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Thursday, June 4, 2015

“Fun” With Our Mail Service

Last winter we were headed to Florida, to change our mail service from Dakota Post to one recommended by many friends in Crestview, FL.  If you recall, we had problems with our air pressure gauge and had to turn around and put it off for another year.

We should have pressed on.

I normally send my mail request to Dakota Post via email as to where I want my mail shipped.  They acknowledge back with an email and then send another email when the mail is sent with a tracking number.

I sent my usual email for my mail, received back from them the acknowledgement email and then waited and waited for the “sent” email, which never came.  As did the mail that never came.

Several days after the mail should have come, I called them up asking where the mail was.  I asked for the owner because I wasn’t happy with the initial response I got from the first person who answered the phone.

He wasn’t in but I was promised he’d call me back, which he did several hours later.  He apologized and said they had found my email and had sent out my mail.  I wasn’t too happy with that because I wanted them to overnight the mail now that it was a week late.  He gave me a one month extension to my annual mail contract in an effort to make it right.

That night I got the sent email.  I opened it up and found that they had sent my mail alright…to Florida where we were in May and we’re now in Missouri, only 1200 miles away!  They used the old email request I had sent them in April for where to send my mail instead of the latest one.

Yesterday morning I called them up again and asked to speak to the owner.  They gave me his voice mail where I explained that they had screwed up again and to please call me immediately.

Yesterday afternoon, I received a call from a lady at Dakota Post who again apologized and said they contacted the post office and were going to try and get the mail package “intercepted”, returned to them and then overnight it to me at their cost.  She asked me if I wanted regular calls to keep me informed as to where my mail issue stood, I said “Yes”.

Today, I have not heard or received any email updates from Dakota Post.  To say I’m not pleased is an understatement.  I hesitated to put up this negative post about the business, but I’ve had issues with them even back when the were known as Alternative Resources.  I can’t recommend them anymore to people that ask me what mail service I use.

We’ll be switching to a highly rated Florida mail service soon.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

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23 comments:

  1. In this day and age, I can't figure why regular mail is still necessary. Everything that needs to be done can be done electronically. Yet, I still have one credit card company that insists on sending paper statements every month despite the fact that all of their information is available online.

    Eventually, these companies will "get it". Maybe.

    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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    1. Personal mail, checks, magazines, post cards, medical bills, etc. still need to be sent via snail mail. We have most of our stuff set up electronically, but like you, there are some companies that insist on sending hard copies.

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  2. So sorry to hear about the problem with them :( I can't recall ever having an issue with the 'old' mail service, but the 'new' one is a problem at times. Since we switched to Texas, and use Escapees mail service, we still have some mail coming to SD. We have to call them once a month still :(

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  3. I was with Alternative Resources for eight years before they became Dakota Post. Never had a problem until the change. Then in April, I put my mail on hold until further notice, but they sent it anyway. Luckily they caught it in time to stop it going to AZ where I no longer was. I sure hope this doesn't indicate the future with them.

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    1. I think a lot of it has to do with not only a change of ownership, but also taking on the FMCA mail service, so they may be overloaded with mail for too few workers.

      As an example, we got a Christmas card postmarked 10 Dec 2014 in our Feb 2015 mid month mail. shipment.

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  4. SORRY... It just shouldn't be that difficult:o(((

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  5. 19 years of no trouble with Escapees Mail Service for me.

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  6. We've had no trouble with the Crestview group in 5 years. I doubt you will either but dealing with the SC one is a real pain. Call Crestview, you might be able to set up over the phone or through email and get the SD group behind you. Good Luck!

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  7. Knock on wood, our Florida service has been good ... now all we need is the forwarding mail address at the USAF Academy and we'll be good to receive the next batch.

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  8. How frustrating I am sure. In this day and age having good customer service, billing, contacts and feedback is really tough. Instead of it being normal expected service, it's always a fight, tussle and struggle to get places to live up to their contracts! ARRGGHHHH

    KarenInTheWoods​ and Steveio​
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    (Blog) RVing: The USA Is Our Big Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/
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  9. Very frustrating, our snail mail goes to a relative, but mostly just magazines and licence renewal, and we are around when that happens or they can be forwarded to wherever we might be. Has never been necessary since 2006 so we have no issues there.
    Good luck with your resolve.

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  10. That just plain stinks. We had SD mail (not Dakota Mail) for 3.5 years with no issues and have had Crestview FL for the last 1.5 years with no issues. Hope you have the same luck once you change.

    PS:Welcome to the Crestview Condo association :)

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  11. sounds like switching is a great idea! hope the new service is much better!

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  12. Egads. That doesn't sound fun at all. We had one "little" issue with ours in South Dakota but have been lucky mostly. Thank goodness for that.

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  13. We have the "other" SD mail service over on the western side of the state and have encountered no problems in 2.5 years. Sorry to hear of your woes Paul.

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  14. We were lucky as our friends allowed us use of their address and they never screwed up in forwarding our mail.

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  15. You probably could have established your domicile while you were in Key West. It is in Florida, you know. :)

    We've been Crestview for 4 years now and have had good service and no address changes from them.

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  16. Mail service would be one of my worries if I ever decided to go full-time. When I travel my lovely next door neighbors gather my mail for me, and if there's something pressing they open it (when I call) and tell me what it is. If I need the document, they forward it to the post office in the area where I'm staying.

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  17. Thanks for the head's up!

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  18. What a bummer! Knock on wood, we never had a problem with our SD mail forwarding company and are, so far, happy with our service in FL.

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  19. Got to thinking about this. So my excuse of your check is in the mail would have worked! Dammit!

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  20. Practical analysis - I was fascinated by the analysis ! Does someone know where I might be able to get access to a blank 2010 CA SUBP-030 version to fill in ?

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  21. Greetings , my work colleague acquired a fillable 2010 CA SUBP-030 form copy here www.pdffiler.com

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