Letter: Montgomery postal service is broken
In March I mailed 13 pieces of mail to relatives, friends and businesses. I deposited all at different times in the only outside box in front of the Coliseum Blvd. post office. Three pieces were in business envelopes with checks mailed on 3/20 and 3/23. Ten pieces were Easter cards mailed on 3/13. Not one single piece was ever delivered. The checks have never cleared my bank. The cards were going to NM, OH, VA, FL, MS, GA and AL.
I complained in person and on the Post office web site. Post Office management says they are not responsible. If you do not purchase expensive tracking numbers for your mail and the mail is lost, they are not responsible. But they told me that I should not have had to purchase tracking numbers as the first class stamp and three weeks was sufficient for the cards to have reached their addresses before Easter. They said the mail was probably mis-sorted and they would look around the sorting area and if they found my mail they would let know. I have not heard from them since. How does mail get mis-sorted? What happens to mis-sorted mail? To me, what needs tracking numbers are the employees picking up mail, the boxes the mail was in and the baskets the mail is put in to transport to the sorting area. Maybe then they could trace the mail?
On Friday, March 1, I ordered online my new car tag patch. It was post marked the next working day, Monday March 4. I did not receive it for 4 weeks, March 27. When I called to check on it, I was advised to go get a copy in person as the tag office is not responsible for lost mail. The day I went in person to get the patch copy, it came in the mail, four weeks after postmarked.
Last August, two pieces of mail deposited in a box in front of the main post office were never delivered. I now get paperless statements from the Power Company and the Water Board because two of those bills were never received a couple of years ago.
What do people do if they cannot mail bills, cards, etc.? Not everything can be done online.
In this election year, citizens depending on receiving and mailing ballots to be counted may not get their votes counted. Is the post office going to pull out the voting ballots and send them of while ignoring the rest of the mail?
Judith Crow, Montgomery
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Letter: Montgomery postal service is broken
