Unbelievable Treatment of Passport Customers At Portland, Oregon Post Office

With revenues declining within the postal service one would think that customer service would be one of our most prized asset. Why then would a customer service retail supervisor send passport customers 2 to 5 blocks away to make copies of their ID? Why would this supervisor instruct the employees to tell a wheelchair-bound passport customer that he must leave to go make copies of his ID? Why instruct the window clerks to refuse to make copies of this customer’s ID? There is no rule. It appears that it stems from the sake of being right just to be right for this supervisor.

Not only was this horrible and thoughtless act done in public view, but most importantly the customer was humiliated. This behavior shows the lack of respect, dignity and humanity some supervisors have toward not only to our employees, but to the customers as well. The grievance procedure cannot resolve this as there is no contract violation in a supervisor’s lack of judgment or sensitivity. However I would appreciate knowing of these types of situations when they occur.

Our elected Congressmen and Senators may be able to deal with situations that border on inhumane behavior. Please let me know.

Patty Olson/ Legislative Director
APWU Portland OR Area Local |Poker Magazine

23 thoughts on “Unbelievable Treatment of Passport Customers At Portland, Oregon Post Office

  1. moral in the po is not at a low, it is zero!
    politics is the name of the game and nothing else.
    loyalty is dead in this millennium in the dead beat job market.

  2. This type of thing seems to happen more and more unfortunately. Our Post Master happens to not like Hispanic women that can’t speak English. I have seen more of these women than I can count leave our office crying, or in tears. To make matters worse when a complaint does get filed he cries “language barrier”. This is the type of thing that we should be avoiding at all costs.

  3. I pride myself and our office. Clerks, carriers, and mgmt. They all go the distance to help customers and infact we help customers from other offices. The only problem that we have is the one city carrier we have in our office. He has been on limited duty since I have worked here, 14 plus yrs. Those are the ones that should be fired. Give someone else a job…………. Come on people, be nice and stop complaining cause remember when u point the finger u have tree pointing back at u.

  4. I’m the passport clerk in my office. I have no problem making copies of the applicant’s IDs for them. I just want to finish their applications and start in on the next applicant- I almost always have a passport line, as we are a “walk in -no appointment” office. What annoys me about my manager is when he makes me hold up the passport line and go serve the window customers to help get the line down. Passport customers are just as important as people buying stamps and mailing parcels, and we make more revenue on passports than on most window transactions. But at least he’s not rude to the customers like the supervisor in the article. I’m sure the people at Passport Services wouldn’t appreciate the passport applicants being treated with disrespect.

  5. These people are everywhere in the PO………..The carrier that won’t get out of his truck to pick up outgoing mail just because he has no mail for that house. Is that customer service? Or the clerk that plods along as if he/she has something stuck up their ass. McDonalds would fire them! Or Supervisors……see above. Just doing something as a courtesy in the PO is an almost impossible thing to expect from people like this and unfortunately they are everywhere in the PO.

  6. We run an office of 4 clerks , 1 of which is a pp clerk. When then pp clerk is on vacation, no pps get done because that job is seen as a disposable job. Bring back the SERVICE to the Postal Service… Keep a clerk in a job!!!

  7. -It’s roght on the application –

    GUESS WHAT? WE DO PAY THE POSTAGE TO MAIL A ROUTINE PASSPORT!

    In my office, I make the copies and charge the customer the 30 cents it cost to make it in the machine. What is the problem? They don’t have a problem paying for the SERVICE! Oh I forgot…we don’t do service anymore.

    In our branches all over this city, the managers are blocking out times so that the customers cannot make appts for passports. I don’t understand. Why don’t they understand that this represents REVENUE!

    We are constantly getting memos from “Retail” telling us how to raise revenue by passports and PO Boxes but mgmt blocks out passport appt times and abuses box customers by making the mail late .

    This organization has 2 different worlds. The trenches where mgmt only cares about the carriers getting out and back by 5 and the ivory tower, the only place where the “perfect PO” exists. In the trenches, the customers are the LAST thing on mgmts mind (until we get a bad “customer experience”.

