Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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JANUARY 4-10, 2017 UCW 7 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM OPINION A couple of weeks ago, my former neighbors Debbie and Mark came by the house. It had been a while since I had seen them. I didn't even recognize their car. Their house around the corner had been for sale, sitting empty for some time. Mark came bearing a gift: a fistful of mail addressed to me but delivered to his mailbox. We live on different streets. The street names don't come close to sounding alike and our house numbers are very different. Yet, there he was handing me my mail. Some of it junk, some important. It happens more often than I wish. I sometimes get my neighbor Guy's mail, which I also dutifully deliver. I even got mail for people living on the other side of my subdivision. I didn't know them, but I delivered it and hoped they'd do the same for me. When a neighborhood mail snafu pops up, it reminds me of LK002435345US. It's a package I mailed to Europe last Feb. 29. Trying to track it took me on an unbelievable customer service tour of the U.S. Postal Service. I mailed it at the Hope Mills Post Office where the service is good and employees are friendly. I got a tracking number: LK002435345US, and everything seemed normal. I forwarded the tracking number to the intended recipient. Six weeks later he still had not received my package. It usually takes three weeks. According to the tracking number, it left the Hope Mills Post Office the following morning, March 1. On March 2, it arrived in Miami. Europe by way of Miami? Sounds like a government thing, I thought to myself. On March 8, six days later, it arrived at the Jamaica, New York U.S. Postal Service facility at 12:13 a.m. It's the Bermuda Triangle of the postal system. I Googled "Jamaica Post Office" and read the customer reviews. It didn't look promising. Here comes my adventure with the U.S. Postal Service that will always stay with me. I couldn't make this up. I first tried to use the USPS online service to determine what happened to the package. There are no humans associated with this tracking service. Instead, the USPS points you toward its website, which is rife with dropdown menu options. In my case, none the menu options applied to my problem, which was finding a package destined for Europe. So, I started my hunt by involving people. Despite a slew of telephone numbers, I would only reach one person by phone: the nice lady at the Hope Mills Post Office. She told me the tracking number LK002435345US was not one issued by the U.S. Postal Service. Was I sure I had the right number? "Yes," I said. I had copied and pasted the number from my original notification. Besides, that tracking code did get me as far as Jamaica, N.Y. I heard tapping on her computer. She couldn't track the package on her computer. She suggested I call the Jamaica U.S. Postal Facility. I explained that the 1-800 number and the other number listed on the website for that facility went immediately to voice mail. The female voice would ask me to choose options associated with my call. None of the options applied. The female voice then suggested I use the USPS website. I told all this to the nice lady at the Hope Mills Post Office. She must have felt sorry for me. I heard more tapping on her computer and she gave me another number. I'm making progress, I thought, with just a hint of glee. Wrong! The number she gave me rang and rang and rang. I tried calling at different times of the day. One time I called and just let it ring about 30 times. I can be stubborn, I thought. Not as stubborn as whoever was not answering that internal number. I gave up tracking. I'll just put in a claim: the value of the contents and the cost of shipping I paid the USPS. That sounds fair, I thought. However, there's one more hurdle. The USPS requires you to sign up for an online account in order to file a claim for the loss of a First Class International package. I was irritated and my login name obviously let it be known. After completing the form, I was informed that my package – for which I gave the USPS $24 and some change to transport it from one destination to another – did not qualify since it was an international package. But, I protested to no one available, it never left Jamaica, N.Y. Where is LK002435345US? by JASON BRADY JASON BRADY. Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910.484.6200. Pre-registration is required. Visit CACFayNC.org for audition time, location and to pre-register. Show date: March 25 All proceeds benefit the Child Advocacy Center Auditions Scheduled for Youth (1st-12th Grades) & Adults January 21st & 22nd Want to be in the show? Turn DoWN the Mic & Turn UP the Talent! CACFayNC.org / 910.486.9700 Invest In Advertising Opportunities We can show you how to market your business! 910.484.6200 www.upandcomingweekly.com