Featured letter: The daily frustration of mail service

To the Editor:

The rules handed down by authorities off-Island to the employees of the local United States Post Office branches is that if mail comes to the wrong Zip code or to a residential address they must send it back to sender. That is even if the postal worker knows the right zip code and PO Box for the recipient. This would make sense if the whole rest of the world paid attention to what we tell our correspondents. But the rest of the world does not.

Today, for instance, I received an email from Channel 13, where I have been a member forever, saying that the Post Office had returned material they had sent to me — to my street address.

From the day I moved to Shelter Island full time in 1999, I have always included my street address (because my banks insists upon it) and my PO address (because the Post Office insists upon it). In fact, what I do with all my correspondents is to give both.

Invariably, my correspondents choose one or the other, but rarely both.

This is a continuously frustrating situation with which I have to deal almost daily. Charges to my credit card require both addresses. Some businesses do not ship to post office boxes, while others, like Amazon, do. So, for shipping purposes you have to guess, be reprimanded by the company’s software, and try again.

Frankly, the whole problem would be a lot easier to deal with if the Post Office cooperated and did not officially conspire to make my life more difficult. It is so unnecessary, so petty, so nasty.

PATRICIA SHILLINGBURG
Shelter Island