Over a month after a private firm assumed control of Penn's residential mail services, reviews of the new service have been mixed, with many students still expressing frustration with the University's mail system.
Datrose, Inc., took over residential mail delivery at the beginning of this semester, following years of student complaints about stolen mail.
One of Datrose's major changes has been the institution of a computer tracking system, which is supposed to notify students via e-mail when packages arrive -- but many students say this system has not been functioning correctly.
"It's a mess right now. I'd been expecting both of these Friday," College sophomore Sung Park said yesterday, holding up the two packages he had just retrieved from the Hamilton Village package room. "I didn't actually get an e-mail or anything in my box."
Housing officials acknowledged that there have been problems with package delivery during this first month, but they say the kinks have now been worked out.
"With any new computer system, which they had, we've had some glitches... which caused some double e-mails to go out and some students not to get e-mails," Assistant Director of Housing and Conference Services Gordon Rickards said. "Those problems have been solved, so I think we're going to have a really good system in place now."
Rickards said he has received 28 student complaints about mail delivery since Datrose took over, but most of those were filed in the first few weeks of January. The few complaints he has received in the last week or two have mainly centered on personnel, rather than on problems with delivery.
But many students were affected by the delivery problems before they could be corrected. College junior Rajat Suri, for one, had strong words about the new system.
"It's absolutely awful," he said.
Suri said he was expecting a book that he needed for a class to be mailed to him, but he never received an e-mail notice. He did, however, get a package slip in his mailbox, and he went to the package room to collect the book. Employees there told him the parcel was missing, Suri said.
"I actually had to buy the book again," he said. After purchasing the book, he finally received an e-mail notice that his package had arrived.
Other students have received "final notice" e-mails notifying them that their packages would be sent back if they did not retrieve within a certain amount of time -- without ever getting a first notice.
"I did get a package where they sent me an e-mail saying they were going to send it back if I didn't pick it up," Engineering sophomore Matt Lipsitz said. Lipsitz said he never received an initial notice.
However, Wharton senior Karl Schulze said that the new management was struggling a bit at first but has since improved greatly.
"They had a rough start," Schulze said. "The e-mail system was down for a few days. [But] it's more effective overall. It sends you notification [so you] find out quicker if you have a package."
And Nursing senior Michelle Burgess said she finds the new e-mail system very convenient.
"At least this way I know I got the e-mail," she said. "I don't have to look through everything for a slip of paper."
Housing and Conference Services Associate Director of Marketing and Special Projects Lynn Rotoli said the new mail system has experienced "initial growing pains" and has "a ways to go," but she believes mail services will end up greatly improved.
"It's a positive beginning to providing excellent service, and that's what we were looking for," Rotoli said.
