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Mrs Paula Vennells,
Chief Executive,
Head Office,
Post Office Ltd,
Finsbury Dials,
20, Finsbury Street,
London.
EC2Y 9AQ
22™ June 2017
Dear Mrs Vennells,
REF: Nisha Kaur, Post Mistress, High St Post office, 49 High Street, Bilston. WV14 OEP,
FAD code 5392462.
I am writing to you out of a sense of desperation regarding present difficulties within my employment
with the Post Office.
I would be very grateful if you could spend some time reading this letter and helping to resolve issues
in a speedy and timely matter.
In September 2016 the Post Office computer hosting Horizon systems started to run very slowly. The
external phone line was also dead, as was the alarm system, necessitating me sleeping in the shop
for 2 nights.
I contacted the alarm company CBRE, on the evening they went dead. We spoke over the phone and
the next day they discovered the phone line had been wrongly reallocated to the business next door
and taken over by TalkTalk. 2 months later the issue was resolved.
However during this time the computer systems running the Post Office financial trading transactions
and statistics continued to run slowly, cutting off during financial transactions and showing
nonsensical discrepancies into thousands, up or down at the end of the day.
As soon as the problems started I contacted NBSC, who put me through to Technical Support, the
issues were not resolved.
On the second call via NBSC Technical support were asked to come and check the computer
themselves, they said they were not allowed, I was quite perturbed as I was being asked to handle
live wires and wiring which I have no training for. The problems were still not resolved,
I spent the next week speaking to NBSC, Technical Support, Post Office Federation Team, FUJITSU
and BT. I got no resolution. BT accepted fault on their lines in allowing the line to be hijacked, and
FIJITSU confirmed there were problems with the Horizon accepting lottery and pay station accounts.
I was by this time getting very worried and concerned for my business, customer support and the
inconsistency in the software data.
At this stage I was getting unusual gains and losses on my till, losses more than gains, which I can
only put down to the possibility of computer/till not communicating.
In October I shut the Post Offi
H GRO.
‘to Concern the Post Office that [had necessitated the closure of the business due to my concerns.
This situation regarding nonresponse from Technical Support and others continued until the 5°
November. The situation after this date was much improved and the business was back to normal.
During the September — November period I was also asking for any auditor to come and help me find
where the losses were, and how It could be resolved. No support was forthcoming.
I would like it to be noted that due to my concerns regarding the support I was getting over what I
considered to be a serious matter, re the purported missing money, I have been making recordings,
with permission, of all phone calls I have had with any support officers. This was from the 3" October
2016 a total of 36 days’ worth of phone call over a period of 5% weeks.
In January 2017 the Auditor, David Abbey arrived, somewhat to late, and performed a mini audit and
took away all the financial transaction paperwork for the months of August through to January to date
above. He wanted to take all the original paperwork away, however I refused permission for this and
everything was photocopied.
I did not have any feedback from this until the 6” June when he visited again to tell me to close the
Post Office business down for 4 hours whilst he and his colleague performed a full audit. I was told
in..due. to. the. continual. issuas..with.the. financial.
RO _ H
did not appear
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that both this audit and the January audit were faultless. He told me I could open the business and
that there were no concerns. I spoke to him about the purported computer losses of £93,073.31, he
said he had no answer. He phoned the Contracts Manager, Paul Williams, whom I have never met
and who has never spoken to me, who told him I was not allowed to open. No reason was given, the
Auditor was surprised at this.
From that date I have not traded on behalf of Post Office Counters. I have been told I am not allowed
to trade from there, I have been told that there is still ongoing investigation, I have been told to close
the office down or find a temporary Post master, the later proving difficult as I have 2 emails from
potential interviewees saying that they have been told by Post office HR that the Office is too high
risk,
I was told that a family member was not allowed to take over in the interim whilst the investigations
were ongoing, this contradicted known practice that has come to my attention.
As you can imagine I am now in a position where I am at risk of losing my business including a
substantial amount of my own capital in set up money,
My income, and my health, is suffering to such an extent , coupled with the losses I am now incurring
with paying staff to keep the retail element of the business alive, has necessitated in my closing the
business completely.
I would like the questions answered as to why it has taken so long to complete any investigation
Why I did not have the support when I needed it. Unfortunately I have had to engage a solicitor to
help me resolve issues, having spent the last 8 months trying my best to resolve it on my own. It was
after the Post Office were in receipt of the letter that the Post Office closed me down. The solicitor is
now having difficulty getting the information she has asked for from the Post Office, who had lead me
to believe the investigation was complete.
Why do I feel I am being placed in this untenable situation when I have done my utmost to get things
resolved and have done nothing wrong.
I would like to reiterate that the personal stress and loss I have suffered during this time has included
the following:
© Asking customers to complain on my behalf to customer service help line out of desperation
© Myself and Staff physically and mentally abused by customers during this period, including
objects being thrown and racial abuse.
© Customer Service blaming me for the problems (I have statement from the customers to this
effect)
Ongoing
® Loss of earnings
© Loss of customers
© No resolution in sight
® Loss of good reputation
® Loss of business
Yours Faithfully
cc Tim Parker. Independent Chairman
Ken McCall. Senior independent Director
Alisdair Cameron. Chief Finance and Operations Officer
Richard Callard. Non-Executive Director
Tim Franklin. Non-Executive Director
Virginia Holmes. Non-Executive Director
Carla Stent. Non-Executive Director
Alwen Lyons. Company Secretary
Kevin Gilliland OBE. Chief Executive
Rob Houghton. Group Chief Information Officer
Nick Kennett. Chief Executive
Martin Kirke. Group HR Director
Jane MacLeod. Group Legal, Risk and Governance Director
Paul Williams. Contracts Manager
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