We discovered our local USPS branch wasn't open today, so we went here instead, When we arrived, parking was sparse, so I ran in while my boyfriend parked the car. I waited at the counter for several minutes and looked around for someone to help me. Only after another customer came in and we began chatting did someone come out to assist. Unfortunately, he was immediately rude and defensive towards me, saying he hadn't heard or seen anyone there. I replied, "Hey, it's no problem. It's all good... I think?" (after seeing the angry, put-off expression on his face). He then took a tone with me when explaining my options for shipping. He abruptly cut me off when I inquired about an option and was so rude that I stopped the transaction, allowing the woman behind me to go first because I didn't want to deal with his attitude and needed a moment to process the whole interaction.
At this point, my boyfriend came in after finding parking. The employee completely changed his tune and was overly nice to both of us. Okay. The sudden shift in his mood and tone was disconcerting but decidedly better than dealing with the attitude he had started my transaction with. He slipped up quickly, started being rude to both of us, and ended our transactions by admonishing my boyfriend for licking an envelope that needed to be licked! He put on gloves to touch the envelope and barked at him not to lick it next time and instead ask whoever was waiting on him to seal it with tape. Literally minutes earlier, he had rolled his eyes at me and said he would "help me out this time" with tape since I hadn't brought any to adhere my shipping label to the outside of the envelope. I would have happily purchased a roll of tape. However, he seemed not to want to assist us with options but rather treat us like petulant school children.
I'm not sure what his problem was. We both were kind to him, and I have a lot of empathy for people dealing with the general public. As someone who had previously worked in retail for years, I know how emotionally exhausting it can sometimes be, but his customer service was unacceptable. read more