Standing in line in the post office today, I witnessed one of the most frustrating transactions I have ever seen.
A woman for whom English is clearly her second language was trying to purchase two money orders totaling $1600. One was $1000 and the other was $600. She handed a large stack of bills to the postal worker who counted it out twice and said, “You’ve only got $1500 here.”
For the next 10 minutes (Give or take a few seconds, and yes, I timed it.) the customer asked the only question she could muster in order to understand what the problem was. The question was, in my opinion, unbelievably reasonable and simple to answer: “How much more do I need?”
The postal worker, about whom I have written before, said everything but, “You need $100.” Instead, she said things like:
- “You need to give me $1600.”
- “There’s only $1500 here.”
- “I need $1600.”
- “You want a money order for $1000 and $600 right? I need $1600.”
- “You don’t have enough money here.”
And then, finally, she slipped up and said, “You need $100.” and the customer said, “Oh!” and the transaction was sorted out and processed.
If you’re thinking about making some comment along the lines of, “Well, she (the customer) needs to learn the language.” Or “This is America. She needs to speak English.” then don’t bother because seriously, WTF is wrong with you? The person who deserves your contempt is the postal worker who is either stupid or a bitch. There is simply no other excuse for her behavior.
Comments (16)
I’m with you on this one. If it was me, I’d do everything I could to move the lady on her way, including spelling it out. I think she just gets off on her sense of power over people. You see that in civil service sometimes (unfortunately).
Celeste: She reinforces every stereotype we have about postal workers, and yes she almost certainly enjoys the power she has from her lofty position. The good news is that she retires sometime in 2008. I know this because she never misses an opportunity to mention it.
I had a similar experience in the post office today. In case you thought that the US had a monopoly on incompetency in low paid government employees.
I sent a package to my folks that was 2050 grams. Because it was over the 2 kg mark, I had to fill out a long customs form about what it contained, how much it cost, etc. etc. And then there’s no guarantee that the paranoid US customs will actually let it though. Grrr!
I vote for C) stupid AND a bitch….
The postal worker you refer to has probably never been out of the country. She probably can’t imagine how helpless and distressed she would feel in that situation reversed. It is unfortunate that we cannot arrange for her to have that experience… You know, suddenly, and without warning.
Ogre: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
America.
Tina: Er, what does that mean?
I’m sure this same woman waits on me everywhere I go.
The idiocy when it comes to anyone or anything that isn’t also American, I mean. That’s America for you.
Tina: I see. I’m really genuinely sorry that your experience and, therefore, opinion of America–particularly as you are also an American–is so uniformly bad, so appallingly full of rudeness and unkindness and small-mindedness and bigotry, that you are able to so clearly define an entire population with such a broad stroke.
I’m sorry; you’re right. It was too broad a statement.
I believe it took her 10 minutes to figure out in her head that 1,600 minus 1,500 = 100. Must not be a Postal Clerk for Dummies book on the market. Hey, Hillbilly, maybe you should write it. Seems you experience it all.
My biggest gripe is all the post offices close out here for lunch (they’re all manned by 1 person). And they all stagger the hour so if you are in Maurertown at 12 noon and it’s closed, then drive to Toms Brook (3 miles away), it’s closed at 12:15… You get the picture.
Tina: Here’s the thing:
1. You are absolutely entitled to your opinion, an opinion you have developed based on your own experiences I assume, so don’t think I am trying to clamp down on that, but
2. You brought it here so I couldn’t not respond.
3. Also, though, I genuinely am sorry that you feel that way about America. I mean, you live here and you don’t like it and that has to suck. I’m not blindly patriotic by any stretch of the imagination but this is, overall, not a bad place to live and we certainly have not cornered the global market on bigotry and shitty behavior.
This postal worker is an equal opportunity offender. She hates everyone as far as I can tell (to include herself). I mentioned the ESL status of the customer to provide context for the difficulty in communication. For every person like her (the postal worker), in my experience, there are three like MyAndrea, who on a regular basis does things like go out of her way to help an ESL resident in terrible distress because her car had been towed and she had no idea what to do or how to track it down. Despite my misanthropy, I believe people are inherently good. A little too chatty for my tastes but generally good.
Dirtman: That happened when I lived in South Carolina. What the hell are they thinking? I guess they don’t care that the lunch hour is the potentially busiest time for them in their relatively rural setting where people have to leave work and drive (usually out of their way) to the post office to transact business.
I hear that the Post Office is generally staffed by aliens. Except in Meadows of Dan. Our postal workers are wonderful (thank goodness ’cause I can be really dumb sometimes).
I so wish you had the sort of post-office folks we have in our little burg of 37086, ma’am. They are kind and sweet and always helpful (and one is multilingual and is SO wonderful to folks who don’t speak English well or at all), even when the customers deserve a sound thrashing. Which, sadly, is often. One of the customers I’ve seen there on three different Saturdays complains loudly, repeatedly and crudely about how the P.O. is “always closed when I get here on Saturday! Every time!” I’ve pointed to the sign that clearly says they’re open until 11 a.m. on Saturdays. Each time, he says, “I know! I come here every Saturday at 11:30 and they’re always closed!”
Instead of just having a “WTF?!?!?” expression this weekend, I think I’m actually going to write that down on a piece of paper and hold it up when he says that.