BRACK: A tale of two service levels by government agencies

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |  The United States Postal Service used to get my unabashed support.

Note the verb:  “used to.”  No more.  After unacceptable performance over the last month, it’s time for Congress — not exactly the barometer of something with stellar performance — to do something about the post office, a constitutionally-mandated, bureaucratic time-suck of an agency.  

Contrast it with the S.C. Department of Motor Vehicles, an agency once known for being its own bureaucratic time-suck.  These days, however, it’s a model of customer service, a place where long lines generally are things of the past.

Here are two very different experiences with these two agencies:

Back in November as my company prepared to move office locations in Charleston, we decided to get a post office box for mail, instead of having it delivered to the office.  We figured it would be safer than mail sitting in a box over a weekend, particularly since the new office didn’t have an actual mailbox.  

So we filled out the form to forward the mail from the old address to the new box.  That was November 26.  Since then, we’ve received three — count them, three — letters that have been forwarded from the old address to the box.  And that means we haven’t received any letters from clients who pay their advertising bills by sending checks by mail. They’ve paid, but we haven’t received.  Not the best situation for a small business that has to meet a payroll every two weeks.

We went to the local post office, only to be told that because we forwarded the mail, it went first to Virginia to be sorted before being returned to Charleston.  Which makes as much sense as knocking myself in the head with a hammer.  (What’s more dysfunctional is that the mail delivered to the old address was sorted in the physical post office where the new box is located, meaning that the mail got to the right place, but was sent off to be sorted to be sent back to the same place.)

Unfortunately, the postal service has no idea where the mail that has been accumulating currently is.  Why?  Because some nimrod in the Trump administration screwed with the sorting machines.  And then there are the staff shortages due to the pandemic as well as the extra volume of mail being sent because the disease has altered how people are spending the holidays.  

When we complain to the folks at the post office, we get kind words of sympathy and assurances that our request to find the lost mail will be expedited.  But so far — nada, nothing, zip.  

This miserable (lack of) delivery by the postal service is the exact opposite of the service at the motor vehicle agency.

Just last week, we approached a visit to get a new sticker for a vehicle license plate with some dread.  Four minutes — yes, just four minutes — after walking in, the transaction was complete and the sticker was in our hot little hands.  In fact, it took longer to find the office manager to congratulate her on the agency’s service than it did to talk with the attendant, pay a fee and get the sticker.

Congratulations, DMV.  Keep up the good work.

In general, employees for the state of South Carolina offer good, helpful service, despite being mostly underpaid.  Sure, they have the benefit of a pension after retirement, but state lawmakers should do more now to reward their good service.  If there is any extra money in next year’s budget, they should consider another pay raise.  If they only have some money, they should prioritize it for corrections officers and teachers.

While it’s easier to make changes at the state level because of its comparative size to the federal government, real changes are needed at post offices.  What doesn’t need to happen is willy-nilly political grandstanding that negatively impacts vulnerable and rural communities — in other words, don’t close lots of post offices.  Instead, perhaps, reimage how delivery can happen — maybe once every other day instead of daily.  Or reform how benefits and pensions are paid.  

And fix the sorting system.  It’s a bloody mess.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report.  His column also is published in the Charleston City Paper, Florence Morning News, Greenwood Index Journal, The (Seneca) Journal, Camden Chronicle Independent and Hartsville Messenger. Have a comment?  Send to:  feedback@statehousereport.com.