Shaking my head at the stupidity....

I rarely rant. Usually I just shrug stuff off. Either I can do something about the problem, or I can't. Today, just left me shaking my head.
Recently I moved, and not more than a ten minute drive from my previous address. I moved right into the center of a small town, instead of the outskirts...or so I thought. Today I went to the post office which is a mere 5 minute walk from my home. I needed to set up a new box for mail delivery from previous address.
" Oh you can't get your mail delivered here for free. Everyone IS entitled to free delivery, but your address must collect mail FROM THE NEXT TOWN OVER!"
ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME????
Canada Post..ya'll need an overhaul of your boundaries between services.
The cut off point for THE TOWN I LIVE IN is RIGHT BESIDE MY NEW ADDRESS, a five minute walk to the nearest post office, and might I add a THREE minute walk to the superboxes where I was collecting my mail for the past year when I lived farther away!
So now I have to choose between paying $160.00 per year for the convenience of walking to get my mail, or having to drive the next town over...which I NEVER, EVER, go to and is a ONE HOUR ROUND TRIP just to get my mail delivered free! Either I pay for a box, or I pay for gas!!! Why is the boundary not smack dab in between the two towns? Then I could understand it. This...I don't understand. I'm somewhat beyond furious right now. It's Christmas, and I don't have any extra to pay for mail delivery. I also don't drive, so I have to rely on others to take me to pick up my mail? God it's stupid. Only other alternative is a mailbox at the end of the driveway...nice kicker there is, it has to be approved for height and distance from the main road by the municipality, and the wait list for that is up to a year!!!

Just shrug it off.

a reply to: AccessDenied

I do not understand.

Post should be delivered to the door! What is this madness?

a reply to: AccessDenied

Just call Canada Post and tell them you don't drive. Be nice, they'll help you out. I've had this happen and the issue was that they just didn't have a box for me. They kept my mail behind the counter for months until one was free.

a reply to: TrueBrit

I think us Brits forget quite how well set up our country is sometimes.

I would prefer to recieve no mail as its only ever junk or someone asking for money.

originally posted by: nonspecific
a reply to: TrueBrit

I think us Brits forget quite how well set up our country is sometimes.

....only gets junk mail and solicitations.

And



And

The magic roundabout is about 250 feet from my house so I know of what you speak.

There is only one of them and it's in a large town called Swindon in the South west of England. Swindon is the testing ground for the UK so if someone has a dumb idea and they want to see if it will work they try it in Swindon as it is already crap(this is not a joke BTW)

I have seen complete gridlocks when people get confused and even people stopping half way round and getting out of their car and walking away!

On a side note Swindon is also the Birthplace of ATS.

a reply to: nonspecific

I have seen complete gridlocks when people get confused and even people stopping half way round and getting out of their car and walking away!

If I saw this, it would make my month.

a reply to: Atsbhct

I tried to reason with the canada post employee but her hands are tied. Mail should be delivered to my door no matter what...alas Canada post has seen to the end of that. As for shrugging it off...thanks for the sentiment. I'll be sure to do a lot of shrugging off of other things I could be,or should be paying for,while I'm out of pocket either way to get a service that should cost me nothing.

a reply to: Atsbhct

I am currently learning to drive, and all I can say about that little cluster bang, is that I am NEVER using any road connected to that traffic device. Screw every part of that, everything down to every last little lump of gritty tar, every last speck of white paint, and every single molecule of soil it rests upon.

a reply to: AccessDenied

Canada Post is a crown corporation which is expected to be profitable. It's not as if our tax dollars pay for the service. They make most of their profit from ad mail and Christmas parcels. They don't really owe Canadians anything, per say.

In 2012 revenue was something like 7 billion, and profits were 94 million, out of which they have to pay wages, up keep, etc, so their margins aren't exactly humongous.

a reply to: TrueBrit

What exactly are the smaller round abouts supposed to be? Who designed that madness?

I'll be honest, I googled "crazy British things", and the roundabout and fish head pie were the top hits.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Regular roundabouts are totally sensible things. They are placed where main roads intersect with smaller ones, or where several main roads congregate in one junction. They allow for a more fluid and dynamic road layout, rather than everything relying on crossroads and complicated systems of traffic lights.

However, these orbital, smaller roundabouts are just stupid. There are only x amount of roads coming off that junction, and there is no reason why there ought to be this solar system like collective of satellite roundabouts in addition to the main one.

a reply to: AccessDenied

That's just ludicrous.

We get our mail at the town next door, but we made that choice on purpose because both hubby and I hate the post office here in town... and the miserable people that work there. They're snarky, impersonal, and huff and puff everytime you ask them to do something that might take them more than 4.5 seconds to do.

