Box full
I live in an apartment complex that has small mailboxes. Last Monday I came home from work to one of those peach-orange delivery notices. On it was written "Box full." Checked off was "mail will be available for pickup at post office after" 9 am on Tuesday.
Okay. Tuesday of course was the ice storm. But we battled our way back to Laurel and got to the post office at 6 (should have been there about 5...) only to discover that my mail was not there; it was at the Carrier Annex and I had to make a written request that it be brought to the main office.
Apropos of that, I do not say that they built that annex to provide themselves with a foolproof excuse, but they sure as hell use it for one. "Oh, the carrier never brought it over." "Oh, the main office didn't give it to the carrier." The number of times I've had to go back to the post office twice is huge, and I have had to go back three times at least twice.
Anyway, I put in the request, and we slogged on home. Where I found a form letter from the carrier explaining that I "need to empty the box regularly so we can deliver your mail" - which, considering that one day's worth can fill the box, is annoying as hell. It also had the phone number to call to arrange a pickup, because they won't come back with the next day's mail until you've shown up and collected the stuff that was filling up the box. Okay, fine, but why wasn't that in the box in the first place, instead of that lying slip that said I could collect my mail on Tuesday? Lying, I say, because everybody to whom I spoke about this assured me (as did the form letter) that making arrangements was absolute policy.
Well, okay, two trips and I got my mail. Then yesterday, I came home to an empty box. I checked this morning (in case the carrier was just running very late): still empty. Empty again today. Now, nothing at all in two days? Unlikely. So I called the annex.
Yeah. Box full yesterday. And this time - no note of any kind. If I hadn't called, who knows how long it would have taken them to tell me what was happening?
The post office needs something. Real competition, oversight, lessons in how to run a government monopoly - something.
Labels: miscellaneous
1 Comments:
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At 9:26 AM, February 22, 2008
Barry Leiba had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->Yeah, the USPS is this paradoxical mix, really. On the one hand, I'm pleasantly amazed at how they can deliver mail the way they do, sorting through all the mis-addressed stuff and whatever, and actually getting it to the correct recipient 99.9% of the time.
On the other hand, their service sometimes just sucks rocks, and for unimportant reasons that ought to be easy to fix. Like the example you give. Or like how the carriers, in general, won't do an extra iota in order to get you your mail — some will, to be sure; for the others, I blame the union rules.
Or like my situation: there are two POs that are closer and more convenient to me than the main Peekskill PO. Peekskill has no parking (and the street fills up quickly), long lines, and often-surly counter staff. But my mail is delivered out of Peekskill, and if there's something I have to pick up, that's where I have to go. I've asked them if they could have the stuff transferred to Shrub Oak or Mohegan Lake, and the answer's just a flat "no". It's not how they do it. Never mind that it'd help them, too, getting me out of their overcrowded main PO. Too bad. They just don't do it.
Ya gotta wonder.
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