About three weeks ago, I received an email from Angie (Home Grown, in my blogroll) asking if I had received anything in the mail from her recently. I told her that I had not, and she said that she had sent cards for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine's Day.
I suddenly realized what might have happened: In October, I closed the business Post Office box I had for 25 years, and asked that the mail be forwarded to my home.The clerk explained that only First-Class Mail would be forwarded, but that it would be sent for a period of six months. Until I heard from Angie, I assumed that I had received all the First Class mail from the P.O. box, even though I had only gotten 5-6 pieces since the first of November. I had sent change-of -address forms to everyone I knew (or could remember) had the P.O. Box address.
So, armed with the information from Angie, I went to the P.O. about 12 days ago. I was told that all first class mail had been forwarded, and they could prove it because "they have a system by which they can track it." I was shown a sheet of paper with about 14 yellow stickers; copies of the forwarding stickers that are put on your mail (with your new address). Supposedly that was the way they could tell I had gotten everything. But the woman I spoke to agreed to check into it as soon as the person who is responsible for "stuffing" the boxes came to work. That was two weeks ago. Guess what came in the mail today?
I received two cards from Angie, one from Poopie (Poop Happens, in my blogroll), one from a cousin and two invoices that were due in December. This is all First Class Mail! It should have been delivered no later than a week after they received it! Four of those letters were mailed to me in mid-December.
The Postmaster will hear from me, along with the local supervisor, and if I don't get a satisfactory response from either of them, the newspaper and the television news are next on my list! At least one of my readers is a former P.O. employee. Care to hazard a guess about this, Eddie (Chicken Fat, in my blogroll)?
23 comments:
I have been there, Judy! I travel a lot in my business, and I now use the UPS system exclusively.
Send your letter to the Postmaster via Fedex or UPS, or it might not get through.
What can I say (trimming my fingernails and looking down)? If it was done all by optic scanning there would be less errors - less human contact the less errors, because unfortunately humans are human.
Although the system does forward most first class mail, it is a computerized thing called "Markup" there are glitches in the system.
I have had a PO box for 7 years now because my "high" neighbor Bob backed over it, ran it over, my street mailbox five or six times. I thought it would be less of a hassel to just get a PO box. However, realizing humans are human that are subject to errors and also subject to give good service to those that tip, at Christmas I tip the po box clerk and the carrier that would be delivering my mail, if I had a po box. In turn, the carrier and the clerk always see that I get all mail, even the ones using my street address.
But that is they work in harmony as long as they are both there - they have off days and the substitutes who do their job are subject to make more errors, simply because the don't know all the tricks ans short cuts.
I hope I wiggled out of your question good enough.
Thanks for the detailed answer, Eddie. I assumed it was something like that, but I must say that people should DO their jobs without expecting a tip. It never occurred to me to tip the person who stuffs the boxes at the P.O., and I have never known anyone who did.
Judy, you had your pobox for 25 years, so they know you... this shouldn't have happened... so sorry about this inconvenience. When I moved (within the US, nearby town) I came from time to time to the post-office and the guy who worked there was sooo nice, he had a pack of letters for me all the time, but that was when computers were not around. :-)
I can understand why you are mad, the post office has to be reliable, these events are not acceptable at all!!!
Don't get everyone started on the post office. Vicki has a post office that seems to deliver only when they feel like it.
I guess one luxury of a very small town like we lived in is that people start to know you. More than once I had FedEx and UPS call to see if I wanted a package delivered to my work instead of the house since they knew I would be at work all day. Yes, addressed to my house but they did deliver it to work for me.
And the airport where they called the plane back to the gate for us and changed our connecting tickets because of a flight delay. No longer.
Had a PO Box for years...a really big one...there were a few problems but our Post Master would throw out all of the crud mail we got...but a few times that included bills. OOps. I give my rural mail carrier a Wally World gift card every Christmas. If her job was the last one on earth and I needed it, wouldn't apply...she really does go through snow, rain, hail and bullets to deliver the mail.
Since I'm in a small town, the FedEx & UPS guys are great about dropping off packages at the office instead of my house. And the post office used to be great about getting mail to me even if it wasn't the right address. But we have a new postmaster and she's all about "the rules". No exceptions are made, and when I moved, I had nothing but trouble. Six blocks from my old house, and they had to ship it all clear to Denver and back for a yellow sticker before they would give it to me.
The Post Office is about two steps down from DMV if you ask me (Motor Vehicles). Yuck.
A friend of mine in Australia has tried to mail me something several times now and he just got tired of recopying it to keep trying. Luckily it was nothing important, but when he tracked it, it got as far as the USPS every time, then just disappeared.
Someone said something about tipping a postal worker? No way. They make a decent pay and get great benefits - so what's next? Tip the gas attendant, the crossing guard, the cop who shows up to our fender bender? A job is a job is a job.
Great rant, Judy!
That is terrible! What on earth happened to getting good serice?!! Go get 'em!
That is terrible. I don't blame you for being upset! Perhaps they have the same management as my insurers?!!
Oh, that's terrible. These mistakes seem to be so common, it makes me wonder what kind of work environment breeds such sloppiness. Sloppiness is a good word for it.
Go get 'em, Judy! lol
~S :)
Our post office is like going in to see Sam Drucker in Hooterville. Really nice and friendly but forget trying to get anything done in a timely manner.
That would make me so cross!!!
Goes to show that their "system" isn't as foolproof as they thought.
Hope you get all your mail from now on!
Michele sent me today.
Hoo boy, I will be glad to see what the PO has to say. Red face, anyone?
Ahhhh, yes, The Postal System! It seems to me Judy, that this is another symptom in the ever increasing symptoms that are proof potitive that 'life' as we knew it, just isn't anymore. And it is across the board...Banks, The Post Office, Big Businesses that send us to India for online HELP...etc., etc...Nobody knows what they are doing anymore. Maybe they never did, but it sure seemed like they did, 'back in the day'.
Isn't lovely that theu assured you about their great tracking system...Help!
Good to know! I am getting ready to close the PO box in Cary I have had for 5 years. Yeek!
Sounds like you're "going postal"! Good luck with getting anything intelligent out of the Post Office.
The USPS is so full of horse manure. Our delivery person regularly leaves mail on the floor of the lobby, even though there's a bin for excess mail right across from the boxes.
I understand it's very hard to discipline mail carriers. There was an article about carriers watching other people's Netflix movies before delivering them, and even THEY couldn't really be let go.
girl, i am at war with the post office right now. i ordered like $130 in scrapbooking stuff and never got it. They told me that they "show" it was delivered because it says "delivered" on their sheet. I didn't have to sign for the package, so really how do they know it was delivered. the kicker is when they asked me if i had insurance on the packages. i didn't and they basically said too bad. so, to me, it was like saying, yes, we deliver mail, but unless you pay extra we can't guarantee you get it. so I have to fill out all the forms while they do nothing on their end. thats my post office vent. ups is how i roll now.
That is just awful!
We would never know about mail that we did not receive.
I hope they get an earful!
Hugs
We are on a route that the person who finishes his 'real' route gets stuck delivering our mail. We are lucky to get our mail before 8pm. It has been a nightmare with wedding invitations and rsvps being delivered. One in particular was mailed from a friend along with her daughter's on the same day, and they arrived a week apart. Tipping seems more like a bribe for them to do their job.
I see that the post in the States is no better than it is here in France. It makes me quite mad too.
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