Is the mail jacked up everywhere?

[halfmileharry]

I refuse to pay for a PO box so I can have the privilege of driving 15 miles round trip to get my mail. I might be a little stubborn, but I think the mail carrier is paid to do her job and should just do it.

Maybe USPS should hire prostitutes.
They understand the meaning of "No work.. No pay".

 

[mom45]

Maybe USPS should hire prostitutes.
They understand the meaning of "No work.. No pay".

Perhaps I should suggest that the next time I type out a complaint! They might like that suggestion.

 

[Dr.Midnight]

I have a PO box. I have none of these problems.

OK, I've prepared myself to get roasted, so here we go. I use a PO box too. I drive right past our small post office every day, so it's no big deal to swing by to pick mail up. As for problems, I couldn't tell you the last time I had an issue with the USPS. In fact, I think it's a pretty sweet deal when I have a letter that needs delivered to Tupelo Mississippi, and I give them fifty cents to take it there for me.

 

[WebSnyper]

USPS has a requirement to provide mail service to every mailbox in the US...and do it while keeping it cheap. Even UPS hires USPS to do last mile deliveries because it’s cheaprr than doing it themselves. USPS could be as efficient/ profitable as the commercial services but their rates would have to go up. No doubt revamping their pay structure and employee contracts would help, but still rates would jump significantly.

As long as it costs the same to mail a letter from Bugscuffle Texas to Scratchneck Indiana as it does from Bloomington To Indianapolis, USPS is going to have problems making revenue exceed costs.

Yep, my understanding is that USPS has to deal with its budget like a private entity, but on the other hand is regulated and beholden to Congress regarding rate hikes, and many of its terms of service, etc, so it is kind of hamstrung. That said, I don't know the exact details on this, but know it would be difficult to run anything efficiently when that is the case.

I tracked a gun tool that I didn't get that was 'delivered' so I signed up for informed delivery. I get emails of what is being delivered that day. It's a free service.

Agreed, I get an email every day with images of most of my mail and a handy way to just click and say I didn't get something. The once or twice I clicked saying I didn't get something, it showed up the next day. Mail generally runs pretty effectively where I am located.

 

[dprimm]

I want more details about the complaint you lodged against the post office that caused a half dozen different agencies to show up at your door!!!!

Ding ding ding ding. Me too!!

 

[KellyinAvon]

I want more details about the complaint you lodged against the post office that caused a half dozen different agencies to show up at your door!!!!

Letters cut out of different magazines and pasted to construction paper? Attached to delivery device with a big rubber band? Delivery device was a brick? Delivered through a window? At the Postmaster's home? Just speculating here...

 

[dudley0]

I use a P.O. Box because of the business. I don't want people knocking on my door, they can go to the post office.

Depending on if the post master is on vacation there is a direct correlation to how well the little office is run. I get emails saying a package was delivered, but nothing in the box for a couple days at times. I go in, show them the email and they dig around until they find it.

Almost all of my mail goes thru the office. I never had problems with the last delivery guy. He was cool. Retired and I don't know who the new one is.

Now we have problems with UPS and sometimes FedX. Just this week my daughter had a package delivered by UPS. They put it on the back side of our deck. Sitting in the rain/ slush. Box was ruined. If they would have even put it at the front of the deck they would have walked less, and people would have noticed it.

I hate ordering ammo now. Last 2k of bullets was dropped in the driveway in front of a detached garage. Uncanny. I guess I have more luck with USPS out here in the semi-sticks.

 

[eldirector]

Local USPS is a farce around here, too. Our mail carriers can't seem to get our mail into our box to save their lives. I swear they are randomly tossing mail into any box they see. I got the SAME letter back 3 times, that was our neighbors. We put it back in our box with a note, and took it to the post office twice. I'd just take it over, but seriously, it isn't my job (if it was important, I would have, but it was junk mail). The last carrier hit several boxes in just our little neighborhood. Finally hit a car, so got "reassigned". Current carrier pulls up close to the garage and TOSSES packages that say "signature required" (we have a camera). There are skid marks and burn-out marks by every mailbox. I swear her throttle is either off, or full-on.

For us, USPS has been relegated to junk mail, a few magazines, and the random bit of required paperwork (where the sender will not use another carrier, or go electronic). I would remove my mailbox if I could. Still too many places send paper mail only (like the Government).

 

[mom45]

Local USPS is a farce around here, too. Our mail carriers can't seem to get our mail into our box to save their lives. I swear they are randomly tossing mail into any box they see. I got the SAME letter back 3 times, that was our neighbors. We put it back in our box with a note, and took it to the post office twice. I'd just take it over, but seriously, it isn't my job (if it was important, I would have, but it was junk mail). The last carrier hit several boxes in just our little neighborhood. Finally hit a car, so got "reassigned". Current carrier pulls up close to the garage and TOSSES packages that say "signature required" (we have a camera). There are skid marks and burn-out marks by every mailbox. I swear her throttle is either off, or full-on.

