Why I hate the Postal Service
No, not that Postal Service, namely the United States post office. For the past 3 weeks now, we have not been regularly receiving our mail. Around the 5th of December, I got a notice in the mailbox saying that our box was full. Ok I think, “I will just go down and pick this up”. Upon my arrival at our local branch station, I am handed a tub full of mail. No wonder our mail volume was so low the past week. “Well, thats that” you might think, but that was only the beginning of our problems…
Last week, it happened again. Chris calls the local station to confirm that they have the mail there. But when I go down to get it, the postal tech hands me an 2 envelopes and a magazine. I’m home before I realize “wait a minute, there should be a lot more than this”. At this point, its too late to go back so I make a mental note to stop by again the next day. Thursday, I return to the station to talk with a tech, who looks for a bit before getting the postal supervisor. The supervisor disappears for a while and says that he looked personally and there is no mail being held for us, but he will talk with our carrier in the morning and give me a call. Come Friday, no call, so I head to the local station again the next day… only to find that no one is there on Saturday.
Monday rolls around and at this point, I’m more than inconvenienced, I’m annoyed. I call the station again and the station supervisor assures me that he will talk to our carrier and call back. That day, we got 6 different letters for 3 different addresses on 2 different streets. By now, I was becoming more furious than annoyed. I ask Dave a few background questions on postal procedures because his dad is a postal carrier. He advises me to talk to the postmaster at the main station in town. So Tuesday I call the 800-ask-usps number, and after navigating the usual maze of IVR prompts, get to someone who takes down all my info, gives me a case number and promises that my local Consumer Affairs office will contact me in the next 24 hours. She was courteous, helpful and outright reassuring. “Finally,” I think “action”.
Well, that was Tuesday, Wednesday rolls around and no call, today I couldn’t get ahold of anyone in Consumer Affairs despite trying for hours. I did all my shopping online and early this year, so I wouldn’t be running around in the mall and dealing with last minute shipping issues. Now I will likely not receive 2 amazon, 1 overstock.com and 2 bestbuy.com items in time for christmas. On a related note, EVERYTHING that was shipped UPS arrived ontime and undamaged, their guys are out doing deliveries until 10pm for the holidays. And that, my interweb colleagues, is what the free market will do for you. Suffice to say, I passed furious a while pack.