Do
you remember my post about Mike the Malicious Mailman? Today's post
will help you understand my history of frustration with the USPS if
you read that first, and I promise that what I'm adding today will
make this post a reasonable length so that you have time to
read about Mike. Let me know when you're back.
It
seems postal stupidity knows no end. The Engineer runs a thriving
eBay business in his “spare” time, so almost every day I have to
mail something for him. The hot selling product right now fits in
manilla envelope and can be dropped in any mailbox since it's under
the 13 oz rule.
The
mailbox I most often use is behind my grocery store, but it's in such
a ridiculous place. It has one of those “reach out of the car
slots” so one can (theoretically) not have to get out of the car.
But it's on the right hand side of the street. So you either have
your passenger (which isn't often when I'm out running errands while
the boys are at school) or drive on the wrong side, or park, walk
over, drop your mail. Stupid. Here's what it looks like.
It's in the alley behind a Safeway shopping center/strip mall type place.
Yesterday,
as I'm pulling in (driving the big ole' prison van) there's a mail
truck there emptying the mailbox, a grandma who is parked next to the
mail truck, so all I can do is pull up behind grandma. The mailwoman
is arguing with grandma and won't take the letters she's holding out
to her. A person, whose job it is to collect the mail, won't TAKE
the mail. She instructs her park and walk back over. So I pull up
to her next.
“You
won't take my package?”
“NO,
we got a call that this mailbox was overflowing, I'm just here to
empty it. The other guy comes at 4 to empty it.” (It's 3:48 or so
at this time.)
“So
I can't hand it to you? To put in that bin right there with all the
other mail that was in this mailbox?”
“No.
But you can park over there, and come back and put it in the mailbox.”
I'm
so ridiculously incensed that this woman, who is standing at my car
window, to whom I'm holding out a package WON'T TAKE IT.” However,
it has to be mailed. So I park next to Grandma, who is also
incensed, and we walk over to the mailbox to put our mail in it and
the mailwoman says, “You can just hand those to me.” WTF?
It's
no wonder they're thinking about closing the post offices.
P.S Yes - I did drive out in our not as spectacular as they'd said snow storm to bring you these visual aids. You're welcome.
13 comments:
Hi Tina .. I have a few stories like that - but I won't go into them ... they are negative. Drives me nutty!!
Incredibly bureaucratic people!
Cheers up - we have snow here ... they've just phoned me from the seafront in an old lifeboat station where I should be going for a class .. to say don't come - we think the sea and the land might be meeting ... the gales are shocking.
Cheers and breathe to relieve the stress - at least you have an easy post to write ...?! Hilary
thanks for braving the storm...ha....what the heck? put the dang package in the bin postman...ugh....
You're right - no wonder they are losing money.
Knowing it was overflowing, will you still use it? I encountered one of those recently and I both wondered how long the mail in it had been forgotten and how much was stolen because I both see and touch the overflowing mail.
I'm a mail lady.
I pick up collection boxes as well as deliver.
I would have NEVER done that.
Call the PO and complain about her. That is asinine. What is wrong with people?
In all honesty, I have my share of posts about the other side of the coin... But seriously, no one in our office would do that.
I could totally feel my blood pressure rising while reading this and the Mike post from 2010. The USPS has gotten so out of control that I am hoping they fail. Their 13 oz rule is ridiculous. My boss had held out on getting a postage meter till our mail started to be returned b/c it was over 13 oz and had stamps on it, which meant one of us had to go to the post office and wait in line for a half hour just to hand it to the guy or pay for a metered strip. Small wonder they are going under. We'd receive mail for everyone on our street and the prior owners of the house but not get our own mail too.
Are you sure you don't live in Chicago? LOL! That sounds like something a Chicago mail person would do. LOL! I figure these people know their jobs are on the line. Their attitudes won't be good, not that they ever were in a lot of cases. LOL!
No pictures of you strangling that postal worker? Or is that a Federal crime?
Okay... just read your older post.
What the Hell is wrong with your postal people????? Okay, I get the mail box thing, but there is NO form for that (unless it's a city delivery thing I don't know about) and what the hell difference does it make as long as it doesn't change the delivery point? *sigh* I have had a couple of people move their boxes t o places that can't be reached, but even then I will deliver their mail with a note.
And this is why the postal system is in the situation it is. :(
Oh... and in case you didn't know, the 13 oz rule started when people were dropping/mailing bombs and hazardous materials, which is why they must go over the counter. But now a days I'm thinking a bomb could weight half a pound and no one would know... plus as far as I know there is no policy as to what to do if someone actually says "Yip. You caught me, it's a bomb" when handing it over the postal window.
okay... I'm done. :)
Postal workers! I had a few fights with them back in Malaysia.
But in Singapore, they are not only super-efficient, but also super-helpful: carrying your heavier packages, recommending stamps and what not. This country is spoiling me.
I did read about Mike (is he still delivering your mail). Geesh, I get rules, but these rules are ridiculous with what this lady postal worker did by making you and the elderly lady park to bring the mail to her. No common sense I think they have.
betty
Bureaucracy running mad. There's a lot of it about.
JO ON FOOD, MY TRAVELS AND A SCENT OF CHOCOLATE
Whatever happened to common decency and customer service?
Wow. Just, wow...
Maybe there's some rule against taking mail from people in cars? Maybe she had to be sure that you didn't have a gun and had to give you a visual pat-down before she would accept your mail? Maybe I'm trying to come up with an excuse for a grouch?
I would have insisted on putting it in the box, because those are the rules.
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