U.S. Post Office Customer Service

Here I go again with another rant that you probably won't care about. It's about our fabulous Postal System. If you are a fan the U.S. Post Office or don't like really long posts, you might want to stop reading now.

Here's a little background. For years I have lived in a town where the mailboxes are out at the curb. The type where the hard working mail person doesn't have to leave her vehicle to deliver the mail. On more occasions than I can count, I have come home after it has been raining and a package is sitting on the post, completely soaked. I have complained about this and I usually get the standard response, "your mailbox needs to be of sufficient size to accommodate your mail." I'm not going to go into this side issue but sometimes I would need a 55 gallon drum to "accommodate my mail."

I have also had to put up with the mail being delivered anywhere from 11 AM to 5 PM. I believe my mail person fancies a good garage sale. Usually the mail arrives closer to 5 PM when there are a bunch of garage sales in the neighborhood. I always know when there is a substitute delivery person. My packages are sitting at my back door and the mail comes before noon. This is another thing that I have complained about with no resolution. You need to understand something before I go on. I am not one of those chronic complainers. I usually can put up with a lot before something gets mentioned.

Anyway, back the situation that thrust this rant onto The Big Bald Blog. My mailbox got hit last week and broke the post off. I propped it up with 2 steel posts until I could get around to fixing it. It seems that the post was leaning a little too much, and my mail person, being the pleasant person she is, notified me in a very nasty handwritten note that I had to fix the post or run the risk of my mail being held. It seems that she had lean a little bit and reach a few inches further to actually get the mail in the box. Apparently this was too much work.

The problem is, I share the post with 3 other mail boxes on the opposite side of the street. I wanted to find out if I could move my mailbox to my side of the road. The others that share the post with me also wanted to have their own post by their house.

On Sunday, I knew I would have some free time. I could run to the local Home Depot and grab the supplies needed for the repair. I begin my investigation on the proper height and placement of a mailbox. Of course I started my research with the U.S. Post Office's website. You would think that the information would be readily available on the their site. After about 20 minutes of searching, do you think that I could find anything on the subject? There were several blogs that had information about it, but the information was for another state. The U.S. Post Office's website indicated that I would need to check with my local post office for the regulations.

I called Sunday, assuming they would NOT be open, hoping that they would have some information available via recorded message. Nope - It just said leave a message and listed their retail hours. Oh Yes, I forgot about their retail hours. I must digress here. Normally the term retail hours conjures up a notion of extended hours to accommodate shoppers. Not the U.S. Postal Service. 9 to 11 and 12 to 5. The USPS has retail hours that are inaccessible to those who actually work for a living.

OK, back to the picture I am trying to paint. I leave a message and decide that I truly have no hope of anyone calling me back, so I decide to go down to the post office. I get down there and fill the postal worker in on my story. The person behind the counter says, "You will need to call regional office to get that information." I thought he was kidding me. I asked, "Can't you just give me the information?" After all he was the "local" post office. He writes the number down on a Post-It and sends me on my way. I get to the office, look at the number on the official government document (the Post-It) and have no choice but to give the number a call.

A very unpleasant person answers, "Post Office"

Me- "I have a question about the regulations on mail boxes."

Post Office - "What do you need" - Yes he actually said "What do you need."

Me - "My mailbox was hit and I need to replace it, can you give me the proper dimensions for the height?"

Post Office - "The bottom of the box has to be exactly 42 inches from the street and it can not protrude into the street."

Me - "Exactly 42 inches?" (I may have to hire a survey crew to ensure proper height)

Post office - "YES!"

Me - "OK, next question"

Post Office - sighs

Me - "I would like to move my...."

Post Office - (interrupts) "You can't move your mail box!"

Me - "Why"

Post Office - "That's just the way it is and it's been there for years, what else do you need?"

Me - "Uhhh nothing I guess. Thanks for your.....(click)"

At this point I want to call his manager's manager and lay into someone. But then I figure, what good will it do. After years of experiencing a "don't care, don't help" attitude from this great division of our Government, I figured it would be an exercise in futility.

Years ago I was in the back room of the main post office and there was a banner hanging on the wall. It said something to the effect, "UPS claims that the USPS would never be able to survive in a truly free and competitive environment. Let's prove them wrong!"

Wow, I couldn't agree more. Since we have no choice on who delivers our mail, we have to put up with poor attitudes and poor customer service. This, of course, is why I will choose FedEx or UPS any day of the week over the USPS when I am going to ship something significant. I WOULD like to see the U.S. Postal service try and compete with the other carriers in a true competitive situation. If business owners provided the same terrible customer service and ran their business like the USPS, they wouldn't be in business long.

Well, that's about all I needed to say. If you read this far without bailing, I am curious to see what your opinions are? Let me know your thoughts.

 

Wow...in today's world?

I had to post one more time today. I just read this news article on an RSS from WebProNews. I won't sum it up. I will just copy it here for you reading enjoyment. Credit given to Mike Sachoff for the story.

" A judge in London on Wednesday said he did not understand what a Web site was during the trial of three men accused of promoting terrorism over the Internet.
Judge Peter Openshaw was questioning a witness about a Web forum used by the accused when he said," The trouble is I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a Web site is."
The prosecutor Mark Ellison took time to explain to the judge the terms Web site and forum. After doing so the judge remarked, ""I haven't quite grasped the concepts."
At the end of Wednesday's proceedings the judge asked the prosecutor to tell a computer expert who is scheduled to testify today to keep it simple saying, "Will you ask him to keep it simple, we've got to start from basics."
While it is good that the judge admitted his ignorance, it is still rather unbelievable that he was not aware of such basic concepts as a Web site or a forum..."

Wow, all I can say is wow.