posted on May 15, 2006 09:25:55 PM
Today I started out at 3:30 to my local post office to buy stamps for approximately 150 postcard shipments. I had already figured out weights and postage ammounts - I had a nice clean shopping list of stamps needed.
It's a lovely old neighborhood post office - with lots of charm and no air conditioning. It was 95 degrees and a long line had already formed when I got there.
The two windows had customers: a lovely young could-be eBay seller with lots of priority packages - poor thing! She obviously depends on her eBay income to pay off her augmentation surgeries; and a definitely 'no clue' shipping clerk who had loaded his oversized freight and brought it to the post office to figure out.
By the looks of the line, they had been there some time. Forty minutes later, savoring the smell of body juices that only frustration and 90+ temperatures with close body contact produces, I hear the clerk with the eBay gal explain for the gazillionth time the different options pro- and con- she has for shipping this particular package. The clerk with the shipping guru is silently repackaging another oversized shipent.
People keep coming in. Noone goes out. It's getting freaky. Finally, the clogs get processed and the line starts moving. Still, the PO clerks keep instructing the customers of the different options available- even when they are asked for a specific shipping method. When my turn comes, the clerk patiently explains to me, as he does every week, the options of stamp combinations for a $1.70 shipment.
I finally have my stamps at 5:00 and with adrenelin and sweat surging, get everything in the mail by last pick up at 5:30. This leaves me with 30 minutes to get across town to a postcard club board meeting with no shower, arriving in my who-cares-its-only -the post-office clothes.
posted on May 15, 2006 09:39:12 PM
You're lucky. If it had been me, the guy in front of me would have been a stamp collector wanting the clerk to show him every single type of stamp in the building, and then taking his own sweet time trying to decide which 3 he wanted to buy. There are two basic rules when going to the Post Office. 1) Always have a cell phone with you. 2) have the number of a good bail bondsman programmed into the first memory position.
If Murphy's law is correct, everything East of the San Andreas Fault will slide into the Atlantic
posted on May 15, 2006 10:04:16 PM
I feel for you pix. I to deal with how shall we say, a minature post offices with only one or two counter people and they even close for lunch. Don't find many that close for lunch anymore. It took me a little while but I figured out the best time for me to go is between 1-2 PM. If I'm there at 12:58 I am there when they open the doors after lunch.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. - Albert Einstein
posted on May 16, 2006 05:43:45 AM
Gosh, I think we've all been there! I'm always stuck behind someone who can't read the sign stating that all forms must be completed before you get to the window!! What they do is take their package to the clerk, ask the clerk to give them the proper form, then they go to another counter to complete it and then they cut in front of everyone to complete their transaction! I get really pizzed when I see this. More often than not, it's someone sending something back to their home country. It wouldn't be so bad except the same people are doing it each and every month! Or, there's the guy with 50 small envelopes and each one needs to be weighed before postage is put on them. Same guy every week. I almost want to buy a scale for him.
I have to go to the PO this morning and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there is no line. We normally only have one clerk working!
posted on May 16, 2006 05:58:19 AM
Our Post Office has a vending machine for stamps. No line waiting! The only problem is there is no receipt either. I think to avoid a situation like yours I could live without a receipt.
Dr. Arcane, revelator of mystical secrets http://www.drarcane.com
Got questions about the secrets of the universe?
posted on May 16, 2006 06:13:21 AM
Our post office has an Automated Post office with extended hours - you can mail packages, buy stamps, purchase extra services and charge to credit card AND get a receipt!! Only problem is that the stamps are UGLY. I am using the Automat more and more EXCEPT to buy stamps. It's a whole lot more polite and friendly than the clerks behind the counter!!
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posted on May 16, 2006 06:52:36 AM
No Air Conditioning??? Where do you live?
I still can't believe the USPS built all those large post offices in rural areas but didn't give them updated equipment?? Most of these are 3 times bigger than they need to be. Just seems like the money could have been better spent enlarging the old buildings and adding new equipment. JMO
posted on May 16, 2006 08:07:47 AM
I fel your pain ... but REALLY have no complaint against my little PO.
It sounds as if it is larger than Pixis but it is not large.
I sometimes go POSTAL myself when a DEAR customer says shipping should not be so high since sellers only leave it at the door and do not even go to PO ................GRACIOUS my DH goes faithfully everyday -almost always 6 days a week. Only once month we skip Saturday (we are at the beach)
All military APO and International has to be hand delivered. I do print all my labels. but my dear PO carrier drives a Ford Escort Station Wagon and would have to make an extra trip to pick up the packages.
My DH takes them every morning before 7 -- they let him in the back. He also gets the mail --I love money orders -yum yum. Much better than Paypal who get a hunk out of my buck.
posted on May 16, 2006 10:44:02 AM
Our little mountain p.o. is wonderful, and there's almost never a line longer than 10 people for 2 clerks.
