I went to the post office to mail a package, and got there about 20 minutes before closing. There were about three people in front of me, and after a few minutes, about six people behind me.
There was only one clerk.
It was slow going, and soon the post office was closing, but everyone in line could stay. Another clerk came out and asked for people picking up mail, and helped them. One person jumped the line to buy stamps, and everyone objected because we’d all been waiting longer. My package was a flat-rate package and I had exact change, but that didn’t hold any sway.
The women in front of me was probably homeless and was putting tiny bits of packing tape on to her package. She also needed numerous money orders in very random amounts.
At one point, the manager came out and I asked if he could take some of the people in line. He said no, because he couldn’t handle money. I thought that was the stupidest thing I’d heard, and said so… in a nice way. As a manager, I am expected to do whatever is needed of me, regardless of whether it’s my job or not!
I finally got to the counter and completed my transaction, after apologizing to the clerk, who was nothing but pleasant in a bad situation. As I turned to leave, she said I’d left something on the counter. What?? I was sure I hadn’t. But it was this:
I told her that I thought she was wrong to let the woman buy her stamps when there were so many people ahead of her, and I just had a flat-rate package. She told me that she couldn’t have served me because she had to weigh my package. When I asked why, she said she had to be sure that it wasn’t over the 70 lb. weight limit! This was an 8x8x8 package, that I was holding in one hand.
What is your Post Office horror story?
Love the new header, as always you have the best ones!
ReplyDeleteI loathe the post office and avoid it at all costs. I can't even begin to tell you the horror stories I encountered in Manhattan!
Whoa there - come back to the UK if you really want horror upon horror.....Halloween aside.
ReplyDeleteOK:
My brother and his future delightful wife live in Hong Kong & I keep an eye on their tennants in London; they are also great. My bro gets a delivery which will not fit through the door (there is a porter within sight of the glazed double doors) so the postman puts a red card through the door asking him to come to the sorting office.......4 miles away@! trravel in London and you'll know this is the equivalent to Oxford and back.
Oops = I'm on a rant.
So delightful tennant puts the acrd in the post to me........this is mid-September...........it arrived yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Argh.
This is far from isolated and they are on strike. Welcome to retro 70's British Isles.
That must be standard PO method of opperating. I went last week in the middle of the afternoon. One clerk, one customer being helped, and I was #5 in line. When #6 came, I asked if she would hold my place so i could run over to the stamp display (about 15 feet from the closest point in line, and I like to choose my designs but not make everyone wait while I check out the poster).
ReplyDeleteThe clerk was working at mosey speed - smiling, chatting, just like she had all of the time in the world. A man came out and a customer asked if he could open another line. "No". A woman came out and was asked the same question. "No". When I finished my tranaction and the next customer went to the counter, there were 16 people in line.
I'm going to try ordering stamps online.
I can't remember any one story in particular. But, the story you relayed could have easily been at my local post office. You actually made me feel better because I've always thought it was just my local post office that was so incredibly bad. But, I don't think you live in Northern California so it can't be the same one.
ReplyDeleteI love that the person helping you left you the note. That is priceless.
For as long as I can remember, at every post office I've used, there is always a line and every transaction, even the most simple, seems to take twice as long as it should. And, mind you, I've always had jobs that allowed me to get out in the middle of the day when you'd think it might not be so busy at the PO. Luckily, we have an annex to the main PO located in a pharmacy about a block from my house. For regular mailing, including packages, and stamp-buying, it's been fantastic. I avoid the main office at all cost! Much like the DMV, a lot of what goes on behind the counter doesn't seem logical at all!
ReplyDeleteHow about the UK post office causing havoc with multiple strikes over the last several weeks. They had a 2 day strike last week, and other one beginning tomorrow. I've been going for weeks without getting any mail, and then getting a post box stuffed full of the accumulated post.
ReplyDeleteHaving been recently unemployed, I needed to make a copy of my COBRA benefit program that was, after 7 weeks of my job loss, finally sent to me. I went to my local Post Office and their copier was Out Of Order. Oh Great, I thought..hmm..should I send out my documents without copies, I commented to the clerk that "the copier appears to be broken", she looked side-to-side, as no one was in the lobby area, she said "I will be right back", moments later she appeared, with copies. Thanking her, I bought stamps and was charged only 5 cents for the copies, a penny a page.
ReplyDeleteLast summer I visited the States for 2 months. While there I bought something on ebay. It was a fragile item and I decided to buy insurance. The item broke in the shipment. The post office took no more useful item, I filed in the paperwork and was told the refund check will be mailed to me in about a month which would be sometime last August. To this day no check.
