After I got mail on Monday, February 2, and then not until Thursday, February 5, a continuation of the poor service I wrote about recently, I decided I needed to call my Congressman’s office. I was triggered by the fact that I saw a mail truck ON MY BLOCK last Wednesday, yet received nothing. The same happened YESTERDAY, though I’ve without mail for three days and counting.
My Congressman is Paul Tonko, a generally reliable liberal/progressive Democrat who has represented what is now NY-20 since January 2013. When the House is not in session, Tonko seems to be EVERYWHERE in the district. The penultimate time I saw him may have been at an Underground Railroad Education Center event, but I’m probably forgetting something.
Progressive, yes, but recent times have made him more of a firebrand. I remember seeing him in social pictures posing with various folks at an anti-ICE rally on Wolf Road in Colonie. Someone on Reddit asked, “Who IS that guy?”
The January emails I’ve received from him, aside from Federal Grant Opportunities, have been pointedly about a certain felon. FOTUS’s “regime of chaos and fear reaches a new low” is representative. He has referred to Minneapolis, Greenland, the DOJ overreach, and budget cuts in his weekly messages.
The last time I saw Tonko was at an anti-ICE rally at the state capitol building in January. (He really should have worn a hat; it was COLD.)
USPS
Anyway, I call Tonko’s office, hesitant to call about something that’s not specifically under his control. One of his staffers said that the office has been getting several complaints like mine, especially in my ZIP Code. And I had not yet GIVEN him my ZIP Code. He had given my info to ANOTHER staffer, who would contact me.
About 15 minutes later, I got a call from 518 465-0700, which my phone ID identified as Spam Risk, and I picked up only because I had recently called. He asked if I wanted to take the mail issue further, and I said yes.
Soon thereafter, he emailed me:
Thank you for reaching out about your issue with the Postal Service in Albany.
Per our conversation, we have contacted the Manager of Consumer Affairs for the Postal Service in Albany regarding the decline in providing our community with quality mail service.
An additional resource to file a complaint is to write your complaint to USPS’s Consumer Advocate office at:
United States Postal Service
Office of the Consumer Advocate
475 L’ Enfant Plaza SW
Washington, D.C. 20260
He had asked me to spread the word to call the office and write to USPS. But how would I do that? Wait a minute – I have a blog…