August 8, 2011Dear Sir,An interesting thing happened to me the other day. I looked into my residential mailbox and retrieved a letter that was being returned because of insufficient information re the address. The first point to mention is that I did not write the letter, which means the Post Office actually returned the letter to the wrong address. The sender’s return address on the letter is about one mile from my house which is in the HS 02 district of Harrington Sound. The letter itself was addressed to a residence in Pembroke and having looked up the postcode in the telephone book I can tell you the postcode is HM 05. I can also inform you that as I drive by this area frequently I decided to drop off the letter into the mailbox of the intended recipient because I was so disgusted by the Post Office’s actions ….I was disgusted because I fail to understand how the omission of a postcode — namely HM05 — qualifies as insufficient information which warrants the letter being returned to the sender? It boggles the mind! The letter had the house name, street address and number as well as the Parish, but still the Post Office determined this was insufficient information. Rubbish!I can recall, as can most of us over 40 years old, when our Post Office went the extra mile to deliver letters. Back in those days the Post Office carried out their duties professionally and efficiently and would use all the tools available to track down people and deliver their letters. In essence there was an ‘unwritten’ contract between the public and the Post Office personnel that ensured mail was delivered even if the address was deficient. Today, however, the common touch and common sense approach have disappeared. The energy that the Post Office personnel expended in delivering the letter to me — at the incorrect address I might add — could easily have been used to deliver the letter to the proper address. This is Bermuda after all where house names and street addresses pretty much give you an exact location of the premises — better than Google maps even!The Post Office motto reads as follows: “We go the extra mile to be pleasant and respectful to all our customers. To sort the mail accurately and efficiently. To deliver the mail on time”. In the old days Post Office personnel did indeed “go the extra mile”, but today the administrators are acting like spoiled brats and adhering to the new Post Office regulations too strictly. Can someone within the Post Office please bring back the common sense and common touch approach to our mail service and go that extra mile?HS 02 POSTMAN …Paget