going postal

I received a message last week from somebody who bought a pendant from me.  It arrived to her broken!  I was so upset by this.  Needless to say, I'm making her a new one free of charge.  I always mail my pendants in bubble mailers...plus I kinda thought they were indestructible...given that I have dropped my fair share on the cold concrete floor of the garage and nothing happened.  So I think they are mostly indestructible...except for the rough handling of the postal system.  I will be sure to always have the post hand stamp them from now on...

Which leads me to my rant...I have nothing against the postal system...you take stuff to them, they take it across the country/world for you..it's great.  The thing that drives me absolutely crazy is the post office that is 4 blocks from my house.  I mail my stuff in the morning on my way to work, and every time I go in there, I leave incredibly angry and fuming all the way to work.  There is always a line out the door...and the main mail guy (who is ALWAYS there...can't he just be on vacation once!?!?) drives me CRAZY!  He always has a giant list of questions he asks every single customer...

"Do you want to send it priority?" No (that's why I asked for first class!!!)
"Do you want to send it certified?"  see above response
"Do you want insurance?" No
"Do you want a delivery receipt?" No
"How about stamps?" "Mailers?" "Bubble wrap?" "etc. etc". No .

And the list goes on...it's a 5 min spiel per customer..meanwhile people in line are getting antsy...even to the point that every second time I'm in there it seems like people in line are verbalizing their annoyance and telling him to "hurry up there is a line".  Meanwhile the other postal workers are nowhere to be found...or they wander back and forth behind the counter but don't actually help any customers...and I know I am not the most patient person ever, but it got to the point that I refuse to go there anymore.  I found a different post office...one that is 5 miles away instead of 4 blocks, just so I wouldn't have to deal with "the dreaded postal worker".

Oh, I'm all worked up just typing this!  GRRR!

Oh, and the first time I went in there, I asked for my package to be hand stamped and was told they didn't think it was necessary.  I should have said something...after all, it is not up to them to decide...it's my package!  But as far as I know this issue (the postal breaking of pendant) has only  happened the one time.

But, I'm happy to report I've been nothing but happy with "my new post office".  The workers are friendly and efficient...and willing to hand stamp my packages without question!

Thank you all for letting me rant...I promise the next installment will be more productive.

ttfn