Western Union money transfer to dominate Posta Pay

When Posta Pay was launched last year as a cheap fast money transfer service of the Postal Corporation of Kenya, few people thought that Western Union money transfer would hold out, especially for money transfers within the borders of Kenya.

Months after the launch of the service, it seems that Western Union has managed to hold its own pretty well.

Wishing to establish the reasons for this, I went to GPO last Saturday, the head quarters of Posta Kenya in Nairobi, to send some money to a friend in the coast region.

There were only two counters, and there was a long queue of people waiting to send or receive money.

In spite of notices indicating that one counter was for sending and another for receiving, this procedure was not followed, all persons queued on one line, and went to each counter as and when it became available.

The customers were furious. It took an average of 45 minutes for me to get to the counter. The counters were moving far too slowly.

A manager was hovering behind the counters, not listening to customer complaints.

If this was a private institution, the manager would probably have knucked down to open a fresh counter, and serve more customers, in order that Posta makes more money from commissions...alas, this never seems to feature in the minds of most Government or quasi-Government institutions..and Posta is a glaring example of that.

To add insult to injury, the watchman from a non-familiar security company, kept hovering and glaring at the customers, exchanging rude insults with them, refusing to call a manager to address the customers saying that was not his job, even threating to physically square it outside after hours with a particularly infuriated customer.... this was particularly disastrous on the calibre of security personnel hired by Posta.

There was no TV, no water to drink, no seats to rest nearby...a terrible experience.

The Post office was then closed at 12noon or thereabouts.

I decided to go for an early lunch until 2pm when i sauntered over to Western Union at Nation Building.

There were 3 counters, all open (they are even open on Sunday), there was no queue (there were comfortable seats and mineral water to quench your thirst while watching TV or reading the provided newspaper).

The watchman from a well known security company was very discplined, sat well away from the customers, the attendants at the counters were very friendly indeed, and the transaction was concluded expeditiously.

It is therefore no surprise that I (and many customers) shall always go to Western Union money transfer in spite of their slightly higher charges....Posta Pay has left a very bitter taste in my mouth !