USPS epic fail

[Pastor Gary]

Allow me to vent about a USPS mistake:

I mailed a card to someone last week. It was to someone I know is really struggling financially, and enclosed was a $100 WalMart gift card because I figured they could buy food, gas or other necessities there.

Today the card was returned with one of those yellow stickers on it saying "RETURN TO SENDER -- ATTEMPTED -- NOT KNOWN -- UNABLE TO FORWARD"

It was properly addressed to a house I can take you to, to a person who has lived there 50+ years. It had DOUBLE the normal postage and a return address sticker.

Yeah. I am ticked.

[Pianoman]

Pastor Gary - are you sure they have a mailbox at their house?

I took my mailbox down several years ago and switched to a
PO Box at the post office as I believed someone was going
through my mail.

People will sometimes pull my street address from the
phone book & that mail gets returned to them now. I
had a forward the first year after I switched - but I believe
a year is the longest they will forward?

[Pastor Bill]

It doesn't always matter, we had some serious problems with our mail service over the last year (it seems to be doing better now, and I believe someone was replaced). Ours kept getting returned to sender for a bad address, they could send it back with the same address and the next time it might come through fine. We even asked the post office to be sure of the correct address, and they confirmed it was correct.

As with any service organization, if you get someone in the wrong place who doesn't care, service can quickly go south.

[Pastor Gary]

Pastor Gary - are you sure they have a mailbox at their house?

Positive. The owner lives pretty frugally, and couldn't afford a P.O. Box (or probably the gas to go check it) and daily mail-call is the highlight of the day.

[free]

I'd ask Rahab what she thinks since she works for the postal service.

[PastorP]

Pastor Gary - are you sure they have a mailbox at their house?

I took my mailbox down several years ago and switched to a
PO Box at the post office as I believed someone was going
through my mail.

People will sometimes pull my street address from the
phone book & that mail gets returned to them now. I
had a forward the first year after I switched - but I believe
a year is the longest they will forward?

You can do a new mail forward each year. Our church does not have a mail box, so the Post Office advised us to do this.

[Pianoman]

Pastor Gary - are you sure they have a mailbox at their house?

Positive. The owner lives pretty frugally, and couldn't afford a P.O. Box (or probably the gas to go check it) and daily mail-call is the highlight of the day.

In that case - I'd take my letter in hand and visit the postmaster!