You Can't Win for Losing
As Affie pointed out, I expected my garbage to be pretty rank after three weeks. But I opened my door to the refreshing smell of hard wood floors - so nice after the foreign smells of China! It made me think about all the complaining I would have done about the lazy garbage men if I were still living in Stinky Garbage Trailer. But I'm not. In my new house I don't really have complaints against the garbage men, but the postal workers have reached a new low of incompetence.
I told y'all that I'd stopped my mail before I left. I mean, three weeks is a lot of mail to pile up in my kinda small mailbox. I filled out the hold mail form that I would be gone for three weeks and then I would pick up my mail at the post office. In the past, I have had them deliver all of my mail on the day I was set to return. But this time I figured that there would be too much mail accumulated to put in my box, so I decided to pick it up.
I wasn't able to get to the post office until yesterday afternoon. As I went into the office empty-handed I regretted that I didn't at least have a plastic bag to haul away my postal booty. I told the man behind the counter why I was there and he disappeared for what seemed like an eternity. I thought, "Dang! Is he looking for a hand truck? Do I have that much mail?" He finally return with barely one handful. My entire three week collection of mail consisted of that annoying weekly newspaper-ish ad thingy and a couple of envelopes. A copy of my Hold Mail Request with the proper dates highlighted was included. The whole "package" was wrapped with a rubber band.
This pitiful display of mail didn't make sense to either me or the postal worker. He swore that this was all he could find. I insisted that this was only one day's worth of mail. He said he had left a note to begin my mail service again. I walked out almost literally scratching my head.
When I finally got to my box, I decided to check it for grins and giggles. Sure enough, I found three weeks of mail shoved into my small mailbox - but there were no grins nor any giggles. The only reason that I did not immediately shoot fire out of my eyeballs is because my mailbox has a lock. So even though there was three weeks worth of mail in my box, no stranger could open it to steal anything. But my main concern was the box of checks that I was supposed to be receiving. Those are fairly sensitive and I didn't want them to be dropped off at my door. We do have a system for receiving large packages but I don't know how that works if you don't clear out that big mailbox within a couple of days. Will your package just sit in there until you decide to retrieve it?
To really pour salt into the wound, one of the pieces of mail festering in my box was a card from the postal service advertising the Hold Mail service. It was a nice friendly post card reminding me that if I had any plans to go on vacation this summer, I should put my mail on hold. How's that for irony?
I called the national number for customer service to complain today. I don't really want to get anyone in trouble, but this could have been a real nightmare for me. They should know that someone dropped the ball big time. I think the main problem is that this neighborhood has been in existence for a year and a half and we still don't have a regular post man assigned to us. I think we just get thrown onto the end of the route of whoever has time for us that particular day.
To top it all off, I realized today that my checks had not come in. I called the bank to find out where they were. I was told that there was no order of checks for my account. I was very annoyed. I specifically went to the bank to order checks before I left so that they would be here when I got back. I think I was able to convince them that I did make the order and that they needed to overnight the checks to me without a fee. I waited a long time to get a supervisor's approval, but I don't think the supervisor ever actually approved it. I guess I'll have to call back tomorrow to make sure the order went through.
You just can't get good customer service these days.
[and now a word from our sponsors...]
I told y'all that I'd stopped my mail before I left. I mean, three weeks is a lot of mail to pile up in my kinda small mailbox. I filled out the hold mail form that I would be gone for three weeks and then I would pick up my mail at the post office. In the past, I have had them deliver all of my mail on the day I was set to return. But this time I figured that there would be too much mail accumulated to put in my box, so I decided to pick it up.
I wasn't able to get to the post office until yesterday afternoon. As I went into the office empty-handed I regretted that I didn't at least have a plastic bag to haul away my postal booty. I told the man behind the counter why I was there and he disappeared for what seemed like an eternity. I thought, "Dang! Is he looking for a hand truck? Do I have that much mail?" He finally return with barely one handful. My entire three week collection of mail consisted of that annoying weekly newspaper-ish ad thingy and a couple of envelopes. A copy of my Hold Mail Request with the proper dates highlighted was included. The whole "package" was wrapped with a rubber band.
This pitiful display of mail didn't make sense to either me or the postal worker. He swore that this was all he could find. I insisted that this was only one day's worth of mail. He said he had left a note to begin my mail service again. I walked out almost literally scratching my head.
When I finally got to my box, I decided to check it for grins and giggles. Sure enough, I found three weeks of mail shoved into my small mailbox - but there were no grins nor any giggles. The only reason that I did not immediately shoot fire out of my eyeballs is because my mailbox has a lock. So even though there was three weeks worth of mail in my box, no stranger could open it to steal anything. But my main concern was the box of checks that I was supposed to be receiving. Those are fairly sensitive and I didn't want them to be dropped off at my door. We do have a system for receiving large packages but I don't know how that works if you don't clear out that big mailbox within a couple of days. Will your package just sit in there until you decide to retrieve it?
To really pour salt into the wound, one of the pieces of mail festering in my box was a card from the postal service advertising the Hold Mail service. It was a nice friendly post card reminding me that if I had any plans to go on vacation this summer, I should put my mail on hold. How's that for irony?
I called the national number for customer service to complain today. I don't really want to get anyone in trouble, but this could have been a real nightmare for me. They should know that someone dropped the ball big time. I think the main problem is that this neighborhood has been in existence for a year and a half and we still don't have a regular post man assigned to us. I think we just get thrown onto the end of the route of whoever has time for us that particular day.
To top it all off, I realized today that my checks had not come in. I called the bank to find out where they were. I was told that there was no order of checks for my account. I was very annoyed. I specifically went to the bank to order checks before I left so that they would be here when I got back. I think I was able to convince them that I did make the order and that they needed to overnight the checks to me without a fee. I waited a long time to get a supervisor's approval, but I don't think the supervisor ever actually approved it. I guess I'll have to call back tomorrow to make sure the order went through.
You just can't get good customer service these days.
[and now a word from our sponsors...]
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