Hi Upper Marlboro Neighbors;
Since I
moved here in 2004, I have been quietly fighting the postal service. I have
tried to be polite about my damaged, shredded, ripped, stepped on letters and
mailings sent to me in my capacity as Chair of the Historic Preservation
Commission and former Trustee of the County Library System. I pay for a PO Box
to send as much mail as I can, but the State and Federal government want to
send documents that I rarely actually get to a physical address. I wait in vain for checks from clients.
I sort
through my neighbors misdirected mail, and have tried many times to explain the
problem while holding the evidence in my hands to the cavalier, arrogant staff
at our post office, gritting my teeth as I listen to the explanations that suggest
that somehow it is my fault that they misdelivered my neighbors mail.
Holiday
packages sent from monks in Kentucky never arrive, and I am told that perhaps I
ate the cheese inside and am lying about the non-delivery or that perhaps one
of my neighbor's walked over and helped himself to the cheese.
Yesterday
an attempt was made to deliver an international package - I was not home - and
a notice was left to come to the post office today Thursday April 24th to get
the package. Upon arrival at the post
office, the postal employee explained it had been delivered already. The postal
employee even had th audacity to suggest we go home and check and then come
back the next day. Also, as with the cheese, they suggested that our neighbors
appropriated our delivery. (we do not live in a sub divisions and I can assure
everyone our neighbors are not stealthily stealing our mail).
After
repeated attempts to point out not to our house - it was acknowledged that
indeed it went to some different address than on the official address and was
signed by someone not from our neighborhood - no further explanation was
offered and the next person in line rudely decided we had tied up the
unfortunate employee long enough.
To make
matters worse, it turns out it was not delivered to a wrong address but given
by a clerk at the Post Office to a wrong person on a different route...this in
spite of making us prove who we are every time we go to pick up a package -
this rule must only apply to us. Please
note the package came from Russia and was covered in Cyrillic writing (excepting of course our name and address
which were and always are in the traditional western Roman alphabet) that the
disinterested clerks could not spend the time to notice.
The worst
part is the rude, uncaring accusatory manner in which their mistake is turned
into our fault. This is what really burns me up. Not a single "We're sorry, we will see
what we can do."
Nothing;
just arrogant apathetic looks of bored disinterest.
Today 24 hours later, no
call from anyone at the post office; I went in person this morning having
received an alternative version of what happened; called mid-day no information
and was told yet another story this evening - the customer to whom they gave
our international package threw it away.
I suppose the Post Office in Upper Marlboro believes that the world is
filled with idiots who believe concocted stories, though given the studied
disinterested and a committed, dismissive attitude I suppose it possible that
they gave our package to a complete stranger with no ID and that the stranger not having received
their package simply chose to throw our away.
And, yes,
after trying the understand not confrontational, extremely polite request, I tried filing a complaint a few years ago
when the holiday package never arrived...a useless exercise in wasting my time;
nothing happened. I have put up with this for almost ten years now. I have had
enough. Whom exactly does the Postal Service serve? -Certainly not our street
or community as I am finding out from my neighbors.
So Upper
Marlboro, do you have a postal story to share?
1 comment:
It sounds like the people and the system have failed Mr. Thompson.
However, I have found the window clerks at the Upper Marlboro post office to be unfailingly pleasant and polite, as well as reasonably efficient, although picking up certified mail is an overly time-consuming and bureaucratic chore.
I have had a few complaints over the past 29 years that I've lived here, but many of those were due to policies not of local making. Most were easily and promptly resolved.
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