Today I went to the post office to get some postcards hand-stamped with a fukei-in stamp (scenic stamp in Japanese), and the lady at the counter went over and beyond to make sure that I was getting the stamps exactly where I wanted them (she marked the areas off with little post-it notes - gotta love Japan!).
This reminded me of another heartwarming post office experience, many years ago in Siem Reap, Cambodia, when I asked the clerk if she had any interesting stamps for me to put on my postcards. Her eyes lit up and she excused herself momentarily before coming back with a fairly large box of unhinged stamps. She dumped the box on the counter and we spent the next 15-20 minutes looking for the most interesting stamps we could find. She was more excited by this than I was! We had quite a pile by the end but then it was easier for me to narrow down the stamps that I actually wanted to get. It was such a unique experience I’ll never forget it (or her!).
So what has been your favourite post office experience?
These sound so nice! I’ve been quite awkward to ask in the past, so I haven’t. But the other day I overcame my anxiety and asked for special issue stamps in a larger post office near where I live! I still got a bit overwhelmed, I didn’t realise she was showing me the stamps in denomination order rather then issue and so I bought some pretty awkward stamp values, but I’m still glad I did it. I’m learning about all of the things post offices can do to me and I’m excited to get some more experience in asking so I don’t feel like I’m making a fool of myself haha.
When I visit my local post office, I try to get served by my favourite clerk. I will sometimes ask her to flip through the stamp book to see if there are any interesting stamps to get
Other than that, I visit the General Post Office. Clerks there are always ever so nice and helpful when I buy stamps - especially when I ask for the older stamps and they have to search for it.
Greetings to all! In my post office, I like the “electronic” queue, which I order for my free time while at home at the computer. At my appointed time, I am served out of turn. At this time, all my questions are being calmly resolved.
Oh my post office is lovely - the ladies who work there love my stamps! And I love the ladies so much. We always gossip about our lives when I send parcels. They never cancel the stamps (some people who receive parcels may well be upset about that fact!) which I think is funny, considering the value of them is far higher than a letter that will almost always get a cancel (or a biro!)
I had a great experience with a lost package at the place I recently moved to in November. A package was misdelivered and never showed up to my doorstep. When I went to the post office the postmaster talked to me directly, and gave me his number and email! He ended up writing an official letter about the lost package which I gave to the place I ordered from, and I got a replacement. It was something I hadn’t had happen before with lost packages!
this morning, i had a great experience at my local post office~ in a previous thread about stories about mail carriers, i mentioned that one of my favourite postal clerks was moving post offices; …three months later, she transferred back! today, she surprised me by giving me some bermudian stamps (mint and gummed) that she recently rediscovered in her house. she said she thought of me because she knows i like to collect and use fun stamps on the postcards that i send. she also showed me a vintage marian anderson first date of issue for another customer who collects stamps related to black history. omg she literally the sweetest woman i have ever met
I recently set up a new PO Box at a nearby post office. The lady helping me went to retrieve a ring of box keys and quietly handed them all to me. She gave me a sheepish look and asked if I could remove two keys for my box. She then held up her hands to show me her newly painted nails. I don’t know why, but it just felt like an incredibly human moment. Maybe I found her predicament relatable, ha! We started chatting after that, and joking about the box being on the top row (I’m short). Since then, whenever I visit my PO Box, I’ve had friendly interactions with clerks and other customers. That post office has some great energy!
So today I went back to Kyoto Central Post Office to get some scenic stamps on my Gotochi cards, and I had the same lady as before. In fact, the teller asked her to stamp my cards because she’s the best at it. Unlike last time, I actually got to see her stamp the cards (since they were not to be mailed directly) and was astonished to see a huge pot for the red ink that’s used to make these stamps. If you’ve ever been to NE Asia you’re probably familiar with red ink pads since we use them for so many things here, but this was a pot that probably weighed at least a couple of kilos!
