# Customers at the USPS. You're too stupid to be an idiot. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 7, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/customers-at-the-usps-youre-too-stupid-to-be-an-idiot/680787 "2014-02-07T20:53:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/customers-at-the-usps-youre-too-stupid-to-be-an-idiot/680787/41 "2014-11-05T04:51:08Z")
Idiots with technology, don’t even get me started on morons in front of the new Coca Cola soft drink dispenser. I at least understand the apprehension that comes with not sending your package correctly, fuck sticks stand in front of that new machine deciding a beverage for an eternity. “Pick a flavor and push the mother fucking button that says ‘push’ and move to the left asshole!” ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/customers-at-the-usps-youre-too-stupid-to-be-an-idiot/680787/42 "2014-11-05T05:04:37Z")
What I don’t understand is that not every single customer can be a senior citizen who last mailed a letter in 1986, how about a line for regular mailers who know wtf they are doing? ---
**Author:** ![Bouncer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9d8465/32.png) [@Bouncer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bouncer)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/customers-at-the-usps-youre-too-stupid-to-be-an-idiot/680787/43 "2014-11-05T07:22:18Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Idiots with technology, don’t even get me started on morons in front of the new Coca Cola soft drink dispenser. I at least understand the apprehension that comes with not sending your package correctly, fuck sticks stand in front of that new machine deciding a beverage for an eternity. > > “Pick a flavor and push the mother fucking button that says ‘push’ and move to the left asshole!” This is absolutely worthy of it’s own pitting. I saw one of the very first ones to be installed in the southeast US (in fact they asked me to try it for them to see if a human could work this thing) and I was all “Oh. Oh no. Oh we are ALL fucked now. You give a young kid 47 cola choices he is going to be there all fucking day making vanilla diet mocha-chino cherry-latte coke!” AND you want an 80 year old lady to operate this thing as well? Holy fuck they will simply stare at it until they drop dead right there in your fast food place! There will be dead old people and insane children running amok making unholy flavor combinations. Mark my words. It. Will. Not. End. Well. Regards, -Bouncer- PS: Post Office is post office. I do not go there without a couple snacks and some bottled water. Because it’s gonna be a minute. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/customers-at-the-usps-youre-too-stupid-to-be-an-idiot/680787/44 "2014-11-05T08:04:17Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > Is it POSSIBLE that our Post Office does something better than yours?? I certainly didn’t think it was possible. Can’t you buy stamps all over the place (e.g. at a drug store or grocery store) or do you have to go to the PO to get them? Yup. We can even order them online and have them mailed to us. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/customers-at-the-usps-youre-too-stupid-to-be-an-idiot/680787/45 "2014-11-05T11:27:15Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I think it’s a combination of slow reading and then not having thought out the process flow ahead of time. Well, yes – as stated in the OP, e.g.: > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Oh and you know that sticker on it that says they accept debit and credit cards and that card slot right there? You know you have to pay right? Then why do you fucking stare at the screen like it’s printing moonman language then sloooooooooooowly get your card out, blankly staring at the card slot like you’ve never seen anything like it before then realize that the rectangular thing in your hand might fit in there if you hold it sideways and that that will make those funny words on the small television go away. Pitting endorsed just for the “moonman language” line – apparently the same language, which looks just like English to me but apparently not to tourists, was used to print each of the thousands of “stand on the right, walk on the left” signs I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/customers-at-the-usps-youre-too-stupid-to-be-an-idiot/680787/46 "2014-11-05T14:55:26Z")
I really do think it’s a matter of some people reading REALLY slowly, and then having incomplete comprehension and having to actually ponder and mull over the options on the screen, combined with some sort of not quite rational concern about getting it wrong, and some degree of not really having thought out how to check their groceries out or having really observed the pro checkers at work. That’s it-I don’t think there’s anything else to it. So they read slow, then they think slow, and then they very deliberately choose the next option, and all this takes time. You see the exact thing at the grocery store- some dullard has a produce bag of 5 apples, and you get a pause, then they hit the produce button, then another pause while they read the sentence that says “Please place the item on the scale.”, and then they put their bag of apples on the scale. Then they look at the pictures and pick the one for apples. They pause again while they read the thing that tells them the price of all 5 apples by weight. Another pause while they read the part that tells them to put the apples in the grocery sack. They literally take 25 seconds to perform what you’d think would be a 5 second action, because all that reading and thinking is apparently taxing. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/customers-at-the-usps-youre-too-stupid-to-be-an-idiot/680787/47 "2014-11-05T15:14:09Z")
> [@grude](#): > > What I don’t understand is that not every single customer can be a senior citizen who last mailed a letter in 1986, how about a line for regular mailers who know wtf they are doing? Is that when they last sent a letter to the [Prussian Consulate in Siam by aeromail](http://wherestheoffbutton.tumblr.com/post/5027805776/mr-burns-yes-id-like-to-send-this-letter-to)? ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/customers-at-the-usps-youre-too-stupid-to-be-an-idiot/680787/48 "2014-11-05T18:07:40Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > Is it POSSIBLE that our Post Office does something better than yours?? I certainly didn’t think it was possible. Can’t you buy stamps all over the place (e.g. at a drug store or grocery store) or do you have to go to the PO to get them? I had to mail a package; the PO was on my route of my travels; _thought_ that would mean a time savings. I use about five stamps every three years, with most of them being used for mailing annual local income tax (if I don’t drop it off at the township building). I may be wrong, but I thought you needed to buy a whole book at a retail establishment. As infrequently as I use them, half the time I need to buy more because I forget where I stored the last two or three that I bought. :smack: **njtt** - Transaction ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/customers-at-the-usps-youre-too-stupid-to-be-an-idiot/680787/49 "2014-11-05T19:45:25Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > I had to go to the PO last week. I left with the understanding that they’re called Forever stamps because that’s how long you need to wait to get some. :mad: At least in my area, most supermarkets and drugstores sell stamps, so if you’re there anyway, much quicker to ask for stamps in one of those places than dealing with the post office. I’ve even heard of ATMS dispensing stamps (granted, you get fewer). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/customers-at-the-usps-youre-too-stupid-to-be-an-idiot/680787/50 "2014-11-05T21:17:18Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > I had to mail a package; the PO was on my route of my travels; _thought_ that would mean a time savings. > I use about five stamps every three years, with most of them being used for mailing annual local income tax (if I don’t drop it off at the township building). I may be wrong, but I thought you needed to buy a whole book at a retail establishment. As infrequently as I use them, half the time I need to buy more because I forget where I stored the last two or three that I bought. :smack: > **njtt** - Transaction OK - I take back my comment then. I’m just sufficiently PO’ed with our PO (:D) these days that I am immediately shocked at any possibility that anyone else’s could be worse. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/customers-at-the-usps-youre-too-stupid-to-be-an-idiot/680787/51 "2014-11-06T02:58:56Z")
We used to have a machine that would sell individual stamps, but those seem to have died out. Sometimes I think Post Offices are trying to become less efficient. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/customers-at-the-usps-youre-too-stupid-to-be-an-idiot/680787.md?page=2)