Apartment Complex--So Is the Mail

Question: We live in a senior citizen building of more than 100 apartments, and the building is now 6 years old. In the first two years, we had two excellent mail people who coped beautifully with the volume of mail. Very few misplaced pieces. Unfortunately, they transferred out.

For the last four years, it has been one problem after another. About once a week the carriers like to skip a day and not deliver mail. (Isn’t this against the law?) Of course, this results in a rash of phone calls to the post office and to the downtown headquarters, which, in turn, is deeply resented by them. What they do not take into consideration is that some people are alone all day and that perhaps the mailman is the only person they talk to.

One day I get one piece of mail, the next day none and so on until finally, Saturday, about 15 pieces, including catalogues, show up. I have had to write for magazines subscribed to but not received.

Two letters from my sister are missing. She sent one from Arizona and 17 days later I still haven’t received it. Is it a coincidence or is something happening to my mail? We are all so very frustrated. Catalogues are received anywhere from two days to four weeks after they’re mailed. Mail delivery is a government function, but they treat it as a personal vendetta against this building.--S.A.

Answer: Mail delivery, under the best of circumstances, can be a frustrating experience, because, by the very nature of the beast, mail is erratic in its flow--due to circumstances over which no one inside or outside the U.S. Postal Service has any control. And virtually all of us are on so many mailing lists that a mail-less day arouses suspicions.

It Can Happen

“But it happens,” Dave Mazer, public information officer here for the post office, reminds us.

He then adds: “It would be virtually impossible for everyone in an apartment that size to go without a day’s mail. But a few of them? Sure, it’s possible.”

There’s no great mystery about getting a big glob of mail in one fell swoop, Mazer continues, because most of this turns out to be third-class-bulk business mail--which everyone except loyal postal workers refers to as junk mail.

“The senders pay a lesser rate and accept the fact that they’re going to get lesser service,” Mazer continues, “and so we work this mail when we have the time--within limitations, of course--over two to four days.”

Getting four or five sales catalogues on the same day simply means that the local postal station finally had time to catch up.

“We’ve gotten very customer conscious, you know, and we definitely want to know about these things,” he adds. “Certainly, if it looks like a trend of some sort is in place, we’d definitely investigate it and take action.”

Available from any post office, and from any letter carrier, is a Consumer Service Card, which is for the exact purpose of reporting bad, erratic or discourteous service.

“It’s postage-free,” Mazer continues, “and one copy goes to Washington, another copy goes to the local postmaster and another copy goes to the local station.”

If something is amiss with your mail service, this Consumer Service Card is far more effective than protesting telephone calls--of which there is no record. And better yet, Mazer adds, is to have the service card come from your apartment manager, which suggests to the post office that the complaint involves many of his tenants--not just an isolated case or two filed by someone who, sure enough, just plain didn’t get any mail for a day or two.