Look what I got in the mail Monday:
Uh huh. It's a letter that I
You might notice on the redacted envelope that my writing is not a chicken-scratch. It's perfectly legible. Spaced accordingly. Nothing ambiguous about my penmanship. Yet my little Pony's letter has been returned to me as UNDELIVERABLE!
Not only returned as UNDELIVERABLE, but returned 38 DAYS after it was originally mailed!
That is unacceptable! I sent The Pony a picture, with the caption:
"What is WRONG with your mail people out there?"
"That would explain the gap in the numbering." The Pony is a factual kind of fellow, and notices the mailing date of his letters. Mainly because sometimes he goes weeks without getting one, and then three appear in his mailbox.
"I will open it, and enclose it with the one I send this Friday. I'm going by the dead mouse smelling post office to ask what's wrong with the address."
"Has Dad's come in yet?" [The check from The Pony's professor for that lab work Farmer H did on July 15. Not sure when The Pony mailed it, but the check was dated July 17.] "I guess that's what I get for using the drop slot and an actual stamp rather than paying straight at the post office counter."
Indeed.
I bellied up the the counter at the dead mouse smelling post office around noon-thirty. Nobody was there. It was so quiet you could hear a mouse die. The little bell on the counter had the sign saying to ring for service. I hate to do that. I don't like to impose on somebody busy not-doing their work. But I didn't want to hang around with my resentment festering until I grew a long white beard, or a line formed behind me.
I gave the bell one tap.
A couple minutes later, a kid came out of the back room. He looked about The Pony's age of 21, with a short beard instead of The Pony's flowing locks.
"What can I help you with?"
"I have a complaint, and a question. Neither of which involve this specific office. I got this letter returned today, and I don't know why it took 38 days to get back to me."
Baby-Faced Beardy took a look. He peeled off one of the yellow stickers that were on top of each other. I first thought he was trying to see the edge of my writing, to see if the address was good. But no, he was looking at the underlying yellow sticker.
"Huh. This was July 26."
"That's still A MONTH after it was mailed. Before they even said it couldn't be delivered."
"Yeah. I don't know why that part took so long. But they've (here he gave a chuckle) put this sticker on saying it was undeliverable, without giving a reason WHY it was undeliverable. So it went back there, and they just said it was undeliverable again, and put the RETURN TO SENDER on it. They shouldn't have done that. There should be a reason why it couldn't be delivered."
By this time, he had peeled both the yellow stickers off the envelope, and was kind of tapping the envelope on the counter.
"What do you want us to do for you?"
He said that in a polite way, really trying to help, not in a smart-a$$ way, mocking me. Like maybe did I want him to send it again. Perhaps giving me free postage for my trouble, though he did not suggest it himself.
"Oh, I'll just open it up and mail it again this week. Is there something I should do about the address? Why is it coming back? I've used that address for three years."
"Have you gotten them back before?"
"Once or twice. It always seems like it's in the summer. Like maybe they get new student workers or something at the college. But I don't know how the post office works. If students are allowed to handle or deliver the campus mail."
"Does he still live there in the summer?"
"Yes. Nothing changes."
"Well, it could be their sorter. If it happens again, take it to the main post office over in Sis-Town."
"That's what I did before. They got on their computer and looked up the address, and said that's how it should be written. But I thought I'd ask here this time, in case anything had changed."
"They didn't say why it was undeliverable, so I don't know. Sorry that I can't be of more help."
"That's okay. Just thought I'd check."
See there? A young person who knows how to unruffle an old lady's feathers by being polite, and revealing a bit about the sticker mistake made by his far-away cohorts.
Customer service isn't really that hard.
What a nice young man! Now of course you have to do the leg-work and find out why the letter was undeliverable. To the main post office in sis-town, and even further to the college to find out what the heck is going on with their mail sorters. I'm not suggesting that you actually leg (walk) those distances, but get on the phone to the college or drive there and give them an earful.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteHe seemed to care more about helping me than The Pony ever would! I've already asked the main post office once, and they said the address was fine, but they couldn't speak for why the OK PO couldn't deliver it.
I don't think a phone call would work, with them not able to see the envelope in question, with their stickers applied, and the actual handwritten address. I guess we'll suffer through for The Pony's remaining year of college. I'm glad the letter with his updated insurance card arrived without incident!
Yeah, I don't think complaining to the university people will do any good, even if you took some pictures of the envelope (with the sticker, some with the stickers peeled off). It sounds like a case of ineptitude. An admonishment. A finger-wagging. A bit of PD. None of those take care of stupidity, and probably in the summer, that's all they can hope for.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who says, "It was so quiet, you could hear a mouse pee on cotton." I guess that kind of silence happens BEFORE the mouse dies...
By the way, I don't know if you enjoy games on your phone/tablet, but since you're such a wordsmith, you might enjoy "Wordscapes."
Sioux,
ReplyDeleteI don't play games on my phone, but my sister the ex-mayor's wife does, and on our Oklahoma trips, she asks me for help when we're at a rest stop, or riding to the casinos. Not sure what she plays, but it gives her letters, and spaces, and she has to fill in the words. Next time I see her, I might ask her about "Wordscapes," and see if she could put it on my phone. I'm a technidiot.
No, it's just an app. If I can do it, you certainly can do it. (I'm an Irish Setter when it comes to technology. I'm sure you're at least a Golden Retriever, if not a German Shepherd.)
ReplyDeleteSioux,
ReplyDeleteYou overestimate me, Madam! I'm not worthy! I'm more like our old neighbor-dog Albert, the Basset Hound. I'm surprised he could find his way home. Or maybe he was just too lazy to walk back.
Letters and spaces to fill in the words? Sounds like fun. Are there lists of words that will fit and you get to work out which ones go where? Or is it like code crackers where each letter is assigned a number and in puzzle books they give you two or three clues, for instance B=8, so every square numbered 8 has to have a B in it and then you guess the rest and fill in like a crossword. I love those.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteI don't know about Sioux's recommended game, but I'll try to explain the one Sis used. It had about 10 words to find. There were either boxes or spaces, and a clue for each word. They weren't connected like a crossword puzzle. Each word had a collection of letters to choose from, but the way I remember it, all letters didn't get used. Maybe there were two extra letters for each word.
Sis did pretty good, but she'd get stumped on certain words, and wanted to complete them before she moved on to a new set. Sometimes I could look at it, and just know. But others I had to switch out letters and try several options.
There was no list of words to choose from, and no code. The clues were ambiguous. It helped to think outside the box, because it wasn't the obvious answer you would expect. I'm generally not good at thinking outside the box!
I play WordCrossy on my phone. Just go to apps, it's a free one. Being old, I need to exercise my mind, you know. No clues on this one, just letters provided to make the words. Comes in handy when you are waiting somewhere like a doctor's office. Don't know what to tell you about your mail issues. We have them here …. a lot. We still get mail for tenants that have been gone for years. The ones who have moved on recently and I know full well they have sent in the change of address request still show up. I would have to say it is just incompetence.
ReplyDeleteKathy,
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's incompetence with the people handling the mail. Of course they know nothing will happen to them. I've had a government job before! Although state, not federal.