This is a tale of woe regarding the United States Postal Service, but not what you might expect. This is not about the new Palmetto facility that our grandstanding senators have been bleating about. This is far worse.
So look, I've been trying to close out an estate and as you may know, or soon will, filing a Final Report is a must-do. Cannot file the petition for Done&Dusted until the probate court gets that report. And likes it. Here's where it gets interesting. You can file lots of things online like death certificates, petitions and some forms. But they got no category for these reports, so whatcha gonna do, right? Now you could hand deliver but since the pandemic the probate court really likes keeping the public at bay so you need an appointment which is about two weeks out. And yes, I did call to see if they had a drop box, left a message and never got a call back. So then I decided to mail it. Good ole USPS.
Now I didn't go to the post office 'cuz that is a special circle of hell. I went to one of those Mailboxes-R-Us, had them notarize the Report, print the mailing label for Certified Mail and paid for Return Receipt. This happened on April 2. Since I tracked it on Informed Delivery I'll show you what happened next.
So I wait a couple of days to see if it ever gets delivered and I check on the bank account to see if the enclosed check gets cashed and if so is it the proper amount. That's right, you gotta pay the probate court to do their job. It's kinda like cable TV, you know how you pay a monthly fee and then still have to watch commercials only here we pay taxes and then have to pay for ever little form we file. The very day after I put this in the mail, Carl the know-it-all tells me I should never send certified mail, especially to the court 'cuz everyone knows there is a check in there, and it will get stolen, and the check washed and cashed. So I'm waiting and watching until I figure it's time to chase this down. Then I call the Decatur post office and actually talk to a real person who says she'll look around for it and call me back. She does. She says it's not there and that someone from the courthouse comes and picks up their mail. Questions leap to mind. I asked if this means their mail doesn't get scanned as delivered? Says it should have been. Then I point out this is Certified Return Receipt and does this mean the person who picked it up didn't sign and post the receipt? Silence. Then she says she will look for it again and call me back. She doesn't.
'Bout now I'm getting pissed. The angry kind. The wine kind comes later. I'm too old to run for the Senate and too young for the White House, but I gotta do something. After a few more days of watching, I put a payment hold on the check, for which my bank charges $23, just to make sure a lost check doesn't turn up putting money in someone else's account. But I still check in with Informed Delivery just in case the probate court finally gets the mail and gets a bum check. That is until the package disappears from Informed Delivery. So I go to USPS tracking, enter the number and click on "add to informed delivery" figuring somehow Informed Delivery had sudden amnesia. Nope. Got this:
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