Just recently, the US Postal Service announced they had yet another loss in revenue and might have to think about raising rates. Well, isn't that special?
They cited things, such as increased use of e-mails and online payments, gas prices, the economy, and all sorts of good stuff like that. One thing they forgot to mention was "service."
Many people have anecdotes about dealing with that behemoth, and I'm going to add another. I still haven't figured out what happened, and, by now, I really don't care, as long as the problem is fixed, and that remains to be seen. The ball was dropped, and disappeared into the abyss.
Now, one would think that a change of address would be a simple thing, right? Especially when the Postal Service allows you to do it online. And charges your credit card $1.00 for the "service." You get a lovely confirmation and their message tells you that you should receive your mail at the new address in about 7-10 business days. What could be easier?
As part of their security efforts, they send a letter to your old address saying that someone has requested a change of address and list the named party(ies) that the change affects. This is a good and happy thing, because if you didn't order it, you could still stop it from going through.
I trustingly put my Change-of-Address Order (PS Form 3575) online on September 29, 2010, with an effective date of October 1, 2010. I paid my dollar, got the confirmation, and figured everything would be fine. After all, I'm only moving a few blocks away, it's even in the same zip code, so the same post office would handle everything. What could go wrong? Uh huh.
Now, I'm no slouch at getting mail. I get bills, junk mail, letters, all sorts of crap. I waited for the 7-10 business days. Nothing. I began to get mail at my new address with my new address on it, but, nothing that was addressed to the old. I had other fish to fry at that point, so I didn't make any inquiries. In the interim, I had received two envelopes with the yellow update stickers on them: one junk mail, and the other, from the state.
Now, to the intriguing part. Early in November, I received an Official Change of Address Confirmation Letter from the USPS, telling me that my change would be effective as of November 4, 2010. (Note: more than a month after I filed the request online.) I guess their concept of 7-10 business days differs from mine and the rest of the world's. And I wait.
A week or so later, my former roommate called me and told me he's still getting regular delivery of mail for me. I'm not sure why that's happening, but I figure now is the time to call the Postal Service and find out. I dutifully called the number on the Official Confirmation, and got the local number for my post office. I called and spoke with a very nice woman who said she'd check with the carrier and find out the status of the change.
A couple days later, she calls me back and said that the route carrier has no record of any change of address for me and that I should probably file another. OK, whatever.
But, wait, there's more! Now, how much would you pay? See your dollar stretch!
Remember the security letter that they send to verify the changes? In the stack of mail I picked up from my former roomie, the letter was there, dated October 4, 2010!
So, two days ago, I wandered into my local post office and spoke with a very nice lady who told me I didn't need to fill out another change, it would only confuse the issue.
Then, she gave me some very interesting information. When you file a change of address online, it goes directly to the change of address section in the main computer. However, that information doesn't seem to get passed on to where it really counts: the local post office and the carrier. One hand apparently doesn't know what the other hand is doing. Yet, they still took my dollar!
She suggested that, in the future, I go directly to the post office and file it there so that they have a local record. I hereby pass that on for your information.
I'm not sure they've ever dealt with streamlining their organization, which at one time supposedly had one supervisor for every 8 employees, one manager for every few supervisors, and on up the management food chain. If they haven't, then, that would be a start.
Supporters will say that the cost of postage really hasn't risen, it's merely being adjusted to inflation. That may be partially true, but I don't buy it. I'll bet if they improved their service, they might get a little more business and make the money they need.
I'm just sayin.
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