Was this rude behavior at the post office? Or justified?

Question

The post office I use (closest to me) only has two registers. Today, on my day off, I go and have 18 packages to mail for E-bay. The post office is busy to begin with and I’m about 7 people deep in the line. So as I get closer, more people walk in and the line begins to extend out the door. Once I’m at the counter I heard a few people moaning and groaning about the line (basically me with all the packages) and one said “Yeah. He should go to the one down town instead of holding up this one”. I was not pleased at this remark… I turned around an said “You people want to talk about waiting?!?!?!?! I’m off today but I’m usually here on my lunch breaks waiting in line because of you BASTARDS (can’t stress how much I dragged the word B-A-S-T-A-R-D-S). I look at my watch and see my lunch break tick away because morons like yourselves take 5 minutes to decide what design stamp you want, take time to time to come in and say the mail man is late, ask why the mailman comes so late in the day & have a standard envolope weighed because you think it exceeds 39 cents!!!! Well today is my turn to make you BASTARDS wait!!!!!” Not a word – line was in shock. However, both cashiers were smiling and trying SO HARD not to laugh. To top it off, I took another 3-4 minutes to look at each stamp and ask questions about them.

Answer 1

You were rude.

First, the people who happened to be standing there were probably not the very same people who had caused you to wait. So you're attacking your fellow victims, who were just going about their legitimate business.

Second, waiting is a part of life. Everyone has the right to do their business with the post office. The real problem is that the office is under-manned -- that's not the fault of your fellow patrons.

You and the rude person who commented need to realize that we are all going to have to wait for those ahead of us to transact their business.

That's how it works.

Throwing fits doesn't change that.

Rudeness is still rude and unjustified.

(Maybe the people at the window were laughing at how childish you were.)

In the future, bring reading material to make the wait time pass.

Either ignore other people's rude comments, or fix them with a cold, hard stare.

Don't throw hissy fits.

And don't make the people in line behind you wait unnecessarily -- that's what you hate, isn't it? Why punish a room of people who've never harmed you in any way?

That's just mean.

Answer 2

OK first of all it is the Holidays and people know that because of this there are longer lines in the post office. Why don't they go to the grocery store and get their .39 cent stamps and mail their letters elsewhere? The reason the post office is open is to send off packages. I would of added that they were gifts for people in Iraq and really made them feel like crap!

Answer 3

I completely understand your outburst. I've worked customer service before, and I can also understand why the postal employees were trying so hard not to laugh (customer service jobs are SO thankless, and you probably voiced a lot of what frustrates them as well). No one is willing to wait themselves, but they are always willing to make others wait for them. It is a classic case of "turn the tables." As for your methods, well, the expletives probably closed the ears of the more prim folks in the crowd, but the more open-minded ones might have taken a lesson from it!

P.S. If you had 18 packages to mail for Ebay, did you use electronic postage? As long as you enter the proper zip code of the outgoing PO and have a postal scale at home, you can prepay all your postage and just hand the cashier the packages and be through almost immediately! (You can do this through the postal website or through Paypal.) Of course, if you have 18 packages to mail, you probably already know this!

Answer 4

Well I dont think I would call the names you did but I have been in thi position before and got really upset but gritted teeth and holding my tounge but I have to admit it was hard to do , I dont know why people act like that at a time like this , when you have to go when you do because of work . My daughter we have went to resturantes trying to get our food and get back and eat it before our lunch break was over and I and my daughter get so upset because we go in thinking we can get waited on quicker and they keep taking the food and fixing orders for the ones inside ofcourse and then people keep coming through the drive through and making us wait till we had so little time to eat we had to eat so fast we ended up with heart burn . I know what you are talking about . You are there for a reason or you wouldnt be there .

Answer 5

Haha, the people I've spoken to in airport security are all very straight-faced and impolite, but they're just doing their job and have to be strict. I imagine it must be an annoying job to have to try and understand lots of different accents, and whilst everyone is jetting off all over the world they're stuck sending them there. However the people in duty free always seem more than happy to try and sell you stuff... I've not really experienced this with post office workers.

Answer 6

A fine example of our modern society! Little dramas like this unfold every day in our local shops, or even on buses, where people get on, then fumble for some chanhe(after being at the bus stop for ages doing nothing) then think Mr. Driver wants to smile and chat, and talk about the lovely day, or why the last bus didn't arrive... etc.
Making the rest of us late!!! You showed that you are human :) Have a Happy Christmas!!!

Answer 7

BRAVO!
Kind of reminds me of the people who complain about those people who use debit cards for all purchases. It takes considerably less time to use a debit card at the store than to write a check or hunt around for the 82 cents in exact change.

Answer 8

I totally get why you were frustrated, but I think I'd cry if I was in a hurry and saw someone with 80 zillion boxes approaching one of only two cashiers. You had lots to do, had to wait, and use mail as your business. But imagining myself in that line...you must have been in line when the bus full of passive people got let off to do their mailings, because I would have told you to f-yourself.

Answer 9

I love it!! I worked in customer service for a major airline for 31 years.....Once I used a line to a particularly rude customer who said "I waited 30 minutes in this &%^$# line" -----was----"Wanna wait another 30?" LOL.

Answer 10

Rude, if it REALLY happened. But this sounds like the kind of thing you WISH you would have said, but really didn't! Something you thought of later as you were driving off in your car.