I moved out to Van Nuys, Calif. from Autin, Texas to attend graduate school. I stayed with a friend for a few weeks while I found my own place and got settled. Of course, I sent “change of address” cards to the various post offices in Austin that would handle my mail.
This evening my friend (with whom I stayed and who still getse some of my forwarded mail) calls and says he has some bad news. He’s just gotten a forwarded card in the mail from Austin sherrif’s dept. saying there’s a warrant out for my arrest.
JUST FUCKING GREAT!! Not only has this semester been piss poor, but now the Texas Rangers will show up on my door step and arrest me! :eek:
On closer observation, however, it turns out that the card is for a MICHAEL THOMAS (same last name, but my first name is very different!). Someone at the southside Austin post office didn’t look closely enough when comparing the names with the forwarded mail list and slapped it with my label.
Just fuckin’ great, Austin post office! Give me a fuckin’ heart attack!! How many other fuckin’ warrants have you mis-handled?
Sorry, it’s a lame rant, but damn, this one scared me! Just what I need, a warrant for my arrest ontop of everything else this semester has handed me!
Join the club. I keep getting forwarded child support notices for some guy whose name is relatively similar to mine, from some court in Travis County. Apparently, Vaguely Similar Name Guy lived in the same apartment complex as me a couple years ago. I called the AG’s office one time to tell them to back the heck off, but I’m still getting the notices.
Now, on to the real question. You left Austin? For California? Were you high? If the Texas Rangers actually show up on your doorstep and drag you back to Austin, I would suggest that you thank them profusely, attempt to give them a tip, and take them out for a couple pitchers of Shiner.
This is why I don’t fool with those things. The PO has never gotten this right. When I first left home 25 years ago, I naively put in a change of address, and I most certainly checked the box stating that this was for a single person only, not the entire family. Yet for the next year (that’s how long they were good for back then) I got my entire family’s mail, no matter how many times all six of us called the two post offices involved.
I rent an apartment that was previously occupied by a friend of mine. Good thing, since, despite her putting in a change of address I got her mail for six months.
Yes, I moved. Texas is too hot, too flat and too Republican. It allows someone as idiotic as Dubya to be elected two terms as Governor and thinks it has the right to stick its nose into my bedroom to make sure I’m not having icky sex.
Knoxville’s not any better. I took an external loan to help pay for summer classes. The other day, I got a notice from them (just a “congrats, your loan is approved” kind of thing) that had a yellow sticker on it that said “addressee unknown, return to sender”. How it finally got to me with that on it, I don’t know - and it didn’t look like it had actually been returned to Nellie Mae.
But the address on the envelope was correct - the only problem may have been that it didn’t say “Apt 123” but was addressed to:
About the only complaint I can level at the Austin post office is that they changed the late drop off at the main post office from 9pm to 8pm a few years back. But I think that with more therapy, some day I will be able to love again.
The Austin post office contributed directly to me losing a job, so I have my own reason to hate it.
My last August, my old roommate moved out and a new one moved in, while I stayedi n the apartment where I’d lived for a year. I can only guess the mailman assumed I’d moved out as well, despite an utter lack of any official notice on my part, and started returning all my mail. The letter that went back to my grandparents was merely annoying, while the cell phone bill that got bounced back to the company caused my service to be cut off immediately.
I had no idea I didn’t have service, since I’ve always paid it promptly and in full. When a scheduling mishap occurred, the company had no way to contact me to rectify it and fired me.
I got someone else’s tax refund check this year. We get 2 other people’s mail regularly: The woman who grew up in this house has the same first name as me (Patricia). Her last name is totally different from mine, and she hasn’t lived here for at least 10 years (my SO bought this house from her parents) and probably even longer. The other folks whose mail we get live at XXX First St. N., we live at XXX First St.
Packages, mail, pizza, flower and furniture deliveries - they even tried to install the XXX First St. N. people’s cable here!
Fionn, sorry to hear it. I’ve had the post office screw up lots of things lately. I’m almost convinced they need to be privatized.
Mr. Hand, sounds typical for Travis county. Luckily, I’ve never had any parking tickets (apparently what they want Mr. Michael Thomas for), so proving their case would be interesting. Hopefully the above Mr. Thomas hasn’t also moved to southern California for whatever reasons.
Thanks, Freyr. It was months and months ago, so I’m not that pissed off about it anymore.
I am, however, wondering how well the post office will handle my moving from an apartment 1405 to 1305 later this month. I’ll be extra vigilant with the bills.
