The Malakhovka postal workers turn hostile at the nine-minute mark. Caution: Bad language. 18+
As a YouTube video showing post office workers attacking a customer with obscenities and a broom went viral, Russian Post has released recommendations to its staff on how to deal with customers who bring cameras to post offices.
Blogger Dmitry Ternovsky posted the document, explaining that he got it from Russian Post customers who were presented with it after trying to film poor customer service at their local post offices.
The document says that post office staff should immediately report to their supervisor once they see a customer filming in their office.
The supervisor must then ask the customer whether he has permission to film because he might otherwise breach the privacy of other customers' correspondence.
If a customer fails to present a permission slip, the supervisor must "politely" ask him to stop filming. During negotiations the supervisor should stand close to the camera in order to obstruct it from filming.
The document does not specify what post office's staff should do in case a customer refuses to comply with their orders.
Many bloggers, however, have pointed out that Russian Post is a public institution and therefore filming in its offices cannot be forbidden.
The document emerged after a video was posted on YouTube in mid-March went viral, with more than a half a million views by Friday. The video, filmed last year, shows how the all-female post office staff lose their patience with a male customer and throw him out of the office in the Moscow region town of Malakhovka. The supervisor also flings a broom at him and threatens him with obscene language.
The man explains in the 12-minute video that he was trying to register a foreign visitor and the incident started when postal workers demanded that he present a color copy of a document, rather than the black-and-white one that he offered.
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