I must admit one thing before I begin: I friggin' hate stupidity. I resent it, blame its carriers for it, fly into a (generally unspoken) rage when around it, stew in my own irate and hateful juices as I try to talk myself down from the annoyance and intolerance of it. I know I have an attitude problem. Yet when it comes to the stupidity of the United States Postal Service, my rage breaks through to laughter, uncontrollable amusement at just how friggin' stupid its employees can be sometimes. I wish all of my rages were so shepherded.
A quick preview: if you've ever had your packages go missing because a USPS carrier delivered them not to your mailbox but to your porch or stairway or building lobby, read on. I believe a class action lawsuit is in the making. If you just like reading bitter and sarcastic writings by well educated dramatists, well, you might get something out of this missive, too.
The Story: I love the USPS staff in Oakland, California. There's where my nice words end. The Bicentennial Branch staff in Los Angeles lost my payment in the mail (can you believe that?) and closed my P.O. Box even after the bank called the Branch to reissue payment and say, "We sent the check to you three months ago." The Yelps make me feel better <http://www.yelp.com/biz/us-post-office-bicentennial-los-angeles> except for some foolishness of a positive note that convinces me it was planted. Then there's the Rogers Park Branch in Chicago, Illinois. According to its own Mary Jones, a parcel I sent via Amazon was stolen from an apartment building lobby where it was intentionally left by the route carrier, and yet USPS staff stands hard by the notion that any uninsured parcel does not qualify for reimbursement. Eh-hem:
USPS Domestic Mail Manual Section 508 (Recipient Services), Subsection 1.2 (Carrier Release for Uninsured Parcels): "An uninsured parcel may not be left in an unprotected place, such as a porch or stairway, unless the addressee has filed a written order, or the mailer has endorsed the parcel 'Carrier-Leave If No Response.'"
A lobby is an unprotected place, especially one USPS identifies as belonging to a “highrise apartment building”. If a parcel may not be left in the stairway outside of someone's apartment, then certainly it "may not" be left further out in a highly trafficked lobby. Seems easy, right? Well, logic has apparently run out of fashion at USPS.
After my initial request for reimbursement for the stolen parcel, my first raging chuckle came when USPS Domestic Claims Supervisor Autria Finley denied the claim and upheld her decision on appeal. Yes, that's right. She reviewed her own decision and, surprise, decided that she had made the right one. At the next stage of appeal, I choked on another laugh when USPS Consumer Research Analyst D. Davis rendered her denial without ever addressing the internal regulation referenced above (as neither had Ms. Finley). Then came the phone call from Mary Cruz, referred to me because - as she tried to stop saying - I “escalated to headquarters” (she really wanted to say I “inquired with headquarters”, but that's so hard to do when I keep asking questions that go unanswered and refuse to stop asking them).
Ms. Cruz stated USPS had no obligation to approve my claim because of the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 USC 2680(b): "The provisions of this chapter and section 1346 (b) of this title shall not apply to—Any claim arising out of the loss, miscarriage, or negligent transmission of letters or postal matter." However, as the United States Supreme Court explained in Dolan v. USPS (2006) 546 U.S. 481 “Congress intended to retain immunity, as a general rule, only for injuries arising, directly or consequentially, because mail either fails to arrive at all or arrives late, in damaged condition, or at the wrong address.” Id. at 489 (emphasis added). In Birnbaum v. United States (1978) 588 F.2d 319, the Court stated, “[t]he language of the exception itself indicates that it was not aimed to encompass intentional acts”. Id. at 328. How can the violation of an internal regulation be anything other than an intentional act? Carriers are responsible for knowing Section 508 of the Domestic Mail Manual, and it bears no weight if its violation doesn’t have consequences. How could it go unenforced? That wouldn't make sense. Well....
Ms. Cruz stated that USPS “give[s] carriers jurisdiction” to make subjective interpretations of regulations regarding residential delivery and cited the Carrier Handbook, M-41 Section 741.4 (street work): "if the article is too large to be placed in the mail receptacle, return it to the post office and leave a completed Form 3849. Place the notice in the receptacle." I'm not sure how that helps do anything but boost the regulated obligation of carriers NOT to leave packages just any ol’ where. Ms. Cruz added that if the carrier deems the area safe, the Domestic Mail Manual is
“not followed unless something happens”. That something is by that reasoning never a USPS regulation, and apparently notifying the carrier months prior that packages left in the lobby had been tampered with is also not "something happening". That something must, according to Ms. Cruz, be a written request to leave delivery notices instead (note that Form-1000 is not acceptable to USPS to give notice, and there is no such form for matters involving theft or tampering; according to Ms. Cruz, you must deliver your own written request -- please keep a copy, folks). When that something happens, then USPS sends out an assessment team. Are they kidding? This is how they spend their dollars?
So instead of following the Domestic Mail Manual and Carrier Handbook which state that carriers must leave delivery notices and not packages (outside of the mailbox) unless the addressee or mailer authorizes it, USPS’s interpretation of governing rules is that a carrier shall not leave a delivery notice unless the addressee or mailer files a written request or report. ... wait, I got ahead of myself; USPS isn’t actually interpreting its regulations at all. It’s doing what reminds me of Lily Tomlin’s “Ernestine” on SNL: “We don't care. We don't have to. We're the [Post Office].”
Isn't it cheaper for USPS to just leave the notices that its regulations call for? How on earth can USPS compete with UPS, DHL, and FedEx when its basic position is that its carriers can leave your packages in trash cans or at the curb or on the bus and still not be liable? I would hope that the agency would get it together. .... Ahahahahahhahahahahaha! Ah, I made myself laugh again. What USPS does recognize is that carriers must provide reliable and efficient service (M-41 Section 112.1: “Federal statutes provide penalties for persons who knowingly or willfully obstruct or retard the mail. The statutes do not afford employees immunity from arrest for violations of law.”). If nothing else, there is your route for satisfaction. A carrier knowingly violating USPS regulations is knowingly retarding the mail.
Anyway, for those of you who want to "escalate" the issue of your recklessly endangered packages, I hope this helps. As for my saga, Ms. Cruz said she would get me in touch with someone in Legal more than two weeks ago, and I've heard nothing (before you can file a complaint before the Postal Regulatory Commission, you have to engage all levels of appeal and try to settle the matter with the General Counsel, Mary.anne.gibbons@usps.gov as I understand her to be). What will I do now? Who knows? I feel like I'm watching "Idiocracy", and I sure did get a number of good laughs out of that film. Lord knows I need to practice laughing at stupidity rather than my usual. We'll see. I'll keep you posted ... but not Post-ed; you might never see or hear from me again.
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Saturday, August 27, 2011
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