HOT PURSUIT

It’s certainly no secret that I dread dealing with the U.S. Postal Service.

Besides the never-ending postal rates that keep climbing (I’m already bracing for next month’s 8% hike for newspapers), my biggest gripe with the post office is that they simply can’t seem to get our newspapers to where they need to go. And it has become even worse in recent weeks.

Last week, I received a text from my brother who lives near Madison, Wis. showing that he had just received the Oct. 18 edition. That’s right, six weeks after we mailed it out of Blooming Prairie. We also received a similar call from someone in Iowa with the same dilemma.

A few weeks ago, a reader from St. Paul reached out to me. He had received his Nov. 15 edition on Friday, Nov. 17. That’s the way it should work. Only problem was he still hadn’t received his Nov. 8 edition. It finally showed up on Nov. 21, almost two weeks later.

We have similar issues in the surrounding counties with people getting their newspapers up to a week later.

And don’t think it’s just the out of area papers affected. Last week a reader from Hope, which is located 15 miles from Blooming Prairie, called to say they aren’t receiving their papers until the following Monday or Tuesday. And that’s even in our home county. We have now added Hope to our drop locations on Wednesday by our own delivery person so they should get the paper on Thursdays like most everyone else.

Where these papers are being kept captive is beyond me. I could literally walk these papers to these locations faster than the postal service delivers. A pair of walking shoes certainly would be cheaper than the postage rates we pay.

In the past when I point out issues, I’ve had postal clerks through up their hands and say, “Well, it’s a free for all at the Post Office.” Many of them don’t have a clue what’s going on either.

All I ask is that our newspapers get delivered in a reasonable amount of time. Two maybe three days at the most for the outlining areas seems reasonable to me. They keep jacking up the rates and the service becomes even lousier. Obviously, my call for the postmaster general to be fired didn’t happen a few weeks back. So, I guess we’re stuck with incompetence at the top with a man who has no clue what he is doing.

I shared my saga with a cousin at a recent family gathering. He has retired from the Post Office and indicated he’s relieved to be out of the nightmare. He said it’s so messed up and inefficient.

I always think I’ll wake up and realize I’ve just been dreaming of these crazy postal issues. But reality quickly sets in, and I find it’s no dream. It’s a real-life nightmare that somebody needs to go in hot pursuit of ending.