Richards: ‘Govt doesn’t understand’ the problem at the Post Office
Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards yesterday claimed Government doesn’t understand why the Post Office’s ‘return-to-sender’ policy is giving Bermuda a bad name.Mr Richards joined Ombudsman Arlene Brock in urging the Post Office to recommence delivering all mail to its intended destination, saying the Island needs to show it’s in the customer service business.But he expressed alarm that Economy Minister Patrice Minors was standing by a practice of returning some incorrectly addressed mail to senders.In her annual report tabled last Friday, Ms Brock attacked the policy, saying staff were spending time correcting details of incompletely addressed mail before posting them back to the sender pointing out their mistakes.The system has frustrated the public and caused problems for reinsurance companies awaiting important documents from overseas.Responding yesterday, Mr Richards said: “The first duty of the Post Office is to deliver the mail, fast and efficiently.“The return-to-sender policy, as described by the Ombudsman and criticised by users, indicates it has become a roadblock and not the facilitator it is supposed to be.“The fact that postal workers spend time correctly addressing incoming and outgoing mail and then returning the mail to senders instead of sending it on to intended recipients says this is the case.“The important point here is that the Post Office is in the customer service business. That has got to be the starting point for its operating policies. Helping the customer, working with the customer must be its first focus.”In yesterday’s Royal Gazette, Mrs Minors stated: “As it relates to correspondence which is improperly addressed if there are minor infractions — if we can — we will correct those pieces of correspondence and deliver accordingly.“In instances where we cannot make the corrections or deliver the mail, the correspondence is returned to sender.”Mr Richards reflected: “I am concerned Minister Minors’ reiteration of the return-to-sender policy in this morning’s newspaper indicates the Government doesn’t understand the problem.“That’s important because this is a leadership issue. The Government has to set tone, and the attitude, by which workers work. This is an eminently correctable problem, and we look forward to hearing that adjustments have been made.“The bottom line is this: Bermuda is in the customer service business.“Performing services well, in everything we do, so that our customers are satisfied and want to continue doing business with us, is crucial step to getting ourselves back on the road to recovery and prosperity.“Bermuda can do it, but it will require change. Revising the Post Office’s ‘return-to-sender’ policy is one way we can do that.”
Yesterday’s
Royal Gazette article on the ‘return-to-sender’ policy prompted a string of comments from readers sharing their own experiences.One person using the name Snoopy said: “I live on Pitts Bay Road in Pembroke, in a well known house.“An important document I needed for a job application was returned to sender three times for missing the postcode. In fact, it was not missing, it was just below the rectangular plastic see through space.“You would think the post office person would know by now this area is HM06. I actually wonder if some people in Bermuda have not had a lobotomy. How is it cost savings when it was sent back three times and received four times?”Mister Wolf wrote: “I have had numerous issues with it and had many upset clients asking me what planet Bermuda is on for sending back packages which have a minor error in it on the postcode.“The same packages were to be sent to PO Box HMXXXX but the postcode put down was the street address of the company. HM06 instead of HM HX with everything else correct.“The damage this has done to our reputation as a business centre is incalculable.”Kim in ATL said: “We mailed our nephew a cheque for his graduation in May. He never received it and we always wondered what happened to it. Eleven months later, the battered envelope arrived back at our residence, stamped ‘return to sender’.“We had the house name and the street number and name correct but got the postcode wrong. This is one of three houses on the street and a three-year-old could have delivered that special piece of mail. Shame on you lazy postal workers!”Get Real said: “For many years, I did the Post Office’s delivery service job of delivering my brother-in-law’s mail since he lived right next door and for whatever reason, his mail frequently ended up in our mailbox, despite his mail clearly showing #2, while our address clearly showed #4.“Once these new strict policies and rules came into practice, I started sending returning my brother-in-law’s mail back to the post office for them to proper delivery via the mail delivery service. Two can play at being anal.”DeeCee wrote: “My son and his wife sent me a birthday card from Devon, UK. It never arrived. They had inadvertently put my postcode as DV05 instead of DV04.“It arrived back at their Devon residence some months later! The envelope contained the house name, the number and the street address the only thing incorrect was the postcode was one digit out.”McQueen remarked: “Our postal delivery person is wonderful. She told us she had to follow instructions when the policy first came out and found it very upsetting that she was told not to deliver various pieces of mail that had a mistake in the address — when she knew exactly where to deliver them.“Postmen and women are smart people and they know most of their beat personally.“My point — don’t blame the postman — blame the bureaucracy.”
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