POSTA employees...

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...

Virus-free. www.avast.com

Re: National Geographic issues....

Subsequent to the email I wrote, below, on the 23/6/2012, I finally got my June 2012 edition of National Geographic. The condition that it came in leaves a lot to be desired, too. It is also a whole month or more from the time that I should have received it.

For some reason (paranoia?), best known to POSTA, they had opened the envelope despite it saying on it what it contained. But, this too, can be excused if it wasn't for the fact that they
have opened it in the most uncouth manner and then taped up their shoddy job. In other words, it has been mutilated. Why?

Cannot POSTA employees READ what it says on the cover? And even if they, being paranoid, HAD to open it, could they not do it in a more neater manner?

Is this the reason for it's late arrival? Which means that POSTA has been 'investigating' and sitting on our subscriptions for over a month!

Is the issue of July 2012 suffering the same fate? And are we going to get it late, too? And how many more issues are going to be vetted like this and for what reason?

For the information of POSTA, this magazine does not contain anything dangerous other than dispelling IGNORANCE, which some of the employees of POSTA seem to be seriously suffering from!

Please, make sure that we get our magazines intact, unmutilated and ON TIME, henceforth.

Raziya

On 6/23/2012 2:44 PM, Raziya wrote:

'Afternoon!

The following Nairobi address which distributes National Geographic magazine to its various subscribers in the country seems to be very inefficient in doing its work ....

National Geographic
c/o P.O. Box 36389
City Square - 00200
Nairobi
KENYA.

While, at least, one book store in Mombasa (Paper Connections, City Mall), has the June 2012 issue on its shelves, why is it that I being one of the subscribers since YEARS, have got neither the June issue or the coming July one. Btw, I usually get my issues in the 2nd or 3rd week of the preceding month, i.e. I should have got my June issue in May. This still has not arrived!

The reason I'm sending this to all the POSTA addresses is because, one of their senior staff in the GPO Mombasa, after getting the the distributor's address from me (it's always printed on the cover), tried getting their phone and/or email address from the City Square branch of POSTA so that we could follow this matter up, but, despite being a fellow senior staff here, they refused to give him this information. Why such secrecy?

And then POSTA has the temerity to increase it's rental rates in leaps and bounds. How dare they when their 'services' leave a lot to be desired!

Hence, my copying this email to the NG International customer service, too, so they know all the circumstances behind late and missing issues. The last time I'd missed my issue was April 2012 and the following was their response when I'd reported the matter online at their website. That one has mercifully already arrived, the one that was resent, not the original one. That one is still somewhere 'out there'!!!

So, why is POSTA, City Square, Nairobi, being so uncooperative?

Can the people concerned, please, deal with this problem, asap?!

Fed up of missing issues,
Raziya

On 4/26/2012 5:47 PM, NGS Customer Service wrote:

 Amsterdam, 26/04/2012                                                                                     Your membership number: 419308887           Dear MS RAZIYA MOHAMEDALI           Thank you for your e-mail.          We are sorry to hear that you have missed an issue of the magazine. On checking our records    it appears as though all of the magazines due to you have been dispatched in routine. As    requested, we have arranged to dispatch a replacement issue today. Please allow 2-3 weeks    for delivery. Should the original eventually arrive this may be kept with our compliments.          Thank you for your interest in National Geographic. If we can be of any further assistance,    do not hesitate to contact us or consult your online customer service page at www.ngmservice.   com.           Exceptional customer service is our number one priority. If at anytime you feel you're not    receiving this level of service, please feel free to contact my supervisor Paul Wilson, by    email at ngmsupervisor@custserv.com.          Yours Sincerely            National Geographic Society           You can access your account information online, 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week, at www.   ngmservice.com.  You can change an address, check on your expiration date, report missing    issues, renew an account and refer to a complete set of Frequently Asked Questions.   Just    go to www.ngmservice.com and click on MEMBERS OUTSIDE THE US AND CANADA. You may gain access    by using your account number or entering your name and address as it appears on the    addressing label.  Be sure to include your email address to complete the sign on.          Follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/natgeo      or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/natgeosociety 

National Geographic issues....

The following Nairobi address which distributes National Geographic magazine to its various subscribers in the country seems to be very inefficient in doing its work ....

National Geographic
c/o P.O. Box 36389
City Square - 00200
Nairobi
KENYA.

While, at least, one book store in Mombasa (Paper Connections, City Mall), has the June 2012 issue on its shelves, why is it that I being one of the subscribers since YEARS, have got neither the June issue or the coming July one. Btw, I usually get my issues in the 2nd or 3rd week of the preceding month, i.e. I should have got my June issue in May. This still has not arrived!

