According to the Postal Service, Chicago has the lowest customer-satisfaction rating of any major city. In February 1994, 40,000 pieces of undelivered mail—some more than two months old—were found in a driver's truck. A few weeks later a quarter-ton of undelivered mail, some of it nearly 20 years old, was found in one Chicago-area post office. And just a few hours earlier, police had found more than 100 pounds of mail burning under a viaduct.

In May 1994, Chicago firefighters found 5,670 pieces of flat mail and 364 pounds of bulk mail in the attic of postal carrier Robert K. Beverly. And in October, firefighters in Washington, D.C. discovered four truckloads of mail in the apartment of postal carrier Robert W. Boggs. Local residents say they saw carriers throwing mail into garbage cans or dumpsters.

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