Our mail hasn’t been coming to our new address, so I called the old post office to investigate.

Me: “Hi, we submitted change-of-address forms for April 2 and aren’t getting forwarded mail. Can you help me find out why?”

Supervisor: “Your carrier would know what’s going on, he’s right here, let me get him for you.”

Carrier: “Yeah, I saw your note in the old mailbox, but I never got any forwarding information.”

“But I have my confirmations right here.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, I don’t have any yellow slips.”

“That doesn’t make any sense—I got several pieces of mail with the yellow forwarding sticker, just nothing consistent. Where did they come from?”

“I really don’t know. I don’t see anything here that has a new address on it for you.”

Exasperated, I tried a different question. “I went to the old mailbox on Monday and got my mail, and when I went yesterday it was empty. So where’s my mail from yesterday and the day before?”

“Oh,” the carrier said, “Once I saw your ‘moved’ note, I sent everything back.”

“Sent it back?”

“Yeah, returned to sender.”

“You marked all my mail return to sender? But I sent in change of address forms!”

“I’m sorry, but that’s what I did.”

I asked for the supervisor again. “How,” I asked, “do you not have anything indicating my new address?”

“All I can tell you to do is to re-submit your change of address form,” the supervisor said.

“That’s fine. But what about the confirmation letters that I received?”

“That doesn’t help. We didn’t get anything here.”

“Why wouldn’t you get the form I got?”

The reply, and I quote:

“Well, sir, it may have gotten lost in the mail.”