Purchased a note in the Heritage Tuesday Currency Auction last week, paid right away and it was shipped. Being the tracking fiend I am and living and working rather distant from my post office I prefer to see it marked "delivered" before I make the haul to the post office to pick up my items. The auction win was shipped by HA by priority with USPS tracking, and yesterday morn whilst in my office I checked the tracking frequently because it was getting closer. Showed dropped off at my post office at 455am and then later on with the requisite delay in postal tracking it showed delivered at 747am. So while out on errands later in the afternoon I drove into town and checked my post box only to find no key to the parcel locker. Disappointed, but persistent I went over to the service counter and explained to the postal clerks there that my package was marked delivered but it was not in the parcel locker and I didn't receive a key to the locker. Now I have known these clerks for awhile, one of them once told a trainee when I was asking about a package that "if he says it is here, it is, he knows". I have had them going through large mail carts, the registered cage etc looking for my packages from overseas etc. I get lots of mail from countries where the Roman alphabet is not used often and my mail is sometimes addressed funnily - but they always manage to find me with my mail. Because they have insisted several times over they work for the US Postal SERVICE with an emphasis on the latter I know I can trust them when stuff happens. They talked for awhile, got a supervisor. Several phone calls to clerks that worked the priority mail in the morning and nothing. They took my phone number and promised to call back. And they did this morning. The clerk working the priorities yesterday called and profusely apologized for errantly putting my package in another businesses parcel locker. She called the other business and they promised to have it ready to take back to the post office later today. But that wasn't good enough for the clerk I know well. He called them up and arranged to pick it up on his lunch break, and then called and arranged to drop it off at my office. About an hour ago he came by my office with my package. The other business had opened it by mistake, but not the inner package with the note. I know many people gripe about the post office, but I believe we have to remember they are people and they make mistakes. And when stuff happens it is best to remember to be persistent, but friendly - because as I have told my postal clerks many times - I have come to expect a high level of performance. And last night and today, for awhile I thought maybe just maybe my package was lost forever - again they didn't fail me.
Nice story. If more people acted like that postal clerk, the world would be a much better place. I will bet you have always been pleasant and considerate to him in your past interactions too. TC
I work with two local post offices . . . logistics drive my need to do that. The clerks at both locations have always been excellent. It probably doesn't hurt that I know them all by name, and that they are remembered at Christmastime.
That's great. I live between two post offices, and they are as different as night and day. One, where I do my business whenever I can, the clerks are friendly, diligent, quick, and actually act like they want to help you. The other, where unfortunately my mail is delivered, they act like they would rather be anywhere else in the world. The line is usually 15 people long, but that won't stop one of the few clerks working from wandering off into the back room or doing their own work instead of helping customers. They are short with you and treat you like you are an idiot. It must be something about their management or office culture that makes one so different from the other.
