Usps ftl

The BBQ Pit
1

So, about a week ago, out of the blue, a friend of mine invites me on an all inclusive one week vacation in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. I remodeled his kitchen and bath for him last year on the cheap, and he wants to repay me. Sweet, right?

The next day (Monday, March 2) I head to the main branch off my local post office to attempt to get a passport. We are supposed to leave on Tuesday, March 10, and I’m skeptical that I can get a passport in time. I talk to three different people there, including the manager, and all three assure me, under no uncertain terms, that if I pay for the expedited shipping and processing, I will have a passport in hand by Friday, March 6. So I giddily plop down my $210 to get my passport to fun and adventure, and skip home, daydreaming of girls going wild.

Friday comes, no passport.
Saturday comes, no passport.

I head down to the post office, talk to the same manager, who says that it’s out on a truck for delivery. So I head over to my ex’s house, where it’s supposedly being delivered, and the mail comes, without my passport in it. I head BACK to the post office, and they tell me that they will hold it so I can come pick it up on Monday morning, the day before my trip.

Today is Monday. No passport. The post office tells me they never received it, that it was never on one of their trucks for delivery (the classic “May I ask who told you that?”) and that I should call the State Department. The State Department tells me (after 30 minutes on hold) that my passport hasn’t even been processed yet, and that the post office KNOWS that it takes a minimum of two weeks to process and mail back and should NEVER have told me otherwise.

No Mexico for me…

Now I’m upset. I speak with the manager at the post office, who says they cannot refund my money because the post office doesn’t even GET the money for passports, the money goes directly to the State Dept. The State Dept. won’t refund my money because it was the post office who misinformed me, not them.

I went from being geeked about a week in Mexico, to out $200 and fucking pissed.

The State Department has been great to work with, and the people at the post office were sweathearts too, were it not for the completely false information they gave me.

At this point, it looks like I either shell out an additional $450 to fly out on Wednesday, or I say screw it and eat the $200.

Anyone got $450? Yeah, me either…

:frowning:

2

I don’t know if it’s absolutely, positively too late, but try calling your Congresscritter. My roomie had a similar problem, called Barbara Boxer’s office, faxed over a release form, and she had her passport in 6 hours (which is amazing, because it was in North Carolina when she called Boxer’s office the first time that day).

It was hand delivered, too. Kind of amazing.

3

I second Diosa’s motion. This worked for my husband when he had to go on an international business trip on short notice. Try your representative, too. Your elected officials work for you. And sometimes they actually *work *for you!

4

Did that. Talked to a staffer from Jim Oberstar’s office. He called the State Department for me to get the ball rolling on it, and they are telling me I could get my passport tomorrow, but it won’t be until after my flight leaves, and Northwest Air wants $4xx to rebook me on a different flight.

5

So the federal government says it’s the federal government’s fault, but the federal government says it’s the federal government’s fault.

Tell me this isn’t a government organization.

6

Lol!

I made this exact point at the post office. They looked at me as though they were chimps and I was trying to explain an abacus to them…

7

Just got off the phone with Oberstar’s staffer. He is calling Northwest to try to get them to guarantee me a flight at 9.30 am tomorrow, and he will have my passport waiting for me at the airport if Northwest will play ball.

Cross your fingers for me. If this works, I will bring everyone back some delicious ceviche…

8

Let’s hope Oberstar and Northwest come through for you. I, personally, am not confident, but I hope you – and please take this in the best possible way – go the fuck away.

9

While in Mehico, have a CHimichango on me. Except it’s not on me, because I can’t pay for your meal. But in spirit, have a Chimichango on me.

10

I can honestly say, I have no idea how the best way to take this would be. Now I’m frantically trying to remember if I ever pissed off anyone with your username…

11

I’m pretty sure tdn is just telling you he hopes you get the vacation you’d planned for. You didn’t piss anyone off.

12

Exactly. Much like the slogan of a local travel agency: “Please go away. Now.”

13

Somebody please help fight my ignorance. I thought you could still go to Canada and Mexico from the US with a birth certificate and drivers license. Did this change?

14

I don’t know, but just over two years ago I went to Nassau with nothing more than a birth certificate. Had our trip been planned a week or two later, I would have needed a passport. New laws went into effect at that time.

15

I crossed into Mexico last October and that’s all I needed. But I traveled by land and I know that air travel may have different rules.

16

Yeah, sea and air travel requires a passport for readmittance to the States, at least, and the carriers pretty much expect to see one. The receiving country may or may not require a passport. You can still cross by land to Canada and Mexico without one.

17

I was a little confused about the air travel thing, as that’s not how I went. But sea travel explains it. I went by cruise ship.

18

The postal service is not a government agency.

But even if it were, this wouldn’t be any different than any large organization in which one person can be mistaken regarding what another department is capable of doing. The postal service doesn’t issue passports; it just delivers them.

19

It’s not? Please fight my ignorance here.

I thought it was part of the executive branch.

20

As such, it’s a “quasi-” governmental agency.