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.
Postal employees are not paid for their lunch breaks so I don’t see why they would work through it. It’s a job not charity work.
And for those who thing more government is the answer, who in hell wants more 'postal service' attitude? The only thing such attitude is good for is fomenting revolution amongst the sick-of-it populace...
don't even get me started...
LOL!! Don't you hate it when that happens. FR should have a "take back" button when posting hastily or drunk.
They've got the national monopoly and they STILL blow it!
I have a PO box for my business and when a letter arrives I’m sent an email telling me something is there, it’s the USPS RealMail notification system that’s been in place for over a year. Well a number of times when I get notified I check the box and nothing is there. That always means my mail was put in the wrong box. Seems like a basic post office activity, putting the right mail in the right po box but I guess it’s difficult.
Anyway, one day that mistake happens and I go in and tell the clerk at the counter that I was sent an email that I should have mail and it is missing and he responds, “We don’t do that sir, we don’t send emails.” I say yes you do. Clerk: “We don’t send emails, it must be scam.” I say yes you do it’s your email notification...Clerk, loudly: “SIR WE DO NOT SEND EMAILS, WE NEVER DO THAT!” Everyone in the place is looking at us at this point.
Exasperated I ask to see the Post Master. The annoyed clerk calls him. I explain what’s up and that his employee doesn’t understand and the Post Master tells the clerk, “Yes we do have that notification system.” and the clerk yells, “HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT!” and storms off.
This guy was wound very tight.
I think it truly is different out here in rural America. UPS operates as well as does the Post Office, although USPS beats them on Saturdays because UPS doesn’t do normal delivery on weekends. But the post office is a better service than Fed Ex, which for some reason is real finicky. I suspect they don’t like driving rural route miles for just one or two drop-offs.
And that’s something that cause this rural American to wonder about those big companies. The satellite and internet companies really sock it to us because we don’t have any alternatives. That’s what I envision with UPS and Fed Ex if they manage to take down the USPS.
Now, from what I understand, the problem with the financial problems of the USPS is not customers or cash flow, but is really an abundance of post offices. Those offices and their staffing suck up the cash flow+ that USPS does generate.
Solution: attrit those jobs and close those offices when the staffing is gone. Transfer those routes to the remaining area offices.
I have had to mail a number of packages recently. The way the PO interacts with customers seems designed to have the service personnel leaving their position the maximum amount of time
IOW I walk in and see four USPS people serving customers. Very quickly this turns into two and then one....then back to two and so on. It seems they have a game set up which is-— “how can I not have face time with the customers”
ALSO-— They have been out of large and medium flat rate shipping boxes for a few weeks. I was glad I grabbed some in advance
I have a sibling who will be retiring from the postal service in two years. I could tell you exactly the causes of USPS’s problems but part of my post would be very non-PC.
Maybe someone knows if this is true or just an apocryphal story out of the post office.
Apparently when people started complaining about how long it took to take care of business at the post office they just removed the clocks.
I’ve never seen a clock in a DMV either.
Aah, but the USPS’s *true* customers are definitely put first. It’s just that those customers are not the taxpaying public. The USPS’s real customers are some 400-odd bulk mail companies that generate the vast majority of the USPS revenue. Us lowly first-class postage users are a distant second (or third). They don’t need us, since between the ever-growing budget from DC and the fees gladly paid by the junk-mail companies, they do just fine. Until that changes, the public will continue to be poorly treated.
Give Fed Ex the advantages the Post Office has - and they’ll blow the USPS away at every turn.
Remember, tax payers put the PO near you. Fed Ex and UPS have no such advantages. And while I would never comment on your small town - and I suspect that since Fed Ex is MUCH MUCH younger than the USPS or UPS that they still have some catching up to do - nationally Fed Ex is far superior to both.
I live part time in a small town too - and the UPS driver and service is better than Fed Ex here - but I know that won’t last forever.
If rural routes cost more they should charge more, right? Not hard to figure out.
I think the reason they are losing billions quarterly is because they are so bureaucratic, top heavy, they buy magazine sorters and then don’t use them because the union would oppose laying off those doing by hand.
But the biggest cost for the USPS is probably all those unfunded benefits for those who retired already.
And another thing, they need to raise the postage price of junk mail.
They're the bottom of the labor pool as far as actual talent is concerned.
I recently tried to express mail a package from OK to Dallas ...Overnight delivery was promised to be delivered 3 days later and was told that was the fastest “overnight” service they had. $30.00
I live out in the country and was getting horrible mail service. Lots of my mail wasn’t being delivered. I called the USPS and complained. They set me up with a person who handles complaints like mine.
After six weeks of them getting set up to track some mail pieces to determine where the foul up was, I get a call. Seems the person I had been working with was being transferred to another department and I would have to start over with a new person.
I was really frustrated and a little angry. I drove into town and rented a box at the UPS Store. Yes, the box costs money. And I had to tell all my mail contacts about my new address. But at least I’m getting all my mail. And the UPS Store accepts packages in my name. Even sends me an mail when I have a package.
Yeah - I blame the jet lag - that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.... for now ;)
The difference, of course, with the post office is that it is a Constitutional function, so it is not a usurpation of businesses that has been imposed by an out-of-control government.
“Art I, Section. 8. The Congress shall have Power To ....To establish Post Offices and post Roads;”
Why did the Founders see a necessity for government involvement in mail delivery?
Part of it is the difficulties of rural access. Since we’re talking colonial times, almost all of America was an issue of rural access.
Another part of it, of course, is that the Founders saw a role for government in maintaining communication delivery and security. For whatever reason, they didn’t see that belonging solely to independent transportation companies.
All of this is important, but what I really wanted to touch base with you on is the North Carolina Senate race. I am really interested in your insights on Hagan’s ability to hang in there against the republican. I don’t want to distract this thread, so if you have a recent or old thread on that race that you’d prefer to shift to, that would be fine with me. Also, freepmail is always there.
I have to give USPS credit. I buy and sell on line daily and use USPS whenever possible. Priority mail is competitively priced compared to FedEx and UPS. Also, USPS is always faster.
To be fair I have encountered my share of affable, decent postal employees. State gov employees in places like the DMV tend to be far, far worse IMO.
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