Service with a Scowl
August 17th, 2006 | Posted by Shannon
While there is something to be said for our happy go lucky ways over here in America, I sometimes wish the Italian postal service would come over here and take over. I do, I really do. I am kicking myself for saying that right now, but I think the Italian postal service might be doing it right. And we might be doing it wrong.
Today I was in the post office, waiting to mail one package, and this woman in front of me has: two shoe boxes, one shipping box that holds one of the shoe boxes, and a roll of tape. She proceeds to the counter, where she wonders out loud how she can get both shoe boxes in one shipping box, so she can save some money.
The ever efficient postal worker somehow manages to stick both shoe boxes into the shipping box, but there are numerous open spaces that will have to be taped up to make the thing shippable. I am thinking already, the postal worker has the patience of a saint.
So then the woman says how she is worried the box won’t make it, and the postal worker tells her, well, tape it up. Great! The customer says. I brought tape! She breaks out her roll of packing tape and HANDS IT TO THE POSTAL WORKER. Tape it up! She said.
Can you believe this shit? The postal worker did it. She sat there for – I kid you not – fifteen minutes and taped up this box that had all kinds of openings around the sides because it wasn’t the right sized box. Then, there was a long discussion about priority mail ($9.50) vs. parcel post ($7 something or other.) It went on for decades. Finally the customer decided on parcel post because, TIME WASN’T REALLY AN ISSUE FOR HER.
Can you imagine this happening in an Italian post office? NO. I would love to see someone go into an Italian post office and hand the clerk a roll of tape and ask them to tape their box up. Ha ha ha… I would oh, so love to see that. Instead, the clerk would cooly light a cigarette, blow it into the customer’s face, and tell them to fuck off. AS THEY SHOULD.
I still think that post office worker has the patience of a saint, but I don’t think I should be paying for it. Pack your own parcels, biyatch! OK, I am done now.
August 19th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
Shannon must have been at the post office to mail me her cellphone for Italy. I had to wait in line at my p.o. for about 20 minutes to pick it up. The woman in front of me got up to the counter asking for some document to be notarized. The woman behind the counter told her that the post office didn’t do that. The customer insisted that they did saying, “someone who should know told me.” The postal employee told her they didn’t do that anymore and it had been quite awhile since they did and then asked her, “who told you that?” Again, the woman would only say, “someone who should know.” Now I’m wondering if that woman slept with a mailman who gave her false advice…