NO RESPONSE (As Could Be Expected)

I apologize in advance; this is a long post.

You may remember that I previously wrote about having problems with the Post Office not forwarding mail from my old P.O. Box to my house. Here is a letter I wrote to the local PO manager and our Postmaster.

To date, I have received NO RESPONSE, from either person.

Mr. kenju suggests that I send a copy of this letter to the US Postmaster, and copy it to the editor of our newspaper. I do think that others need to know that this can happen. What do you think? Any other suggestions?

March 14, 2007

William Lloyd, Manager
North Ridge Station
U.S. Postal Service
7800 Falls of the Neuse Road
Raleigh, NC 27615


Sir:

Until sometime in October of 2006, I had a Post Office box for my business, for approximately 25 years. The number was ____, Raleigh, NC 27624 (North Ridge Station). In October, I made the decision to close that box, and at the time, I filled out and submitted a change-of-address card. I was advised to send notices to all my customers, advising them of my address change. I did that; informing as many as I could conceivably expect to receive mail from in the next six months, the period of time for which I was assured they would forward First Class mail to my home address.

By the end of November, I had received only a few pieces of mail with the yellow forwarding sticker. I would estimate that no more than five letters were delivered to me. I assumed that I had not received any more First Class mail during that time period.

In mid-to- late February, 2007, I received an email from a friend asking if I had received anything in the US Mail from her recently. When I replied no, she told me that she had sent to my P.O. Box address three greeting cards (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day), all with 39 cent stamps. I had not received any of them.

Armed with that information, I went to the North ridge Station and asked a clerk to check. She could not locate any mail for me and she requested that her superior speak with me about it. That woman also checked my old box, but found nothing. She told me that the person who usually stuffs the boxes was off on Monday, and that she would question her about it the next day. She also showed me a sheet of paper with yellow stickers (about 14 or so), and told me that those were the “proof” that the mail had been forwarded. Her explanation for the fact that I had not received any of the holiday mail was that the person who addressed the cards may not have used the correct address, or perhaps the zip code was wrong.

I sent an email to the person who had first asked about them, and she wrote back with the address she was using – and it was most certainly correct. I heard nothing more from the Post Office until March 7th, when I received in the day’s mail: 2 letters from the woman who first told me she sent them (dated 12-15-06 and 2-13-07)
1 letter from another person (dated 12-18-06)
1 Christmas card from a cousin (dated 12-8-06)
2 invoices from a local business (to whom I had sent an address change), one of which was dated 12-29-06 and another for 2-28-07.


All of these letters were First Class. It is still within the six month time period for forwarding mail, and I am of the opinion that there is no reason why these items should not have been forwarded to me in a timely fashion! Please advise how this was allowed to happen and if possible, assure me that any First Class mail received at P.O. Box _____ for _______between now and March 31, 2007 will be delivered to my current address.


Respectfully yours,



_______

Cc: Howard Samples
Postmaster
1 Floretta Place
Raleigh, NC 27676