going postal

i would like to think i am fairly level-headed. that i can take a situation for what it is, rationally think about it, and act appropriately. i know this is not always how i conduct myself, but i am trying. well, monday morning i absolutely went postal. at the post office. i always thought that the phrase referred to the workers, after the rash of post office shootings back in the 90s, because of the stress of the job and other demands placed upon them. but standing in the columbia heights substation on monday morning, i realized that to truly go postal you have to be a customer.

i am not sure if getting into it on my blog will do much more than make me more angry than i was (and still am, as the days go by) but i am sure it would provide endless entertainment to others. i will have to give the abbreviated version, though, to spare myself the details.

let's just say i went in to pick up our mail, which we had stopped online for the two weeks we were gone. i took time off of work to do so, so that we could be up to date on all bills and correspondence upon our return to the u.s. when i got up to the window (i was #6 in line, even though i arrived 2 minutes before the place opened at 9am) and asked about the stopped mail, the first thing i was told was that "oh you did it online, that's the problem. online doesn't work." hmmmm. last time i checked, things online were much MORE efficient than paper or using human beings. ok, so it doesn't work. let's put the fact that that is the most absurd statement i have ever heard aside so we can resolve this situation. what do i do to get it? "i don't know if you can. your mail is stopped uptown and they would keep it there. i could try to see if i can get the dispatcher to bring it to you today. you gonna be at home?" no, i work. i took time off for this. "it would be good if you could stay at home today." that is really not an option. "well, i really doubt you will get it. if you been gone two weeks they won't be able to fit it in the mailbox and they won't leave it outside. i don't know if you will get it." ever? "i don't know. i am not responsible for that. that is handled by uptown." can i talk to someone there? "no. but i can call you today and let you know what is going on with it." [mini freakout ensues, then i compose myself] thank you. that would be much appreciated.

and guess what? i never got a phone call. never got the old mail. each day that passes in which i walk up and fail to see huge stacks of mail falling out of our box i get more irritated. and i have no idea how i am going to recover the mail. the usps is honestly holding my mail hostage in the uptown station. normally i wouldn't care too much - we pay bills online and i hate sifting through junk mail. but i was told by a few of my adoring fans that they had sent me some things in the mail, and to look out for them. if they were sent, i never got them, and it is unclear when i will. so if you did mail me anything, just let me know what it looked like and about when it was sent. i am hoping to force myself into the uptown station this weekend so that i can comb through the piles of mail on my own since they apparently won't do it for me.

i'd like to think that it is just a one time instance, a blip on the radar, whatever. but the more i live in d.c. the more i learn that the d.c. workers never took a little class called customer service 101. they honestly have the worst people skills i have ever seen in my life. it is something that has been the subject of endless conversations between me and my d.c. friends. i admit, it might just be me and my shiny happy west coast expectations, but these people need to learn some manners. don't even get me started on the dmv...