Mrs. Hillbilly Mom has never been called a breath mint, but today she tears a page out of the advertising plan of Certs, and gives you two complaints combined in one post.
Of course the first complaint concerns the USPS, namely the dead mouse smelling post office branch, which played fast and loose with my debit chip card. I'd love to know where that card was, between Thursday when the bank records show it was delivered to my address, and the following Tuesday when I actually got it. If only it had a little mini camera that could record through the envelope. Perhaps showing the sour face of my mail lady as she sorted mail, then tossed it over her shoulder to be trod upon by other sour-faced mail ladies and gentlemen as they picked and chose which items they wanted to deliver that day. Because let me tell you, some days we get a box full, and some days we get nothing at all.
Saturday, I got home with my mail, and stopped briefly in the driveway, in the bright sunlight, to look through it before parking T-Hoe in the dark, radioless metal-roofed garage. There was a bill or statement about eye care for one of my neighbors, whose box is right next to EmBee. So...I drove all the way back down to Mailbox Row, eating my own dust, to put it in his box. Next time, next SEVERAL times, I will check it before I drive home.
While I was there, I casually thumbed through the mail of my neighbors on each side of EmBee. It's not against the law, is it, if you don't get caught? I didn't TAKE their mail. I was actually GIVING one their mail. I don't care what they get. Just so long as MY mail isn't in THEIR box. Oh, and my horsey neighbor with the crazy rottweiler also gets casino mailers!
If you read my not-so-secret blog, you know that since I jotted notes for this post, Farmer H got a special letter from his former workplace, notified by an orange postcard, which he had to sign for...and the POST OFFICE LOST IT! He went back to get it today, with the second notification, and got a different, less attitudinal postmistress, who told him, "Of course we couldn't find it yesterday! This card says to pick it up TODAY!" She was hearing none of Farmer H's facts that this was the SECOND notice. Anyhoo...he got his letter that cost $7 for the old employer to send.
Now this brings me to my second complaint, which is not directly about the post office, but about health insurance's views on prescription medicine. Let the record show that some people simply CANNOT get their medicine through the mail! Seriously. Lay off all the mailed thingies telling them to order by mail! That's a racket!
Have you ever known a business in the business of making money that cares about the little people? NO! They are in business to make money! NOT to save YOU money! How many people order their three month prescriptions, just to save 1/6 of their prescription costs, only to find that they don't need all that medicine? What if the doctor changes their drugs? What if they develop an allergy? What if they die? Nobody's giving a refund on what was already spent on that medicine! You're stuck with it, by cracky! And if the drug-taker dies, it gets flushed down the toilet. That's money swirling away! What if their medicine is lost in the mail? They still have to buy more. You put money out, and the drug companies rake money in, and I imagine the health insurance companies get a kickback.
No, a post office box in town is not the solution to my mail delivery or prescription ordering problem. The same workers who sort the mail and deliver it here are going to sort the mail and put it in a box there. When I lived in town, in my $17,000 house, I had a post office box for about 6 months. It was right down the street, next door to where I worked.
I was always getting somebody else's mail in my box! Mostly for a radio station that had been operating for as long as I could remember. Didn't the postal workers know their box by now? Especially since their mail was addressed to it, too? I even got CHECKS for that radio station in my box. Of course I didn't open them. Some advertiser would have been mighty disappointed to be paying ME to promote their wares by word of mouth.
Did people used to be this incompetent in their work habits? Imagine if the Pony Express riders took a wrong turn. That's a lot of wasted pony.
Your postal workers do seem to be supremely incompetent. Are they so lowly paid they simply don't care? Are they frustrated at being in a dead end job, so they simply don't care?
ReplyDeleteDoes the company purposely hire incompetents who simply don't care?
At the other end of the story, do these same incompetents have hissy fits when their own mail doesn't arrive or goes to someone else's mailbox?
Yes, we get a _____ Woskowski's (or some Polish name like that) mail all the time. She lives on next street over.
ReplyDeleteAre all Polish people the same? Are they all related? Do they all know each other?
Yes, incompetence (and apathy and laziness) is rampant...
River,
ReplyDeleteEmployment is based on a merit system. You take a test for the various jobs. Military veterans get 10 points added on to their final score, and something else gets 5 points. I forget what. I've been on a couple of registers before, between teaching jobs, and been called for interviews. I guess that makes me pretty near crazy!!!
It's actually a sought-after job, with good benefits, at least when I worked for the unemployment office, though we had nothing to do with federal job hiring. It's also pretty hard to get fired from, I think. That may be the problem.
I would imagine that having their own mail messed up would not go over well!
***
Sioux,
Heh, heh! Yeah! They all know each other! You'd think they'd share that coveted information on how to change a light bulb...
Oh, wait. That's not a funny joke these days. So sorry. I live in the politically-incorrect past. Don't get me started on blonds.