Postmistress Karen Wilson has said the amount of abuse her and staff are subjected to by a minority of customers on a daily basis is “disgusting”.
Mrs Wilson has said some customers are unhappy at using hand sanitisers when they enter the shop and get frustrated at maintaining social distancing space. She added: “Every day this is becoming increasingly harder. Any measures we have put in place: hand sanitiser as you enter our premises and social distancing space to be adhered to, is for the safety of our staff and customers. “Verbal abuse or damage to our property will not be tolerated. Everyone is on edge at the moment and this is uncharted territory but please be kind to everyone.
“The people who are being abusive are the minority but it is getting harder and harder to leave our families at home to come into what feels like a war zone.”
Mrs Wilson is trying to keep providing essential services available to the community but admits it gets tougher every day to keep her shop open with the amount of abuse she suffers. She also thanked the majority of customers who are nice and abiding by the social distancing rules. She said: “Since I’ve posted about the abuse we’ve had customers coming in saying what a great job we are doing and grateful for the service we’re providing. We are here for essential services so people can top up their electric and gas, and for people who need access to their money. I don’t want to be forced to close when I’m providing a service to people that they need.”
Another concern is the lack of payment from her delivery service of newspapers and magazines. To remain open, Mrs Wilson has requested all payments on accounts to be paid as soon as possible. This can be done by bank transfers, cheques or a payment link for card payments to a mobile number or email address. She added: “People have upped their orders for newspapers and magazines but nobody is paying me. It’s came to the point where if I don’t get any payment in, I’m going to have to stop delivering papers. “The majority of people are not paying. I’ve put a notice out that if I can’t get money in then I won’t be able to continue the service.”
