HWT Post Office committing fraud against the public!

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I guess I should be accustomed by now to the various means the Government uses to extract money from us, but I was totally taken aback by the blatant fraud being committed by the Half-Way Tree Post Office.

Some years ago, the post officeintroduced Priority Mailwith much flourish, promisingthat thissystemwould cause mail to be delivered in two days. I have used this service from time to time, andalthoughI never really checked if it took a maximum of two days, I never before had reason toquestionthe service. Until today.

On April 17, I sent a letter by Priority Mail, and on April 24, as I happenedto have to go back to the post office, I called to see if the letter had beendelivered. No, I was told.

So upon going into the post office, I handed the receipt to the young man selling stamps to check on the item. He looked at the address of the post office to which it was being sent and flippantly replied, "Oh, Priority Mail does not apply to country areas."

Wrong attitude

You could have hit me down with a straw as every time I had used that service, it had been to send stuff to rural post offices.

So I asked him since when this was happening, only to be toldalways. When I pressed further to find out how long that particular item for which I had paid the priority rate would take to be delivered, he nonchalantly replied, "During the regular period, three to 10 days."

Shocked, I asked him why the post office was committingfraud against the publicby charging priority rates for things being sent by regular mail, only to be tolddefensivelythat I had asked for it.

Well, blow me down!If this isnotan example ofblatant, barefaced fraud,I don't know what it is. And one would have thought that with post offices beingalmost redundantthese days, the authorities would at least give the few customers they still havereasonable service.

But in reality, the idea of good service is not at all on the agenda at Half-Way Tree, for despite the high unemployment in the country, the post office would not even hire a few clerks to sell stamps so that the slightest 'service' there does not take a minimum of 10 minutes!

JOAN WILLIAMS

gratestj@gmail.com