I subscribe to Mpost which is a very convenient and cheaper option (if you don't get too much mail everyday), our POSTA has come up with since the last few years. One does not have to rent a box, but uses our phone number (unfortunately only a safaricom number can be used for this service), instead of a box number to receive mail.
How it works is that when we get mail, the nearest POSTA to us, the zip code we registered under and which we use with our phone number, will send a SMS to us to come and pick our mail.
And as you will see in my signature line below, I happen to be a registered user of this service since its inception.
Now, one would think that this is so convenient and great. But, not so, unfortunately. Of course, our mail still can get lost/stolen like it does with regular box subscribers, but I discovered yesterday to my misfortune that due to POSTA's employees some of whom lack in commonsense and competency, they can really frustrate and cause needless expense in these days of high cost of living.
I got a notification yesterday (28th April 2022), mid-morning that I should collect my mail from Mkomani Posta. Since I am not very mobile, I usually send somebody else to pick my mail and until now have not had a problem till yesterday. I sent my house-help to pick my mail as she usually does, but when she got there the person manning the place was not the same one with whom she is familiar and she was told that I should go there in person with my ID to pick it.
Well, my girl came back and informed me that there was a new person there and she insisted that I have to go there myself with my ID. Now, this is not possible for the reasons stated above (the POSTA seniors), know this, too, and so I sent my girl back with my ID and also sent a SMS to Mkomani telling her that since I cannot come there in person, I was re-sending my girl to pick my mail and that she should be given it.
Unfortunately, this poor girl bounced again because this horrible person very rudely told her that it was not acceptable according to POSA regulations for anybody else to pick the mail other than the person whose mail it was and that I MUST go there myself with my ID. It mattered not in the least to her that I had given my ID to my house-help to show her as well as the fact that I had also sent her the SMS!
Now, my househelp comes to work only 2 days a week and this was the last day of work till after a 5 days break. I also live alone and so have no other person I can ask to go and collect my mail for me.
Therefore, I was in a dilemma and decided to call the Regional Manager of POSTA Mr. George Andati, who mercifully immediately answered my phone and listened to my problem patiently and promised that he would try and deal with it and get back to me.
He did so within a few minutes and told me that the matter was being dealt with by the person (I could not get his name due to hearing problems), in charge of these people who work at outlying post offices within the county.
The woman at Mkomani sent me a SMS again, telling me to go and pick my mail and could send my house-help as her boss had told her. Unfortunately, by this time my girl had gone home so I sent a message to Mr. Andati via WhatsApp that I no longer had the househelp at home and had no one else to send. Therefore, this person at Mkomani Posta, should deliver my mail to me instead at her own expense which would teach her a lesson!
This was not acceptable to POSTA's high command for some reason. That employee also called me just about half an hour before closure time to apologize and that I could now send my house-help to pick my mail. The tone that she was using was a metamorphosis from the previous nasty, horribly rude creature who had been answering my calls.
So, now I still have not got my mail and will only get it till sometime next week when my house-help comes to work.
Can POSTA please explain to me why this employee of theirs has been lacking so much in commonsense that despite being told of my circumstances and despite being presented with my ID, she refused to part with my mail? And she really was very horrible and rude on the phone as well as to my girl when she went to collect my mail - both times!
I wish our POSTA would start joining the rest of the majority of the countries of the world where mail is delivered at home, offices, etc. It would really help...
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