A Sad Tale of Incompetence

1. Before we left Oklahoma, we did the change-of-address thing.
2. At the end of March, I won a few giveaways and ordered some cloth diaper supplies.
3. I gave my new address in Virginia for all said items.
4. We moved to Virginia. And I waited.
5. And waited.
6. And waited.
7. I haunted the leasing office, where packages are dropped off, for two weeks.
8. In that time, we got ONE piece of mail. Period. No bills, sales flyers, or anything.
9. On Thursday, after watching me come in and out for two weeks, the landlady finally decided to let me in on a secret: UPS leaves packages, but the USPS doesn't. I would have to go to the post office itself.
10. Since it was 4:40 P.M., I jumped in the car and raced down to the post office.
11. I dashed in and breathlessly asked the woman working if I had a package. She wanted to know if I had one of those brown "Delivery Attempted" notes. I told her I never received one. She said something snippy and disappeared into the back for a few minutes.
12. She came back empty-handed and said something to the effect of, "It's probably in limbo because forwarding things takes a while, you dolt." Never mind that I told her repeatedly that these packages were addressed to our NEW address.
13. Yesterday morning, I called the merchant I ordered the diaper stuff from. She gave me a package tracking number. Evidently, the USPS attempted one delivery on the 5th, and my package had been sitting in the post office ever since.

The new uniform of the USPS

14. Armed with this new-found knowledge, I called the post office. I got to hold for a while as the employee searched for the package. Not finding it, she then referred me to the Delivery Manager.
15. I tell him the situation. He says he'll search for it and call me back.
16. I wait.
17. And wait.
18. An hour and a half later, I call him. He informs me that he was waiting till the end of the day so he could talk to the person that delivers my route. Would it have killed him to communicate that, instead of leaving me hanging??

You wouldn't like me when I'm out of laundry.

19. At the end of the day, he calls me with the answer. Are you ready for it?

20. They have been forwarding our already forwarded mail to the people who previously lived at our new address.

21. Yes, you read that right.
22. And here's the kicker:

23. That diaper package? It got forwarded that very morning.


24. Which means it was totally there when that rude employee "searched" for it.
25. So let me get this straight: they attempt ONE delivery, don't leave a notice where I can find it, don't try to follow up with the second or final notice, and then let it sit around for two weeks--in a place that can't be found when someone halfheartedly tries to find it.
26. And this is just one package. I'm not even talking about all the bills and other goodies we've been missing.
27. Meanwhile, some random stranger is getting all our mail.

28. (BANGS HEAD ON WALL REPEATEDLY).


29. There, I feel better.
30. The Delivery Manager said the package "might" come back in a few days. That's scary.
31. Meanwhile, I am stuck using primitive methods to deal with Oscar's transition diapers because my flushable diaper liners never arrived.
32. Yeah! I totally started Oscar on solids! I'm hoping to write about it soon.

33. I think the most annoying part is that I can't take my business elsewhere. No matter how badly they blunder, I'm forced to do business with them anyways. What's a girl to do?

34. Blog about it, duh.

35. And maybe try to revive the alternative delivery industry...

Carrier Pigeons Express:
more reliable than those OTHER bird-brains.