The reason I'm sending this to all the POSTA addresses is because, one of their senior staff in the GPO Mombasa, after getting the the distributor's address from me (it's always printed on the cover), tried getting their phone and/or email address from the City Square branch of POSTA so that we could follow this matter up, but, despite being a fellow senior staff here, they refused to give him this information. Why such secrecy?

And then POSTA has the temerity to increase it's rental rates in leaps and bounds. How dare they when their 'services' leave a lot to be desired!

Hence, my copying this email to the NG International customer service, too, so they know all the circumstances behind late and missing issues. The last time I'd missed my issue was April 2012 and the following was their response when I'd reported the matter online at their website. That one has mercifully already arrived, the one that was resent, not the original one. That one is still somewhere 'out there'!!!

So, why is POSTA, City Square, Nairobi, being so uncooperative?

Can the people concerned, please, deal with this problem, asap?!

Fed up of missing issues,
Raziya

On 4/26/2012 5:47 PM, NGS Customer Service wrote:

Amsterdam, 26/04/2012                                                                                     Your membership number: 419308887           Dear MS RAZIYA MOHAMEDALI           Thank you for your e-mail.          We are sorry to hear that you have missed an issue of the magazine. On checking our records    it appears as though all of the magazines due to you have been dispatched in routine. As    requested, we have arranged to dispatch a replacement issue today. Please allow 2-3 weeks    for delivery. Should the original eventually arrive this may be kept with our compliments.          Thank you for your interest in National Geographic. If we can be of any further assistance,    do not hesitate to contact us or consult your online customer service page at www.ngmservice.   com.           Exceptional customer service is our number one priority. If at anytime you feel you're not    receiving this level of service, please feel free to contact my supervisor Paul Wilson, by    email at ngmsupervisor@custserv.com.          Yours Sincerely            National Geographic Society           You can access your account information online, 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week, at www.   ngmservice.com.  You can change an address, check on your expiration date, report missing    issues, renew an account and refer to a complete set of Frequently Asked Questions.   Just    go to www.ngmservice.com and click on MEMBERS OUTSIDE THE US AND CANADA. You may gain access    by using your account number or entering your name and address as it appears on the    addressing label.  Be sure to include your email address to complete the sign on.          Follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/natgeo      or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/natgeosociety

While I am out of town, I found out that my friend's father, with whom I've left my duplicate post box key, still could not open my box nearly a month after I had paid my rent because it was sealed, yesterday.

The box was sealed last month on the 21st of November 2011 just because I forgot to pay my box rental within the 21 days. I was late by just a day in making this hefty payment at which point I rang up two senior 'officials' of Mombasa's POSTA to make certain that my box was unsealed, but it seems that while our POSTA, like every other so-called 'service' provider is very lax (this is a mild word), in providing their services, they are super efficient when it comes to cutting off these questionable services.

On the dot of 21 days, my box was sealed! But, even after making immediate payment AND informing 2 of its very senior 'officials' of this, they had not bothered to unseal my box till I followed this up with POSTA from half way across the country by making countless calls for them to take action, yesterday.

During my last call, I was informed of the fact that POSTA was supposed to be on strike, did I not know? But, since I had made the payment a whole month before this questionable strike, it was interesting to observe to my POSTA official that the box should have been unsealed immediately that payment was received by them. Instead, they did not.

And the interesting thing about all this is that it is just my friend's father's word against POSTA's. I would prefer to believe my friend's father since I know from previous bitter experiences that our POSTA works (if it ever does), anything but efficiently.

These people have gone of strike - but the kind of services they offer (at least in Mombasa), leaves a lot to be desired. Since the beginning of the year they have lost 3 very important letters of mine from my family in the USA. Then, since people who send you registered mail don't necessarily inform you about this, our POSTA nearly misplaced one of my registered mail, also. All because, somebody out in Nairobi 'forgot' to key in the registered mail number which resulted in nobody being able to follow it on the Internet including Mombasa's POSTA! The only information they had was that it had left it's original port at a particular date. After that nothing could be traced of it.

Mercifully, it was finally found at Mombasa's POSTA nearly a week after it had actually arrived! How does such an organization really justify it's current strike? And how dare they, considering they are as inefficient as the rest of this country's so-called 'service' providers? By increasing their pay, I personally don't think they will change their work ethic.

The only thing they are interested in is MONEY! This country literally worships it. They have no humanity in them - not a jot!

