The U.S. Postal Service Gift That Keeps on Giving

I posted a couple of weeks ago about the error the U.S. Postal Service made in recording the zip code of our new home. In that post, I described the finger-pointing between the Zip Code A branch and the Zip Code B branch personnel. In a second post, I described how we received mail one day, but one day only. Now I have another update on this fiasco.

A few days after Zip Code A delivered our mail that one day, but that one day only, we discovered a stash of our mail in the mailbox of an unfinished, unoccupied house down the street. It had obviously been there awhile, as much of it was water-damaged. Thank goodness, it was legible, including two sizable checks for my husband.

After finding the misdelivered mail, I called the branch manager for Zip Code A again. She assured me they would fix the problem. Our mail came for a few days. One day, I arrived home just as the carrier delivered the mail. “You’ve found us!” I joyfully proclaimed.

“Yes,” she said. “We split the route today. But I took your street because I knew the other guy would never find you.”

Then the next two days we did not receive anything. Had she sent the hapless carrier instead? Or was there no mail to deliver to us? Or, worst case, has our mail again been misdelivered? We did check the unoccupied house, but nothing there.

Then came a “red letter” day, in which we got a whole gob of mail—almost all bills. They had been forwarded from our old home address to both Zip Code A and Zip Code B. But somehow, the Zip Code B mail had made it to our new mailbox.

Still, getting our mail is only half the problem caused by the USPS’s zip code error. Because they originally input Zip Code B into their system, many vendor databases think that is the correct zip code. Professional delivery services such as UPS and Federal Express seem to find us fine—better than USPS.

But service providers are less aware of new street construction and geography.

The gas company told me that they couldn’t change my service address away from Zip Code B. They could change my mailing address to Zip Code A, but not the service address. Which leaves me to wonder: Just how will they find us if we have to call to report a gas leak?

And other services rely unquestioningly on the USPS databases. I don’t know how frequently these databases are updated, but it isn’t frequently enough for me.

I have done my part to update my address at various businesses such as our bank, our insurance company, my former employer, various doctors, and other places that regularly send us mail. But even live humans aren’t always enough to override the computer databases.

Last week I stopped at a gas station to fill up my car’s tank. At the pump, I had to input the zip code for my credit card. The automated pump rejected my card, informing me I had input the wrong zip code. I tried my old home zip code. Wrong again.

When I finally decided to try Zip Code B, the zip code I know to be erroneous, pump told me I’d have to see the cashier. The cashier made me pre-pay for my gasoline.

Later that day, I made airline reservations using that same credit card. The card’s zip code was again rejected, and I couldn’t buy the tickets until I sought a verification code via text message from my bank. Even then, the airline told me I would have to present the card and a photo ID at the airport before they would honor the reservation.

After these two experiences, I logged into my bank’s online site. Lo and behold, the zip code for our accounts was showing as the erroneous Zip Code B, even though I had called them to request that my address be updated with Zip Code A. I spent about twenty minutes on the phone on that occasion while I made sure that he updated our address on all the appropriate bank accounts.

Livid, I called the bank again (again going through their mobile app to find a phone number, because the phone number I used for the first address change didn’t work this time).

“Oh, we had a notice from USPS that your zip code was wrong. We had to correct it,” the nice customer service representative told me.

“It wasn’t wrong,” I said. I was seeing red by that time, but I tried to stay civil. “That zip code is right. USPS told you wrong. And when I called you a few days ago, I was assured you could override it in your system.”

“Well, I can change it again,” the rep told me. “But it might get changed back if USPS sends us another notice. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

So we went through the twenty-minute rigmarole of her inputting Zip Code A on our accounts. But the next day, I checked my online banking site, and it’s back to Zip Code B. Actually, there is some improvement. It shows as Zip Code B for my primary residence, but the mailing addresses for all the accounts still show Zip Code A.

Now, I wonder, what zip code should I input the next time I need to buy gasoline? Zip Code A or Zip Code B? Which will the gas pump recognize—what the bank says is my primary residence or my mailing address?

And how long will this farce with USPS continue?

At least it has given me three blog posts so far.

What has made you livid recently? How do you deal with your anger?