Consumer Six: Muskogee Mail Mix-Up

Jimmy Rock was getting ready to study abroad. So last January, he went to Muskogee Post Office, bought $400 worth of insurance on a package and mailed the package to his address in Germany. Rock made

Friday, September 24th 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Jimmy Rock was getting ready to study abroad. So last January, he went to Muskogee Post Office, bought $400 worth of insurance on a package and mailed the package to his address in Germany. Rock made it to Germany, but the package didn't. After waiting three months, his mom, Joyce Rock, gathered the receipts and filed a claim in April. She spent months on the phone, trying to track down the claim. "The postmaster told me that he had just found out that there had been no claims filed at the Muskogee office for the past three months," said Rock. And the postmaster told her they'd given her the wrong claim form.

So Rock spent another two months trying to get find out if and when they filed the right claim. She couldn't get a clear answer, so she called Consumer Six, and the News on Six called the post office. Rock says only after that did the post office start answering her questions. "He said that they had definitely dropped the ball," said Rock.

"We provided her the wrong form and then we overlooked it," explained Muskogee postmaster Elton Dye. "We probably held up the claim for a couple of months due to our error. It's sad that it had to take this to get things started," he said.

Even though the post office is cooperating and is now tracking the claim, Rock says that doesn't erase the months of frustration that her family experienced. "This time last year, my son was going to school at T-U and working two months so that he could get enough money to buy some extra things to take to Germany with him," she remembered.

Those things are lost, and the Rocks are left to wait another three months for their insurance money. "I don't have any confidence in them at all," Rock said. And she doesn't plan to mail another package at the post office. The Muskogee post office refunded $40 that Rock's son spent on postage.