Customer Cervix, can we help you?

Just gotta take a sec to say that the customer service department at Bank of America is FAR superior to that of the US Post Office (no link here). FAR. Just got off the phone with the B of A peeps, and they were downright delicious to talk to. Just delightful. The woman asked me what my birthday was as part of the security check-in thingy, and when I told her, she said, 'Happy belated birthday!' Well, that was nice.

In comparison, I had a run-in with the Post Office's Customer Disservice department a while back. Here's an email I wrote about it to someone who actually seemed to care -

"Something happened this week that I thought I should bring to your attention. I applied for a part-time job at the post office a while back, and recently I got some info in the mail for a callback. I had to confirm it with a phone call back to the post office, so this past Wednesday, I did just that. When I made the call, however, the people at the HR department that answered my call were incredibly rude to me in regards to my speech.


When I first called, I got passed around from person to person until I ended up with a telephone operator named Diana. While talking to her, I could barely get a word in edge-wise, as she was constantly trying to second-guess me on what I was about to say. I’m used to this happening with most people I talk to, but in her case, it was with each and every word I tried to say. I was trying to give her my license number and phone number, but every time I started saying a number, she’d attempt to say it for me. ‘SEVEN? FOUR? M?’ It was ridiculous. I felt completely humiliated and embarrassed to a level I hadn’t felt in a long time.


About halfway through this attempt at a conversation, I heard some people laughing in the background, and it honestly felt like they could hear me, like I was on speakerphone or something. I heard Diana say to someone, ‘I’m gonna kill you for this one,’ probably to the first person I talked to. I’m assuming she meant, ‘I’m gonna kill you for passing this call on to me.’ I listened to the laughing for a bit, then said, ‘Is there something funny?’ Then, I swear I heard her say to her co-workers, ‘He said, Is there something funny.’ She was honestly making fun of me while I was right there listening to her on the phone. I said, ‘I’m just trying to give you my information, and I really don’t need to be laughed at.’ She totally ignored me and went on collecting my information. I gave it to her, then started to ask her for her name and info. Didn’t last much longer than that.


I mentioned this to a friend of mine, and she couldn’t believe it. She contacted a rep from the National Stuttering Association who is looking into how to file a formal complaint with the people I spoke to. The rep from the NSA was in total disbelief at the entire situation, and told my friend that if I had a speech therapist or representative of some sort, that I should contact them immediately. She also mentioned that it would be a good idea for my therapist or representative to contact the people in the HR department at the Post Office so that they could explain the situation a little more in depth. I found this to be a good idea, which is why I am contacting you about it. I fully intend to pursue this matter as far as I can, as I’m sure I’m not the only person in the world that has had to deal with this kind of harassment while doing little more than pursuing an employment opportunity. To put it bluntly, those people haven’t heard the end of it from me.


I don’t mean to hit you over the head with it, but this is exactly the kind of behavior and harassment I have had to deal with in the job market for as long as I can remember. I can understand a certain level of discomfort and unfamiliarity from people when they hear me speak for the first time, but this was sheer harassment and ridicule. There’s really not much else I can say about it. It’s not like I was applying for some job at 7-11 or something, either; this was the United States Post Office, for crying out loud. How many more people with my level of impediment (or worse) have had to deal with this kind of insensitivity? There was no option on the application I received for a TTY number, and the people in the HR department obviously had no experience in dealing with people with serious speech impediments or disabilities of any kind.


I have an appointment for a pre-orientation for the position this coming Tuesday, so if there is any way you could contact the HR department before that, I’d appreciate it. The person I spoke to was named Diana, and her supervisor’s name is Donna. The number I reached them at is 732-819-3824. Hopefully, the names that they gave me are correct."