I've been using this post office for 3 years. Mostly for simply having a package with a prepaid…read moreebay label on it scanned, so that I have a receipt that it is now in the possession of the USPS and my buyers know it is now en route, out of my hands. Occasionally I might ship something else, or need stamps, but I do those things when I bring in a package to be scanned. So for 99% of the business I have done at this post office for 3 years is so simple as to take only a minute or two.
Today was the final straw, and I will never use this post office again, for anything, not even to drop a stamped letter in the slot. This is a small post office, not large, as some have claimed. The retail portion is rather small. There are four clerk stations. Most of the time there are two staff - one in the back, busy with things that don't involve dealing with a patron, leaving one staff person manning the counter. There are four stations. Why not close up the other two that are NEVER used?
I was in there on an ordinary Thursday in mid-January. This is not "busy Christmas season" when one could expect a long queue . I should have been in and out of there in 1-10 minutes. I walked in and the older man with the white hair and the dismissive attitude was working on something other than helping patrons, for nearly an hour. There was a younger, dark-haired man (30s?) who was disappearing in the back, as he was seeming to help a patron with some complicated business.
The third staffer, an elderly woman with long hair and a pleasant manner, was embroiled for over an hour in what appeared to be a very complex bit of business with a man who was shipping two large packages. I stood in the queue of about 18 people, for nearly 40 minutes, while this woman did not for one moment ask anyone waiting if they had a package to drop off, or were simply buying stamps, whereby she might have helped them first, rather than spend an hour or longer with ONE patron who needed to be hand-held through all manner of paperwork for his complicated shipping issue.
No apologies from any of the three staffers. The message was clear: we simply do not care about any of you. They couldn't have cared less about the wait time. Isn't this job SERVICE to the patron? That involves clear communication about how long they can be expected to wait, apologies for delays, and asking who has the fastest business to attend to. People who need an HOUR should not hold the line up for nearly 20 people, when it isn't holiday crush time.
WHY DON'T THEY SIMPLY HAVE A SELF-SERVICE KIOSK in this post office? There is one in Lafayette, and the Lafayette one is much smaller than the Moraga! Just put in a self-service kiosk and half of your patrons do not have to stand a half hour or an hour to buy a few stamps or to get a receipt for a prepaid label! My business here took LESS THAN A MINUTE, yet with no apologies I was left to stand, with a bad back and aching hips, for over half an hour.
Another thing is they routinely do not scan packages or flats for acceptance until the NEXT DAY, even when I've put them in the collection bins BEFORE 5pm. The young man whose job this seems to be leaves them in the bin until the end of next business day. When I have been fed up with standing in line and left my package with the prepaid label on their counter, it did not show up in the system as in the possession of the USPS until 12-24 hours later! How is this acceptable? I am fed up with poor service, when these people are paid very well for their jobs.
