Dear Source:
It appears one of the major grinches in the postal service is package damage…they go into a special section in the distribution centers to be "reboxed" and can take weeks or months to get resent. I received a box today that is a classic example of that…it was mailed from Colorado Springs through the Denver routing center on December 11. It finally boarded an American Airlines flight 788 on December 20, arriving on STX at 16:30 and delivered to me at Bohlke International Airways this morning (Christmas day). The box is one of two that contain tee-shirts for the Rising Stars concert for this Thursday. We have NO IDEA when the other box is going to get here. What took so long on the one box???? It arrived all banged up and had plastic strapping around it in every direction, so it lingered in some distribution center somewhere in the states before being finally delivered to American Airlines for shipping to STX. The next question is where has it been for the past 5 days??? In the AA terminal?? At the Airport Post Office??? At Kingshill??? Mis-delivered to one of the other post offices, then returned to Kingshill finally???? Where is the other box we have been waiting for???? Lost in the states or lost here in STX???
And this is NOT the first delay in packages. Cruzan Creations still has not received delivery on three boxes mailed in August before I volunteered to assist Kenny Lindquist at his store in Gallows Bay. A Parcel Post box sent mid-October has never arrived, yet one sent 3 weeks earlier arrived in less than 3 weeks and one sent 3 weeks later also arrived within 3 weeks. At least 8-10 Priority boxes sent since October have never arrived. An Express package took 7 days in November. All express packages sent in the past two weeks have taken 3-4 days instead of the "guaranteed" two day delivery. Then the post office in Colorado Springs refuses to refund the postage because their "internet" shows the delivery date to be 3-4 days after the shipping date (the receipt shows the shipping date and the 2-day guarantee.)
The US government is getting to be as bad as the VI government in charging more and giving less for our tax dollars. December 24th now a federal holiday???? Just so the employees can have a four day weekend?? Why not just go to a 4 day 40-hour work week instead?? Local banks are now closed for 2.5 days for the Christmas holidays and federal law says they cannot close for more than 2 business days in a row. How are retailers supposed to keep their businesses going when the package delivery systems are pricing our shipments out of range and the banks are closed more than they are open???? I won't even get into the long waiting period for our deposits to become available to pay our bills in this letter.
Hope all the rest of you non-government citizens are enjoying your holidays and maybe some day you will receive those delayed Christmas gifts. I do thank the postal employee at Kingshill who has so diligently been trying to find my packages for me and delivered the one on Christmas day. I know Rising Stars will also thank you for getting at least half of their order to them before their concert.
James A. Hoffman
St. Croix
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