USPS Fail: Bellevue Post Office Bait & Switch: a Review
Last week, I went to the Bellevue Post Office in Nashville, TN. It had been a long time since I had done business there due to the numerous times they have dropped the ball in the past (see links below). However, I needed to mail a package and hopefully start a business back up. My hope was that in the few years since I last visited, their service had improved. I had to get a sealed package measured and weighed, so I could let a new customer know how much postage would be. When I got his check a few days later, I returned to the same Bellevue PO with the same package and the same contents and was ready to pay $26.25 for Ground.
This time, a rude man waited on me. He measured and weighed the package and gave me the same price, but said I would have to pay more because I had used a priority label. I asked him to hand back the package and said I would return without the priority label.
However, when I returned, the same rude man measured and weighed my package told me it would cost $63.65 to mail the same box and contents to the same location at Ground rates—a price jump of almost $40!
I asked to speak to a manager and a guy came out who said he was the “back end manager.” He wasn’t familiar with prices or policies at the “front end.” He laughed and said I should have mailed my package Priority since it was “cheaper.” I tried to explain the problem with that thinking, but he didn’t seem to get it, so he took my box and weighed it again, and in less than 5 minutes, the price shot up from $63.65 to $73.00!
The “back-end” manager couldn’t explain it and didn’t seem to care I was in tears by the time I left. I had told my customer in good faith that the package would cost $26.25 to ship, and now the Bellevue Post Office in Nashville wanted to charge me almost $50 more
I immediately drove to the Belle Meade PO and asked them to measure and weigh my box, and they gave me a price of $40.
Something is terribly wrong with how the Post Office does business. In less than one week, my package was weight 4 different times with 4 different prices. In less then 5 minutes, it jumped up $10 at the same Post office 15 minutes later, it dropped substantially by going to a different PO.
I reported it to the toll free USPS line. I spoke to an agent at length about the issue. The next day, a manager called me back and we also spoke at some length. No one has been able to give me any feedback on the unpredictable, erratic, bouncing postage prices that TRIPLED, skyrocketing from $26 to $73 in under a week.
My father worked at the Post Office as did his father before him, so I am predisposed to appreciate postal workers. However, this is a TERRIBLE way to do business. It is unacceptable. Why can customers not depend on getting stable pricing from their local PO in the price of shipping a package??? This is like a bait and switch scam.
If all post offices are as unstable and unpredictable with their pricing as the Bellevue Post Office in Nashville, and have as inefficient clerks and manager, why does anyone do business with the USPS anymore?
UPS, here I come.
BELLEVUE POST OFFICE REVIEW
On a scale of 1-5, the Bellevue Post Office earns the first zero I have ever given on any of my review
Bellevue Post Office Score - 0 stars
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