If you're appealing a parking ticket,

[lissie930.livejournal.com]

*make sure* you follow up to make sure they received your letter.  I got a parking ticket, sent a letter, didn't hear back for a while, called in and was told "don't worry about it, it takes a while", and now I'm being told "oh gee, we never received your letter and it's way too late to deal with, sorry, you're SOL."  Apparently they also won't return phone calls to tell you this, so don't bother leaving messages.  I am so frustrated because I thought I was being diligent and following up (I spoke to one person who apparently didn't know that there was a time limit to deal with these things because they told me to fax in my letter and leave a message, both of which I did and never received a phone call back). 

So, the moral of the story is, make sure you call to confirm they got your letter.  Silly me, trusting that sending something through the mail would mean it would actually get there.

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Or send it certified mail, return receipt requested.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

beat me to it.

[lissie930.livejournal.com]

Yup, you're right.
I've actually just always had really good experiences with the post office, so it's interesting to me that this went missing...It is not the first time I've had soemthing lost, but it happens so rarely, that it was really surprising. Lesson learned.

[jimmyfergus.livejournal.com]

I've had no problem with the post office, in every other place I've lived.

Here in Somerville we've known of numerous things go missing: birthday cards, at least two wedding invitations (and yes, we really were invited). Who knows what we've lost which we don't know about. However, I think it's interesting that the things we know for sure went missing would be in fancy envelopes and thus perhaps look more theft-worthy.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

The Somerville Postal Service is the worst in any city I've ever lived in...and I've lived in Canada and dealt with CanadaPost!

The mail carriers basically consider "on the porch" to be "delivering." On our open porch. Without regard to weather. If you complain about this, they become zealots and cram all the mail into your box so badly you can't get the mail out without ripping it. Or, they dump the mail into the box Without bothering to make sure the apartment number on the letter matches the apartment number on the mailbox. Or the street name. I once got my neighbour's mail (I'm #3, they were #1) and it sat in my box for at least 2 weeks before I noticed it. It was their credit card statement. Lucky for them I'm not an identity thief.

The only exception is those mailed coupons. Those always go into the correct box, in pristine condition, no matter what.

About 7 months after I moved to Somerville I got a PO Box at the main Post Office in South Station, which at the time was open 24 hours. Curiously, my mail problems ended around the same time...

[miraclaire.livejournal.com]

I hear you on the wedding invitations.... of the 150 invitations my husband and I sent out for our wedding, FIFTEEN got lost in the mail. Which is pretty ridiculous.

[blacktigr.livejournal.com]

I get bills, stuff from immigration (for my next-door neighbors), other people's Christmas cards...

I tried returning them to the post office, specifying that these people didn't live there. I got it back a few days later.

WTF, post office? No wonder you're losing market share.

[ron_newman]

If someone moved away from your address and you're getting their mail, you need to mark out the bar code at the bottom before returning it to the post office. Otherwise it will indeed come back to you.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

was it really lost by the post office though? it sounds like these goons could just have easily lost it once it got there, or since it's been awhile didn't even bother looking.

[lissie930.livejournal.com]

:) Well, far be it for me to suggest such a thing. :) I wish I had done return receipt to have something to point to as proof of delivery!

[arrowintwolakes.livejournal.com]

You said that you faxed it, right? Did you print a confirmation sheet?

[lissie930.livejournal.com]

Yes, but apparently the woman who told me to fax it neglected to mention that it was too late to do anything about it (except pay it) and that no one would return my phone call requesting confirmation that they'd received it.

[davidfic.livejournal.com]

Hi lissie,

I have been dealing with the exact same situation for the past 4 of 5 months. We got a ticket because they claimed we used our guess pass on the same car 3 times in one week. This was for our nanny and we have worked out a system where we always park on the street on mondays so she can use our driveway so we don't get a ticket.
well we got one and we called right away. we were told to wait to you get the late notice and then write an appeal. We did this and never heard back.
We called and were told they never got the letter please send again.
We did and never heard back. We called and called and called and they finally told us that they got the second letter and denied our appeal. :)
I emailed the mayors office and got a response, but it was basically, sorry they ticket was issued properly( meaning it was entered into the system correctly, not that it is a just ticket).
So we are stuck having to pay it.
It just seems like a racket that the only way I can fight a $40 ticket is to pay $275 in court to try and prove that the ticket officer was wrong.
As much as this whole process has upset me I can see paying $275 to prove I'm right.

So I am planning on writing to a few different papers and try and get the story picked up. Seems like something that is such a huge money maker for the city shouldn't be so shaddy :)

Anyway, I started a google group to try and collect all the stories people have about bad experiences with the Somerville parking department.

http://groups.google.com/group/somerville-parking-problems

Hopefully we can all try and change this somehow :)

[veek.livejournal.com]

sorry, you're SOL

Oh, that is SO not ok. I'm sorry you're going through this.

[cold-type.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. The parking office ignored two letters I sent to appeal a ticket (despite promptly cashing a check I enclosed in one of the envelopes). So, I really can't blame the post office.

It gets worse. The parking office still hasn't finished processing parking passes for March -- even though February is almost over. So come Monday, I'm expecting to see all the cars in my neighborhood covered with orange tickets.

[ron_newman]

but March parking passes are good until the end of March.

[cold-type.livejournal.com]

That's great. But my pass expires at the end of *February* -- that means Saturday. That's why I need a new pass that is good March 1. But the parking office is apparently months behind in processing renewals.

I finally trudged into the parking office this morning, but was told my pass was just mailed out. I hope I get it in time.

City needs money.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I bet they "lose" many such letters.

[phoenixy.livejournal.com]

That's weird. The same thing happened to me (letter was lost or ignored) except that when I called to ask about it they gave me a hearing right there on the phone and dismissed the ticket. Six weeks after mailing the letter seems to be the magic time to follow up.

[ron_newman]

This is worth a call to your ward alderman (presumably either Rebekah Gewritz or Bob Trane).