Re: Our inhuman POSTA!

'Evening!

I can tell from your response that you have not read my email properly. Didn't you read that whole paragraph below (I'm highlighting it for your benefit), where I've also explained how it would not be at all practical for me to keep changing box numbers everytime I move. And appreciated the fact that for a whole year, my mail had been forwarded to Mkomani at no extra cost?

While you (POSTA), is not responsible for traffic jams, it is expected that it would be more sensitive to people's problems - both financial and otherwise. And regarding postal services, you might listen, but, you do very little about solving those problems. If you remember, I was sitting right in your office on the day that my much awaited registered letter is stamped to have arrived at the GPO, but, when on leaving your office, I checked my mailbox, there was no notification there nor did your Head Postmaster, Mr. Ahmed, inform me of this while he too, was in your office. Instead, neither you nor I could even follow on the Internet what happened to this mail after it was put in the mailbag on the 27th of April 2011. In fact, when I finally asked you about the anomaly of the date of arrival, 4th May 2011 and the time it took for the notification to enter my box (10th May 2011), you found it quite difficult to explain. You told me, finally, that somebody in Nairobi had forgotten to swipe this number into the machine and hence, we could not follow it after the 27th of April 2011. When I asked you what you do to negligent people like these, you told me that you sacked them! I wonder if that actually happened.....?

So, with such postal 'services' what do you expect a user of your 'services' to do?

And please, after re-reading all of my email below, please think about what I've requested, again. Oh, btw, you make me sound like I consider myself a saint, but, again, if you re-read that email below, you'll find that I have admitted that I was really angry, frustrated and tired yesterday by the time I finally managed to see the supervisor.

Why does the mention and comparison of other postal services worldwide and that despite them delivering mail at your doorstep, they don't charge for that service, bother you so much since that is the first point you have made in your reply?

In fact, I am not asking for a free service, but, a considerate and understanding one since I already pay a very high rental on my box at the GPO and I don't even get so much mail in comparison which is why it shouldn't be such a bother for POSTA to redirect my mail to Mkomani. Please, re-read that highlighted bit, also. about why I cannot get a box at Mkomani, too.

You really don't sound like a person who is capable of understanding or sympathizing with another's problems and you, like many of your colleagues keep demanding that rules are rules without giving thought to anything else.

I would, again suggest, that you re-read what I have actually written without being in haste with your reply, next time.

Raziya

PS: Btw, my name is Raziya NOT Riya!



On 5/19/2011 6:45 PM, rpmcoast@posta.co.ke wrote:

Thanks Riya for your letter of complaint. I want to inform you that PCK does not offer free service. Am also wondering why you not mentioning that despite this fact we have been redirecting your mails at no extra cost for one whole year! Yesterday i informed you that there was mail for you in your box after you had made an inquiry and the next thing I heard from you telling me is that you were stuck in the jum and you were cursing posta! Does posta controll the flow of traffic? Then you came to the post office and made alot of noise at the counters. That type of behavior is not good. If you have a problem we have always listened. We advised you to transfer your box to mkomani where you stay and you have refused that your box has to remain at the mombasa gpo.This refusal implies that you want to be coming to gpo. Also note that there is nothing in record that you made any requests a part from writing so may e-mails coplaining about posta.   Please I would like to advise you that if you have any comlaints about the postal services we offer then direct them to us in writing and in a civil manner rather than coming to posta and screaming all over. We are ready to serve you better but these services must be within the reguations.                 

'Afternoon! 

