An Open Letter to the Bulk Mail Center in Raleigh

It’s the first business day of 2012. The Bulk Mail center in Raleigh has reduced its hours, being open from only 11:30 to 4.

It was not so long ago that the bulk mail center in Raleigh (BMEU) was open from 10:30 to 7. And that I could deposit checks at the BMEU instead of going to the counter. Or that I could pick up trays and supplies from the BMEU and not have to go to the other side and wait an hour.

All of these changes have made it more difficult to do business with the Post Office.

And the Post Office complains that nobody mails!

I understand the need for the Post Office to reduce overhead and cut costs.

However,  the biggest problem at the Raleigh BMEU is their attitude towards mailers like me.

The clerks at the bulk mail center here in Raleigh need to recognize that mailers like me pay their salaries. Instead we are treated as annoyances. We are put in a “penalty box” waiting for a surly clerk to process our mail.

Again, it wasn’t that long ago that we could drop off the mail without waiting. Some excuse about Sarbanes-Oxley.

There are clerks at the BMEU center who are especially annoying. These people are protected by their unions so they can’t be fired.

There are so many postal regulations — and they are changing every day. I tell prospects that there is a reason  for the expression “go postal” and it’s my job security.

When will the post office recognize that we are partners and not treat us mailers as adversaries?

I want mail that I address to be delivered as quickly and cheaply as possible.

I know that if I do not follow regulations and have a clean address and barcode, the mail won’t be delivered promptly and my clients will be upset.

But yet there are a few clerks at the BMEU who think their job is to prevent the mail from going through. They are busy trying to find incredibly obscure regulations — actually they make them up! — to keep the mail from going through.

It’s not about address quality, list quality or even money in the account. It’s some imaginary infraction that I have had to call the big shots to fix.

There is no excuse for this behavior. The clerks at the BMEU need to treat us like the customers that we are. Trust me, if I treated my customers with the same level of service I get at the post office, I would have been out of business a long time ago.

I do not have a union job. I am a small business person who depends on the post office. My clients have options to handle their mail, even though all of us mailers complain about the treatment we receive in Raleigh.

I am active in the local Postal Customer Council and am not afraid to make my voice heard. I have often called the top people in the district to vent my frustration with certain clerks.

Let the Raleigh BMEU make a 2012 resolution to treat local mailers with respect that we deserve!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 at 9:00 am and is filed under Direct Mail, Post Office issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.