My wife, aside from her regular profession, makes custom cards - sort of Hallmark stuff on steroids. She has an entire room of our home "cordoned" off for this purpose alone. Well, there's also the sewing, rubber stamping, scrapbooking and quilting "operation" concurrently going on as well. Anyway, she had a small box of "cards" ready to be shipped off to Kansas for sorting to our troops serving on military bases overseas. I took it to the post office and found out that when the "service" counter inside the post office is open for business you (apparently) cannot use the self-service machine - at least not with a small box.
There were three post service employees (civil service unionized workers) sitting there at roughly 1:30pm on a Saturday with a (as in "one") "customer" just leaving. I was greated with a friendly smile by an older (50+) heavy set female postal "worker" person. I handed her the box and said - "whatever the cheapest way is, please". She asked: "how about delivery by next Friday?" I replied: "OK". She asked me if there were any drugs, firearms - I don't recall the rest of the (FBI generated) intrusive list - and I replied in the negative.
There is a payment card "terminal" right there at the counter and I slid my wife's card and "it" said to enter a pin number. I asked: "how do I run this as credit". She said I would have to give her the card. I handed it to her, she read the name and asked me (now with a drivers license bureau clerk attitude) "who is this?". I told her and she said "you" cannot use "this" card "here" as a credit. "It" must be used as a debit. The price of postage, for the record, was $10 and change.
So, I tried once more to use the self-service machine 15 feet from the "service" counter, but it declined to process a small box. I decided to head over the nearby UPS (United Parcel Service) office, but decided that - just as matter of principle - to go to another local post office. The "service" counter there had closed an hour earlier and was not far away.
I put the box on the self-service scale - entered the zip code - answered a few simple questions - and pressed process. The machine said it would be $12 for delivery MONDAY! I would receive a convenient tracking number to follow it's progress. I slid my wife's credit card though the slot - it asked if I want to use it as a credit card - I replied in the affirmative. Out came the label and postage - then a receipt. I put it on the box and shoved it in the appropriate door and off to Kansas it went. God bless our troops!
The postal employee, the space she occupies, the chair she sits on, the rubber mat she occasionally stands on, her salary, her benefits and her stupidity - all are a complete waste of money. She has NO purpose. She is a dinosaur. She has been replaced by a machine - a far more efficient and faster alternative for the postal customer - but yet she (and thousands of others) still remain on "our" government's subsidized dole. That is clearly a mistake. It's pathetic. It is indicative of the bloated bureacracy that is the "United States" post office.
Can I take this "story" to someone at that post office branch for explanation? No way. That probably would be the "postmaster" but then it would be easier to talk to a member of Congress. Besides, you and I know it would be a complete waste of time.
* The YouTube video I'm sure is copyrighted by the USPS - United States Post Office
** The two folks that regularly deliver my mail are totally exempt from this story and any of my comments - they're probably the only two postal employees that possess any common sense and do an outstanding job. Thank for both for all your efforts.
*** This is NOT an isolated incident - it is a culmination of YEARS of post office inefficiency.
