Why The Post Office Shouldn't Run Things

Last Thursday sometime in the afternoon, this happened.

Not really sure how it happened, maybe the wind, maybe someone hit it with their car?  But there our neighborhood mailbox lay.

All of the neighbors were able to fish their already delivered mail out of the sideways mailbox.

Friday came, and this time the mailman didn't come, Saturday came and went.. finally come Tuesday it was apparent that not only was the neighborhood mailbox still broken, but no mail was being delivered until it was fixed.

Last Friday, I jumped on the the Post office's website and found a number to call, it ended up directing me to a number for our local branch.  I called, it rang.. and rang.. and rang, only to eventually disconnect me. I found an e-mail address and sent an e-mail.   I did quickly get the standard, we got your e-mail and will get back to you soon.

A day or so later I got this:

"The repair order for the box repairs has been a slow process. We are waiting for the contractor to complete the work . There are several box locations that are waiting repair. Boxes had to be ordered through the district vender which takes several weeks. Your box will be repaired in the order that the new boxes arrive. I can not give you a more definitive time frame as we are at the mercy of the venders at this time."

(Hopefully the vendors can get some mailboxes quickly)

I decided it was time to find out where they were keeping the mail that was not being delivered.  I went to our local branch and was told I would have to go the main office.

Tuesday I had a little over 1 hour until kindergarten pick-up, so I drove across town, to join a very long line, that moved very slowly as there were only two workers.  Twenty-five minutes later I made it to the front of the line, only to be told I needed to be in the other line.

I join the other line which really is not moving at all.  The customer up-front is complaining about the packages that got sent back that are worth $500 each.   He is asked to stand aside and the line slowly begins to move.  Twenty minutes later there are still 5 people ahead of me, only one less then when I joined that second line, and I had to leave.

Forty-five minutes to stand in a line for nothing.

I did venture back today, now one day shy of when the mailbox fell, this time knowing right where I should go; thankfully I was the first one in this line today.  Fifteen minutes later (remember I was the first one in line) I finally got my mail, along with some of my neighbors mail that they accidentally gave me.

Oh and when I showed him my address, his response was this was the first time he had heard of this mailbox being down.

This is how the Post office (Government) run things-- just think of that, and think of the DMV.... just think about those things when you think about Health Care and voting this fall... please vote responsibly.