Postal Service Daze 2016

Posted by: on Apr 23, 2016 | No Comments

@irasez

Postal Service Daze 2016

About a year ago, I wrote this blog post about issues I was having with the US postal service:
http://www.irasez.com/postal-service-daze/
It seems that the postal service is the gift that just keeps on giving. Take a look at this photo.

Postmark 321
This is from a letter I mailed from my office in Millburn, NJ, to one of my SU alumni club board members who lives in Hoboken.  A distance of about 20 miles.  If you look closely, you will see that it’s postmarked March 21, 2016. There’s only one problem. The check inside is dated December 17, 2015, and that’s the day it was mailed! You are reading that correctly. It took 3+ months for that check to leave the local post office here in Millburn and finally get to it’s destination. A snail probably could have gotten there faster (get it…snail…snail mail…oh never mind).

But yesterday it got even better….hooray! I walked over the local PO to drop a letter in the box and buy stamps. Only one problem…lunch break.
USPS-LobbyLook at that sign! Closed for lunch. In the 25 years I’ve been using that post office, that sign is a first. And I wasn’t the only one. There were 1/2 dozen people just milling around the lobby, just staring in amazement at that sign and the locked door.

I wish I could say that my issues with the postal service were just one of those things. Unfortunately, they are not. “The check is in the mail” used to be a bad excuse or a punchline. Now, you just never know, or so my experiences are telling me. And it seems, I’m not alone. Every time I tell folks about one of my postal service issues, they have similar stories to share. Lost mail, delayed mail, torn mail, all kinds of mail.

Listen, I’m not saying the USPS is the only mail/package delivery system that screws up. I’ve had UPS and FedEx lose packages on me. About 10 years ago, I shipped a box via UPS to Allie while she was a counselor at Camp Lenox. When I shipped it to her, it had her new cell phone inside. When she got the package, someone had cut a hole in the package, removed the phone, and taped over the hole. See for yourself.

Holey Shit!

Holey Shit!

At this point I still need stamps, so it’s off to the post office. Hopefully the line for the 1 person working there won’t be too long. Hopefully that 1 person won’t be on a lunch break. Hopefully whatever I use those stamps for will arrive on a timely basis. And hopefully, there won’t be a Postal Service Daze 3.