Dan Cain, of Twinsburg, Ohio received quite the surprise when he went to pick up his mail at the post office—55,000 separate billing statements about his daughter's student loan.
Cain knew something was amiss when post office staff told him that his mail would not fit through the front door. After driving around to the back of the post office, Dan realized exactly how big of a mistake was made.
79 mail tubs, each containing 700 letters, awaited him. It took him 2 trips with his pickup truck to get them all home.
The letters, every one from College Avenue Student Loan Company, currently sit in a stack in his garage. Cain couldn't think of anywhere else to put them.
"I was shocked, are you kidding me, who makes that kind of mistake?"
Cain told WOIO he has since learned he might have been able to return the letters to sender, had he not brought all of them home immediately.
Dan and his wife Dee are currently at a loss as to what to do with the giant stack of letters taking up space in their garage, but Dan isn't completely out of ideas.
"just may start a fire, a bonfire, and burn it all."
Cain said that the 55,000 letters were not the only mistake made by the loan company, however. It appears that the loan payment listed on the statement may have been calculated using the wrong interest rate.
A spokesperson for College Avenue Student Loans told Fox News that this wasn't the case, though.
College Avenue Student Loans' chief operating officer Tim Staley said of the payment:
"The rate matches what was disclosed when the loan was originated."
He also said that the company is working with the Cains to prevent a mistake like this in the future.
"We are working with Dan directly on a remedy, including picking up the mail from him if possible and a statement credit for the inconvenience."
Dan just doesn't want any more letters.
"I just hope it doesn't happen again. I might just have to return to sender."
Twitter users pointed out the sheer amount it would have cost the student loan company to mail that many letters.
And the absurdity of it all.
College Avenue Student Loans said that they suspect the error is due to a glitch in their new automated mailing system, and they are working to resolve it.
According to CNN, it likely cost the company up to $11,000 to send all of the ketters—even at the discounted bulk rate.
US Postal Service spokeswoman Naddia Dhalai siad that this sort of sheer volume is not something the postal service deals with regularly.
"The 55,000 letters that were delivered to the customer in Twinsburg, Ohio, is not something we see often."
"However, the Postal Service is committed to providing the best customer service so every piece of mail we receive will be delivered to our customers."
