The Mail Perspective

Sometimes I am amazed. That is not always a good thing. My son had moved and filled out a mail forwarding request so that his mail would follow him. This seemed like a prudent thing to do. He filled out change of address forms with all of his current service providers as well. He thought the added precaution of the forwarding card would assure that his mail arrived.

A month later his mail is arriving at his new apartment. So is his Dad's mail. All of Dad's mail has a yellow mail forwarding stamp on the envelope. They have the same first and last name but different middle initials. This also seemed like a prudent, almost brilliant thing to do, although it was twenty eight years ago. It was a simpler time. There was no internet and having a different middle initial assured you of proper identification. Today, not so much. Within two weeks the only mail that Dad and I were getting was mine. My son of course was getting all of his mail.

I did what anybody would do. I went to see our local postmaster. Hubby and I waited in line. Ten minutes later we were explaining our dilemma to the nice postal person. He listened, and what followed is best just stated and without interpretation so here goes.

“You can cancel your son's mail forwarding.” and he handed me a form. I explained that I would not cancel someone else's mail. “Have your son cancel his mail forwarding. Wait two weeks and have him fill out another mail forwarding request, and we will see if it works.” Hubby and I looked at each other, thanked the nice postal person and left. There are so many things wrong with those instructions that I just couldn't wrap my head around it. The idea that I could walk into a post office and cancel someone else's mail is mind boggling. We came home and I decided to take the next step. I called the postal service 800 number. I got a nice postal worker who after I relayed the conversation with the postal person apologized profusely. He promised to have someone in a position of authority call me within 48 hours to review the appropriate procedure. In the meantime he suggested that I talk to our carrier and explain it to her so she can keep an eye out.

I spoke to our carrier. She gave me the phone number for her supervisor and said she would keep an eye out. She also explained that all mail that is forwarded goes to a special mailing center in a different area. It gets sorted and stamped with the little yellow labels and then sent on to the local post office for delivery. I called the supervisor at least a dozen times and there was no answer. The next day our carrier flags me down and tells me that she had talked to her supervisor and that we should stop my sons mail forwarding, wait two weeks and try again. I thanked her and told her I would talk it over with my son but the reality is that I find it unbelievable that the US Postal service can't forward mail correctly. She explained very simply that the forwarded mail goes to the special center. At the special center the machine reads the first and last name only and it doesn't recognize middle initials. I thanked her for looking into it but would be taking my time to figure out what to do. I am beginning to think that the special center is not really all that special.

I decide to wait until the person with the authority from the 800 number calls. I am looking for reasonable. That's all. I do not have high expectations. I just need someone to tell me that my son and husband can each get their mail at the places where they currently reside. This doesn't seem to be a lot to ask. From the US Postal service. In the United States of America in 2014. I went out to the grocery store and when I got home the mystery person with authority had called and left a message. I was hopeful, right up until he started to speak. His instructions were very simple. The middle initial is irrelevant. The machine at the special center only reads the first and last name. Have your son cancel his mail forwarding order. In the meantime, he should contact all of his service providers and put in a change of address form. Anything that is addressed with his current address will not be sent to the special center and will go directly to him. Yippee. If the problem persists, my son should fill out another mail forwarding card and try again. I am certainly glad that I waited for the voice of authority. He has cleared up all the issues. The problem is clearly the special center. The special center should call Santa. His special center runs efficiently. Perhaps he could give some special center training. Maybe he would give them a few pointers about reindeer.

My mail carrier stopped me the other day just to let me know that she had gotten the stop forwarding card that my son filed. She said that his mail would now come to my house for a few weeks until the address changes take place. I commented that I was concerned about having to drive over to drop off his mail. She looked at me and said “No you can just mail it to him.”
I am thinking reindeer.