The Case of the Mixed Up Mailboxes

So, I mentioned a few days (or was it weeks?) back that Alex and I were moving. We literally moved just down the driveway. Our address change? It consists of two numbers and a letter being changed. Sounds easy, right?

Well, apparently it's not. We've had trouble from week one. This driveway with all eight apartments, one duplex, and one house shares a large mailbox with multiple compartments. Sort of like a mini P.O. box wall.

Like this!

We got our new mailbox key and within a few days we got a bright yellow slip of paper in our mailbox saying that if the address was vacant, tear of the perforated edge that said "Vacant!" and leave it there. If not we were to put our names and address on the paper and return it to the mailbox. So we did, the same time as we filled out a change of address form for the post office. Apparently I put the wrong apartment number on the yellow paper though. B rather than A, so it ended up in our Grandma's box (she lives in the other half of the duplex). So a few days later when we got another yellow slip of paper we filled it out correctly and put it back in the box.

A week or more passed by. We still hadn't gotten any forwarded mail. Just a letter saying that we had requested a change of address and needed to confirm it, but they had spelled our last name wrong. So we went to the post office and they filled out a form that they said would fix it
We still had the key to the old mailbox and occasionally got something there. But then we returned the key with all the old apartment keys, only to realize a few days later we still hadn't gotten any mail in our new mailbox except for junk mail or mail addressed to the previous tenants. Then we got a third yellow slip of paper, the same as the first two. For some reason it took until this point to realize that things still weren't straightened out.
So one day last week while Alex was at work I walked to the post office and told them the trouble we were having. The lady told me that it can take 5-7 days for the address change to go into effect. When I explained that we had filled it out almost 3 weeks prior, she just kind of shrugged and said that I was at the wrong branch to get it straightened out.
When we realized that this wasn't going to fix itself Alex and I talked to our old landlord and he graciously let us borrow our old mailbox key again. We were still getting mail at our old address. Also, on Saturday Grandma brought over a package that was addressed to us, and had our new address on it, but it ended up in her box.

Yesterday Alex got home from work early enough that we could drive to the other post office building to try to get this mess straightened out. Before we left I checked both mailboxes. In our old one was a whole stack of mail. Three things addressed to our new address, one with a forwarding sticker to our new address, and two with the old address. In our new mailbox was another of the yellow slips. Only this one had sharpie on it. Scrawled across the top were some questions marks and the phrase "No name, no mail". We were so confused, and so frustrated. We've done everything we could think of to make our new address obvious. So we just took the mail in with us to the post office, hoping we could finally get this mess fixed.

We were not so fortunate.

The lady working behind the desk listened to our little story and said "You need to fill out a change of address form."
We told her we had.
"Well, you need to fill out the yellow paper"
Again, we told her that we had. Twice.
"Oh, well, maybe the carrier is just confused because you weren't picking up your mail, so he though it was vacant."
Umm, what?? We told her that we hadn't been getting any mail in our new box to pick up.

So, she made a copy of the envelope with the forward sticker on it and said she would talk to the mail carrier.

Right now as far as we know nothing has been resolved. The lady pretty much said it was our fault somehow and shrugged off the problem. A new tenant will be moving into our old apartment and I'm starting to feel more than just a bit anxious to get this all taken care of. Especially since Alex's pay stub, and my driver's license change of address sticker were both put in the old mailbox despite having the new address on them. Not exactly the kind of things we want a complete stranger being able to get a hold of.

I guess we'll find out how things are going when I check the mail today. Wish me luck!

*Update*
When I checked the mail yesterday I was relieved to discover that the problem has been fixed. There is now a yellow vacant slip in our old mailbox saying that we have moved to this address. Yay! The old keys have been returned (again) and I'm hopeful that we won't have anymore problems.