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Kokua Line
Question: My friend called the post office to complain about no mail pickup for several days at his condo. He called the 1-800 number in the phone book and the person he talked to said postal workers have no obligation to pick up mail -- it's merely a service provided by them. A mail carrier's job is simply to DELIVER mail. What's the scoop? Mail carriers don’t
always pick it upAnswer: It depends.
If your friend's condominium building has a mail collection receptacle, then the postal carrier should be collecting the mail every time he or she makes a visit, said U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Felice Broglio.
While a carrier's primary job is to deliver the mail, it also is, to a degree, to collect the mail, she said.
In some apartment buildings, there may be no central mail receptacle. In those cases, the owners' association generally will try to work out a procedure for mail pick-up, Broglio said.
However, if there is no such arrangement, people cannot just put letters in their individual mail boxes and expect them to be picked up by the carrier, she said.
In apartment buildings, where all the mail boxes are placed together, the carrier is usually able to open all the boxes at the same time.
"In those cases, he is not required to look into every box," Broglio said, noting there may be delivered mail in some boxes that hasn't been picked up and carriers don't have the time to check each box.
Interestingly, mail carriers are NOT required to pick up mail from boxes at individual homes even if the red flag signaling mail pickup is up -- if they have no mail to deliver to that home, Broglio said.
Generally, if a carrier is going past the mailbox, he will stop and pick the mail up anyway, but is under no obligation to do so, she said.
If you need to mail something, "We encourage people to use the blue collection boxes or drop it off at the post office," Broglio said.
Books are here!
In the Feb. 27 Kokua Line, Hazel Yamada asked for help in tracking down a book vendor with what she believed was the same name as her registered business, Lehua Enterprises. Yamada said people had been calling her because they had not received books ordered at the Blaisdell Center.Merilyn Gray, of Lehua Inc., said Lehua Inc. had contracted with B-52 Entertainment to print and distribute a new children's book, "Gary & Harry: A Tale of Two Turtles."
"Our printers in Hong Kong had to delay the arrival of our presale books and then we got hit with Chinese New Year, delaying the books even further," said George Kotero, managing director of B-52 Entertainment LLC, "a multimedia publishing and entertainment company."
The books finally arrived in Honolulu last Thursday, he said.
Kotero added that both Lehua Inc. and Lehua Enterprises "have absolutely no involvement in this matter."
If anyone has questions about an order, call B-52 Entertainment at 521-7934, or, for more information, call Gray at 261-9722.
Mahalo
To the good Samaritan who helped me when I fell on Atkinson Drive on Jan. 25. He lifted me gently out of traffic, called the ambulance and probably used a box of tissues to stop my bleeding. He stayed with me until the paramedics took over. Unfortunately, I lost the card with his name on it so I cannot write him to express my gratitude, which is heartfelt. -- Catherine A. Lee
Need help with problems? Call Kokua Line at 525-8686,
fax 525-6711, or write to P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
Email to kokualine@starbulletin.com