GPO and its Snail Mail

Last Wednesday, 1 March 2017, at about 11.00 a.m. I took about 185 flyers (A5 paper folded into two and stapled) to the General Post Office located along Bristol Street in Fort to be posted. This flyer was to inform the members about the forthcoming AGM of the Group of ’70s Old Boys Association of Zahira College, Colombo to be held on 19 March. 

When I took it to the counter for the flyers to be franked, I was told that it cannot be done as these were too small to be fed into the franking machine. Then when I asked about the cost of postage, I was told after checking the weight and showing same to their superior officers that it would cost Rs. 12.00. When I queried about the high cost as it was not in an envelope, I was told that since it was being sent by an association the charge was more than the normal postage cost.

When I wanted to paste the stamps and hand over the letters to the counter I was told to put it in the mail boxes that were located at the entrance and that these would be delivered by the next day. I did put the Colombo mails into the box meant for the zones 1-15 and the others into the outstation mail box as per the instructions given by the person at the counter. 

When I checked with my colleagues, only a very few members of the OBA had received the mails on the following day i.e. Thursday, 2 March. The rest of the members have not got their letters as of today (Monday, 6 March.) 

I expected to receive mine on Saturday but only received a letter from the Consumer Authorities of Sri Lanka which had the date stamp about four days ago. Why is there such a delay in the delivery of the mails? 

I hope the Postmaster General will explain the reasons for this undue delay. I hope the postal workers are not on an unofficial work to rule and hence the letters are not being delivered on time!

Mohamed Zahran

Colombo