Ridiculous levels of inefficiency

Today I experienced something that made me (if only for a moment) re-think my opposition to privatization. I attempted to pick up my mail from the post office.

You see, I've been on vacation, so I had the post office hold my mail for me. And knowing that I have a pretty small mailbox and that my postman already has a disposition to mangle my magazines, bills and Netflix envelopes when he attempts to squash them into said very small mailbox, I elected to just pick up my two weeks of mail, instead of having it all delivered to me when I got back.

I did not realize when I made this decision to pick up my mail that it would take me nearly 3 hours, and trips to 4--yes 4--different post offices. I started with the post office nearest my house. (It seemed like a logical place for them to hold my mail.) They said they didn't hold mail there, and that I needed to go to the main office in West Oakland. When I arrived at the main office, they told me they didn't handle mail from my zip code and I needed to go to the Downtown Oakland office. After waiting in three separate lines at that office, I was told that they didn't handle my zip code either and that I should go back to the one in my neighborhood. When I pointed out that that was, in fact, where I had started out, the clerk looked confused, fumbled through two handbooks of postal regulations before she suggested--suggested, because very clearly she had no idea where my mail should have gone--that I try another, smaller post office in West Oakland.

Thankfully, after only 20 minutes of listening to one postal clerk patiently explain to a customer why they didn't sell 37 cent stamps anymore, I was able to explain my situation and finally get my mail. I know it's sacrilege, but I couldn't help but think that if Bill Gates or even Rupert Murdoch were running the US Postal Service, they probably would have known where my mail was and would have found it much much quicker. As it is, I'm thinking I'm gonna forgo holiday cards this year. I'd hate to stand in line for stamps only to find out that they don't actually sell them at that branch.