No thanks.

In the town next door (a 5 minute drive) it's just a single person tiny post office with only about 300 customers, so the one postmaster that works there is super friendly and knows everyone by name. Which means no need to have to dig out your ID when you're picking up a parcel and signing for it.

And because she's so friendly/helpful/personable each and every time we go there, I make her a personalized christmas candle every year as my way of saying "thank you" for being the bestest postmaster ever.



Anyways my point is: We had a choice of where we wanted to pick up our mail.

I don't understand why there would be a "cut off" point of where you set up your mail ?! Hell, I'd be on the phone with 15 different head honchos at Canada Post ranting and raving until they gave me a proper PO box at the proper post office of my choosing !!

You're a 5 minute walk to the damn post office for crying out loud... somebody at head office needs to fix that ridiculous problem... and you're just the person to remedy their stupidity !




Edited to add:

Oh, and while you're on the phone with these head honchos, remind them 800 times of the fact that you don't own a vehicle and are unable to pick up your mail from a town that's a fricken 1 hour round trip drive to pick up your mail !

a reply to: AccessDenied
"So now I have to choose between paying $160.00 per year for the convenience of walking to get my mail, or having to drive the next town over...which I NEVER, EVER, go to and is a ONE HOUR ROUND TRIP just to get my mail delivered free! Either I pay for a box, or I pay for gas!!! "


I noticed your location is east. Craziness. I've only lived in the 3 western provinces, but I've never heard of mail boundaries, or paying for a Canada post box. There's "mailboxes inc" that can be rented, but I thought stamps and other paid delivery (express, etc) were what paid for Canada Post.
Crazy how the rules and regulations differ so much province to province. Every province has a different set of cash grabs.

a reply to: snowspirit

Craziness. I've only lived in the 3 western provinces, but I've never heard of mail boundaries, or paying for a Canada post box.

Me neither. This is the first time I've heard of such a thing, I had no idea that different provinces work differently with regards to our national postal service.

We had to pay a $30 one-time set up fee to get our PO box in the next town but that was it.

Nor did we have any 'boundary' as to where we wanted to pick up our mail... so long as there was a PO box available, we could have it.

*shrug*

a reply to: CranialSponge
No worries , I'm pointing out their idiocy six ways from Sunday. I'm the angry letter sort and just sent one off they'll not soon forget.One way or another I'll get this resolved.

a reply to: AccessDenied

You should move to a modern, first-world nation! How could the wait for approval on a mailbox be a year? Does the guy from the municipality need to ride a horse 5 miles to your house (and the horse is dead, so he has to actually drag the horse there?)

The plight sucks, I'm not knocking you, I just can't believe the postal system there is so screwed up, and the fact you would have to wait a YEAR to get a mailbox approved (not to mention the fact that a mailbox and curbside or home delivery isn't standard.

originally posted by: snowspirit
a reply to: AccessDenied
"So now I have to choose between paying $160.00 per year for the convenience of walking to get my mail, or having to drive the next town over...which I NEVER, EVER, go to and is a ONE HOUR ROUND TRIP just to get my mail delivered free! Either I pay for a box, or I pay for gas!!! "


I noticed your location is east. Craziness. I've only lived in the 3 western provinces, but I've never heard of mail boundaries, or paying for a Canada post box. There's "mailboxes inc" that can be rented, but I thought stamps and other paid delivery (express, etc) were what paid for Canada Post.
Crazy how the rules and regulations differ so much province to province. Every province has a different set of cash grabs.

They offered me a box inside the post office for that price. The superboxes for free mail delivery apparently are not an option for me due to my address. Because of the Canada Post overhaul and subsequent suspension of new superboxes being installed, my area is also apparently in limbo. ( I checked the Canada Post website with my postal code.) After hearing today that Justin Trudeau is making big changes at CP...I surely hope this now farce of a system gets the overhaul it needs.

originally posted by: dogstar23
a reply to: AccessDenied

You should move to a modern, first-world nation! How could the wait for approval on a mailbox be a year? Does the guy from the municipality need to ride a horse 5 miles to your house (and the horse is dead, so he has to actually drag the horse there?)

The plight sucks, I'm not knocking you, I just can't believe the postal system there is so screwed up, and the fact you would have to wait a YEAR to get a mailbox approved (not to mention the fact that a mailbox and curbside or home delivery isn't standard.

I live an hour way from the capital city where the municipality office is. Trust me, in Nova Scotia stuff gets done when people get " roundtoit". You aren't the only one surprised.I figure this is the price I pay for being old school and not paying bills or banking online.