Post office mail service deteriorates
Making aggressive moves for "efficiency" has led to a significant deterioration in mail service in our area.
The first move made several months ago was to rearrange the carrier routes. It is unclear why this was done, even to our former mail carrier. She had our route for the last 14 years, our time in this house. She sorted our mail, catching mistakes when someone misaddressed or misspelled something, and delivered it efficiently, often stopping to talk as she did her rounds. Her route was changed such that she now has the part of our street at the bottom of the hill but not our side at the top part.
Now it is unclear whether we have one carrier or multiple ones. We have missed a couple of bills and who knows what else. One credit card late fee, no laughing matter, has resulted and, really, we just wait to see what else we have not responded to or what friend's card or letter we missed(we are old enough to still know people who write letters). We have one of those slots in our front door that require pushing the mail through. Whoever delivers our mail now often fails to fully push it through leaving a draft of cold air if we are not home. That there is seemingly no rationale for the change is troublesome. I still see our former carrier at times as I walk to town and she honestly has no explanation.
The second major change is that magazines that are sent to our post office and until recently sorted there are now forwarded on by our post office to a central processing center somewhere on Long Island for sorting and then sent back to our office with a bar code strip for delivery. Now "The New Yorker" often arrives one week later than it did in the previous 14 years. Yesterday we received the January 9th issue, already off the newstands, and with all club and museum dates in the front opening section related to last week. This is not good.
I visited our post office yesterday to seek an explanation. While asking to speak to the local postmaster, I was met by an assistant. She explained that the central processing center was supposed to be a one day turnaround but acknowledged that it was not working out that way and that only one other local resident had complained, about his "Sports Illustrated". I know that was a lie because our former carrier has told me that many people are complaining, especially about "People".
The assistant told me that the postmaster would call me today and wrote down my phone number. Of course he did not call. Apparently the union has recycled several incompetent postmasters in my years here, but they are all invisible. An office door opens onto the main service floor but it is never open and a knock never gets an answer. The carriers joke that he hides in there with porn magazines. No doubt another door opens into the sorting room so our postmaster can move in and out undetected.
Given that kind of "leadership", there is almost no doubt that some consultants arranged the new system for a substantial fee. Service in now broken.
With the imminent closing of many post offices around the country, especially in rural areas, one has to wonder if the same amount of insight applied here is guiding these closings. That is a disturbing thought.
The first move made several months ago was to rearrange the carrier routes. It is unclear why this was done, even to our former mail carrier. She had our route for the last 14 years, our time in this house. She sorted our mail, catching mistakes when someone misaddressed or misspelled something, and delivered it efficiently, often stopping to talk as she did her rounds. Her route was changed such that she now has the part of our street at the bottom of the hill but not our side at the top part.
Now it is unclear whether we have one carrier or multiple ones. We have missed a couple of bills and who knows what else. One credit card late fee, no laughing matter, has resulted and, really, we just wait to see what else we have not responded to or what friend's card or letter we missed(we are old enough to still know people who write letters). We have one of those slots in our front door that require pushing the mail through. Whoever delivers our mail now often fails to fully push it through leaving a draft of cold air if we are not home. That there is seemingly no rationale for the change is troublesome. I still see our former carrier at times as I walk to town and she honestly has no explanation.
The second major change is that magazines that are sent to our post office and until recently sorted there are now forwarded on by our post office to a central processing center somewhere on Long Island for sorting and then sent back to our office with a bar code strip for delivery. Now "The New Yorker" often arrives one week later than it did in the previous 14 years. Yesterday we received the January 9th issue, already off the newstands, and with all club and museum dates in the front opening section related to last week. This is not good.
I visited our post office yesterday to seek an explanation. While asking to speak to the local postmaster, I was met by an assistant. She explained that the central processing center was supposed to be a one day turnaround but acknowledged that it was not working out that way and that only one other local resident had complained, about his "Sports Illustrated". I know that was a lie because our former carrier has told me that many people are complaining, especially about "People".
The assistant told me that the postmaster would call me today and wrote down my phone number. Of course he did not call. Apparently the union has recycled several incompetent postmasters in my years here, but they are all invisible. An office door opens onto the main service floor but it is never open and a knock never gets an answer. The carriers joke that he hides in there with porn magazines. No doubt another door opens into the sorting room so our postmaster can move in and out undetected.
Given that kind of "leadership", there is almost no doubt that some consultants arranged the new system for a substantial fee. Service in now broken.
With the imminent closing of many post offices around the country, especially in rural areas, one has to wonder if the same amount of insight applied here is guiding these closings. That is a disturbing thought.
posted by John Borden at 3:31 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home