Our postal 'services' are not only thoroughly inefficient and highly expensive, but, I've just discovered, they are completely inhuman, too.  The only thing that dictates their shoddy services is MONEY!!!! Nothing else besides for they can't even understand a person's many problems and not only refuse to help, but, the only thing they want one to do in these expensive, difficult and trying times is just pay them extra for any little request that one might ask of them.  As mentioned previously, POSTA has lost at least two of my letters since the beginning of the year and they have no explanation for this other than the reason that they were forwarding my mail to the Mkomani post office. Since I've moved in that area last year, the then, head post master, Mr. Khator, had been good enough to grant me this facility at no cost because getting a box in Mkomani would be a needless expense. For one, I would have to inform countless people of my change of address and since I'm retired/unemployed, disabled and hardly go into town, a needless and extra expense. Also, he knows about the disease that I suffer from and it's not always convenient for me to make my way all the way into town just for a couple of mail. Anyway, GPO is the one that sorts the mail and then delivers the relevant mail to the various post offices even all the way to Malindi.  Therefore, just including my couple of mails once in a while, one would understand, is not such a big issue. Also, I'm already paying an exorbitant rental for my small box at the GPO which one would think would cover any expense, if there was any, in forwarding my less than 10 mails a month to the Mkomani branch.  Well, since I made 'noise' about my missing mail (and this was not necessarily because the mail was being sent to Mkomani as my missing mail issues go back many years even when l lived in town), this year, suddenly everybody has started blaming the fact that I get my mail at Mkomani, as one of the reasons. This is NOT true! Also, when I went to see the Regional Manager two weeks ago regarding my current registered mail (from India), on the 4th of May 2011 and the attitude of his Head post master, Mr. Ahmed, I was told that it was 'illegal' for my mail to be forwarded in this manner to Mkomani and that it should be stopped forthwith! He was not ready to listen to any argument on WHY it was going to be totally inconvenient, expensive and frustrating to go all the way into the town centre to get my mail. The only thing they have done is allowed me to park in their 'yard'.  Yesterday, I crossed the Nyali bridge and if it wasn't for having to go all the way to the GPO, I would have saved myself countless amount of time and money if I hadn't had to go there. In fact, I wasted a lot of time getting through our horrible Mombasa traffic and then accessing the GPO's 'yard' was another time consuming exercise since the lane between Bima Towers and GPO has been closed off (one can only get up to the GPO 'yard'). There were already 3 vehicles there going in opposite directions! It took nearly half an hour before this snarl up was sorted out and I managed to park in the 'yard'.  When I tried to open my box, it wouldn't do so, so I had to walk some more from one counter to another trying to get the supervisor. Of course, by this time I was thoroughly frustrated and very angry for it was the 2nd time in two weeks that this post box key would not open my box.  By the time the Supervisor showed up, I was getting late and was quite tired of all this mess and inconveniences that our POSTA is the cause of and he was good enough to get my mail for me (had to wait some more....), and told me that the lock would need to be changed and that I should give them my two keys and they would do the needful and also apologized for this, thank God.  I tried calling Mr. Khator this morning but they have been in meetings since yesterday, it seems and one wonders what they discuss at these forums - probably how to fleece the renters as much as possible - for when I finally managed to talk to him over the lunch hour, this previously kind and understanding head post master has become like his superior and only talks about changing my box and/or charging me a whole rent of a box for me to be able to get my mail at Mkomani!  Why should I pay the equivalent of two mailboxes when I don't get enough mail in the one box to justify that rental? I cannot understand this needless expense as it's not as if POSTA was going to be making a special trip to Mkomani to deliver my mail IF any. My mail would be coming with the rest of the Mkomani mail. And even if I was to cancel the town mailbox and get one at Mkomani, what will happen if I again move back into town?  Btw, I have just been asking people who come from other countries where they get their mail delivered at home about how much they pay for that service. I was told that they don't pay anything! How strange that the majority of the countries of the world deliver mail to the addresses instead of shoving them into postal boxes where the renters have to pick it up, and yet, this service is free. Very interesting, indeed. And even if they are paying for this, it would be thoroughly worth it, I think.  So, isn't POSTA out to make a fast buck at the expense of their users? And they even consider it illegal to just forward a couple of mail to a branch neighbourhood post office? I wonder what would happen if a person got totally incapacitated and could not to go to pick up their mail from any of our questionable post offices? Oh, and if they are thinking of the answer that we should send somebody to do this for us, then, I have a further question - what if they were alone (like I am), and didn't have somebody to do this for them? Do our various 'service' providers ever think along these lines? In the current scenario, there is the needless expense and inconveniencing somebody to the point of irritation and frustration.  Raziya  

Our inhuman POSTA!

Our postal 'services' are not only thoroughly inefficient and highly expensive, but, I've just discovered, they are completely inhuman, too.

The only thing that dictates their shoddy services is MONEY!!!! Nothing else besides for they can't even understand a person's many problems and not only refuse to help, but, the only thing they want one to do in these expensive, difficult and trying times is just pay them extra for any little request that one might ask of them.

As mentioned previously, POSTA has lost at least two of my letters since the beginning of the year and they have no explanation for this other than the reason that they were forwarding my mail to the Mkomani post office. Since I've moved in that area last year, the then, head post master, Mr. Khator, had been good enough to grant me this facility at no cost because getting a box in Mkomani would be a needless expense. For one, I would have to inform countless people of my change of address and since I'm retired/unemployed, disabled and hardly go into town, a needless and extra expense. Also, he knows about the disease that I suffer from and it's not always convenient for me to make my way all the way into town just for a couple of mail. Anyway, GPO is the one that sorts the mail and then delivers the relevant mail to the various post offices even all the way to Malindi.

