Postman Blues

Pos Malaysia is back in the news again, albeit in a negative light. The local newspapers have also been highlighting the inefficiency and carelessness of the postal services.

Today (Jan 18th, 2007), I received a postcard from my cousin in Singapore, post dated Dec. 4th, 2006, informing me that my cousin from UK was in town, one month and four days after it had been posted! So, the cartoon in a recent edition of the Star, showing the drawing of a snail in the Pos Malaysia logo, was most apt. Maybe Pos Malaysia should change their logo...so at least their customers would be forewarned that their mail may take some time to arrive at their destination...

Since I have a history of misplaced letters and wrong letters dropped into my box with the postal authorities, I have a list of postal personnel I can contact to impart my displeasure at such occurrences. In one instance, there were three wrong letters dropped into my box, so I handed them to the postmen when he came on his next round, and he took them back, but not before I gave him a "lecture" on his carelessness.

Despite this, letters continue to be dropped into the wrong letterboxes. It is just human error, though this should not be an excuse given by Pos Malaysia. Letters dropped into wrong boxes often incur inconvenience. Like for instance, when share dividend cheques are lost in transit, and the shareholder has to go through so much effort before a replacement cheque can be issued.

I have also been the unfortunate victim of a cheque lost in transit. An income tax refund was not replaced till seven years later, after a couple of trips to the Income Tax Department, seeing various personnel there, and being assured they would look into the matter. That was how long it took me to get the money back, just because of a postman’s carelessness.

So, please be civic minded, Tiarans, and drop back letters not meant for you, into the correct boxes, or hand them to the Tiara Management Office to be dropped back correctly.