Orphaned Coyote Pup

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Good to see the Post Office is back up to speed after the holidays ...

I was wondering what had happened to a bill that usually rolls in toward the latter part of every month. It is due on the first and I like to pay it on time. This month I waited and waited and finally drove down to the North Valley to pay it in person a few days late. I thought I had misplaced it. I do that sometimes. They all look alike and I put them in piles and then can't find them when it's time to write the check.

Well, gosh darn, our Post Office was holding on to it for me, bless its heart. When it finally arrived on the 14th, the envelope showed a Dec. 30 postmark. That's more than two full weeks to move a letter partially across a relatively small city like Albuquerque. It is also about two weeks after the bill was due.

There was a day not so very long ago, and some very recent, when I could drop a letter in a mail box in Albuquerque and it would arrive at its destination the very next day. That was a fairly normal expectation. Two entire weeks, can you believe it? I can't.

I guess I should be grateful I got the letter at all.

A few weeks earlier I opened the mail box and pulled out the contents. Every piece of mail in there was intended for my next door neighbor. Nothing was for me. I delivered their mail to my neighbors and a few hours later their son brought over a few pieces of ours that had been misdelivered to them. That was nice; we got to chat and compare notes on how often we are winding up these days doing the Post Office's job for them. Then another few hours later our neighbor to the other side came over with some more of our mail. God only knows if we got it all, or if it is still waiting at yet a still unknown neighbor's house.

I frankly think it is nuts to have people trying to deliver the mail who can't read at least the numbers that make up addresses. I can't think of any other possible cause that would lead an employee to being unable to place a letter with an address on it in a box with the same address on it. Unless they just don't care.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Others' experiences (Keep them coming!)

Take a look at http://www.walletpop.com/specials/best-and-worst-customer-service?icid=200100397x1216904308x1201105948 for some other shoppers' experiences. If I were a shop executive I would be checking sites like these regularly, and then turning around and checking my enterprise.