Archive: Opinions

One of my favorite national news stories this week is about Latreasa L. Goodman, 27, a Florida woman who called 911 when a McDonald's cashier refused to refund her money after she bought a 10-piece Chicken McNuggets.  The store had run out of Chicken McNuggets, but the cashier told her 'all sales are final.'

Goodman called 911 three times, and the dispatchers stalled her so police could get to the McDonalds to cite her for 'Misuse of 911.'  Let me get this straight -- McDonalds sold Goodman a product that they didn't give her and the cashier decided to keep her money anyway.  Isn't that what the U.S. Postal service did to Lansing PO Box holders?

This publication receives mail at a Lansing PO Box, and we suffered postus interruptus along with everyone else for three months, despite the fact that the Lansing branch office was move-in ready only one month after a SUV crashed into it last November.  It reportedly reopened after disgruntled customers stepped up their complaints after waiting two and a half months with no action and increasingly thin excuses.

At one point I asked the Postmaster whether the USPS anticipated giving box holders some kind of consideration for the inconvenience.  He said no, and added that we were lucky to have another post office so close so that we could get our mail while the branch was closed.  I disagree with that definition of 'lucky.'

To add insult to injury, a bill for our PO box was waiting for me Tuesday when I went to pick up the mail, only a few weeks after the branch reopened.  If I had been as clever as Ms. Goodman I might have called 911.  No doubt I would have been fined for misusing the emergency service, thus being double fined.

Wednesday I decided to send a complaint via the USPS Web site as I thought it would be a lot faster than navigating the 'press one to talk to nobody' system at their 800 number.  I am a fairly savvy Web guy, but their contact form was not easy to use -- they require you to select a topic from a long drop-down list, and PO Boxes isn't one of them.  I finally tried 'Mail Receptacles,' and was instructed to choose a sub-topic.  There it was.  And -- fun fact to know and share --  imagine how thrilled I was to learn that 'Post Office Box' is trademarked!

I typed a short message explaining the problem, and then told them that while I was not asking for money I thought the USPS should credit each Lansing box holder with three months of free rent.  I figured that if I asked them to credit everybody's box rent it would save all the others the time it takes to figure out that 'Mail Receptacles' thing.

After sending my mail I was told I would receive an email reply in two business days.  I do know of at least one disgruntled Lansing customer who told me she called the 800 phone number to complain, and when she finally reached a human was told she would receive a call back the next day.  She did not get that call.  So I had low hopes that I would get an email reply.  But I did!  I got a reply from Renee later that day apologizing for my inconvenience with a promise that I would be called by my local post office the next day.  Unfortunately I got the same response on Thursday that the other customer got -- no phone call.

Evidently McDonald's thinks Ms. Goodman had a point.  They are sending her a gift card for a free meal.  (Here's another fun fact -- chicken nuggets were developed by the late Bob Baker, a Lansing resident.)  There is no report that they might be thinking of paying her fine for making those 911 calls.  And how do they think that's a free meal anyway?  SHE ALREADY PAID FOR IT!

I'll tell you this.  If the online newspaper business doesn't work I'm thinking of opening a 'mailboxes' store at which I would just take money and not offer any products or services.  If big businesses like McDonald's and the USPS does it who am I to argue?  There is obviously a market for it.

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