Most of the time I feel as if "Post Office" is more like a four-lettered word. People gasp in…read morehorror when you mention it, and often rightly so, when one has to consistently suffer through long lines and grumpy employees. I'm not going to lie--I would probably act the same way if I worked at one of these stations.
I've dealt with this particular post office for years; however, I dealt with it twice yesterday. TWICE.
The first time I went in, there was actually no line. Which made me oh-so happy. The gentleman who helped us out was nice to talk with, but in the interest of us saving money, he kept insisting that we not express the packages being sent. Uhh...I'm pretty sure it always comes to the customer being right, and I appreciate you trying to save me a few cents, but really? Don't push it, k?
About a half-hour later, my friend found out that one of the packages she was sending to Canada actually needed to be there in about five business days, not just postmarked by that date. Since USPS doesn't guarantee international packages, the only option would have been going with FedEx international express, which would take three or four business days, and cost almost $30.
She immediately called the post office to see if she could change the shipping. They told her to come on down, and we did, and then there was a massive line out the door. After about 20 minutes in line, we finally get to the front, and our space-case person had a really hard time doing what we asked her to do. She found the package pretty easily, but then she had us fill out a bunch of forms, including a refund request for the original postage. All in all, this took another 20 minutes, and we became "those" people who everyone stares at.
Well, it got shipped, I can say that much. But was it all the trouble? I guess so. And I think that for the most part, the staff is pretty knowledgeable and personable, but the second time around, I'm not sure what happened.
Ultimately, I'll continue to gasp in horror when I have to go to the post office, because, let's face it: They're almost all the same.