6327 I a oe 52663 GRD I
(12541 ee 125 TEP
865046 a. 36504650 TRL
319.0853 ee 31909 PTE
oo che
308403 ITL
349 NIG
Contributor: Raj Kalsi
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Horizon procedures
1 9 Horizon. Selected Horizon offices
Horizon ~ information update
All Horizon offices due to go live week commencing 14 February 2000
You should by now have received a Counter News ‘Horizon supplement’ and a copy of the Horizon
System User Guide.
The Horizon supplement gives details of changes on the system and information about transactions
which are not included in the Horizon System User Guide.
If you have not received the Counter News ‘Horizon supplement’ or the Horizon System User Guide
and you are due to go live in the week commencing 14 February, please contact the Network
Business Support Centre on 0845 601 1022.
Please read the Horizon section in Counter News in future for updated information about the Horizon
system and procedures.
Contributor:Tim Vause
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