Why Can’t I Call the Post Office?

We live in a mobile home park where the mail delivery, for the most part, has been good. Everyone here is elderly since you have to be 55 or older to live here. We depend on our mail service not only because we have Social Security or retirement checks delivered but also because many of the residents don’t get around that easily anymore and depend on pickup of the outgoing mail.

Recently I was expecting an important document to arrive by mail. Delivery is normally made by noon, but by 4:30 p.m. the mail hadn’t come yet. I called the La Verne post office to inquire. I had called them in the past and usually I talked with someone who let me know if there had been a problem with the driver, for instance. This time, a recording came on and informed me that the local number I had called had been changed and proceeded to tell me the new 800 number. A man answered my 800 call and acknowledged that this was indeed the U.S. Postal Service. I explained my problem and he assured me that the Postal Service delivered until 5 p.m.

In response to my inquiry about a local number that would enable me to speak with a live individual, he said he did not have a telephone number for the La Verne post office. Nor did he offer to help find my local post office’s number. I asked him where he was located and he told me Colorado. I was amazed that I had to deal with someone so far away for something like this. What would this person know about my area and the delivery time and most important, how to help me?

Is this really 1999 and you can’t telephone an individual in your local post office?