Reader Misha would like to know what can be done about a mail carrier who seems to enjoy throwing packages up several flights of stairs, and supervisors at the post office who don’t mind that she does this.

I love your website, and I figured you could help me out with some trouble of my own.

I went home for lunch yesterday and my USPS woman was trying to free throw a package from the ground floor up to my apartment on the 2nd floor. She missed both times and it fell down the flight of stairs to the landing in the middle, and she eventually walked up half the stairs and threw it at my door. At this point I was standing behind her and confronted her because it was my apartment, and my package and she didn’t care. I asked for her name [redacted] and her boss’s name (a shrug) and she said that she didn’t care and walked back to her truck.

The package is an ipod that my sister left at a family member’s house last weekend… The ipod worked as of last weekend, now hard drive is now making a grinding noise and not turning on.

I called the Raleigh Post Office for my zip code and spoke with a supervisor who said that they’d talk with [redacted], but they really didn’t seem to care. After that I went to speak with my apartment managers and they were shocked, but there isn’t much they can do. One renter said that she had seen the Postal Woman do the same things with her neighbor’s packages and another person in the office made a comment that [redacted] was crazy, suggested I contact the Post Office and watch out for unusual things in the mail.

Needless to say, I’m really pissed. The ipod was well packaged, but /somewhere/ in the trip and falling down 2 flights of stairs, it has stopped working.

Do you have any suggestions? I might call the post office back and speak with the manager who is higher on the food chain but I’m not sure it’ll make a difference. My boyfriend suggested contacting the Post Master and you guys, because you always know what to do.

Erg.

Well, since a) this seems to be a hobby of your mail carrier’s b) you already reported it to the post office and they didn’t seem to care, you’re probably going to want to escalate this complaint to a higher authority. The best we could find was the Office of the Inspector General of the USPS. They have a hotline that takes complaints from the general public. When filing your complaint, we suggest that you concentrate on the fact that this behavior is routine and that you and the other renters in your apartment building fear retaliation for reporting it to the mail carrier’s supervisor.

You might also consider starting a petition within your apartment building and submitting it as well.

Anyone have any better ideas?

Contact Information [Office of the Inspector General]
(Photo: Joy Of The Mundane )

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