I was also there to pick up some more Gotochi cards, but to my dismay, they only had one design left - Kyoto vegetables - which I guess is very telling that it’s probably the least popular card of the Kyoto series. But I bought them anyway and got 2 mini cards (instead of the usual 1) and when I was said I was sad they were missing a certain card that I did not have, they gave me the mini card for that one too! I guess the next time I go I’ll have to ask them for their names, as the ladies there are so lovely and I think have cottoned-on to the fact that I spend a lot of time in their postcards section.
Photo of today’s mini-card haul, with regular Gotochi card for size reference
Edit: While I was at the post office, several (Japanese) people came to the postcard section and were disappointed to find out that only the vegetables card was left as they were hoping to buy the maiko card. When I asked the tellers about it, they said the Gotochi cards were really popular and that they were waiting for the next shipment to re-stock the shelves.
I live in a very rural town of 1200 people, and everyone has a PO Box and knows the postie very well. Well, he was moving on from his job and training the new person, and when I came in, he said to the new postie: “you will see this yourself, but Clarisse gets and sends postcards all over the world! It is the coolest thing!” It made me smile.
The weather is superb today (sunny, not too hot), so I decided to cycle all the way up to Santa’s main post office. (It is uphill most of the way, so it is very good exercise). Of course I bought cards and stamps while I was there and had two mail-elves to serve me. One asked if I was buying cards for Xmas. When I told I am a postcrosser, the other one declared: “Postcrossers are fun! Saying that as a former mail carrier.” And then I was given a big bunch of stickers for free (because there were also priority-stickers on those sheets). So friendly of them!
My best post office experience is in the post office of Jiangsu University. The staff there are my good friends - because I often send international postcards, they are very impressed with me. One of the employees is able to clearly stamp the postmark on the postcard, which made me very happy. I praised him on the customer service hotline yesterday.
Last year when I went to the local post office to buy some stamps, the postal clerk saw that I was very young ( I was like 15), and was very curious as not many people my age were interested in such things. I told her that I like to collect stamps as well as write postcards, and in the end, she gave me a envelope and a stamp that were for commemoration for Singapore’s late prime minister, for free!
I’m so jealous! That’s gotta be one of the coolest post offices to live near. I love all things Santa related so the next time I go to Finland I will definitely be making my way up north!
I don’t go to the post office very often because I usually buy the stamps online, but when I go the people working there are usually curious about potscrossing and we have a small chat about the countries I’m sending the postcards to. It’s very nice
This may be off topic but this thread reminded me of something I forgot long ago. It was not the best Postal experience and I won’t say it was the worst because I am thinking I did something wrong as a clueless foreigner. I visited Japan in the 1990’s and wrote a few pen pal letters on the nonstop flight from JFK to Narita Airport. I saw a post office and couldn’t believe my luck AND I thought they would be understanding of foreigners considering the location. I queue up and when it is my turn the clerk just stared at me and my letters and without a word turned her back on me to wait on the next customer. I queue up again and seeing I wasn’t leaving she finally waited on me albeit with a surly attitude which the other customers did not get. There was no other clerk on duty. Did I do something wrong? Maybe I should not have smiled when it was my turn the first time ( I heard it is against custom in some countries)? Or some other cultural faux pas? Can anyone from Japan please clue me in ? Thanks!
I always have great experiences at the post office in Brazil. I know it’s not like that with everyone, so I guess I’m lucky. I’ve made friends with the clerks at the post office near my house and I don’t have to stand in line to deliver my stamped postcards. As they are used to me, normally they don’t even check if the value of the stamps is correct anymore. When the post office is empty, I spend time talking to them.
At the moment, I’m visiting another Brazilian state and I went to the central post office here. The clerk was very friendly, he showed me stamps that had just arrived and that hadn’t even been released by the Brazilian postal service yet. In the end, he put my purchases in a beautiful letter-shaped bag and gave me a rare R$ 0.01 sheet of stamps as a gift.
