I am constrained to share with you my experience as I tried to rent a post office box in Southaven, Mississippi at the Post Office with zip code 38671.
I paid a total of $29 to hire the box for six months and this included the price of two keys. I was told that I should wait a day or two before attempting to open the box which I did, when I eventually tried to open the box on the following Sunday neither of the keys worked.
I returned to the Post Office the next day to report this and was given another key which worked and advised that another working key would be placed in the box.
Several days elapsed and I noticed that the second key had not been placed in the box and made yet another trip to the Post Office where I was given two new keys and once again advised that I should wait a day or two before using these.
The representative whom I spoke to tendered no apology for this lapse until after I indicated that I expected same, and, seems quite unconcerned about the several trips I had had to make to this location.
Further, she gave me several phone numbers which I could use to call to make sure that the lock had indeed been changed before making yet another trip to the Post Office; these I discarded because it seemed to me, in all the circumstances, that it was an imposition to ask a customer to call to ensure that staff of the post office had done what should have been done when the box was rented.
Then I noticed that I was not receiving any mail in the box even though I had received a letter confirming that my change of address form had been received.
I called the customer service line and was advised that my old address had been recorded as 5222 Airways Blvd instead of correctly as 3222 Airways Blvd which was why I was not receiving my mail.
The customer service representative told me that she could not correct this error but I should return to the location where I had rented the box and fill out a new change of address form.
When I did this I spoke to Dan who identified himself as the Delivery Supervisor who advised me that I should have gone to my old post office to have this matter rectified; but had me fill out a mistake form which I had him vet to make sure it contained the correct information before submitting it.
A week passed and I was still not getting my mail precipitating another interview with Dan; on this occasion he actually seemed as if he were interested in helping me, as he took me to his office and made a call to a Post Office in Memphis but was unable to contact anyone who could help.
He took my phone number, my cell phone number and promised to investigate the problem and call me the next day, last Tuesday, with a report on the result of his inquires.
I waited in vain for that call, and today Thursday April 23rd, I returned to the Post Office in Southaven and requested to speak to the Postmaster and requested that the fees I paid to hire the box be returned to me after indicating the trials and tribulations that this simple, innocuous transaction had thus far entailed.
The Postmaster, who identified herself as Ms. Ida Cotton was totally unsympathetic, she indicated that Memphis was another district of the Postal Service, that individuals could do at her location was to submit the form and place mail in the box when it was delivered to that location.
Further she said she could refund only three months of the fees I had paid because that was the policy of Post Office.
I did what I would have done in this situation with any merchant who treated me with such contempt, and in such an inequitable fashion, I attempted to call the Police so that a record would be made by a third party of what had transpired.
I did not want to call 911 because this was not an emergency so I called the local number for the Southaven Police, 662-393-5005 which the Postmaster provided but it rang without an answer.
Eventually, I was forced to accept the three months amount which I consider to be legal, official theft of my money; it is yet another of example of a government agency expecting to be paid for services it did not provide because of its incompetence.
I also feel constrained to inflict on you my slant on the fundamental cause of this incompetence.
I think the governmental bureaucracy over the past fifty years has become riddled with political hacks, individuals who receive sinecures from the government either because they made substantial contributions to the war chest of a politician from one party or the other; or, because they worked in the campaign of one party or the other.
These individuals, these political hacks have become numerous and cannot be held accountable because they have powerful connections, making it well nigh impossible to hold anyone employed to the government accountable creating in a situation in which it is impossible to get anything done, making it impossible for the government to competently complete any task.
This creates a vicious circle since whether to be elected or reelected greater reliance has to be placed on contributors and campaign workers since little competence or merit is exhibited by the governmental bureaucracy, a noose which after fifty years has tightened around the neck of the nation to the extent that it has precipitated the global economic crisis that now exists.
The Post Office in Southaven seems to be blessed from the perspective of politicians, and cursed, from the point of view of customers, with a large number of these political hacks; because nothing else could explain the treatment meted out to me by those employed there.
I was forced, having no alternative, to rent a box at another post office location in Memphis, but from this experience it has been made abundantly clear to me why the price of stamps keeps climbing, it is the same reason why the national debt is escalating at an unprecedented rate.
I look forward to the day when there is a viable alternative to utilizing the postal service, until then I will use it as little as possible.
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