@bookmobile
Do you mine asking how much a PO Box runs?
@tonymom , I believe it was something like $20/mo for 12 months (which we did since he was doing research in NHaven over the summer anyway). More expensive than the Yale box but we were getting no value from that one.
I was very taken aback that my son had to pay for a box at all, as at my university, mail delivery was at the individual dorm and free. My other son has a mailbox in his school’s student union (also free). So paying for mail ‘service’ came as a surprise, and the horribleness of the ‘service’ added insult to injury. Certainly a minor problem in the grand scheme of things, but a Yale pet peeve of mine!
I know nothing of PO processing, but I wonder if the PO kept all “official” functions as their domain (eg, ongoing mail, stamps, etc) but left the mail sorting to students whether that would work better. I went to the PO a few times, and the sluggish attitude was shocking and reminded me of our NJ DMV before it was revitalized some years ago.
I was taken aback by the service fee too. Definitely was not in place when I was there in the dark ages.