Or, why is the post office pretending to be a private company when they keep coming back to taxpayers for more money, as in rising prices of stamps, when they’re clearly obsolete. Except for my Aunt, who will not email or read or write anything on a computer.
What’s interesting about that is that she had the first-ever electric portable typewriter, a Smith-Corona 1957, that she got to go to college. I know because she gave it to me for high school graduation and I’ve lugged it around the country ever since. She was a technological whiz back then, and pre-computer I was the darling of the dorms, lending it out to other gals after I was finished writing my papers. Oh, I also wrote better papers because of my Aunt and J, because they were English teachers!
I write this because my Aunt and J sent me a book the other day, about a house on the grounds of a hallowed institution where my family lived and worked. One of my tasks was to put up our guests, lecturers and performers, at this house, and one woman managed it for many years.
This house was always an issue for me, and so was the caretaker, but I really respected her and we’d have a tiff then reconcile. She is gone now but her daughter has written a book about her time at the Wensley House.
A thank-you note I wrote decades ago is in it so my Aunt and J bought it, and had the author sign it to me. Apparently I was identified as my father’s wife, instead of eldest daughter. That was what the inscription was about.
Yesterday I received an open package from the USPS with nothing in it but a cardboard sleeve. Leave it to Government to take something personal, an inscribed book with my name published in it, and make it into a regulatory nightmare.
If it’s a photo it will be destroyed for security reasons. If it is merchandise under $25 it will be destroyed. Maybe in the next few months this book will find its way to the Distribution Center where it will meet 54 million friends who’ve lost their way due to USPS error.
Then, months later, I might receive it in the mail. But only after I fill out and mail back a form from USPS to and from in regular mail. I’m supposed to take a picture of the merchandise that I never received. And the $25 rule is a given, if it says $24.99 on the back of the book, it will be destroyed.
How about a recap? Family bought me a book and cared enough to have it signed by the author. They spent $2.96 to send it by our US Postal Service (.com) and they lost it. Now if it’s not worth $25 to them, they’ll destroy it or wait 3-4 months to find it and send it back to me.
The gifter’s USPS guy is great and so is Rick, who I talked with at our end. But this is ridiculous. Any business worth its salt would be finding the lost item and getting it to me. Not the Federal Government. They hem and haw about what it’s worth and all these rules and forms. Out in the real world, you get the job done, or apologize and make things right. No way that’s gonna happen.
I pay all my bills online and send email, blog and four times a year I check into Facebook. Ever wonder why usps.COM is underwater? Dee
Cooking with Dee 