USPS is in their own special little universe. Here is a USPS tale that will make your head spin.....
I live in Parker and we have community mail boxes in several locations throughout our neighborhood. I always stop to get the mail on the way home from work and one day when I get to the community mail box the whole thing is turned around. The back portion (where the post man fills it) is facing the street and the resident portion is facing the fence. There is about 2 – 3 feet between the fence and the resident portion of the mail boxes. At the time I thought it was a prank that some kids in the neighborhood pulled and figured they would get flipped back round to the correct position in a couple of days. Two weeks go by and they are still flipped around. So I go to the Parker post office and ask about why the mail boxes were turned around and the initial response was “The post office is not responsible for the mail boxes or which way they are facing”. I said “Great!! I will turn them back around myself tonight”. This was immediately shot down claiming that I can’t tamper with government property. Now I was really confused. The mail boxes are not the post offices responsibility but I can’t turn them around myself??? At this point I call bullshit and ask for the post master to explain this confusing double talk mess. The post master is called and a whale of a woman comes trundling up who is the post master. I explain the situation and she says that she knows why the mail boxes are turned around. She had to cover a delivery persons rout, which my mail box was part of that rout, and she couldn’t squeeze her fat ass in behind the mailbox to fill it. So she put in a work order to have the mail boxes turned around, so they can be accessed from the street size by the delivery people. At this point my jaw is gaping in astonishment of this “Reasoning” of why the mailboxes were turned around. I asked her why the residents were not notified of why or when this change was made. She claimed to not know the contact information for the residents. I called bullshit as they know every address associated with those mail boxes and letters could have been sent to every single affected resident. I then told her that it is completely unreasonable to inconvenience 40+ residents so one fat ass delivery person can fill the mail box. I also added, that if someone is too fat to do the job, they shouldn’t be doing that particular job. At this point she was beet red with anger and yells “If you turn the mail boxes back around I will have you arrested for tampering with government property!!!”. I then tell her that I expect that her organization will turn the mail boxes back around to the proper direction, then I take one of her business cards off her desk and leave.
I wait 3 weeks for the mail boxes to get turned back around but it never happens. While waiting I do some research on the subject and find that the mailboxes facing the fence violates the accessibility construction laws defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act. I downloaded the specific laws, print them out, then highlight them so there is no mistake that its being misunderstood. I e-mail, fax and Mail this information directly to the Post Master so there is no way she can claim to have not gotten it. In all communications I mandate that the mail boxes be turned back around or I will take this matter to the local media and file a grievance with the ADA organization. Magically, the NEXT DAY after sending that information the mail boxes were turned back around to their proper position.
It is amazing to me that this fat ass post master would think it would be acceptable to turn a whole community mail box around so their chubby ass does not have to squeeze behind it. Then refuse to make it right without the threat of taking it to the local media and filing grievances with the ADA. This just goes to show that the USPS could give two shits about their customers. Its also evident every time I go into the Parker Post office and get the “Stink Eye” look from the chubby post master when she sees me.