Therefore, just including my couple of mails once in a while, one would understand, is not such a big issue. Also, I'm already paying an exorbitant rental for my small box at the GPO which one would think would cover any expense, if there was any, in forwarding my less than 10 mails a month to the Mkomani branch.

Well, since I made 'noise' about my missing mail (and this was not necessarily because the mail was being sent to Mkomani as my missing mail issues go back many years even when l lived in town), this year, suddenly everybody has started blaming the fact that I get my mail at Mkomani, as one of the reasons. This is NOT true! Also, when I went to see the Regional Manager two weeks ago regarding my current registered mail (from India), on the 4th of May 2011 and the attitude of his Head post master, Mr. Ahmed, I was told that it was 'illegal' for my mail to be forwarded in this manner to Mkomani and that it should be stopped forthwith! He was not ready to listen to any argument on WHY it was going to be totally inconvenient, expensive and frustrating to go all the way into the town centre to get my mail. The only thing they have done is allowed me to park in their 'yard'.

Yesterday, I crossed the Nyali bridge and if it wasn't for having to go all the way to the GPO, I would have saved myself countless amount of time and money if I hadn't had to go there. In fact, I wasted a lot of time getting through our horrible Mombasa traffic and then accessing the GPO's 'yard' was another time consuming exercise since the lane between Bima Towers and GPO has been closed off (one can only get up to the GPO 'yard'). There were already 3 vehicles there going in opposite directions! It took nearly half an hour before this snarl up was sorted out and I managed to park in the 'yard'.

When I tried to open my box, it wouldn't do so, so I had to walk some more from one counter to another trying to get the supervisor. Of course, by this time I was thoroughly frustrated and very angry for it was the 2nd time in two weeks that this post box key would not open my box.

By the time the Supervisor showed up, I was getting late and was quite tired of all this mess and inconveniences that our POSTA is the cause of and he was good enough to get my mail for me (had to wait some more....), and told me that the lock would need to be changed and that I should give them my two keys and they would do the needful and also apologized for this, thank God.

I tried calling Mr. Khator this morning but they have been in meetings since yesterday, it seems and one wonders what they discuss at these forums - probably how to fleece the renters as much as possible - for when I finally managed to talk to him over the lunch hour, this previously kind and understanding head post master has become like his superior and only talks about changing my box and/or charging me a whole rent of a box for me to be able to get my mail at Mkomani!

Why should I pay the equivalent of two mailboxes when I don't get enough mail in the one box to justify that rental? I cannot understand this needless expense as it's not as if POSTA was going to be making a special trip to Mkomani to deliver my mail IF any. My mail would be coming with the rest of the Mkomani mail. And even if I was to cancel the town mailbox and get one at Mkomani, what will happen if I again move back into town?

Btw, I have just been asking people who come from other countries where they get their mail delivered at home about how much they pay for that service. I was told that they don't pay anything! How strange that the majority of the countries of the world deliver mail to the addresses instead of shoving them into postal boxes where the renters have to pick it up, and yet, this service is free. Very interesting, indeed. And even if they are paying for this, it would be thoroughly worth it, I think.

So, isn't POSTA out of make a fast buck at the expense of their users? And they even consider it illegal to just forward a couple of mail to a branch neighbourhood post office? I wonder what would happen if a person got totally incapacitated and could not to go to pick up their mail from any of our questionable post offices? Oh, and if they are thinking of the answer that we should send somebody to do this for us, then, I have a further question - what if they were alone (like I am), and didn't have somebody to do this for them? Do our various 'service' providers ever think along these lines? In the current scenario, there is the needless expense and inconveniencing somebody to the point of irritation and frustration.

Re: constantly missing and lost mail

I am very disappointed with your response and disgusted, too. The people who write to me using your POSTA's horrible 'services', don't necessarily let me know in advance that they are sending me something by snail mail. It's when they have already sent something on it's way that they tell me by email to expect a post and what might be it's contents. Hence, I can't and wouldn't want them to go through a totally unnecessary expense of requesting them to send whatever it is that they send, using Registered mail.

This demand by you (POSTA), is totally unwarranted and uncalled for and just proves my point that POSTA in Mombasa is a completely 3rd class, or even lower, operation. Of course, if POSTA is going to reimburse me for the cost of the registered mail just so that they can fix responsibility for wayward mail, I'm quite willing to try and ask my various known and unknown correspondents to use the registered facility. Why is it so difficult to reign in your own incompetent workers? You should know them better since POSTA hires them.

