Long Post Office Line--and This Made it Longer!

[dougiezerts]

OK, we all have to suffer with long post office lines. But I think there are some things customers can do about it.
9:00AM, and the post office just openned. Only two employees, and close to 10 people in line. I observed this situation: On the left, a girl had about 20 different flat 8x12 envelopes she wanted sent at one time. On the right, a guy had 4 or 5 large packages he wanted sent. Between them, we had to wait a good three minutes, or so for the next customer to be served--me!
If you have a transaction that you know will take longer than usual, please try to go to the post office in the middle of the day (but not at lunchtime!), or else try to go to one of the larger branches in the city, OK?

[Liannah]

This is precisely why I use the usps.com site whenever I have to mail packages. Print off my label, pay for my postage, leave it out for the mail carrier. And, yes, I bought a kitchen scale so I know how much postage to pay for. Sure beats waiting in line.

That said, the last time I had to go to the post office (I was sending something out of the country) I got stuck behind a gal who didn't know how to address her package - she'd switched the to: and the from: addresses. Another gal who took forever deciding what kind of stamps she wanted, and then because she was buying a lot of them, the employees had to go through every drawer to find the amount she wanted. I guess they HAD to match. And, a guy who was buying a money order, who had to fill it out and address an envelope right there at the counter so no one else could be helped while he took his sweet time.

Grrr...

[Think Blue]

So what makes them sucky customers? I understand that it's frustrating to wait in line, but why should they have to drive to another post office if that one is probably the closest to them. Is your letter or package that much more important than theirs? btw 3 minutes in not a long wait at the post office, I could tell you stories where I waited an hour to be helped and I was next in line. I'm sad to say you're the one who sounds like a sucky customer.

[Liannah]

Think Blue, I'm not sure if you were referring to my post or to the OP, but just wanted to ask how is it NOT sucky to have someone insist on having over a hundred stamps all identical when it's not the "standard" design (as in choosing one of the specialty ones that only come in small quantities on each sheet) and then have a guy refuse to move because he didn't even have his envelope ready to mail out? He stood there and filled it out, hogging the counter as well as the only employee who was working. The one who had the addresses switched could have just had a brain fart, so I'm not including her, just sharing in the venting.

[Becks]

Dougie, no offense, but I don't see what the problem is. I would LOVE to have to wait 3 minutes in a line at the post office.

Sometimes, if I have a few different things to be done there, I'll let people go in front of me.

And, also, I have seen where even the simplest of transactions somehow turn into 25 minute -a-thons.

[dougiezerts]

I should point out that I had to wait much longer--fifteen minutes in total. It was a three minute wait just for those two to clear out. That's the difference.
If it was a larger post office with more employees, that would be a different situation.

[Dreamstalker]

I mostly use the automated shipping kiosk unless I know the total will be some tiny amount that it's not worth using a credit card for. 99% of the time there's no line for that; whether it's because people can't figure it out or they don't know it exists (or they just like harassing the workers) I'm not sure.

The poor thing runs Windows, and has to be rebooted about twice a day though...

[Think Blue]

I should point out that I had to wait much longer--fifteen minutes in total. It was a three minute wait just for those two to clear out. That's the difference.
If it was a larger post office with more employees, that would be a different situation.

15 minutes is nothing. Try waiting more than an hour dude, and Liannah I was not refering to your post.

[One-Fang]

Just because it's worse sometimes in some places doesn't make dougie's frustration any less.

I agree with the general principle, slightly altered. If you've got one of those longer-than-usual transactions, stand in line behind someone else who's got one, instead of taking the other line (or keep letting people behind you through until the other one is done if there's one queue for multiple tellers).

But, I guess that's a level of general politeness and consideration for others that I can't realistically expect to see. People take whichever queue is fastest, and really, why shouldn't they? If they both have places to be, they don't want to get stuck behind each other any more than I do.

Just a part of life, I guess. Like when the checkout queues at the supermarket are nearly out the door and you have one small packet of toilet paper and have to wait.

[Banrion]

Post offices drive me insane! This is why I love my company. They let us use the mailroom for any and all postal/courier services. We still have to pay for what we ship, but we get the company contract prices, and no waiting in line ever! The mail guy is awesome too, I was gonna send something priority mail, but he told me that if 2 days was fast enough I should go FedEx, since our 2 day Fedex is $0.35!! It was cheaper than the snail mail.

[dougiezerts]

At least with supermarkets, there's usually several regiesters open. And if they're busy, you can kill time by looking around the store a bit more.
Why don't they do the "10 items, or less" concept, at the larger post offices? Have a special window for those who only need postage on one, or two items.
By the way, I've been in situations at supermarkets where nice customers let me get in front of them because I was only getting one item, and they had cartfulls!

[Becks]

I've used a few different post offices in my life, and sometimes if the line is long, a third person will come out from the back and say, "Anyone picking up packages, please come up." That was always a time saver for me, since I mostly go to the PO just to pick up packages that couldn't fit in the mailbox.

[dougiezerts]

I've seen that, too.

[Ljt09863]

ok, i can see the point Dougie is trying to make, although i think Dougies post wasn't the best thing to back itup.

while lines at the post office can be long and frustrating, waiting three minutes isn't the worst thing to go. in my opinion, if an employee had to process 20 small envelopes, or 4 or 5 large packages, and it only took three minues, i would be praising the employee for being so effecient.

dougie, while you rpoint would have been a good one, having to wait 3 minutes isn't a good enough backup for your argument.

[powerboy]

So you are mad, because you had to wait around 15 minutes in line. Maybe it was the closest one to where they live or work. I had to wait in long lines at the PO before.