When Carrie Cushing went to the new Collinsville post office on Feb. 4 to collect her mail, she was greeted with an unwelcome surprise, the address for her business had changed.

1610 Eastport Plaza Drive, the site of the new Collinsville post office/ Photo by Roger Starkey

The U.S. Postal Service delivered a letter, dated Jan. 14, to all Collinsville post office box holders informing them of the pending move of the Collinsville post office and reassuring them that their PO box numbers would not change. Ten days later, another letter was sent to about 50 customers providing them a new PO box number and, therefore, a new addresses.

Cushing, president of CMC Electric Inc. and Steve Petroff, founder of Petroff Companies, were among the customers forced into an address change for what the post office has described as an issue caused by having fewer boxes at the new location, a new configuration of the boxes and a constraint of the computer software they use to manage PO boxes.

The second letter said customers with “high” PO box numbers would be moved into vacant, lower numbered boxes of the same size. CMC Electric was moved from number 37 to number 35. Petroff Companies changed from 838 to 148, although Collinsville Postmaster Yvonne Spears said there are 847 boxes in the new facility, and 548 customers.

Petroff, who has had the same address for nearly 30 years, estimated it would cost $10,000 to make all of the changes that go along with a new address. The estimate includes time spent to inform thousands of customers and business associates, as well as money spent to update stationary, checks and documents.

Cushing estimated that it would cost her small business $1,300 to have forms, stationary and checks reprinted, as well as to send letters to vendors and customers with the new address. “And then changing our address with the dozens of municipal, state and federal government agencies, in addition to the bank, credit cards, utilities, insurance companies, etc, will take days to complete, considering most will require some sort of written form to document the change,” Cushing said.

Cushing and Petroff were both angry and frustrated, and said the U.S. Postal Service showed little concern for their problem. Spears said the post office cannot return the address to the effected customers, but it is trying to lessen its customers’ burdens by automatically forwarding the customers mail for one year.

The problem, Spears said, began with having an incorrect numbering system at the old, uptown post office and was exacerbated by having fewer boxes at the new location, in a different configuration. Restrictions to the computer software the U.S. Postal Service uses to track PO boxes means the problem cannot be fixed, Spears said.

The new configuration means the size of a PO box in the new location, with the same number, may be different than at the uptown location. The software will not allow workers to assign a different number to the PO boxes, Spears said, which caused about 50 customers to be assigned a new address.

For now, stickers have been placed on the back of the boxes so workers know to place mail delivered to the old address into the new box. The system, which Spears called time consuming and confusing, will remain in place for a year to allow customers time to make the necessary changes. “We tried to have the least amount of impact to our customers,” Spears said.

U.S. Postal Service spokesperson Valerie Welch said there was no way for the customers to get their address back or be reimbursed for their costs. Welch suggested the customers submit change of address requests as quickly as possible. Customers may also contact consumer affairs, at 314-436-4280, with complaints.