Originally Posted: 2009-01-09 15:18 (no longer live)
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Eager receipient looking for mailman who can really deliver - w4m

Dear USPS,

I understand that you're the underdog. In today's digital age, your 6 day a week, "snail mail" service seems strangely out of date. In the past few years dozens of slick, corporate competitors have cropped up across the country, stealing your business and sapping your credibility. Yet I always root for the underdog, USPS, and when friends recommend I FedEx, UPS, or, God forbid, DHL, I always say no. Because you, USPS, are a federal entity. And you're also cheap.

Until I moved to Los Angeles, I never had a problem with you. Of course, Freshman year of college I didn't send a lot of mail, but I never noticed anything amiss when I did. However when I moved out of the dorms into the lovely streets of South Central, things started to go awry. Rent checks sent only a few miles would magically arrive weeks or months late, if at all. I looked like a flake, USPS, and it was your fault.

I figured these strange disappearances were purely the fault of slackers at Dockweiler station. Yet when I moved up to Pasadena, things only got worse. Packages came days late. Mail received was mostly not mine. Bills never arrived. I was willing to put up with this for a while, USPS, until our November gas bill disappeared, and our gas was shut off for two weeks in December. That's right, USPS, two 39 degree, rainy weeks without hot water, stove, or heat. Not okay.

And now you say that the package I delivery confirmed and sent overnight to Los Angeles, 90049, on Tuesday, less than a forty five minutes drive south, is lost. According to the tracking number, it was first sent to Santa Clarita, forty five minutes NORTH, before being "delivered" somewhere in Pasadena this morning. Excuse me? My old rent checks were supposed to arrive at Los Angeles 90043, just nearby. Is there some kind of cursed no man's land in the heart of LA where mailmen are loathe to set foot? If so, you can tell me. I'm a friend. I want to believe you.

But if that's not the case, USPS, this behavior is unacceptable. And before you even ask, I know how to use your labeling machines. In fact, I'd sent a check overnight to Idaho just the night before with the same machine. So don't tell me that it's my fault, USPS, that your drivers & sorters cannot read the zip code on the printed labels that your machine spit out. I paid six dollars for you to confirm delivery to the address listed. Not to lose the package two days after it was supposed to arrive.

USPS, you need to shape up or ship out. There's already little time in our modern society for a Sunday holiday. I currently have a stack of mail by my door that doesn't belong to me. In fact, the correct addresses are neatly written and often typed, so I could easily walk the neighborhood and deliver them to their proper owners. But I won't. Because that's not my job, USPS. It's yours.

So do it right.

  • Location: Pasadena
  • it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

post id: 986765444