No, as a matter of fact, you don't deliver!
For several years -- ever since we lived in Illinois, in fact -- we've had a mailbox at The UPS Store, which used to be called Mail Boxes, Etc. It's a great place to get your mail -- it's secure, so no one can steal your mail (and with it, your identity); they give you a key, so you can get in when the store is closed; there's always someone there to sign for packages; and they provide a lot of other services, like packing, fax sending and receiving, and so on. Bottom line: we'd rather get the mail there than at home.
There's just one problem: when you move, the US Postal Service refuses to forward your mail. That's right -- they do not forward it, even if you submit a change-of-address card and clearly indicate your old and new addresses. I have no idea why this is so -- my sister, who works for the Postal Service, doesn't know, either. But for some reason, the US Postal service -- a public agency, staffed by Federal employees and partially funded by the taxpayer -- refuses to forward the mail of its own customers who exercise their right to use a private mailbox store.
Back in 1999, when Meg and I moved from Illinois to Arizona, this caused me some pain, in the form of a ding in my credit report. Several months after we moved, I pulled into a gas station and tried to charge some gas with one of my credit cards. The charge was refused. Funny, I thought, this card certainly isn't maxed out -- but I just pulled out another card, paid for the gas, and went on my way.
Later, when I called the credit card company to ask what was up, they said, "Oh -- our records show that you haven't paid us in several months, so we cancelled your card. You owe us $72.00," or some such amount. I sent them a check for the unpaid balance -- but by then, it was too late to avoid an adverse entry in my credit report. Which is still in there, because it takes seven years for entries to scroll off your credit report.
The reason for this oversight was simply that I hadn't received a bill for that credit card -- because the Postal Service hadn't forwarded the bills they'd been sending to my old address at the UPS Store -- and, because I forgot to call the credit card company and give them my new address (which I must have done with my other cards), I never got the bill. And got my credit rating dinged up as a result.
This time around, when we moved from Arizona to Rhode Island, I was very careful to make sure I got all of my credit card addresses updated -- directly with the companies involved -- and made arrangements with our old UPS Store to collect our mail every couple of weeks, stuff it in a box, and mail it to our new address, since the Postal Service was not going to forward it. This is fine, provided we remember to tell every single person, company, and other entity that might care that we've moved, that we've moved. In the case of Coconino County (where we own a five-acre parcel of land), we almost didn't get our property-tax notice this fall -- because although I stopped by the county office in person to give them our new address before we moved, they nonetheless sent the notice to our old address. Fortunately, it happened to get to our old UPS Store before the last train left for our new address (even the UPS Store will only forward your mail for a certain amount of time, unless you pay for another three months' mailbox rental, which seemed rather pointless, since we have no intention of going back to Arizona).
All of which is a roundabout way of asking, why -- by what right -- does the Postal Service get off thinking it's OK to refuse to serve its own taxpaying customers by forwarding their mail? There is no earthly reason why they can't forward it -- after all, the UPS Store mailbox address looks like any other street address with a box or apartment number. For some reason, though, postal regulations allow them to say, "Sorry, if you're using a private mailbox, you're out of luck." I say a big "Phooey" to that. And if Congress ever decides to give serious consideration to privatizing the post office, the bureaucrats responsible for the current non-forwarding policy may regret being so customer-unfriendly.
Urb's Blog
There's just one problem: when you move, the US Postal Service refuses to forward your mail. That's right -- they do not forward it, even if you submit a change-of-address card and clearly indicate your old and new addresses. I have no idea why this is so -- my sister, who works for the Postal Service, doesn't know, either. But for some reason, the US Postal service -- a public agency, staffed by Federal employees and partially funded by the taxpayer -- refuses to forward the mail of its own customers who exercise their right to use a private mailbox store.
Back in 1999, when Meg and I moved from Illinois to Arizona, this caused me some pain, in the form of a ding in my credit report. Several months after we moved, I pulled into a gas station and tried to charge some gas with one of my credit cards. The charge was refused. Funny, I thought, this card certainly isn't maxed out -- but I just pulled out another card, paid for the gas, and went on my way.
Later, when I called the credit card company to ask what was up, they said, "Oh -- our records show that you haven't paid us in several months, so we cancelled your card. You owe us $72.00," or some such amount. I sent them a check for the unpaid balance -- but by then, it was too late to avoid an adverse entry in my credit report. Which is still in there, because it takes seven years for entries to scroll off your credit report.
The reason for this oversight was simply that I hadn't received a bill for that credit card -- because the Postal Service hadn't forwarded the bills they'd been sending to my old address at the UPS Store -- and, because I forgot to call the credit card company and give them my new address (which I must have done with my other cards), I never got the bill. And got my credit rating dinged up as a result.
This time around, when we moved from Arizona to Rhode Island, I was very careful to make sure I got all of my credit card addresses updated -- directly with the companies involved -- and made arrangements with our old UPS Store to collect our mail every couple of weeks, stuff it in a box, and mail it to our new address, since the Postal Service was not going to forward it. This is fine, provided we remember to tell every single person, company, and other entity that might care that we've moved, that we've moved. In the case of Coconino County (where we own a five-acre parcel of land), we almost didn't get our property-tax notice this fall -- because although I stopped by the county office in person to give them our new address before we moved, they nonetheless sent the notice to our old address. Fortunately, it happened to get to our old UPS Store before the last train left for our new address (even the UPS Store will only forward your mail for a certain amount of time, unless you pay for another three months' mailbox rental, which seemed rather pointless, since we have no intention of going back to Arizona).
All of which is a roundabout way of asking, why -- by what right -- does the Postal Service get off thinking it's OK to refuse to serve its own taxpaying customers by forwarding their mail? There is no earthly reason why they can't forward it -- after all, the UPS Store mailbox address looks like any other street address with a box or apartment number. For some reason, though, postal regulations allow them to say, "Sorry, if you're using a private mailbox, you're out of luck." I say a big "Phooey" to that. And if Congress ever decides to give serious consideration to privatizing the post office, the bureaucrats responsible for the current non-forwarding policy may regret being so customer-unfriendly.
Urb's Blog
posted by Urbie at 5:48 PM
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