LETTERS: POSTAL WORKERS STRIVE TO PROVIDE QUALITY SERVICE TO ALL PATRONS

To the editor:

This letter is being sent in regards to a story that the Southeast Missourian carried Aug. 19 concerning the local post office. With all the recent attention focused upon the Postal Service, it is understandable that certain concerns might arise about the local office. One might wonder if local postal workers care about the customers they serve.

As a supervisor of these people, I emphatically state that the work force at both our processing facility and downtown office fully strive to provide quality service to all of our patrons. On a daily basis, I see them go to great extremes in order that mail is delivered as quickly and accurately as possible because they understand the importance of this job.

Do we make mistakes? Of course we do just as any organization does. Unfortunately, our mistakes are somewhat different than those that might be made by another business. If your phone bill is incorrect it is quite simply fixed by having the incorrect item removed. Should you get an incorrect charge at a supermarket check out line it can be rectified on the spot. A mistake by the Postal Service means that someone might miss an invitation to an event or a grandmother's birthday card doesn't get to her grandson before his birthday. This is the task that we face each day and we take it quite seriously.

We process and deliver 250,000 to 500,000 pieces of mail each day in Cape Girardeau and our actual percentage of error is quite low. It is our true goal that each and every one of those items reach it's destination in a timely manner. It's important that our customers know that if a mistake is made it is not due to laziness or an indifference in attitude among the work force. The people at the processing facility and the downtown office comprise as fine a group of individuals that it has ever been my privilege to be associated with and they truly care about the service they perform.

LARRY SHAFER

Cape Girardeau