I know how horrible it is when vapemail is misdelivered, late, or just doesn't show up; I've experienced some of that joy for myself. But how about, not getting your property tax assessment? We got our notice of our property taxes for 2014 yesterday, and the value of our home has mysteriously increased by almost 32% -- which we would have known about BACK IN APRIL if we'd gotten our assessment notice, and we'd have had plenty of time to file an appeal, since we haven't done a single thing to our property to cause this increase in valuation. But, because we didn't even get the notice in April, there can be no appeal; we're stuck with property taxes for the year that are more than $300 higher than last year's, which will cause a $300+ shortfall in our escrow acct that pays our taxes and insurance.
I was very relieved by a subsequent conversation with Wells Fargo that the taxes will be paid on-time, and we won't have to cough up that $300+ in one chunk, because of the 3-month reserve they require us to keep in escrow at all times; it simply means that on our next escrow analysis, our monthly payments will go up a little; if we go ahead and make some extra payments to our escrow, then it won't go up as much.
But this is DIRECTLY the fault of the USPS. The assessor's office has no record of the notice being returned; we simply did not get it. Most likely because our mailbox requires firm pressure to close fully; 3 of our 4 regular mail carriers REFUSE to close it properly, and since we live quite near a railroad track, down at the end of the street, the vibrations mean that when the box is not fully shut, it will fall completely open the next time a train goes by. So most likely, the tax assessment simply blew right out of our mailbox -- because 3 of our 4 carriers are so[Moderated] lazy and/or incompetent, they can't be bothered to shut the mailbox properly.
Andria
Big government = bad business. I wish vendors would ship via UPS, FedEx, carrier pigeon or anything other than USPS.