ReplyDeletethe post office - eee gads - (sp) i have searched all the post offices in the towns near me and i have finally found one that is efficient while the most inefficient office has a do-it-yourself package mailing machine which works nicely - so much better than the people -
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear the good experience Anonymous recounted about the P.O.
Still like the green/silver sage color.
Love it! Do you think that employee passes notes like that to lots of customers? Random notes that say things like, "help me!"
ReplyDeleteit must be regional - there's a post office right down my street and they are pretty fabulous i have to admit.
ReplyDeleteOh, I remember waiting in horribly long lines only to be 'greeted' by the rudest employees in Dallas.... now, living in a very small town, the post office is the best! And I even receive mail addressed to my name and town only, no address!!
ReplyDeleteI never go there. Ever.
ReplyDeleteWell,
ReplyDeleteI am going this morning, I hope that my trip is less eventfull.
Leslie
I am amazed that the USPS continues to deliver pounds and pounds of junk mail to each and every home six days a week. Can you imagine the fuel expenditure for all the delivery vehicles across the country? And, most of the junk mail is serviced at a reduced rate (pre-sorted mail). I stop off at my garbage can before even entering my home to toss 80% of that which is left in my mailbox each day. There is discussion of dropping the Saturday delivery. Would any one really miss the Saturday delivery?
ReplyDeleteMeg, you have received one of the very first It's A Major Award! awards, from bonappetithon.com For all the details on IAMA!, please clicky over to http://bonappetithon.com/2009/10/29/and-the-award-goes-to/
ReplyDeleteThanks for being an awesome blogger hon.
Wendi @ BAH
When I lived in Texas, I would drive 25 minutes out of my way to go to a post office I knew had good service. And boy was I happy when they put in those self serve machines. I wonder if they're still around...
ReplyDeleteThere used to be a very mean man that worked at the Post Office near me. I would actually let people ahead of me to avoid having him do my transaction. The negative chi he emitted was toxic. Now he's gone and the two remaining guys are great -one has an Irish accent and the other a pony tail! Plus - I really love the automated machine they have in the lobby.
ReplyDeleteGreat Halloween banner!
Back in the day when I would have to talk bulk mailings from work, there was the THE DRAGON WOMAN. She was from the Philippines and took it as a personal attack if anything was the slightest amiss. "You want to get discount. You do the work right. The way I say it is right!" Made me feel like a first grader lost in school and I was 45 years old at the time. Today's new joy is the rotating delivery person on our route. It's always a mixer day when the one with dyslexia in on duty. We have to walk up and down the street putting our neighbor's mail in the right box. Catch up on gossip as you encounter people you don't see even in they live down the street! Hope you are over going postal.
ReplyDeleteHBD... Bulk mailings were my first glimpse of how horrible the post office could be. I remember sitting on the loading dock at the main PO, re-doing a bulk mailing while one of the workers stood over me issuing commands.
ReplyDeleteThere are many variables in real estate that make a deal, walk-in closets, his-and-hers-sinks, or a garage. For me, moving to West Virginia was sealed when I realized I would own my own POST OFFICE.
ReplyDeleteLucindaville... do tell!
ReplyDeleteI recently missed the delivery of a package to my home, so I got one of those cards to take back to the post office to retrieve the package myself. The card showed the post office's hours, and I noted they were open till 2:00 on Saturdays. I thought that sounded too good to be true. And it was. When I showed up on Saturday at about 5 minutes past 1:00, I found the doors locked, but I could see the employees still inside through the glass door. There was a sign on the door explaining that Saturday hours were changed over the Summer, three months earlier, and they now close at 1:00 on Saturdays. They neglected to reflect that on the cards that they leave for people, however, and none of the employees would come to the locked door to let me in, nor explain why I was frustrated.
ReplyDeleteI happen to work for the federal government, though, so I am used to dealing with such nonsensical policies. The manager at the post office, for example, is probably forbidden to handle money because he is the person in the office who counts it at the end of the day and certifies that it is accurate. That's what keeps employees from taking some of the money home with them. In my agency we call it "separation of duties" and it's part of a checks-and-balances system. So I doubt that the manager was trying to avoid the task of handling money; I am more inclinded to believe that he was actually, literally unable to help--not by his own choice but because of the policy, warranted or not.
PD - I'm feeling very guilty if it was the package you are mailing to me!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Arlington, VA I had a WONDERFUL Post Office. It was like living in a small town. I knew all the employees by name - they were wonderful. Even when the lines at the holidays were long - they made it as smooth as possible and were always helpful.
