But I did today.
On the way to Village Creek Natural Historical Area I stopped at my neighborhood Handley Post Office to mail something to my favorite aunt living in Eastern Washington.
I walked into the deathly quiet Post Office and saw a line of 6 with one Postal Clerk clerking.
I got in line. About 10 minutes later the line moved. I was now 5th in line. Fifteen minutes later I was 3rd in line.
When I was 4th in line a lady got in line behind me. That lady had one of those Post Office supplied type boxes filled with what looked like around 20 big envelopes to mail.
When I was 3rd in line the Postal Clerk looked at the Lady with the Box and told her she could not process that mail now because the line was too long.
"Are you allowed to refuse service?" the Lady with the Box asked.
"Yes, I am," said the Postal Clerk.
The Lady with the Box had been on the phone all the time she was behind me. I could hear what the person she was talking to was saying. That person then told the Lady with the Box to ask to talk to the manager.
By the time I was 1st in line and finally face to face with the surly Postal Clerk, the Lady with the Box was talking to the unkempt looking short blonde frumpy woman who apparently was being the Post Office manager today.
I asked the Postal Clerk if all the other postal clerks had called in sick today. The Postal Clerk told me that they had not called in sick, but were in the backroom working. She told me this in a very surly manner.
Going to the Post Office has always been annoying. It was annoying when I lived in Washington. It is annoying in Texas. But, I think the experience has gotten even more annoying the past several years.
I've got a private Post Office operation across the street, part of the Albertsons strip mall. I think it is called Mail Etcetera, or something like that. I never think to go there til it is too late. Miss Puerto Rico has a Post Office Box at Mail Etcetera. I've been in there with her. The guy who runs it seems very competent. And not at all surly. He always greets Miss Puerto Rico by name.
I have no idea what the outcome was for the Lady with the Box. My business was completed, so I left.
Wikipedia has an article about "Going Postal".
Nonsense like this is undoubtably a large part of why we will soon have no U.S. Postal Service. There is always a line at my post office and often only one or two clerks working the window. Thankfully, a couple of the clerks are relatively pleasant.
ReplyDeleteNo one was terribly helpful when my mail was fished out of their outside collection box by thieves in the night and my identity stolen however.