"Picky Postman"

We've got a picky postman here at our new apartment. For the first few days, neither Scott nor I were getting any mail... and we couldn't figure out why. Our mail address was already set to be forwarded, so that wasn't the problem, and rarely ever do we not have something or other sent our way. Finally the carrier left a note on our box and explained his reasoning: He was refusing to deliver our mail... because we didn't have our names on the box. "No name, no delivery."

Uh, ok, kinda picky, but easily remedied. Scott and I did as requested, and our mail started arriving the next day. Problem fixed, right? Nope.

See, at our new place, there are four apartments -- two on the first floor, two on the second, with a central hallway and stairwell between each unit. The outside door opens into one end of that common hallway, and all four of the mailboxes are just outside the door -- on a wall panel configuration. At our old apartment, the eight mailboxes were all individual and private.

At our new place, the mailboxes are like little lockers set into the wall, with each apartment having a key that opens their appropriate locker. When the mail is delivered, the postal carrier has another key that tilts the whole contraption out from the wall. He then drops the mail into the appropriate locker from above, closes the whole thing up again, and goes on his merry way.

As it turns out, though, when our postman tilts the boxes down, he doesn't bother to check for outgoing mail. Instead, he just shoves the new mail into each slot, and leaves. That left outgoing mail from the previous day still in our mailbox when I checked 24 hours later. Quite frustrating.

With this present situation, there's just no effective place to put outgoing mail. Either it gets wedged into a crack at the top of the lockers (and thus subject to blowing away, and/or easy swiping), or you walk down the street and put it in the postal drop. I personally don't mind the postal drop, but Scott is less patient with the inconvenience.

This is also the third time my landlord has had to change the style of mailbox, just to suit our postman. Quite simply, the long-time carrier refused to deliver mail until his preferences were met. Apparently, this is how he operates.

Yesterday, Scott finally got fed up, and called the post office with a strongly-worded complaint. They called back today, and suggested installing a common outgoing-only box for all four of us tenants to use. It's a great idea, and one that I'll pitch to our landlord. Unfortunately, however, the reaction of our long-time picky postman is yet to be determined.

I tell you, some people.... they just like to have all the power.

-Jon
posted by Jon at 6:50 PM  I   I  0 comments