The mail carriers and management at this post office are wildly unprofessional and unnecessarily aggressive. I work with the public also, and I genuinely cannot understand the mindset of thinking it's a-okay to be downright rude and yell at customers while on the clock.
I live in an apartment building that is serviced by this post office and I never had issues up until last week. In the past, carriers were nice and would say hello. There was never any indication that you had to avoid the mail area entirely if a carrier is present.
So last week, when I saw I had a package just delivered, I went downstairs to the mailroom to retrieve it. The mailwoman was present but was at the other end of the boxes (mine is near the window, she was near the back wall). My section of boxes were locked, as were all the other boxes, other than the ones directly in front of her.
As I approached my box, she yelled, "Ma'am, this area is off-limits." I replied, "Oh...I can't check my mail?" and she said I could not. I was surprised by that, so I walked down the ramp in my building to the other side of where she was (not passing by the mailboxes directly) and asked if she could tell me if she saw a package for me.
Her response, "I don't even know who you are" in THE nastiest tone -- and rolled her eyes. I pointed out the mailbox key I was holding, and she didn't reply, so I was like, "Well, okay then, you have a great night." As I stood by the elevator to go back upstairs, I heard her mutter under her breath, "I'm almost done!"
....Well, if you were almost done and clearly had finished my section, what in the world was the big deal about me checking my mail? I would totally understand if the boxes were wide open and I tried to reach in, or if she was within 6 feet of my section and needed to social distance. But I can assure you, I was not trying to steal anyone's mail from their locked boxes.
Since that hadn't happened before, I sent a heads up to my resident group to inform others. That's when I learned that my incident wasn't a first. I also reported it to my building management, who suggested reporting it to USPS, as they had also lodged several complaints.
I detailed all of the above in a report to USPS, requested a response via email, and the next day received a VM from a man at this post office requesting "additional information" and said he'd call back the next day.
No call the next day, but this morning I received a call from a woman who didn't tell me her title at the post office. She was also aggressive from the start, told me that her carrier was not being rude to me, that she was doing her job, and that I was unauthorized to be near my mailbox. I tried explaining that her tone was extremely rude, but this woman wouldn't let me get a word in, so I hung up on her.
All told, I hope to never have to deal with these horrific people again. It really does not hurt to be nice, kind, or decent. read more