I had an unpleasant experience with a USPS clerk today.
Today I renewed by mail my passport which I got in the 80's. Simple eh? Nope!
Considering that my passport involved documenting my birth (parent's lost my birth certificate) by a trip to New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and finally Miami and now everyone who was required to document my birth is dead, I value my passport as much as my SSN.
So it goes without saying that I simply cannot document my birth records again as the hospital I was born in had been razed in the 60's, my pediatrician is deceased and his records were shredded (in the 70's) and the N.Y bureau of vital statistics does not have it as being recorded!
On to the USPS.
So I wanted it to be sent via REGISTERED mail and you have no idea how much resistance the USPS clerk gave me and she INSISTED I sent it via mail with tracking because EVERYONE does it that way. I insisted right back that the only way I wanted it to go was REGISTERED. Yes it's a PITA for them but nowhere near the PITA it would cause me is it got lost.
When she finally relented and searched all around for the documents she threw my envelope into her out bin without attaching the registration documents. When I asked her how they would know it was registered she said "we will know" THEN I said right now it's a plain envelope and I worked in the post office and it needed those documents attached NOW and I said I wanted to see them attached. She rolled her eyes grabbed my parcel, and attached the registration documents. Was she ever ticked off!
I KNOW they do not "like" registered mail because it's inconvenient to handle and transfer, but I paid more than $40 for that inconvenience and she was totally annoyed that I had to demand the service and it "appeared as if she was going to lose" it without any postage or registration documents attached.
The USPS seriously needs a house cleaning starting in my local post office.
Today I renewed by mail my passport which I got in the 80's. Simple eh? Nope!
Considering that my passport involved documenting my birth (parent's lost my birth certificate) by a trip to New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and finally Miami and now everyone who was required to document my birth is dead, I value my passport as much as my SSN.
So it goes without saying that I simply cannot document my birth records again as the hospital I was born in had been razed in the 60's, my pediatrician is deceased and his records were shredded (in the 70's) and the N.Y bureau of vital statistics does not have it as being recorded!
On to the USPS.
So I wanted it to be sent via REGISTERED mail and you have no idea how much resistance the USPS clerk gave me and she INSISTED I sent it via mail with tracking because EVERYONE does it that way. I insisted right back that the only way I wanted it to go was REGISTERED. Yes it's a PITA for them but nowhere near the PITA it would cause me is it got lost.
When she finally relented and searched all around for the documents she threw my envelope into her out bin without attaching the registration documents. When I asked her how they would know it was registered she said "we will know" THEN I said right now it's a plain envelope and I worked in the post office and it needed those documents attached NOW and I said I wanted to see them attached. She rolled her eyes grabbed my parcel, and attached the registration documents. Was she ever ticked off!
I KNOW they do not "like" registered mail because it's inconvenient to handle and transfer, but I paid more than $40 for that inconvenience and she was totally annoyed that I had to demand the service and it "appeared as if she was going to lose" it without any postage or registration documents attached.
The USPS seriously needs a house cleaning starting in my local post office.
So it can work both ways.
