Posted on 09/22/2014 4:42:31 AM PDT by Kaslin
Bang! Lee looked up from addressing a package while she waited in line for service at the post office. Despite a lobby packed with customers—without notice—a postal worker slammed down the service window gate and went to lunch, leaving Lee and the other patrons to fend for themselves.
The U.S. Postal Service excels at treating customers poorly. My friend Lee’s story is but one of many nightmares of churlish postal workers and deficient USPS customer service. Many government workers get away with behavior that would get them fired if they worked at a private company like McDonald’s or Apple.
There should be a “Yelp” for government services. We deserve an open place where we can rate the “customer service” that we receive from the post office, as well as the EPA (which has distorted scientific data), the Federal Reserve (which inflates our currency), and the IRS (which hires employees like Lois Lerner who are admittedly “bad at math”).
Salaried workers in the private sector often skip their lunch break and shovel down a sandwich while preparing for an afternoon conference call with a big client. But government workers will take their lunch break whether they have a long line of businesspeople, senior citizens and parents with young children waiting in line—or not. Certainly not every postal worker is slothful, yet massive reform is necessary.
Elderly residents in the Brooklyn, NY neighborhood of Borough Park recently had to fight to regain mail delivery service after a mailman complained about having to stoop down to drop letters into mail slots. Based on a single whining mailman, the post office told Borough Park residents they would have to install higher mail slots or pick their mail up at the post office. The Brooklyn Eagle reported: “senior citizens [had to] stand in long lines to get their medications and other vital deliveries that used to come directly to their homes.”
You just can’t make these stories up. I was at the post office around 5:45 p.m. on a recent weeknight. The post office officially closed at 6:00 p.m., but many people were in line. (Some Americans actually work during the workday.) My jaw nearly dropped to the floor when one of the postal workers loudly complained for all to hear: “Everyone always waits to come in at 6:00 p.m.”
He wasn’t finished barking. He shouted at me, as I hurriedly taped up a package: “Are you going to be finished soon? We close at 6:00 p.m.” I felt like saying: “You can see I’m rushing and you don’t close for another fifteen minutes. If this were the private sector, you’d be happy to serve a paying customer instead of pushing them away. You’d also have business hours that were more conducive to your customers.”
Last week, I opened my P.O. box to find a clear plastic bag containing a ripped piece of my outgoing mail, along with a note from the post office: “WE CARE. Dear Postal Customer: We sincerely regret the damage to your mail during handling by the Postal Service.” There was also a sticker: “SENDER. Affix correct postage and remail.”
The ripped envelope contained a check that I had sent out to pay a bill. Apparently, the postal machine had removed my postage and shredded the envelope and check. The next day, I brought a new check and envelope to the post office and asked them to reimburse me for the postage and make sure that the envelope arrived by the check’s due date.
After checking with her supervisor, the clerk told me: “No. We can’t do anything other than what we’ve already done.” I said, “You mean other than ruining my mail?” She said: “Well, we put it in a plastic bag for you.” At this point, I realized that logic and reason were pointless and simply re-mailed the envelope and left.
Last strange but true story: my mother bought a roll of stamps. When she returned home, she noticed that the roll of stamps was unusable because the stamps were affixed together. She immediately returned the roll to the post office, explained the situation and asked for a replacement. The postal worker told her: “Are you kidding? We can’t give you your money back or exchange it. Would you go to a grocery store and buy a loaf of squashed bread and then try to return it? How do I know you didn’t glue those stamps together yourself and then come back here?”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to point out that the aforementioned excuse is full of holes. Why would someone intentionally damage stamps and then ask for a fresh set? They would have nothing to gain, except an inconvenience. Also, who buys a loaf of bread that is obviously squashed? The roll of stamps looked perfectly fine and there was no way to tell that they were glued together until my mother tried using them.
Postal workers, kindly reform yourselves. Your salaries come from the taxpayers’ hard-earned money and we are losing patience. The customer should always be first.
I’m glad Katie wrote this and you posted it - I get nauseated watching those ads saying putting us first....
Years ago, getting mail was a highlight of the day. Now, most people don’t get probably more than three to five important pieces of mail a week. The post office is becoming obsolete.
They have 330 million customers and still lose money.
I have been at my job for 13 years and I always have lunch at my desk. AND I answer the phone if it rings during lunch. Also, we have walk-ins that I have to take care of and do so at lunch.
I am always appalled by the behavior of USPS people.
churlish is right
One word.......Union.
Not that it helps the overriding subject, but tell you mother to soak the stamps in water overnight. It should dissolve the adhesive enough that she can peel them apart and then use a bit of glue to use them.
They tried to enlist public support. The public responded to their campaign with comments such as this:
"Are you kidding? Show me a post office where you can park off-street, walk in at 6 pm on a Saturday and still get prompt and courteous service to mail your package!"
Your an idiot - he didn’t write the article....doofus (yes I’m pinging myself....shouldn’t be too bad as long as I don’t get in a revolving, devolving pingathon with myself)
no doubt.
That is the same mentality and skill level of people who will be administering our health care.
I have received excellent service in many a post office but I have also received very poor service from just as many if not more of them. One postal employee used to assist the older customers by repackaging their stuff up for free (using their own tape and boxes)and another would help people write all the addresses on those annoying little sheets of paper you have to use to get anything done.
Then we would get those that would tell you to fix or re-write an address or relabel a package or overcharge for postage and close the door to the back-room never to return.
The primary responsibility of the USPS is not the timely delivery of printed communications and packages, it’s to manage the benefits of their employees and union retirees.
OOH, I think it’s a great deal. Attach postage to your letter or package, and it gets delivered anywhere in good time.
OTOH, their customer service has always been horrible. As an acquaintance who worked there once told me, many employees attitude wrt customers was ‘if you don’t like it, go to the other Post Office.’
We have a PO box at a rural post office. We get great service from the one guy who works there. If we didn’t, he’d probably find his house getting burned down.
It’s a blessing to live in a small, rural village in the Midwest. Everyone pretty much knows everyone, and that’s the same at the post office as at the hardware store. We go to church together, our kids are on the same teams, we celebrate the same community events. We know our rural mail delivery person who drives up to the house and honks her horn when she has a larger package. And we know the people at the counter in the post office.
Do they have lunch at noon? Yep...but the put a big hand-written sign on the door saying so. And we know Jake and Mary, and we don’t care that they close out to eat lunch. We know they’re the only two or three there at the time.
And if we get a bad roll of stamps, then they know us, and they believe us, and there’s an exchange.
In colonial days, the post office was envisioned as a necessity for a mostly rural people. It is. And it works out here.
Unfortunately the places where it still is a pleasant experience are the ones taking the hit while the big post offices with multiple useless and surly employees will continue as usual.
Just last week our little post office went to 3 hour days for office access. You can get your mail all day but if you need stamps or to send packages or certified letters, you’re out of luck if you can’t get there between 8 and 11 AM. Here in town, UPS and FedEx make all their deliveries to the post office.
> They have 330 million customers and still lose money.
And it has nothing to do with not charging enough for stamps (which always seems to be their fixed response)
Well I’d say a couple things: first, your experience is absolutely the exception, not the rule. Second, there’s no reason to think that privatization would change any of this. In fact, it’s been proven that privatization improves customer service.
The USPS would still be slow if it were not from innovations brought into the industry by Fed Ex and UPS. Like any union dominated government dinosaur, it would have never changed on its on.
Try redeeming a USPS money order. Nobody but the USPS will accept it, and you have to spend three days driving to different offices in hopes they have enough cash on hand.
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