Postal Woes

As it is the holidays we had a lot of packages to mail (14 of them.) My father and I went in and as I was bringing more boxes in we let a man who was behind us go ahead. Then we were ready and no one was behind us. There wasn’t an issue until we had done 12 boxes and then we wanted the last two to be sent “Express Mail.” The woman behind the counter (I had to later ask her name as she had no visible ID on her) said we had to fill out a special form to go on both boxes, which we had no problem doing. She then said that we had to pay for the 12 other boxes, then fill out the forms so she could help other people. As it would only take me less than a minute to fill out both forms (which I have done in the past) I started filling out the forms. The Postal employee then started to make rude and unprofessional remarks to myself, my dad and to the other people behind us. After she said something pretty rude about us to the woman behind me (she told the woman that she has no patience in waiting in line  - and it was clear she had no patience in dealing with customers in general) I told her that I could hear every word she was saying and that she was being very rude. I told her I was just finishing up and she just kept on making statements to others. I did not feel she was being respectful or professional to myself or my father and so I asked for her supervisor.

A man came up to the counter and immediately asked the woman what was going on (despite the fact that I, the customer, had asked for him.) I tried to tell him how rude the woman was being to me and he just kept interrupting me and talking to the woman. He then became fairly aggressive in his speech towards me and told the woman to void my transaction. He also told the employee to give him my personal details – something he kept mentioning throughout the incident. She said she had already sold 12 boxes and wasn’t going to do that. As I was getting the same, unprofessional treatment from this man as I did the woman before him I asked for his name and who he was at the Post Office. He handed me his card which read: 'Postmaster.” I was shocked to learn that this man was the Postmaster at the Post Office. He was worse than the woman before him. It was clear he was just looking to be rude and nasty to me and so I let him know that I would file a complaint about him and the unprofessional service I had received. He didn’t seem to care and merely apologized to the other customers for me making them wait.

Not only did the first Postal employee not treat me in the professional way she is required to, but the Postmaster was worse by far. He clearly did not care to resolve the situation in the correct manner and merely wanted to stir-up more trouble. As Postmaster/supervisor the correct way for him to handle the situation would be to come to the counter, ask me, in a polite way, what the problem was, listen to what I had to say and then try to placate me in a professional way. Instead, he went up to the counter, only asked his employee what was going on, interrupted me when I tried to tell him my side, tried to have my transaction voided and made the already unpleasant situation more unpleasant. He even said I was acting unprofessional. As a Postmaster he should know that a customer needs to only act polite and him and his employee need to be professional. It is clear that he is not competent in his position in handling customer service or any problems that may arise. Rather than defuse the situation he made it worse. He was more concerned with making a show to the other people than fixing the issues in front of him. I am not surprised that the other employee was allowed to treat customers in such an unprofessional manner since her boss was doing it as well.

As my issues are with the Postmaster and the other Postal employee at this Post Office and I have seen how both “handled” the situation I filed a complaint and asked to speak to the Regional Postmaster regarding this incident. I have dealt with him before (again dealing with unprofessional postal employees at the same Post Office.) The customer may not always be right, but the customer ALWAYS deserves to be treated in a professional manner. The fact that this was written above the post regarding post offices and the holidays doesn't escape me. I may have to continue to use this Post Office (since my mailbox is a mile down a mountain from my house and I have to pick up my packages there) but that doesn't mean I will ever let them or anyone else treat me with such disrespect and unprofessionalism  - especially when we are paying customers.