1st real blog

OK, so my first real blog is going to be a rant about the United States Postal Service and credit card companies. As many of you know, I live in the beautiful mountains of Colorado. It is wonderful here and I wouldn't change it for the world. Small town life is the best, but it does have it's downfalls. The major issue I face is shipping/ mailing. The ladies of the postal service in my area are lazy, slow, and generally give you a blank stare when you ask for anything. There is no mail delivered to any home in the Vail Valley therefore every resident must have a PO Box. The problem with this is, UPS and FedEX generally don't mail to a PO Box, so it only works for mail delivered USPS. That is fine and dandy if the online retailer discloses who they use for shipping (which is not always the case) AND if you live in the boonies where the nearest Target is a good 45 min drive away you spend alot of time online shopping. I have had countless things mailed and sent back to the shipper and spent many hours on the phone trying to get my packages into my possession. (side note: The post office is conveniently open from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Guess what times I work? 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, I love taking an afternoon off to go pick up a package)

I guess I will get to what spurred my disain for the postal system in my area at this moment. I have been diligently working on raising my credit score since college. In order to do this I need to establish good payment history. In order to do that I need a credit card or two to make payments on. I recently decided to open a zero balance credit card to establish myself a little more. I went online and filled out all the necessary paper work but when it comes to the address it will not accept my PO Box. I put my physical address in and continue on. Instant approval, Hooray! I close all of the information and then realize a day later that the card will never get to me because it wouldn't let me put in my PO Box and mail sent to my physical address. I then get on the phone with the credit card company. The 1st phone number I try asks me for my 16 digit card number, well lets see, I don't have one. I try about 6 different numbers and finally get a real live person on the phone. She tells me in her broken English that she can't help me and gives me another phone number to call. Phone number 6 gets an enthusiastic gentleman on the line that also informs me that he is unable to assist and puts me on hold with someone who can. The lady gets on the phone and after some dealing, closes my old card that never got to me and is mailing me a new one. I ask her if there was some sort of "suggestion box" or something I could say as to avoid this situation again. She informs me that it is all the terrorists fault that I can't put my PO Box on the online application.

So, I think I have gotten it off my chest. I wonder if there is anyway I can write my congressman or make a petition and have everyone in the Vail Valley sign it so we can get mail at home...I doubt it