US Mail. When you absolutely, positively got to lose every piece of mail in the room, accept no substitutes.

As you probably know, I moved out of my old apartment at the end of August. What you may not know, however, (since I didn't write about it here) is that I had a number of problems with my management company, with my super, and with my building. I was more than happy to vacate the property, but I was a bit worried about getting my security deposit back. (Shades of Madeline here)

So I moved into my new place and started waiting for my check to come. And then I waited some more. Then I called my old management company and they told me they'd mail it out the following week. The following week came and went - nothing. I called back and they told me they had mailed it. A few more days went by - nothing. I called back and this time they gave me the USPS tracking number. They had sent it by certified mail, so luckily I had a way to track it... sort of.

I went on the USPS website and it told me that the letter had been mailed on the date my management company said it was. It also said that there was a delivery attempt the following day, but no one was home, so they left a notice. Then, nothing. See, here's the thing, I never got that notice. And the second delivery attempt that was supposed to have been made 5 days later? Yeah, that never happened. The website makes no mention of a second delivery.

So I went to my local post office, tracking number in hand, and inquired about my missing certified mail. I spoke with a low level mail jockey, but quickly realized that I was getting nowhere, so I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor was better dressed, but that was about the only improvement. Both employees scoured their mail room, but neither could find my letter. After a solid 20 minutes of discussing my issue and searching for my letter, the supervisor told me that the letter was indeed missing and there was no way for them to track it down. You see, what I can see on the USPS website is the same as what the postal employees can see in their computer. The supervisor told me that he could see the first delivery attempt, but for some reason, no second delivery attempt was made. The computer had no information about where the letter may be held or even what address it had been sent to (or from).

Here was his final thought: "What I think happened is that they accidentally sent it to you with the 10075 zipcode. It probably went to the wrong post office as a result and you wouldn't have gotten the delivery attempt notice."

And this was my response: "What the hell are you talking about? My zipcode is 10075 and this is the freaking main post office for that zipcode. Where would it have gone if not here?

He tried to explain that my zipcode was not 10075, but actually 10021. I guess I need to explain here that a few months back, a big section of the city in the 10021 zipcode was divided up into 10021, 10075, and 10065. My apartment falls into the new 10075 area. He was insisting that I was actually in the 10021 area. But the kicker? There was a giant map posted in the lobby of the post office showing that not only was my apartment in the 10075 zip code, but it was as far from the 10021 section as you could possibly get. This guy was totally worthless.

The post office had lost my certified letter and had no way of tracking it down. It was time to call my management company back. I told them that the post office lost their check and asked if they could put a stop payment on it and send me another one. (Or better yet, let me just come pick it up) They told me that there was a problem with that, as my deposit was a bank-held security and therefore the check had been sent directly from the bank. I was told I'd have to call back the following Tuesday since Monday was a holiday and the manager wouldn't be in until then. Tuesday came and went, but I was too busy to call.

Now it's Wednesday and I had a minute to call. I spoke with the manager at the management company, explained the situation, and asked for a new check. She told me that in order to get me a new check, we'd have to do the following:

She would have to call the bank and request a form from them. They'd fax it to me and I'd fill it out and have it notarized. I would then mail it to the management company and they'd fill it out and also have it notarized. Then they would send it back to the bank and they would stop payment on the old check and issue me a new one, but they may or may not charge me a fee for doing so.

The post office had told me that if the letter wasn't claimed after 15 days, they would return it to the sender. That's assuming that it isn't lost though. The 15 days are up next week, so I'm going to wait it out and hope it just ends up back at the bank/management company. If not, we'll take it from there. This is completely asinine, but I'm not the least bit surprised that this is how I'd end my relationship with my management company.

More details to follow as they arise...