[Dx-qsl] Italian post office discounting IRCs?

[Alfred Laun]

On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 8:55 PM, G. E. Janssens - K5WW <k5ww at live.com> wrote:
>
> I guess I am very fortunate, dealing with this little post office in this little town. I know all three workers personally; but yes, I did have to train them myself, many years ago.

Fellow hams:

Erik has it right here.  Rule #1 in dealing with Post Office personnel
is "be nice".  Remember that they are human beings just like you and
me.  It isn't likely that they are deliberately giving you the wrong
answer, and the fact that they don't know the right answer is
embarrassing to them, which doesn't do a lot for their self-esteem, so
don't add fuel to the fire.

Like many working stiffs they have been undergoing a lot of stress
about their futures lately, what with Congress requiring that they
pre-fund their retirement program 10 or 20 years ahead, and then
Congress takes that money and spends it on current government
programs, leaving their retirement fund with a bunch of IOU's whose
future value is anybody's guess.  Without this requirement the Post
Office would be solvent even though first class mail volume is
dropping big-time thanks to the medium I am using right now.

Among other things training programs have been cut so they may not
have had as thorough instructions as previous generations of postal
workers have had.

As the manager of an ARRL regional bureau, I have to deal with the
personnel in the post office where the bureau's post office box is
located about a wide variety of problems since the volume of mail we
receive and generate is substantial.  ALWAYS deal with them as though
THEY are the experts and you are just trying to learn from them when
asking a question.   If you think they're wrong in the answer they
give, argue indirectly by innocently saying: "Gosh, somebody told me
that (such and such) was the way it's done.  I wonder why they told me
that.."

Think of your own job.  Nobody likes it when somebody comes in off the
street and acts like they know more about his job than he does when he
has been doing it for a number of years.

When the division managers are in the post office for "customer
appreciation day", turn the tables on them by asking why they aren't
holding a "postal clerk appreciation day" and lead them over to the
person in the office who has been most helpful to you.  That one pays
BIG dividends.

And a couple of boxes of chocolates around Christmas time never hurt anything.

73, Fred Laun, K3ZO
Manager
NCDXA/ARRL Third Call Area QSL Bureau