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.
They have a union problem. Colossal inefficiencies compounded with inept leadership.
“The U.S. Postal Service excels at treating customers poorly.”
The standard postal worker exemplifies a standard government worker. There is no need to excel at his job for there is no reward (like pay raises) for doing so. There is absolutely no incentive to work (such as being fired for doing a bad job or being rewarded for doing a good job) or a promotion in grade based upon how well you do your job. NOTHING, noting at all! They are the absolute perfect examples of UNION labor.
Uh sorry, but they treat bulk mailers the same as they do the public. We have to follow all USPS policies or they will reject our mail. We sort, tray and even truck the mail to the destination BMC for which we receive a reduction in postage.
There is a postal clerk onsite to verify the outgoing mail on their Merlin machine, which they do not properly maintain. When a mailing has enough failings we are subjected to upcharges to full First Class. Frequently we receive calls to tell us that our mail is out of sort order and we must pay an upcharge. Bear in mind that the sort order was verified by the onsite postal clerk at the time of the mailing.
Oh yeah, our postal clerk leaves at 6PM also, he doesn’t care if the mail needs five more minutes or not.
My bank wouldn’t accept the USPS money order. I even suggested letting it ‘clear’ before making funds available to me.
Nope - according to my bank manager, the USPS has a bad habit of paying out on money orders...and coming back weeks later, saying ‘whoops’ that was counterfeit, we need the money back.
But my biggest complaint is....not even the USPS would honor their money orders. It was for around $800. And it took me 3 days of calling and driving around to find an office with that much cash on hand. Any other business would have done something to make it happen - draw extra money for their drawers, give me a pre-paid VISA card, paid out half and issue me a new money order for the difference, something. Instead they acted like it was my fault, and I was the foolish one for ever accepting such a large money order.
This is where we disagree. No one ever jumps on a new horse if the old nag they're used to is still breathing.
These people go above and beyond. No complaints.
I haven’t stood in line in the Post Office in years. I buy stamps online. When I need to ship a package, I weigh the box and then check prices online at USPS, UPS, and Fedex. Whichever way I go, I pay online and print a label. At UPS and Fedex, they may or may not be a line and they just scan the label and off it goes. At USPS, there is an outer lobby that is open 24/7 and I just drop the box down a chute or I can just hand it to my mail carrier. There is no need to stand in line unless I’m going to ship something international, and that is rare.
Yep and colossal is an accurate descriptor. They’ve always had that union monkey, though, along with a larger workforce from which the union fed. Now they’re trimming anywhere they can, which leaves fewer unionized employees who can’t/won’t go beyond mandated work standards, such as taking a lunch. They’re damned if they do and even more damned if they don’t. That convoluted pressure from the customer side and the union side creates a cynical work force who show up in their horribly fitting and aesthetically lacking uniforms so they can continue to get paid. The problem is systemic that’s for sure.
No fan of the USPS, but sometimes you have to look at reality, Federal law mandates hourly workers breaks with harsh penalties for violations. Rather than directing ire at the worker it should be directed at management, why didn’t someone relieve the worker, why didn’t a supervisor take over? I agree that customer service at the USPS sucks, but it starts at the top.
I don't think so. There are other reasons, but this is not one of them I am sure
I didn't know that you was talking about stamp collections or roll of stamps. I buy books of stamps that have the peel and stick type when I need any.
Pretty much works that way in the rural post offices here in SW Pennsylvania as well. The city post offices are an entirely different story.
I have mailed envelopes with checks for some payment inside and after a few days the envelope came back with payment due for the stamps stamped all over it, because their stupid machine ripped the stamp off. I have to address another envelope and put another stamp on it.
The price difference between priority or express USPS mail and FedEx or UPS doesn’t seem to be as great as it used to be, so you might as well use FedEx or UPS in many cases. If FedEx and UPS could introduce a flat fee for certain size envelopes or boxes similar to the USPS priority mail $4.95 flat rate envelopes, they would probably take the lion’s share of that business away from the USPS.
Kaslin didn’t write the article, Katie Kieffer did.
>>don’t even get me started... <<
Aw come on. Just the other day I bought a can of starting fluid. Let’s try it and see if we can’t get your pulse up over 150. (big grin)
I’m rural SW Ohio, so we’re not too different probably in the way these things look. Our postal people have always been helpful to me. I can’t think of a time that they haven’t been.
Your taxes don’t go towards the Post Office.
the stooopid cow we have for a postmaster has put packages addressed to my box in the wrong box FIVE FRIGGIN TIMES since it's been there!!! four times the person that got them returned them, the fifth time was a book from FReeper bray... that one didn't come back she has put stuff in my box THREE TIMES that didn't belong to me
so now i have to notify them in ADVANCE when i'm expecting a package, God only knows how much mail i've missed
next time i am going to complain to the regional postmaster
No accountability (where are the House Republicans? Oh yea, asleep at the wheel); no chance they’ll get fired (I’d fire 60% on one day if I was prez); and fat pensions and free healthcare the rest of their worthless lives.
I would dismantle the USPS, sell off all the real estate and tell they employees to go find a real job.
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