She Should Direct The Blame Where She Directs Her Letters

A woman comes in with a letter. It has an address and a used, voided stamp on it.

Customer: “I brought this letter to you yesterday to send to [Company]! You said you could do that! Now this morning it was in my mailbox!”

I look at the letter and notice that it is addressed to a house just around the corner from the post office, as well as to a woman’s name instead of a company.

Me: “I’m sorry, but is this your address?”

Customer: “Yes, it is! Why?”

Me: “That explains why the letter came back to you. It is addressed to you, not to [Company].”

Customer: “So? I told you where it needed to go! You said you could do that!”

We are in a small town where customers often make small talk while posting their letters, so I didn’t pay much attention yesterday when she told me where she wanted the letter to go.

Me: “I’m sorry, but you still need to put the address on the letter yourself. It is not my job to do that. We can only accept the letter, sell you the stamp, and send it to the address that’s on it.”

Customer: “But I don’t know the address!”

Me: “Neither do I. I’m sorry, but I can’t help you here. You need to come back when you have found out the address, and then I can send the letter again for you.”

Customer: “So can I have a refund for the stamp?”

Me: “No, I’m sorry. We don’t give refunds for stamps, and besides, you have already used this one.”

Customer: “So I’ll have to buy another stamp when I come back?”

Me: “Yes, I’m afraid you will.”

Customer: “I want to speak to [My Manager]!”

As I said, it’s a small town; most customers know my manager by name, but I haven’t worked here for very long, so I’m still the “new girl.” But that doesn’t mean I have to put up with people trying to blame me for their mistakes.

Me: “Sorry, she’s not here today. But I assure you that she would tell you the same as I did.”

A line has formed behind the woman and I am getting impatient.

Customer: “This is unbelievable! Why didn’t you tell me yesterday? You saw the letter!”

Me: “Look, it is not my job to read every address of every letter that goes over this counter. Actually, it’s none of my business where you send your post, so I usually only look at the country, because that’s the only thing that changes anything about how much I need to charge.”

Customer: “So I’ll have to pay twice to send this one letter. Interesting. [My Manager] will hear of it!” *Storms off*