Waiting for the Mail

Full time RVing sometimes requires planning and patience. Getting our mail is generally not a difficult problem. We subscribe to a mail forwarding service through Escapees, our RV club. All of our mail goes to a real address in Texas. The hardworking Escapees mail staff there sorts it, deletes any 3rd class stuff, and when we call with a forwarding address, puts it into an envelope and sends it along to us. We usually have it sent to General Delivery at a nearby post office, though sometimes it is delivered to the campground where we are staying.

Escapees mail work very well. They have a good understanding of our needs, provide good customer service, and are relatively inexpensive. We pay about $100/year for the service, and we pay the postage on everything that is forwarded to us, typically around $3 to $5 in priority mail fees.

But this week, we're waiting for the mail in Knoxville. Last week we were waiting for the mail in Front Royal, VA. It turns out that we are victims of our own poor planning.

One of the things we receive in the mail is our prescription drugs. They are sent from a pharmacy at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. By default, they send them to our Escapees address in Texas, but if we're running low, we can have them sent to an alternate address. So 2 weeks ago, we ordered one of our prescriptions, asked that it be sent to Front Royal, and we waited there for it for 4 days. Turns out, the prescription was expired, and the pharmacy and our doctor did not connect. So the prescription never got sent. After the 4th day, we called the pharmacy, and they said they were waiting on the doctor. We called the doctor, and they had no record of a request from the pharmacy. A typical catch 22. So we asked the doctor to request the prescription, which he did, and it was sent the next day.

Since we were heading down the road to Knoxville, we also asked the pharmacy to change the address from Front Royal to Knoxville. They said they would. Alarms bells are going off, right? The prescription did get filled and shipped, but not to Knoxville. It went to Front Royal.

There's always a way out, but it may not be easy. In this case, we needed to contact the Front Royal post office to ask them to forward our general delivery main to Knoxville. USPS does not have their local post offices listed in the phone book any more. Instead, an 800 number will supposedly get you anything you need from USPS. I called and told the 800 number operator what I needed and asked for the phone number for Front Royal. She told me that, "only Express mail can be changed over the phone", her way of declining to give me the number. Not willing to give in, I politely asked, "Are you going to give me the number or not?" After a few moments, she relented. I understand the need to limit the interaction with the PO over the phone, but I didn't see any other way to achieve what we needed. And it turned out that the postal employee that I spoke with in Front Royal was cheerful and helpful, and said she would note our request where the general delivery was sorted, as our package had not yet arrived.

So, we checked for our mail here in Knoxville (actually, Heiskell) this morning, and none of it has arrived. The Veteran's Day holiday mail have delayed things an extra day. So we spent the day working on Xmas presents, getting groceries, and visiting with the other campers here. We'll try to get our mail again tomorrow. After all, we're retired, and usually don't have to be anywhere.