I have lived in the same house for about 25 years and the house has been on the lot for 55 years. The address on the house is in 12-inch numbers just above the mailbox beside the front door and easily visible from the street. In my subdivision the streets are in alphabetical order.
In the past 10 years or so, I had a lady on the street to the west of me stop by often with a fist full of my mail which had been mistakenly delivered to her house. I did the same with her when I got her mail. We had the same number, wrong street and she was North while I was South. Since this happened about once a month, we soon got to know each other.
But we have both aged and she no longer comes over with my mail, although I still walk over with hers. She phones. The same thing happened with the people living at the same address on the street east of me but not as frequently for some reason.
Until his death we also got the mail of a man with the same name as my husband's although the man lived about six blocks from us. His street address had totally different numbers than ours. We used to take his letters to him also.
All of this mix-up was inconvenient, but I got to meet some of the neighbours.
However, undependable mail delivery can cause expense and even danger.
A year ago, I was waiting for some medical documents that didn't arrive. I called the issuing company and they said that the mail had been returned because there was no such address. They refused to send the documents again so I had to pick them up in Vancouver.
My next difficulty with the mail service was when I received a bill from a company with which I also deal.
My husband, who couldn't find his reading glasses that morning, ripped open the bill and wrote a cheque, muttering loudly about the cost. I interceded. The bill turned out to belong to my friend one block over.
I called the company and told them what had happened. They were very understanding and told me what to do.
But I was upset so I went to the Fifth Avenue post office and complained.
I was told I was being very unreasonable.
However, on my insistence, they contacted their supervisor who, in turn, called and apologized.
Last week, my neighbour complained that she got a late payment bill for a bill she never received until about a month after she paid the late payment bill. The original bill was included with a number of other pieces of mail that had not been correctly delivered.
Finally, on Thursday a polite customer service representative from Integris Credit Union called asking what my present address was as my mail was being returned.
I told her it hadn't changed in 25 years.
I got the re-mailed letter today with a note in large print stating that this address did exist.
Vivien Lougheed
Prince George