Now I live in NYC and use the large Post Office at Rock Center. It's a different world. Last time I stood in line for over an hour. I need to go tomorrow so I have my fingers crossed!
Ugh the P.O. is the worst. I've lived all over (Baltimore, NYC, Albany, Charlottesville and now Savannah) and every experience has been the same: slow and disorganized.
ReplyDeleteThe delivery service isn't so grand either. I often am home all day working and go out to my mailbox to find those tags saying they were "unable" to deliver a package sans signature... but without ever ringing the doorbell. And you know I just love driving out to the giant post office to stand in line to pick up a package when the postman should have just done their job!
As for mailing, I recently purchased a scale, and print my mailing labels off the internet. If it's a package too large to stuff in a mailbox, you can run in and leave it on the counter, no problem. I also recommend ordering stamps online. Plus, shipping is free! :)
P.S. LOVE your Halloween header!
I abhor going to the post office! There is, as you mentioned usually one employee who can be surly because he is on overload. The holidays aren't even here yet!
ReplyDeleteWe have a mean Buddy Ebsen look alike postman.. I was mailing something unbreakable.. he took my package and could hear the item shift in the box.. I told it was ok .. could not break,etc. he refused to mail said package.. I had waited in a long line.. I have to confess I lost my cool and called him an S.O.B. out loud to his face.. something I have never done in my life..I rather go to the dentist than the PO
ReplyDeleteFederal Hill, Hampden, Pikesville, Pennsylvania Ave, anyone of them leaves me angry and frustrated. Long lines, not enough workers, dirty(?!?), and often out of the stamps I need(?!?).
ReplyDeleteShhh, here's my secret for good service worth going out of your way for...the post office in the lowest level of Towson Town Center. No one knows it's there...
I just love that note. Should put it on a T-shirt, cocktail napkins, pencils. A note from someone held hostage by the US postage service. I have waited in many a long line at our PO...while other employees move indifferently about impervious to our plight. Trish
ReplyDeleteService sucks everywhere. I have got the rudest service lately at decorating stores. Must be have to have such a great business you can be rude to customers.
ReplyDeleteHere we have great PO's (mostly in the country) and awful ones. There is one near my office where there is always one clerk and about 10 people in line every time, none of whom speak English so everything takes 5 hours while they explain the 40 different ways you can mail a package to China and the person gets them to explain over and over again. Oh well. Sometimes I think it is just the Universe making me exercise some patience, my not strong suit!
I am always shocked when I get GREAT service or a kind clerk these days. And I always comment on it when I do!!
Love the banner!
Terri xo
I have to say, I love the post office. I've had great experiences at my local ones, in Waverly and Hampden and Roland Park. Yes, sometimes there are long lines, but that's only during p.o. rush hour (weekdays High Noon) and crazy holiday time. I also love my letter carriers -- friendly and efficient.
ReplyDeleteThat note sounds like a cry for help! I hope you contacted the postmaster. Sounds like the employees may be hostage :)
ReplyDeleteWe must be lucky in Maine - PO employees notably friendly, helpful and skilled at their jobs. UPS & Fedex here, not so much!
ReplyDeleteIf the self-serve kiosk isn't working (often...) I just leave. I can't deal. In NYC it's reminiscent of the lines to buy toilet paper in Russia (back in the day...).
ReplyDeleteI work at a business where I encounter a lot of frustrated career Postal Service employees. Every single one of them is desperate for a new position, so that makes me think that employees like that clerk are not so uncommon.
ReplyDeleteAnd even with its cost-cutting measures, the post office is ridiculous. In our town, they recently cut hours too--closing at 5, rather than 6:30. Given that my trips are almost always at the beginning or end of the day, I can definitively say that by closing at 5, they just cut themselves off from their steadiest stream of customers. From 5:30-6:30, the line was always running out the door and many of those were business customers with LOTS of packages. Working in a small business that ships myself, cutting those hours would definitely be the sort of thing that would set us over the edge to FedEx or UPS if we hadn't gotten there already.
Well I want you to know feel lucky you have the post office.. been to other countries and give me the us anyday ... If there lined up and understaffed its not the person at the windows fault ..... Its usally managements and thats most places. As for the auto centers and the internet well that just cuts the help down more because they show less needed at the Po. or any buisness... If you have complaints dont put them on here send them to the postmaster and higher up.. This is not only the Post Office but anywere the pop machine thats handy takes the need for help away from the place you are shopping because of the short cut you take.. The one at the window only works there and has no say on getting some more help up there... Talk to other people from other countries and see what they have for service and cost to.. Hell alot more expencive and they dont have to deliver as many places or as far..... Just giving thought to fuel on here
ReplyDelete