The post office opens at 8:30, so I was there at 8:15. I had to make three trips with my boxes, setting them on the customer counter at the end closest to the registers (which weren't open yet). As I was making my third trip, a gentleman came in with one box, and I insisted he stand in front of me since he only had one box. In return, he insisted on carrying my last three packages inside from my car. We chatted for a while, and then were joined by a lady with one box who said the post office should have coffee and Christmas music for people waiting. I said that I work in a retail/office building, and if I hear "Santa Baby" one more time, I'm liable to go on a rampage. Both of my conversation partners snorted.
By the time the metal divider was rolled up, there was a line behind the three of us stretching all the way to the door, and this is a big post office. While the gentleman in front of me was paying for his postage, I started moving boxes to the clerk's counter. While I was on my second set of three, a clerk opened up the register next to the first one. The redhead at the first register said snottily, "You are supposed to wait until you are called. He wasn't ready for you yet." I tried to explain that I was just getting my packages within reach in order to speed up the process, but fell over my own tongue. Anyway, the clerk who helped me, a very nice man named Reggie, could not have been sweeter. He weighed the packages to Canada first, so I could fill out the customs forms while he weighed everything else, and helped me get the least expensive shipping that would still get everything there by Christmas.
When I explained that one package wasn't fragile but it was meltable, he weighed it, put the postage on it and set it aside so he could mark it later to keep away from heat. Although the natives behind me were restless, Reggie was an absolute doll throughout the entire transaction. I apologized to him for what looked like jumping the gun, and managed to use the correct words when telling him I was trying to expedite things. He said that he's used to people being cranky at the holidays, and I wondered if he meant customers or the snotty redhead. *grin*
When I left the post office, eighty-six dollars later, I was pretty sure I was the most hated person there, even if the redheaded clerk is a bitch.
5 comments:
You is brave! I avoid the post office whenever possible.
We don't really have post offices any more in Canada,
Someone decided that it was more 'efficient' to shut them down and make them a department in major drug stores and the like. Or something that convenience stores can do.
I often wonder how they came to that conclusion, but the mind of modern management is a deep and wondrous thing not to be understood by mere mortals.
Rob
And after all that, I discovered I left the bracelet out of your box, Sherri.
Grrr.
Rob, if you don't have post offices, how do you mail things and get packages?
you've been a busy little elf miss thang!
I'm sure Sherri will not hurt you for the absense of the braclett
Rob, I think Canada must be trying to follow the england example of post offices. We did most of our mailing/shipping from british postal offices that were in drug/convenience stores.
Wow I got a box from OHIO today...
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