U.S. Postal Service
Consumer Report

My wife and I run have a small online book store and we ship 50 to 130 books three times a week through the Postal Service. This morning, 6/21, I went to the Kelso, WA Post Office as I usually do on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to ship my customer’s orders. The agent began helping me at approximately 12 noon and at 12:13, Jane Williams, the on duty supervisor said that they couldn't finish shipping all of our items and I would have to leave because there were two other customers waiting and she didn’t want them to wait for my orders to be finished. The agent looked very surprised and saddened at me and said she couldn't do any more, Jane, was the supervisor and the agent indicated she had to do what Jane ordered. Ms. Williams, for some reason has never been supportive of us shipping our customer’s orders from the Kelso Post Office. Several times in the past she has asked that we either not come in or we should come some other time. On the other hand, the agents who have helped us have all been very gracious and appreciative of our business. We have been doing this for several years and we contribute to the Postal Services revenue from between $600.00 and $1000.00 a week so the thought had not occurred to us that we were a major inconvenience. Since I was unable to get our customer’s orders in the mail at the Kelso Post Office, I had to load the rest of the books back in the car and drive over to the Longview to post the rest of our orders from the Longview Post Office. I was very surprised when I arrived to hear they Jane had called them after I left to tell them I was on my way over. I told the agent in Longview what had happened at Kelso and he said he had never heard of what Jane had done happening anywhere else before.

My questions are:
Is the Postal Service in business to generate revenue?
Are the Postal Service supervisors trained to understand that 1 customer generating $200.00 to $300.00 in a half an hour is a positive thing?
And more generally, are Postal Supervisors trained to understand the first rule of business, “Protect Your Revenue”?

Company: U.S. Postal Service
Country: USA

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