Regarding your second point of picking my mail from my box at GPO. This is highly inconvenient for me as I do not come into town very often and not as far as the GPO (hardly). The traffic and the parking is insane. But, how may I ask is this inconveniencing me going to help you in monitoring your horrible and very inhumane staff, may I know?

Because, of this nonsense, I was told to pick up a registered mail from the GPO yesterday. So, let me relate my misadventures while trying to do this very simple exercise.

First, please keep in mind that I am middle aged and disabled with multiple disabilities which you and your various minions seem to prefer to ignore. Since there is no parking easily available at the front or side of the GPO, I am constantly told to use the parking at the Parcels office and then ask the various staff of GPO there to call the head postmaster (whoever that is), to come to my aid. This I did and fortunately for me, yesterday, there was accompanying me a young very pregnant lady with two small children, who is herself not feeling too well and has been told by her Dr. to keep movements to a minimum. Alas, for her it was not to be! Because, when I went into the parcels/EMS office I asked a man behind the EMS counter to please call a Mr. Ahmad (the postmistress at Mkomani had told me to get him), from the GPO. This man was not at all in a hurry to do anything and told us to have a seat and wait till he finds the time to do so. He seemed to be completely oblivious of the fact that we might also be in a hurry and didn't want to have a 'picnic' with small kids in the waiting area, either. Finally, after asking him a number of times to please hurry or use one of the phones to achieve his purpose, he left to go into the bowels of GPO and disappeared for a fairly long time.

So, I decided to call Mkomani post office and ask the post mistress to please do something about this and she in turn asked me to give my phone to the cashier of EMS. They had quite a lengthy conversation (at my expense), after which the illusive Mr. Ahmad finally materialized.

What happened next, as far as I am concerned, was totally unwarranted and an exercise by POSTA to deliberately frustrate and annoy a client. Because this Mr. Ahmad first asked me to accompany him to the main GPO (as though we didn't know our way), then changed his mind when I told him why it was necessary to personally be there to pick up my registered mail since I can't walk for long distances at times and on uneven surfaces. At this point he asked me for my ID which I gave to him. Then he asked us to wait at the same EMS place for his return.

Well, he did return but after nearly 20 minutes, but, only with a blue card (I had not had time to pick up my registered mail card - pink - from Mkomani the day before or in the morning, either, but was told that as long as I gave my box number and name with ID, I would be given my registered mail), and no mail. He asked me to sign the thing, returned my ID and told me that I would HAVE to accompany him to the GPO myself to be handed over my registered mail. Since, I wasn't in a condition to walk all the way to the GPO registered mail office, he agreed to let the young lady accompanying me go with him instead to be given my mail.

Now, why and since when does the GPO have this rule of having to physically 'see' the person to whom the registered mail belongs? I thought that anybody whom I trust can go with my ID to collect my registered mail for me. I am now quite sure of what my brother told me - that somebody at POSTA is victimizing me deliberately.

I observed another revelation when I studied the envelope that carried my mail. I noticed that it had been posted from Bangalore, India on the 6th of April 2011 and reached Mombasa on the 13th of April 2011, yet, the registered mail card, though dated 13/4/2011, arrived at Mkomani post office on the 28th April 2011, a whole 2 weeks later. Despite it being a registered mail?!!!!

So, when POSTA tells me to ask my correspondents to register their mail to me, it does not justify it's reasoning for even Registered mail can get lost - especially mine. In fact, I was not even expecting this particular mail from India. It's just by good fortune that it was registered, but, since I was not expecting it I would not even have known about it if POSTA had, like quite a lot of my other mail, 'lost' it. At least, they seemed to be very averse to part with it even when I personally tried to go and pick it up at GPO.

About renting a box at Mkomani - even if one was available, it would be completely impractical for me to change box numbers after all these years. People whom I can't even remember know and keep in touch with me using the present one.

Please, do not try to pass the buck. I know that even if I had a box at Mkomani, it is still GPO which sorts mail for all the other post offices around. So the problem of lost, misplaced and other misadventures of our mail will still continue. The daft sorters are still the same old semi and illiterate, incompetent persons at your GPO! Do something about that instead on inconveniencing your renters to do this, that and the other, please.