But yesterday there was a young woman buying money orders for small amounts for about 50 items. She was filling out the money orders at the window as she got them, and it was taking forever.
Then she stepped back to a counter, near where I was standing. She had a bunch of eBay printouts showing she'd won items, and she was laboriously finding the right money order, then hand addressing each envelope, putting on the stamp, etc. etc. I commented that she must have been buying a lot on eBay. She said she was buying everything for re-sale. (I couldn't get a peek at the category of stuff she'd bought.)
I asked someone near me why the gal hadn't just paid with PayPal or a check, and he said her credit may be very bad.
Still--it was an enormous line clogger. Shouldn't the clerk have asked her to fill out the money orders somewhere other than at his window?!! She wasn't *that* cute.
posted on May 16, 2006 11:19:19 AM
How about the old people that relish the social interaction so much that it must be the high point of their month? Especially the old women that unpack their purse and bring everything, but a chair and a cup of coffee?
posted on May 16, 2006 11:26:22 AM
Parklane: You're right, of course, about some of those old people, but I'd like to come to their defense a bit.
A hairdresser told me a long time ago that she treats her older customers special. She said that sometimes her doing their hair is the only human touching they get. I suspect that some of the codgers and geezers I see ahead of me in line at the p.o. are getting their only human conversational contact for the day. I try to cut them some slack.
We're retired. My husband is an introvert who could spend days alone at home and be perfectly happy. I'm an extrovert and need to get out of the house every day, down the hill to "town," and pop in at the p.o. and grocery store just for the human contact. I get my fix for the day that way -- but I don't tie up up p.o. lines because I know better.
posted on May 16, 2006 11:28:56 AM
parking: Not all old people love to stand in line; I am 77 & the last thing I want to do is stand in line with 60 people ahead of me. I print my own postage for Priority mail or i take my pkgs to FedEx Gound. I even order stamps by internet & the carrier delivers them to my door.
posted on May 16, 2006 05:55:32 PM
I ship out of a small post office (3 clerks max, but usually 2, sometimes 1) - These days, I actually don't stand in line anymore, they pretty much let me in the processing area and I help put things where they are supposed to be. Guess after all these years, they figure I am not going to steal anything. It's actually nice, though there are seldom long lines. There are several online sellers who do take a long time to send packages. I can understand if you have a few, but when you have 30 or 40 packages, at that point you really should consider online postage. They usually ship with delivery confirmation, and of course pay 50 or 60 cents instead of 14 cents, or FREE!
I was talking to one of the clerks today, and she said she was interested. I told her that I was actually considering starting a consulting business, and she was interested. Anyone out there do ebay consulting. I've thought about it, finding the time might be tough, but I think it could be pretty profitable, I have a decent knowledge base as I've been ebaying for 9+ years, and selling online in the rec.collecting newsgroups before that.
posted on May 16, 2006 06:03:12 PM
Of all the people who've said they want me to tell them how to sell on eBay, only one has taken me up on my entrance requirements. One of my best friends, maid of honor at my wedding 46 years ago. I tell people to register on eBay and buy at least 10 cheap things, which will tell them the buyer's experience and what is needed from that perspective. So many people want to know how but don't want to spend the time really learning.
So I spent a weekend with my old friend and her husband, both of whom are retired, and they're ready to go. I have mixed feelings about doing the consulting for money, since I think there are way too many sellers already, LOL.
There's a very old man, stooped over but smart and clear headed, who prints out of date textbook materials and sells them all over the world. The other day he'd brought in boxes and boxes of his books in envelopes of course and left them. The clerk who was doing postage on them worked for what seemed like hours; I was there at the tail end. The register tape was about 15 feet long, and the man's bill came to $900 in postage. Incredible to me that he doesn't just do the postage from his home.
posted on May 16, 2006 06:08:53 PM
WHITE POST, Virginia (population 84 --- that includes the horses and cows).....My garage is bigger than the post office! 1 Clerk -- counter. Used to have the OLD postage labels on a roll that spit out of a machine which broke when it was over- worked! YES---1:30 to 2:00pm CLOSED for lunch...sorry to say, they lost my business. Now at another (3 clerk window). NO LUNCH breaks.
posted on May 16, 2006 08:33:24 PM
Ah. That old man. Smart old man. If it took the clerk HOURS to do the register tape, those are HOURS that he can spend more profitably. Why in the world would he want to do it at home? There is no limit to what you can accomplish when others do the work.
Any trip to the PO here in my small southern town requires patience. Lots of it. Depending on the time of the month, many customers buy money orders, and it's obvious they need help to fill them out. The hidden illiteracy of the year 2006. I don't complain -- G-d forbid it should be me in my dotage without eyesight or abiity to write. And in five years, it won't matter if it took 5 minutes in line or 30.
Don't find many that close for lunch anymore. It took me a little while but I figured out the best time for me to go is between 1-2 PM. If I'm there at 12:58 I am there when they open the doors after lunch.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. - Albert Einstein
