Charitable Connections, Inc.

I was shocked and concerned when my postwoman left me a certified letter pick-up notice in my mailbox when I was sitting in my house with my door open to receive my mail. Now, I do have 14 steps to climb to get to my front door and it was 94 degrees outside, but I remember the days when rain or shine or in the depths of snow, the postman was always delivering my mail. But that does not seem to be the case anymore. The U.S. Post Office is no longer a trusted source for delivery. In fact, my story gets a lot worse. I waited until the next day and the mail lady again dropped my mail in the box and I had to chase her down the street to find out why she had not delivered the package to my doorstep. Her curt reply was that she left the packages at the post office yesterday so she just put notices in our mail. That seemed kind of strange to me that she didn't even have the courtesy to come to the door and ask if we would prefer to have the package delivered or if we would like to pick it up since she made a mistake. But no, she asked when I ran her down if I wanted it delivered tomorrow. It was certified mail from the county, so I told her I needed to know what it was and needed it today so I would go to the post office myself.

So off to the post office I went very upset by the situation. But the best is yet to come. I get to the post office to find that this certified letter was first sent on May 25, 2011 and today was June 28. How is it that this certified important letter sat at the post office for over a month and this was the first notice I had received. Well, it was sent back to the county, who had sent it, one time because I had not picked it up in May. That was because I was never notified by the post office that it was there. The post office had sent it back to the county and the county sent it back out on June 14th and I received my first notice on June 27th. To make matters worse, I filed a complaint and all the post office pulled out was a history of the letter.

SO, I opened the letter in front of the postal worker to find it was a letter from the county board of tax assessors giving me until June 24, 2011 to appeal a tax dscision in the appelate court. Now remember, it is June 28, 2011. Needless to say I filed a complaint, in fact I filed four. First for not notifying me of the letter in a timely way, second for forgetting the letter, third for consistently delivering other people's mail to my house and my mail to other houses and fourth for not coming to my door to let me know about the letter so I could get it more quickly.

I am awaiting a response from the post office, but I am not holding my breath. I will tell you that this little episode may have cost me $28,000.

Friends, I urge you...I know things are tough out there. Everyone is struggling to make it, but I implore you, be on your job. God says love your neighbor as yourself. I am really wondering if we love ourselves because it is surely not showing up that we love our neighbors. Help us avoid going postal.