This past December, I received Christmas cards from most of my family as is the tradition. Unfortunately a few of the cards never made the trip to my box. They were sent back with a yellow sticker saying address correction was needed. Originally when Katie and I moved in, we were given a Lansdowne address, but were told that the address used to be Leesburg. I thought maybe, the US Postal Service did not recognize the town I lived in as valid…however I was getting most of my expected mail so I did not think much of it.

Last night I got an email from Geico saying they sent me my policy renewal papers via snail mail, but that they were returned to them. This could be bad as tax season is upon us and I should be getting some important documents in the mail soon! I went to the post office this morning, then after that I went to the correct post office, to figure out what the problem was.

Armed in my hands were two pieces of mail, the welcome letter I got form the USPS after I mailed in my change of address form (which was sent to my new address successfully) and a bill from my apartment complex that showed my address and the apartment complex’s addresses in Lansdowne, VA. After explaining my situation I even got to talk to the guy who delivers my mail (well, some of it). He told me there was some list with everyone who had lived at that address over the years, and since it was an apartment, the list was long. At the top of that list was Katie, followed by me….he said Katie has been getting all of her mail but he wasn’t sure that I lived there. Because of this sometimes he returned my mail to its origin. He told me that he would try to pay more attention in the future but that he isn’t always the one who delivers the mail.

What kind of answer is this? He doesn’t pay enough attention? What good is a change of address form if the delivery person is just going to decide who lives there? I would have rather he told me there was a glitch in the system, and that he corrected it and it won’t happen again…even if it was a lie it would have made me feel better. Instead he’ll just “try to remember” to deliver my mail.

Lesson learned: Always put your name on your mailbox, especially in an apartment complex.

Because of this, I’m adding the USPS to my shit list – remarkably no one has received this honor since July 8th 2004 when Wal-Mart was added to the list of elite. Unfortunately unlike the other businesses on the list, you cannot simply stop using the postal system all together.

• United States Postal Service
• Wal-Mart
• SunCom
• Shenandoah Automotive
• NTC
• The Commons Apartments