Very disgusted with your 'services',
Raziya

On 4/28/2011 12:39 PM, hpmrmombasa@posta.co.ke wrote:

Dear Razia, We are sorry for the inconvinience occassioned to you. To help us serve you better, kindly assit as follows:- 1. Advice the people who send you correspondence to register them, this will enable us trace your correspondence and fix responsibility. 2.Pick your mail from your box at Mombasa GPO,this will enable us to monitor our staff closely. 3.Rent a box at Mkomani.  Striving to serve you better.  Mariam.I.Ali 

Constantly missing and lost mail....

There is a problem with our Mombasa GPO's sorting office. The people populating that office are either semi- or illiterate or half blind or under the influence of questionable substances! Due to them, I have lost at least 2 letters since the beginning of this year from the USA.

The latest one was posted from there on the 4th of April 2011 and it still has not reached Mombasa. Unfortunately, I am not the only person who pays a hefty rental every year to Posta, only to have my numerous mails either misplaced or disappearing altogether. There are countless others out there who have a similar problem with our POSTA.

Since my last missing mail from the USA, POSTA's officialdom asked me to tell my brother to send his mail by registered post so they could track it. But, to do this will cost my brother $15 which we can ill afford. So, is this some kind of blackmail that if we don't do POSTA's bidding, they will constantly lose our mail if it is sent by normal channels?

There are also irresponsible members of the public who, when they get a letter in their boxes which does not belong to them, simply throw it away or carry it around for days before re-posting the thing (hence, the sometimes soiled condition of our mail), finally. From this point on, POSTA's sorting staff, start the whole process and IF we're lucky, we finally get our long lost mail or if they are under any one of the mental conditions mentioned in the first paragraph, the letter will be lost forever, never to be seen or heard of again!

I've had such things happen to my letters over the years and now it is even more easy to know the fate of them. I know that my brother posted the letter on the 4th of April 2011 because he emailed me about it. And since it takes 10 days for mail from the USA to get here (one gets the feeling that it either hitch-hikes or walks), this period is now over but, I still haven't got my mail.

Why do I constantly have these missing mail problems despite, as I've been told, that my box is under investigations? So, if this is the case, it can't be my box suddenly swallowing my mail, but, it has to be the sorters......, I think. Can POSTA please employ responsible and educated people there?

And how is POSTA going to deal with this latest missing mail issue short of demanding the we use their registered and expensive 'service'? The pain and headache that they cause has to be experienced to be believed.

Get your act together, POSTA!

Wheel-chair friendly Parcel's office!

Yesterday, I discovered that the long awaited and very necessary wheel-chair ramp has been constructed by POSTA's Parcel's office. Now, people with mobility problems no longer have to fret, Alhamdulillah.

In fact, the Mombasa Parcel's office, has closed off the previous monstrous entrance where the steps were plain awful and only a very fit person was capable of negotiating them. Now, the entrance to the place is through a blue gate. This is where the ramp is.

It was such a relief to discover this! Keep it up, Posta, and thank you.

Missing mail, again

As I mentioned in another email, yesterday, that it's the height of irony to greet another countryman/woman a happy new year. For while on the eve of it, we started in the hesitant hope that it would be better than what we were living behind, (thank God!), just a week into it, and we're swamped with the ever present shoddy 'services' from all quarters!

Of course, most of the so-called 'service' providers starting with the ineffective and horrible council to the water delivery and now the postal 'services'. Nothing works efficiently in this country. At least, not without many visits, calls and frustrations. Why should this be so?

We seem to have the most questionable work ethic and unaccountability everywhere....., including private companies. Why?

This latest is about missing mail. My post box has been surprisingly and strangely empty for the past nearly 4 weeks! Calling the head postmaster (3 times), since yesterday, hasn't brought any light to the condition. How strange that I haven't even received the ever present bills not to mention my official letters from various institutions and the magazines I subscribe to.

The head postmaster, insists that there is no mail for me. My response is - for a week or two this could be possible, but, definitely NOT, for 4 weeks!!!! As I've always maintained, our postal 'services' seem to employ, semi- or illiterates or their employees are under the influence while at work and therefore do not put the right mail into the correct box. In the process our mail goes missing......, sometimes never to be seen, again!

I will be ever so glad on the day that I depart from this horrible and unaccountable country, either to my Maker or to better and 'greener' pastures, Insha'Allah.

Missing publications and the disabled

In any given year, I end up missing a number of my monthly magazines that I subscribe to. Why is this the case? One wonders what happens to them....