  8. That is just like the post office. I know a man named don that works at the post office as a janitor makes 28.00 an hour but still feels the need to bring things home from the post office. Boxes of garbage bags as if they owe him something. Making that much you would think he makes enough to buy his own garbage bags.

  9. MUST HAVE BEEN SOME SUPERVISOR/MANAGER’S RELATIVE. GET RID OF NEPOTISM AT THE P.O. AND THINGS WOULD GREATLY IMPROVE!

  10. Customers need to read. The Post Office does not make copies. What next, you want the Post Office to pay the postage to mail it too?

  11. “Mike” above sounds like the a-hole scab that I used to have to work with who is now most likely doing passport acceptance at my old stomp.

    I pointed out he is a SCAB because it perfectly punctuates his mentality as shown from his “directly cut and pasted” comments above. “Me, me, me!”

    Yes, yes, the online instructions say come with a copy. And EVERYONE goes online before ?? And… the instructions the USPS sent to it’s employees when the requirement first started was to make the copies if you could.

    Personally, I hope “Mike” is in a situation where he could use the ‘hand UP’ from someone who TURNS HIS BACK ON MIKE! And that scum STUPIDVISOR should get a flat tire DAILY!

  12. Sounding like management is trying their best to sink the Postal Service. They are making an *ss of themselves, because they will be out of a job as well. Problem is, they are taking all of us down with them. Time for us ( craft ) to take over before they screw us over.

  13. At Harvest Station in Irvine, Ca.the window supervisor had the passport office moved to an entirely different part of the post office. Now the customers have to go around to the side of the building for passports. When it’s time to pay, they have to go back to the window and get a number to be called up. Then, they have to take the receipt back to the passport entrance to show that they have paid.
    It was so much easier when the office was just off of the front lobby. When it came time to pay, the passport clerk would walk the customer up to an open window.
    The station manager and window supervisor despise the passport clerk, and they have done all of this just to get to her. In Irvine, carrying out a personal vendetta is more important than customer service.

  14. Directly cut and pasted from the Passport (Dept. of State) website.

    5.Submit a Photocopy of the Identification Document(s) Presented (Step 4)

    Bring a photocopy of the front and back of each ID document that you will present when you apply.

    * Photocopy must be on plain white, 8 1/2 x 11″ standard paper stock, showing the front and the back of your ID
    * Photocopy must contain images on only one-side of each page submitted.
    o If copies cannot be made on the same side of one page, you may present two separate pages; one displaying the front of the ID and the second displaying the back of the ID.
    * The paper should be free of other images and/or markings.
    * The 8 1/2 x 11″ paper size cannot be substituted with a larger or smaller size paper, even if the alternative folds down to the 8 1/2 x 11″ size.
    * You may enlarge the image of your ID on the 8 1/2 x 11″ page, but you may not decrease the size of the image.

    Case and point! In other words- Know before you go!
    FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES! DON’T EXPECT SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT FOR YOU” It’s that simple.

  15. Supervisor fired? He will be promoted first and given a pat on the back . I will forever keep asking myself where do they find these scumbags ? But as long as they are reproducing there is no chance for the good guy to win !

  16. A culture of hostility of management towards the workers has been fostered over a very long period of time. Eventually the person in management loses the ability to “turn it off” even out in the real world – and this story is a shining example of it….

  17. This is the kind of treatment employees receive and worst, because, Managers, are not selected on qualification. Nepotism reign in the Postal System. Most of the Managers are ex-military, so they supervisor as if they are still in the military, no humanitarianism, all displine. There are a FEW exceptions.

  18. this is what happens when an ass wipe ass kisser is made supervisor over the person that should be promoted

  19. These Stupidvisors think they can do whatever they want! Why do they never have to answer for things like this. In my office the managers treat the customers as bad as the employees!

  20. The supervisor should be fired. The PMG needs to start cleaning up the mess before it is too late.

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