Postal Letter

My recent experience at the post office (USPS) tells me that monopolies treat customers poorly. Do you agree?

Below is the complaint that I wrote to the USPS. I was at the above-mentioned USPS location sometime between 12 and 1 pm on the shown date. While attempting to buy stamps, I was treated very poorly by the only employee on duty at that time. The male employee's poor attitude first caught my attention when he and a woman, who was in line a few people in front of me, had a less-than-friendly discussion: after the woman paid using cash and coins, the employee said that she had not provided the correct amount and asked for a few more pennies. It turned out the woman had provided the correct amount, but the employee had added wrong. The employee returned the pennies but did not apologize. The woman left after saying that it is his math and not hers that was wrong. Subsequently, the employee served a few more customers before a Hispanic man approached the counter. I discerned that the man was Hispanic from the conversation in Spanish he was having with another customer. Initially this man had a difficult time explaining what he needed since he did not speak English well. After spending some time trying to figure out what the customer was saying, the employee lost his patience and made it a point to demonstrate his irritation: at one point the employee had his palms pressed against his eyes with his elbows on the counter to support the weight of his head. After a while the employee figured out what was required by the customer, and they completed the transaction. Regardless, the employees hostile demeanor was unbecoming of a well-run business (especially one trusted with the privilege of having a monopoly on domestic mail) A few minutes later, I got to the front of the line and approached the counter. Initially I told the male employee that I needed 10 stamps but, as he reached down and grabbed a sheet of 10 stamps, I quickly specified that I needed 10 Forever stamps. Clearly irritated, the male employee said that Forever stamps only come in sheets of 20 stamps (a fact I did not know) and that he did not have any available. I was disconcerted by the employee's behavior but continued with the transaction. I pointed to the sheet of 10 stamps he had pulled out and said, "Two of these would be fine." I meant to ask for 2 individual stamps, but I did not realize that I had misspoken until the employee brought out another sheet with 10 stamps. In my defense, the employee could have prevented the miscommunication by asking me to be more specific. I quickly APOLOGIZED and specified that I needed 2 individual stamps and not 2 sheets. At that point, the employee lost his bearings completely; he was intimidating and belittling as he went on to list the errors that I had made since approaching the counter. He continued to badger me even as I once again APOLOGIZED. As he finished his speech, I continued to be polite in order to ease the tension. I even asked him if it would be easier for him to have me pay using cash or credit. Regardless, the employee's belligerent attitude did not change. As soon as the transaction was complete, I said "You could try being a little nicer." He dismissed me by saying "Ok. Next customer." I left immediately. The employee's behavior towards me and other customers was clearly unacceptable. If I had other options for sending domestic mail, I would have chosen to never again do business with the USPS. I am sure some of the other customers who were at the post office that day would agree with me. I hope the USPS will take this issue seriously and take appropriate action.

Public Comments

1. The postman sounds like a real jerk. Good for you for reporting it. I would guess that they will indeed talk to him about it. I'm not always thrilled with the post office either. But there are other places you can go. You can google "private mail service" and the name of your town/city, and usually you can find a number of places that have all the services that the post office has. I often go to these, and the transactions are much nicer, because these people are in business. They also rent out mail boxes. On the other hand, I usually do get quite good service right at the post office. Again, its great that you reported the problem. You are probably right: anything that is a monopoly can start taking its customers for granted. However, there are other outfits that are competing with the post office: FedEx and UPS. And also the private shops I've mentioned earlier.
2. It does sould like you were treated poorly there.