Sometimes you just have to laugh, rather than cry, when a customer interaction doesn’t go as planned. This was the case last month when trying to renew my daughter’s passport. But just because you laugh doesn’t mean it’s funny.
An in-person appointment is necessary for all passport processing for children and I conveniently made a reservation through the US Postal Service for a Saturday appointment. Because of the backlog from the pandemic and an increased desire for international travel, the soonest appointment was a month away.
With all of our necessary paperwork in tow, our entire family (both parents are required) headed over in the rain and were met with a bright orange sign on the door.
“Sorry for the inconvenience all passport appointments are cancelled for today.”
What!?!
We had just received an email confirmation from USPS that morning confirming our appointment. We had altered our weekend plans around this one appointment. Who even knew when the next available appointment time slot would be.
I sent my husband and daughter back to the car and I decided to venture inside and get some answers.
Glad I did!
Once inside, additional orange signs were scattered around the post office. When I engaged one of the postal workers in a conversation, I found out the most astonishing admission.
There is NEVER a passport agent on Saturdays at this location (due to staffing shortages) and every Saturday they go through the same routine of taping up all these signs.
What!?!
When I asked why USPS.com wasn’t aware of this critical piece of information and continues to confirm Saturday appointments, I was told that they can’t figure out how to update the system to reflect the change. I was advised when I rebook to NOT select this location if choosing another Saturday.
I exited the post office dumb founded and livid but my first response was to laugh.
I was mad at the system, not at the employee.
But I’m sure this employee took the brunt of people’s frustration multiple times each Saturday.
She had the impossible task of empathizing with inconvenienced customers every 15 minutes when they showed up for their passport appointments.
Of course she wished she could do something about the disconnect between their location and the online system.
Of course she wished she could step in and help us renew our daughter’s passport.
Of course she wished she could get us another appointment slot same day just down the street.
The reality was she held no power except to politely confirm that she couldn’t help me and to direct me back to usps.com to reschedule.
We ended up finding a Saturday time slot a few weeks later at a different location and it was a very efficient and pleasant experience.
Unfortunately, for this employee, there was no other location.