Stupidity on Parade

So, I'm moving at the end of the month and I put in a change of address request with the post office a week ago. My mail was not to start being forwarded until 11/18. Unfortunately, my mailman decided I'd already moved because I neglected to get the mail from my box one day. And when he saw the mail from the day before still sitting there, he assumed I'd moved and took it to be forwarded to the new address.  Idiot. Why even bother putting a start date on your mail request if the mailman is going to ignore it? So if I don't get the mail out of my box one day, it's automatically assumed that I'm gone? I could see if mail piled up for a week, but one day? I had to go to the always reliable (sarcasm) Kensington post office this morning and talk to the mailman and another postal employee. I was assured my mail would continue to be delivered now until the 18th, but no one was able to give me the mail that was taken from my box yesterday. I wish I had just grabbed it when I saw it, but I was on my way out to work and just figured I'd pull it when I got home.

The post office wonders why it loses money each year. Yes, people are mailing less due to e-mail and other forms of electronic correspondence, but the service at the post office is often awful. The employees are rarely helpful, the staffing is insufficient, and their methods are just outdated. For example, the post office opened this morning at 9:00. I got there about 9:10 and there were already about seven people in line ahead of me. There was one window open for service.  One!  Eventually, I guess around 9:30, another woman came out and opened up, but by then the line was almost to the door. This is not a good way to maintain customers. No wonder people go to Fed Ex or UPS to mail things.  Even if they cost more, I suspect you get better service there and that's worth the few extra dollars.