I had an infuriating run-in with the Post Office Wednesday.

If I’m paying any bills by mail, that’s going to change.  Their lack of customer service makes me want to stop sending Christmas cards.

I had to go by to submit my passport paperwork. I went to the one on Clemson Road, past the mall at Sandhills .

I get there at 12:15. I wait in line to get to the main desk. It’s 12:25 when I’m told, “oh, you need to wait here at this desk – he’ll be back soon from break. Since no one’s there you’ll be first.” There was no sign on the desk when he’d be back. Since I was told he’d be back soon, I thought, soon.

I waited (with a growing line behind me) until 1 p.m.

Then the clerk comes in, sits on his stool, stares at my specially done photos from Sears, and tells me oh, they won’t work. I get just a tad upset. He says – what’s wrong, you seem to have an attitude.

His exact words.

I let him know I’d been waiting for 40 minutes – there was no sign, no indication when he was coming back. The jerk tells me there was a sign. I said there’s no sign here! He told me he’d told everyone in line THEN. I was practically speechless. I wasn’t in line then. I calmed down enough to get the process done (all the while mentally composing letters to his boss).

I’m still stewing. I swear, if Strom Thurmond were alive I would storm his legendary constituent service office and beg them to find a way to get this guy fired.

But you know what just slays me about the whole experience?  That I actually thought: “hey, there’s a passport facility near my office: I won’t have to go downtown!”

I thought it was a good thing. I was happy about the possibility of getting it all done during a long lunch break.

Ha. Ah, the irony. Me thinking a local post office branch, conveniently located to my work, would be convenient.