There is a clerk at our small town local post office who apparently is doing her job by the letter of the law, so to speak.  Today I brought in a paperback that was in a yellow manila envelope and taped.  She went thru the entire spiel about hazardous materials, etc.  She then rattled off every choice available from overnight to first class.and the cost of each......apparently I upset her by pointing out the Media Mail stamp on the package

Then she asked if there were additional papers included in the package......I replied no......then she said.....You do KNOW that this package can be inspected?  MY reply was yes. 

It really was the manner and tone in which she asked me that I found very irritating.  The entire dialogue sounded robotic and then the way she mentioned about inspecting the package was interpreted by me as almost accusatory.

She is not a very friendly person and I have always felt over the years I have had the misfortune of having to deal with her.......  she really HATES her job.

The other workers there are very polite and pleasant to deal with and always go out of their way to help.

Enough of my ranting.

Sometimes you can get them to avoid the long discussion of options if you tell them up front, "I would like this package to go media mail, and I do not want any extra services"

Is it a counter situation where there are multiple employees working at the same time? If so, if she came open I would look at her and say "no thank you, I will wait for someone who doesn't mind helping me with my Media Mail packages, I know how annoyed you get when you have to deal with them." Makes it very clear to her and her co-workers that she is being rude to you.

She probably does hate her job. 

And on top of that, those window clerks in the POS (cash register system) offices are watched constantly to make sure they are folllowing their Myster Shopper scripts.  And those scripts include every single thing you mentioned, the HAZMAT questions, the starting with Express Mail and working their way down through the other classes, and ending up with asking you if you want to buy some tape or rent a post office box.  And there is hell to pay if they are MysteryShopped and don't get a 100% score.

But that's no excuse for taking it out on the customers.  There is a nice way to ask that stuff, and a not so nice way.

I frequently get the entire spiel from my USPS counter clerks . . . always with a smile and cheerful attitude 

Like Melanie said, wait for a different clerk.  You may also wish to consider calling the local postmaster and discussing how this employee makes you feel.

I totally understand what you mean. I've encounted a few of those. I've even driven 3 times the distance just to go to a different post office. I'm lucky right now to have a couple of nice ladies at the post office closer to my house.

I was told by a counter agent that HE knew books weren't hazardous, but if he failed to ask, and I were a mystery shopper,

he'd get reprimanded (written up).

Even if they know you are not the mystery shopper, a supervisor may be listening. There is no reason to be nasty or rude about all the "wonderful" questions, though.

Usually I only get this spiel when I'm mailing from a different post office then I normally do. After I sent a few packages from there they stop and let me run the show. Although, I'm trying to butter this one postal worker up. She can be nasty. I went to pick up the mail for where I work one day when someone didn't give me the key to go do it because it was locked in a desk drawer. Instead of saying, "i'm sorry but we're not allowed" she said loudly "I'm not suppose to hand mail over the counter. It's against the rules espcially when it's the wrong number!" Well excuse my mild case of dislexsia. I like working with my small town post office. Everyone's a lot nicer.

I'm so glad my post office only has one employee (the actual post master) and she never bothers with any of that stuff because she's known me for so long.

There has been a long history of postal workers with "attitudes" at this post office.  I blame the postmistress who  was the queen of rudeness.  Thankfully she retired.  Her replacement is very nice and there just remains the one clerk who still has the attitude.  The other gal who works there is an absolute pleasure to deal with.

There have been other issues we have had over the years during the reign of Queen Rude.  One time my husband called to inquire about mail delivery as it had not been delivered in several days due to a snowstorm.  He got a rude response....."we don't shovel out the mail boxes"  (we get our mail at the end of our street in a large cluster of boxes)  He explained he just wondered if he should come to the post office to pick up the mail.  When he went into pick up the mail the "Queen" was still sputtering about the call and he heard her say "That Smith guy is coming in......give him his mail and get rid of him" !!!!     My husband said to the clerk....."I am THAT SMITH GUY"   The clerk said " Would you like to speak to the post mistress and he said "yes, by all means".   I would have liked to have seen the look on her face.  He said she looked as if this is the last person I want to see right now.