Rant #1,268: Snail Mail, Part 2

Remember last week I told you the story of a wedding invitation that was somehow delayed more than five months in reaching its destination, namely, my home?

Well, there is a part 2 to this.

I went to the post office over the weekend, and asked why the letter was delivered so tardily.

I really didn't expect a definitive answer, and I didn't get one.

"It might have been stuck in the machinery. When we get a letter, we deliver the letter," was basically the line that I got.

I told them that this was a time-sensitive parcel that needed to be to its destination as quickly as possible.

They told me, "Things happen that are out of our control."

They asked me if I wanted to speak to the postmaster, and since I had absolutely nothing to lose, I said, "OK."

The postmaster called my place of work on Monday.

I explained the situation to her, and she said to me, "It might have been stuck in the machinery. When we get a letter, we deliver the letter."

I said, "How can the letter have gotten stuck in the machine for more than five months, and nobody sees it?"

She said, "Things happen. Perhaps another machine was used during this time," which basically castigated her entire claim, because if that was true, doesn't a postal employee check a machine to make sure nothing is stuck in it?

Anyway, she said that they don't sort the mail there, it is sorted elsewhere, and she reiterated, "When we get a piece of mail, it gets delivered."

We have had some problems with the mail before, with letters (bills) not being delivered on time. We were also one of the areas that made national headlines some months ago when a deliverer was arrested for not delivering tons of mail on their route.

Anyway, that was basically the conversation, and I ended it by saying, "You know, if there are further problems with the mail, you are going to hear from me," and she basically said fine, apologized for the problem I had with this particular piece of mail, and that was that.

Yes, she had sort of a nonchalant attitude about the entire thing, but I guess there really wasn't much more that she could do or say to me.

Perhaps when I got off the phone, she made it her business to tell her staff that all machines must be checked for stuck mail.

I don't know if she did anything.

My problem is that the Postal Service always cries poverty, and you want to sympathize with their plight, and then something like this happens, and you can only find one word to describe it:

And that word is "incompetency."

Plain and simple.