I can only think of the following reasons:

1. They never arrive. This is highly unlikely since they do, for the rest of the year.

2. The sorters at the post office have vision problems and therefore don't put them in the right box.

3. The sorters are either under the influence and/or are semi- or illiterate and are not doing their job of putting the mail in their right boxes.

4. When these are put in the wrong boxes, the 'recipients' either throw away what they wrongly receive or if it's an interesting magazine, etc., take possession of it and never return it.

Now, considering that we pay through our noses for publications and the postal services, it's very infuriating for our mail to go missing on a consistent basis, despite making numerous complaints about it to the various employees of POSTA. Other than saying 'sorry', there's not much they can do about missing and lost mail.

Second point - Since some years, I've been trying to get our post office to become disabled 'friendly', to no avail. So many of their offices are up staircases with no lift (elevator), working and the parcel office is an insult to the disabled. Do our postal authorities think that disabled people don't get any mail or parcels? I was assured many years ago and even recently that there are plans to move the registered post window/s downstairs as well as a ramp with a grab bar built at the parcels office, but, none of these have as yet materialized. Why?

They also seem to think, like many other places, that the disabled don't drive and/or are driven and don't provide any parking places for them. Again, why?

Their employees are also highly insensitive to the various disabilities that a person can suffer from. One example in recent memory was last week when I went to pay my box rental fee. Now, I have a hearing problem among many other things since I suffer from Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The lady who was attending to the counter continued mumbling despite me telling her that I couldn't make out what she was saying and that I needed to see her lips moving and could she also speak louder. Her response to both my walking stick and my request was an annoyed look and a reluctantly raised voice. Is this the way they deal with the public?

And one gets the feeling that their continuously rising postal rates are inversely proportional to their 'services'!

My latest 'adventures'....

I've just returned from our GPO after trying to get a phone number of MEDIVET PRODUCTS LTD via the available box number that one of their products, Calamine Lotion displays on the label. Unfortunately, they have not included the postal code of their Nairobi address - 47951.

I thought, after making various enquiries to a couple of pharmacies here as well as consulting the directories including the yellow pages and getting nowhere, that following another clue, the box number, on the label would bear fruit. Hence, my trip to the post office this afternoon.

In fact, knowing that our GPO is totally disabled unfriendly, I first tried ringing the Regional Manager's (RM), office whose secretary sounded all at sea about what I wanted and then left me holding on without explaining why.

But, I still am desperately trying to get this information and decided to brave the awful stairs (their public elevators are hardly ever working and today was one such day), to the Head Postmaster's office which is on the Mezzanine floor. This Head Postmaster, Mr. Taib, is anything but helpful and said he couldn't help. So, then I used the staff elevator from this floor to get to the 8th floor where Posta's administration offices are.

There, my first stop was the RM's office and I was immediately shown in by his secretary. But, once I explained the purpose of my visit, he tried to get this information from the GPO in Nairobi but got nowhere. He also told me that as the address did not have a postal code it was something next to impossible to locate it and even if this was done it would be unethical to let me have their phone number! Doesn't matter that this is a business address, etc.

Now, to digress a bit. Doesn't our Posta have a data base? And the little that I know of computers and what they are capable of doing, this is a company address and hence, should be having a phone number. How does it do business, otherwise? And it's not a new company either. It's a few years old, at least, if not longer. They are probably using old labelling and that's why it does not have the postal code displayed. Also, why doesn't Posta have a current directory for it's customers?

Now, to get back to my misadventures... Getting no information from this office, I tried going to a couple of others - at one, the person had left for the day and at another, she couldn't help me either, but, at least she took my number down and promised that she would pass it on to the person at whose office I'd bounced earlier.

I then had to use the same elevator to get to the Mezzanine floor walk all the way down the length of the corridor and down the staircase! On the way out I decided to check my mailbox and I found a lone notification informing me of a parcel awaiting me at the parcels office.

Now, this parcels office is terrible! Despite having complained about the inaccessibility of it by the old and/or disabled, our Posta, over the years has done absolutely nothing to make it better. The steps are too high and there are no grab bars either for people using crutches or stick to use. Forget about wheelchair users. It seems that our Posta doesn't have nor would encourage such clients to use it's 'services'!

In fact, I was told as such by Mr. Taib, when I got fed up of waiting for somebody to help me get my parcel. He told me that he too, was equally fed up of me! In the end when one of the staff (I have no idea who she was or her name), who had taken off with my notification, didn't show up for over 15 minutes, I'd had enough and left. Now, I have no idea how to get my parcel without this notification, etc.

And all this happened, because our GPO is totally handicapped unfriendly and does not care for having such clients either, it seems.