The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

It seems common sense and decency have been upstaged by rule changes at the USPS. In our small town of 1,200 we do not have mail delivery to our homes as an option. The two choices are a mailbox at the end of the street, if living far enough away from the Post Office, or a Post Office Box.

With COVID-19 restricting so many folks to shopping from home due to store closures to in-person shopping we are having problems. Sellers want to know a street address, even though their shipper sometimes drops packages off at the local Post Office. At the Post Office a PO Box number is required. There have been more than a few instances of people not receiving their orders because of a requirement from DC to return items not properly addressed. This includes Christmas presents for their children!

Either sellers need to be required to accept BOTH street address and PO Box number OR the USPS needs to return to using common sense and notify those of us with only a PO Box that a package is at their facility. It has our name on it and street address even if missing a PO Box number because the shipper failed to include it. Often the shipper’s software will not accept an order with a PO Box number, even if entered as a secondary address.

During these trying times, and especially during this holiday season, frustrations such as this should be added to the mix.

Sincerely,

Jim Davison

Waitsburg, WA