United States Postal Service — Local services in Islamorada

Apparently the employees at the Islamorada post office need a nap. Yesterday I had the extremely unpleasant experience of visiting the Islamorada, Florida post office to renew my two young children’s passports. Upon arrival at the post office, an employee met us in the front, and though he looked like he was just waking up from a nap, and did not seem to know that the website advertised walk-in appointments, he wasn’t unpleasant. He went in the back to get a woman to assist me. A woman appeared and I informed her that I was there to renew my young children’s passports. The woman snarkily responded that I cannot renew a child’s passport, then barked at me asking if I had the forms filled out. I supplied everything needed, along with both children’s passports. The woman then pulled out my son’s birth certificate and said that it wasn’t the original. I explained that the birth certificate was the one I received back from when I applied for his original passport, which was issued with no problem. Angry woman behind the counter then said, "She's a snippy one, isn't she?" Then another very disheveled man came out of the back and sneered at me, asking “Who sent that back to you?” as if I was a mentally deranged person. Then he proceeded to explain that they would have only sent me back what I had sent to them. I explained that when I applied for my son’s first passport, we were in California, and that is what the U.S. State Department sent back to the Los Angeles processing center. Let me remind you here- the birth certificate was perfectly acceptable for my son’s first passport application, and he has a passport issued based on this very same birth certificate. I then mentioned that I have worked for the U.S. government, so this is not my first rodeo, trying to lighten up the absurd situation in which I had suddenly found myself. The man then sneered angrily “If you know people in the State Department, then why don’t you just call them to renew it?” I could feel his pure disgust for me practically coming off of his skin. Meanwhile the miserable woman behind the counter commented sarcastically, “We all know people in high places, don’t we?”

Completely baffled by this intense bitterness that I had somehow triggered by simply applying to renew my children’s passports, I continued to hand over the paperwork needed to the angry woman, and she would then thrust the paperwork back at me and bark orders as to where to sign, rolling her eyes the entire time. My eleven-year-old son even noticed that she was rolling her eyes at me. Meanwhile, disheveled-management-guy skulked off to the back office again.

You would have thought I was a child trafficker, the way I was treated. Actually, they probably treat child traffickers and shady people better than they treated me and my family.

I went to the post office today to complete a bureaucratic paperwork exercise, of which I am very familiar. I did not deserve to be derided and disrespected. At the least, these two employees at the Islamorada, FL post office located at 82801 Overseas Highway, Islamorada, FL, perhaps need to take a class or two in customer service. As someone who has served my country, these postal service workers may need to learn what ‘service’ means. We all have bad days, but this was completely uncalled for. I can honestly say that I have never been treated so badly or with so much disrespect, disdain and disgust than I was at the Islamorada, FL post office. This is...

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