I have had a lifelong love of the Post Office. I remember some of the first letters I received as a very young child - one was from a cartoon character named Jot, and of course, the letters from Santa. The Post Office offered proof to me that Santa existed. My favorite scene in the movie "Miracle on 34th Street" has always been when the mail carriers march into the courtroom and pile Santa's letters on the judge's desk.
As I grew older I wrote letters to my friends who had moved away - and they wrote back to me. I only recently was able to discard these long-cherished treasures. In high school I would often walk to the post office in the morning before school (snow or rain) to see if my boyfriend had written me a letter. The post office, and mail, in general, inspired me.
I remember the man who was postmaster in our Wilbur post office for most of my life - we simply called him Buck. I adored him. I would buy stamps from Buck and later became a novice stamp collector. I trusted and respected Buck; mail to me, was magical.
As an adult, my love of the Post Office continued, when, as a young wife and mother I wrote letters to my mom and many friends. Back then I couldn't afford a lot of long distance calls and we didn't have email. The mail I got was what kept me from being lonely.
Even later as "snail mail" was rejected by many people, I still sent Christmas cards through the USPS, as well as sympathy cards, thank you cards and basic correspondence. When my son was in Iraq, I sent him packages, which magically always got to him. I was thankful for the Post Office and have always believed that "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds".
I have thought of the Post Office as a long-respected necessary institution. Earlier this year I wrote many letters demanding that we save the Post Office from ruin. I trusted the Post Office with my very important ballot.
But now, as i sit here writing this, I feel betrayed. As always, I trusted the Post Office to deliver Christmas to my kids. I spent months shopping, preparing and then wrapped and packaged my gifts to mail out. I wasn't terribly worried when one of the packages arrived and not the other. But two days later I checked the tracking to get back the message - 'ALERT - The package could not be delivered or returned to sender and is being forwarded to the Recovery Center for processing'. The main number for the Post Office popped up, so I called. There is nothing in the menu about this recovery center and could not get an actual person to speak to me. I emailed and got this response:
Postal Customer,
I looked into the tracking information, and the mail piece was scanned as "dead mail / sent to Recovery Center". This occurs if the mail piece was damaged in automation to the point of being unable to safely deliver the mail piece, or if the mail piece had prohibited items in the box. I do apologize for the inconvenience, but given that the mail processing facility dispatches out to the Mail Recovery Center daily, I cannot recover the parcel. You would have to conduct a Mail Recovery Center search ...
By this time, I had already filed a mail recovery search claim - to which the response I received said the package was sent to this Dead Mail Recovery Center. If you Google this place you will find that if they can't match packages to their people, they end up being auctioned off. I don't understand why they can scan the tracking number and tell me the package is gone to dead mail, but they can't use this same technology to send it to my son. AND, if it is safe enough to send to the Recovery Center, it should be safe enough to return to sender or deliver to addressee!
To be fair, the West Richland Post Office was very kind and sympathetic, but now they have not returned my calls in 2 days. I feel the same way I felt when my purse was stolen, or my car got smashed. I feel violated and so disappointed. The day after this came to light I had another package to send out. I had Darrell take it to UPS and it got there the next day - not even 24 hours later!
So, my long affair with the Post Office is over. It took nearly 60 years for them to really let me down. It isn't the "lost or damaged" part of it that I am bothered by, it is the process and lack of help or communication that comes with the package being sent to the Mail Recovery Center. I spent yesterday's lunch break re-ordering the $300 worth of gifts and am having them shipped directly to my family members. (Fed-Ex for the sewing machine for my 8-year old granddaughter) I have no faith that I will ever get an answer as to what happened to my package to make it undeliverable. I do know the Post Office is overwhelmed - but so are the rest of us. We don't get to take things that belong to other people and just keep them or make money off of them. I actually donated money to support the Post Office this past fall and now they are making money off the gifts that my hard-earned dollars paid for. I don't feel that the process for the "dead mail" is fair to consumers. I don't think it is in keeping with the long respected reputation of the United States Post Office. It needs to change.
