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awkwardness with the mail carrier
Feb. 18th, 2009 10:49 amNot that tracking down an $18 package is the only thing going on in my life, just to finish telling one story...
The mail carrier called me back yesterday. She was quite emphatic that she knew that she put a small package in our mailbox on Thursday, and that Thursday's mail was still in our box on Friday. She seemed quite insulted by my statements that I hadn't seen any small package showing up at our house between Thursday and Saturday, like I was accusing her of lying.
The mail carrier seemed so sure and so righteous, I called my mother again. "Are you SURE you didn't get the mail on Friday? If you did get the mail on Friday, where might you have put it? Could you look there please?" Mom swore, no way, she had no recollection of getting the mail on Friday.
Then later she called me back. She had gotten the mail on Friday, apparently, because here was the mail, with my package, in a bag of Sophia's school stuff. So the mail carrier was right, all along.
Not a happy relationship with our mail carrier, no, not at all... But I hadn't called the Post Office to accuse the mail carrier of lying or stealing or anything like that. I called because I figured they probably had some record of what address was on the package, since it was tracked, and if we found out that it was addressed wrong, I could tell the seller. (Turns out that USPS doesn't have that information in their database. A big shortcoming in their concept of "tracking".) Or maybe the seller had run out of small packaging, and wrapped my tiny thing in tons of bubble wrap and a large box instead, and it hadn't fit in the mailbox and I had to pick it up, but that info got miscommunicated to the database. Perfectly reasonable thing that might have happened, right? And how would I know if I didn't call up to ask? Mail carrier seems to take such inquiries as implied accusations, though.
The mail carrier called me back yesterday. She was quite emphatic that she knew that she put a small package in our mailbox on Thursday, and that Thursday's mail was still in our box on Friday. She seemed quite insulted by my statements that I hadn't seen any small package showing up at our house between Thursday and Saturday, like I was accusing her of lying.
The mail carrier seemed so sure and so righteous, I called my mother again. "Are you SURE you didn't get the mail on Friday? If you did get the mail on Friday, where might you have put it? Could you look there please?" Mom swore, no way, she had no recollection of getting the mail on Friday.
Then later she called me back. She had gotten the mail on Friday, apparently, because here was the mail, with my package, in a bag of Sophia's school stuff. So the mail carrier was right, all along.
Not a happy relationship with our mail carrier, no, not at all... But I hadn't called the Post Office to accuse the mail carrier of lying or stealing or anything like that. I called because I figured they probably had some record of what address was on the package, since it was tracked, and if we found out that it was addressed wrong, I could tell the seller. (Turns out that USPS doesn't have that information in their database. A big shortcoming in their concept of "tracking".) Or maybe the seller had run out of small packaging, and wrapped my tiny thing in tons of bubble wrap and a large box instead, and it hadn't fit in the mailbox and I had to pick it up, but that info got miscommunicated to the database. Perfectly reasonable thing that might have happened, right? And how would I know if I didn't call up to ask? Mail carrier seems to take such inquiries as implied accusations, though.
