Posted on 02/15/2012 11:01:30 AM PST by ml/nj
Two of the past four months I have not received my Visa bill in the mail. A week and a half ago I called Visa and they said they would send out a copy of my statement to me. It still isn't here.
So today I called my local Post Office and told this story to the guy that answered the phone. "Not us," he said. When I asked him how he knew this, he asked me if I was receiving other things that were mailed to me. When I told him that I had no way of knowing who was mailing stuff that I might not be receiving and told him I was still waiting for something from NYC that I requested a month and a half ago, he told me that Chase (my Visa card) was having problems with mail they were sending out. I asked him if this had been reported in the news. He told me, no, but he knew about it because he worked for the Postal Service. Pressed further he said there had been something about it on their website a year ago (when I didn't have a problem) but it might not be there now (when I do).
Aaaaargh !
ML/NJ
Paranoid thought: They might have done something. You might be on the Department of Homeland Security's domestic enemies list. Can't have obstreperous subjects, can we?
This has pretty much been my experience. Otherwise I wouldn't have thought anything noteworthy about my current difficulty.
ML/NJ
Something like this did occur to me. But the bozo at the PO didn't say to me that they had had a rash of similar reports. And I did finally obtain a copy of my statement at a bank branch. There was nothing unusual about it.
ML/NJ
Well, I do receive catalogs from cheaperthandirt and other domestic terrorist suppliers. I just might be on some list.
Online is the way to go.
Here is a good post office tale....We have one of our girls and her family living in Iceland....
So I mailed their Valentine card early so it would be sure to get there on time..and it did, early in fact..imagine that! However, the envelope was open and inside the card was a bill being sent by a Mrs. D to PG&E which is the Pacifif Gas and Electric here in CA. Yep her payment went all the way to Iceland. I got her return address and sent her a note ( she is not listed in the phone book) and next day she came by, said she called PG&E and also went to the post office. Post office told her sometimes the glue doesn’t stay stuck and that is how it happened...
Then this month I get my phone bill and it is huge..seems they didn’t get my last month payment..cost me 34 bucks to stop payment on that bill and then send another..
Yep and our postage keeps going up..neither rain nor snow nor hail will keep the mail from getting out...hahahahaha
Our mail carrier is the sloppiest too..jams things in the box so we can hardly get it out.
I don't have a problem with mail, but why should I pay 44 cents (or whatever the new stamp costs) when I can do the same for free, faster, and with a written confirmation of delivery?
In fact when you pay e-bills your payment goes direct from one computer to another. No human touch is involved to screw it up. And no human can see my checks - those are tools for identity theft and for theft of funds. Banks don't inspect checks under a microscope; if it looks like a check then it gets processed. Electronic payments skip on all that; it's very difficult to forge an electronic payment; people who can do that won't be hacking into my account. Besides, all electronic transfers are traceable.
I filed a claim with them back on January 5th and while they informed me they would look into it, I haven't heard anything since.........
I have never had a problem with getting or sending mail for business or personal. I mail all invoices and all my wholesale checks, some quite large, come via USPS. I ship my retail orders USPS and have yet to have a lost or damaged package in 27 years. I have a lot of purchases shipped USPS because it is the cheapest and I can’t recall a lost or damaged shipment. USPS, UPS and FedX will all come to the house and leave the package inside the door. All you need to do is fill out an instruction card one time for each service.
However, last year I had two credit cards with fraudulent charges. One, which I only use online, was caught by the card issuer, Discover. The other one, which I very occasionally use IRL, was caught by Walmart and when I immediately called the issuer, they quickly went through the latest charges and I was able to identify the frauds. New cards were issued for both within a week.
Online bill paying is not necessarily safe. A major site hack compromises a lot more information than that present on a cc.
I have read countless complaints about Paypal, as well and since I use them for my retail website sales and then turn around and pay for online purchases through Paypal, I pay close attention to my PP transactions. They have been consistently accurate for the past 7 years.
Your suggestion to check for theft is a good one.
With all due respect to Rush and his identity theft advertisers, I think the whole thing is a crock. (But really, I a bit surprised that Rush shills for folks like this.) I've been giving my credit card to Pakistani gas station attendants for more than 40 years now. Over the years I've had a few charges that I didn't recognize on my billing statements, and they all were always removed once I questioned them. My son in-law recently had a big number of phony big dollar charges to his account. Yeah, it took him a couple of hours but they were all removed. One of my summer jobs when I was a kid was in a big department store's credit department. Anyone willing to sign an affidavit of fraud could get any charge reversed on their account. I just don't see this as a big problem.
ML/NJ
I’d like to answer to some of these complaints.
Mail forwarding shouldn’t even WORK three weeks before the forward goes hot. It’s in the system but should be returned to the carrier if it was run through the forwarding system as “no info” or something.
Hold mail requests ignored: There’s a lot of ways to mess up communications. Is this a hold order called in? Request left in mailbox? Handed to a clerk? Did you fill it out yourself on the actual Hold Order form, or just a piece of paper? There’s so much potential for miscommunication, that you would need to be specific on what actually happened.
Mail held for incorrect dates: This is an easy error to make. If one misreads the date, misprints the date on the hold order, or sometimes held too long not noticing the end date, etc. Once again, not enough information.
Mail dropped off in the rain is a carrier stupid.Complain to the Post Master. ALL mail is to be protected from the elements. If there’s no safe place to leave mail, a notice should be left in the box for the customer so they can retrieve it or leave further instructions. If you’ve been on hold and expect too much mail to fit in the box, and are not going to be home to receive it, consider picking up mail at the PO instead.
Packages either go IN the box, or to the door, or a notice left. Stupid carrier. Complain to the Post Master.
No response to a phone complaint about not getting mail? Some times you don’t get any mail. It happens. It’s sometimes weird and astonishing when a mail customer that usually gets a TON of mail every day, suddenly goes dry inexplicably. It happens.
I go way beyond what I’m supposed to do to deliver some packages. I’ve put them in vehicles and barns and under upturned boats, and I leave a note in the mailbox where to find the packages. I am in no way obligated to do this, but we get paid to deliver, so I do all I can.
Sorry if you have a sucky mail carrier. Squeaky wheel gets the Post Master’s attention. Let them know. Hope this helps.
Something which has always intrigued me tho I have never really tried to get an explanation.
I live in a rural area. My rural carrier, both regular and substitute are great. For some reason I will typically get less mail on Monday. It is by far the day I will most likely not get any mail. If I do get mail it is often one piece when I regularly get 3 or 4.
Since Monday includes two days worth of mail, common sense tells you that you should get on average twice as much.
Any idea why this happens and it is not my imagination?
I’d still check closely for the next 4-6 months because they may hold on to your information until your suspicions wain.
(She even questions my regular charges.)
ML/NJ
FTR, I got "squeaky" today and I was treated as if I were an idiot.
ML/NJ
I suggest sending your Phone Bill Payment to the Gas Company, The Electric Bill Payment to the Phone people and the Electric Bill to the Gas Company .... they will figure it out.
(with or without the P.O.)
TT
The check that did not come this month was mailed in the POST OFFICE where my PO Box is!!!!
I’ve no idea. Coincidence, I suppose. There are a lot of advertisements that mailers try to get delivered on Fri/Sat for maximum attention span, I guess. My Mondays aren’t bad at all, but Tuesday is the big day of my week, so I take Monday off. Maybe there’s some concerted effort to relieve the load on Monday? Pure speculation here.
What specifically were you squeaking about? I'm curious.
ML/NJ
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