Musings: Snowbird is left out in the cold by USPS
The U.S. Postal Service assures us that weather won't keep it from delivering mail. But forwarding items? Well ... Credit: Getty Images / Michael Bocchieri
I have been a snowbird living the past nine winters in Florida. Every year, there is a problem with my mail being forwarded. Each year, something is returned to the sender with a stamped statement of "Undeliverable as addressed" or worse: "Moved. Left no forwarding address." My bank called, asking for my new address.
I constantly have heard excuses, from "a computer glitch" to "I don't know." One postal clerk in my hometown told me I didn't fill out a forwarding form although I had completed it right in the post office and handed it to him. Then he told me I hadn't provided my proof of ID, which he had copied!
Next, he said I had entered a forwarding date that hadn't started, but I had copies of the form on my cellphone proving his claim false. When I showed it to him, he shrugged.
How can this be? I know certain mail is not forwardable, such as voter information, but many times it's simply a birthday card or a friend's letter.
Last year, my sister collected mail that was still being delivered to my Long Island home despite the forwarding order, and she mailed it to my Florida address in a priority envelope with a tracking number. It never made it to me despite the tracking info that said it was delivered.
My Florida mailbox is across a small street from my home in the middle of nine other boxes. So I queried the mail carrier, who said she'd check out my priority envelope. I requested the post office search for it. Nothing happened.
I questioned every Florida neighbor with a similar house number since occasionally we got mail belonging to our neighbors. Everybody in this neighborhood knows everybody else. No success.
I started receiving collection letters because a bill here or there was late. The clerk finally said, "It must have been stolen."
Luckily, my sister had taken photos of the mail she was sending me, so I was able to get duplicates, but not without some effort on my part.
The Postal Service said it's losing money and recently asked for an increase in stamp fees. Guess how I feel about that.
Veronica Douglass, Riverhead
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