Letter: Lost in the mail

Editor:

No doubt everyone reading this paper has their horror stories regarding the downfall of the U.S. Postal Service. In my case it has been umpteen instances of my mail disappearing somewhere between the carriers’ carts and my mailbox.

Things descended to an all time low almost three weeks ago when I found an 80-year-old neighbor beating my door down and complaining about her mail being stolen. The “thief” in this case turned out to be the mail carrier herself.

I located the carrier, who was still on the block, to get her side of the story. Evidently there had been an altercation of some sort between herself and my elderly neighbor regarding codes for the security gates at the front of our building and because she (the carrier) didn’t care for my neighbor’s tone of voice, had arbitrarily decided that all mail deliveries to our building would be suspended for five days. I thought at first it was some kind of silly joke, but when I demanded my mail she became hostile and tried to ignore me. I demanded her supervisor’s name and number, which she reluctantly gave me and I called to report her behavior.

As usual, her supervisor was “out in the field,” but after several instances of being put on hold and/or hung up on I did get to talk to someone who was appalled at the carrier’s behavior and attitude. All the information was taken down and I was assured the supervisor would be in touch, the carrier would be disciplined and the mail would be delivered by the end of the day.

Several more phone calls went unanswered and when I did get someone to talk to before they could put me on hold, they told me their supervisor was either “too busy,” “out to lunch” or “back out in the field.” Each one assured me their supervisor was “on top of it” and would get “right back to me.”

Our landlord even went to the Seventh Street facility to speak personally to the supervisor, but she refused to see him and had one of her subordinates take his name and phone number, promising to get back to him by day’s end. This was Jan. 24. Neither myself nor my landlord have heard a single word from this supervisor, either in apology for the behavior of one of her carriers or to let us know what steps (if any) she was prepared to take to remedy the problem.

Personally, I feel her refusal to even acknowledge the incident is tantamount to her condoning it.

Going over her head was a waste of time. I demanded a number for her bosses and I was given a number that turned out to be a credit card debt collection agency.

I would have doubted the very existence of this supervisor had I not actually spoken to her once regarding an un-related matter. I complained about her employees hanging up on customers or putting them on hold for eternity. She explained that if a customer was on hold for two minutes they should hang up because the overworked employee had obviously forgotten about them. As if to punctuate her statement, she put me on hold then hung up a few minutes later.

I eventually found a (323) area code phone number for USPS Consumer Affairs. I called the number incessantly for almost two weeks and not a single call was answered. So good to see your tax dollars at work.

USPS is a rapidly sinking ship and these parasitic public servants have no one to blame but themselves and as usual, it’s the stupid taxpayer who takes the biggest hit.

Michael Docherty

Santa Monica