Dear Editor,
I guess I should be accustomed by now to the various means by which the government extracts money from us, but I was totally taken aback by the dastardly process at the Half-Way-Tree Post Office.
Some years ago, the post office introduced Priority Mail with much flourish, promising that this system would cause mail to be delivered within two days. I have used this service from time to time, and although I never really checked if it took a maximum of two days, I never before had reason to question the service — until today.
On 17th April I sent a letter by priority mail and today (22nd) as I happened to have to go back to the post office, I called to see if the letter had been delivered. To my horror it had not. So on going into the post office, I handed the receipt to the young man selling stamps to check on the item. He looked at the address of the post office to which it was being sent and flippantly replied, "Oh, priority mail does not apply to country areas."
You could have hit me down with a straw, as every time I have used the service, it had been to send stuff to rural post offices. I therefore asked when did this "policy" come into effect; only to be told "always". When I pressed further to find out how long that particular item for which I had paid the priority rate would take to be delivered, he nonchalantly replied, "During the regular period, three to 10 days." Shocked, I asked him why they were committing fraud against the public by charging priority rates for things being sent by regular mail, only to be told defensively that I had asked for it.
Well, blow me down! If this is not an example of blatant, barefaced fraud, I don't know what it is. And one would have thought that with post offices being almost redundant these days, the authorities would at least give the few customers they still have reasonable service. But in reality, the idea of good service is not at all on the agenda. For, despite the high unemployment in the country, they would not even hire a few clerks to sell stamps so that the most basic service there does not take a minimum of 10 minutes.
Joan Williams
Kingston 10
gratestj@gmail.com
Mail fraud?
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I guess I should be accustomed by now to the various means by which the government extracts money from us, but I was totally taken aback by the dastardly process at the Half-Way-Tree Post Office.
Some years ago, the post office introduced Priority Mail with much flourish, promising that this system would cause mail to be delivered within two days. I have used this service from time to time, and although I never really checked if it took a maximum of two days, I never before had reason to question the service — until today.
On 17th April I sent a letter by priority mail and today (22nd) as I happened to have to go back to the post office, I called to see if the letter had been delivered. To my horror it had not. So on going into the post office, I handed the receipt to the young man selling stamps to check on the item. He looked at the address of the post office to which it was being sent and flippantly replied, "Oh, priority mail does not apply to country areas."
You could have hit me down with a straw, as every time I have used the service, it had been to send stuff to rural post offices. I therefore asked when did this "policy" come into effect; only to be told "always". When I pressed further to find out how long that particular item for which I had paid the priority rate would take to be delivered, he nonchalantly replied, "During the regular period, three to 10 days." Shocked, I asked him why they were committing fraud against the public by charging priority rates for things being sent by regular mail, only to be told defensively that I had asked for it.
Well, blow me down! If this is not an example of blatant, barefaced fraud, I don't know what it is. And one would have thought that with post offices being almost redundant these days, the authorities would at least give the few customers they still have reasonable service. But in reality, the idea of good service is not at all on the agenda. For, despite the high unemployment in the country, they would not even hire a few clerks to sell stamps so that the most basic service there does not take a minimum of 10 minutes.
Joan Williams
Kingston 10
gratestj@gmail.com
Mail fraud?
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