For us, USPS has been relegated to junk mail, a few magazines, and the random bit of required paperwork (where the sender will not use another carrier, or go electronic). I would remove my mailbox if I could. Still too many places send paper mail only (like the Government).

Maybe Amy does your route too!! On No Mail Tuesday, she drives down the road and stops at one box...never mine. I have watched her do it...she just slowly drives down the road past all of the boxes and I'm sure that 9 out of 10 houses had no mail that day...every Tuesday. They apparently have GPS (So I'm told) that tracks their route so she at least drives down the road so it shows she drove it. She blows stop signs. She also tosses packages out along the road or in driveways. She crams ours in the box whether they fit or not and then uses a rubber band (sometimes) to hold the door shut. She cut in front of me in a funeral procession one day...I about died. There were three cars left in the line and she pulled out in front of me...her favorite friend...because we were apparently interfering with her day.

When I do complain at the local PO, they tell me I am the only one who has trouble with her. Every neighbor I talk to rolls their eyes as soon as you mention the mail delivery.

When I get the neighbors' mail, I now write on the envelope "misdelivered to (insert my address) on (insert date)" "Not at this address" and then I drive it to another town and throw it in a mailbox outside the post office so it takes a few days to get back to the right person. Since I started doing this, they have started receiving complaints from more than just me. The Postmaster has insisted they need documentation and cannot do anything without it. I report every item on informed delivery that isn't received...junk mail or otherwise. There has been a LOT that has never made it here.

 

[eldirector]

Yeah, we used to complain to the postmaster. Never does any good, and sometimes made it worse. My wife would take in a Walmart bag FULL of mis-delivered mail each week. He had the nerve to be mad at HER for not bringing the misdelivered mail back IMMEDIATELY. I can only imagine what she told him after that. Then, we didn't get mail for over a week. That next week, she jammed the whole mess into the box, the newpaper bin, and rubber-banded the rest to the OUTSIDE of the box. We too a pic, complained, and then finally gave up. What are you going to do, when no one in the entire organization cares one lick? Sue? Ha! I don't know if you even can, and I am sure the Judge would simply laugh and toss it out.

We had a fantastic mail carrier as a kid, back in the 70's. She was super nice, took personal responsibility for making sure your mail got thru. She left Christmas cards for everyone on her route, and we left her treats in the box.

 

[femurphy77]

I recently shipped a package USPS for $3.87 and it took a week to get to Oklahoma. The same package quoted by UPS was $18 and some change with 3 day service. Figure it out.

 

[CHCRandy]

I want more details about the complaint you lodged against the post office that caused a half dozen different agencies to show up at your door!!!!

Ding ding ding ding. Me too!!

Was a long time ago in my younger, rebellious days. I must first say I was not real proud of myself looking back on it, I handled it like a punk. It all started when my mailman maced my Beagle who was tied up in my yard. It just so happened this mailman had just got back from a suspension for doing the same thing to a neighbors dog. He maced my dog, I got pissed and chased him down, took his mace and tried using it on him. He dropped the mailbag and hightailed it to his mail truck. I then called the postmaster to complain and asked who his boss was so I could file a written complaint. The postmaster told me he had no boss, they were the USPS, you are a nobody and for me to pound sand. I proceeded to tell him I would come down there and fill that post office full of holes and cut his throat if he talked to me like that again. He turned on a tape recorder, informed me of that and then asked me if I cared to repeat myself. I took the bait, repeated it and even added more personal, awful things that should have been off limits.

I was out of line...and I'll admit it looking back on it. Later that evening a friend of mine at the post office called and asked what I did? I told him and he said I was gonna get in a lot of trouble because the postmaster sent it to PI. I went that night and prearranged a bondsman and retained an attorney. Next morning I had 15-20 LEO at my home. It was a pissing contest. In the end the postal inspector wanted to bust me, my attorney dared him to...they advised me I could get 3 years for assaulting a federal employee. I told them I was sorry, and it was just a fit of rage....blowing off steam and that I would never do what I threatened. They all left.

To this day me and that mailman are what I would consider friends. He came to me and apologized and I did the same to him, water under the bridge. Again, it's kind of embarrassing to admit this, I am not proud of it and I handled it very poorly. But it is what it is. One of them times in life where you can say in 3 minutes what you can't take back in a lifetime. I learned from it.


BTW. I got mail yesterday.

 

[mom45]

I recently shipped a package USPS for $3.87 and it took a week to get to Oklahoma. The same package quoted by UPS was $18 and some change with 3 day service. Figure it out.

I'm glad to hear someone gets good service.

My friend mailed a package to her daugher in Colorado. She paid extra for two day delivery....guaranteed. Three weeks later it still wasn't there and the tracking showed it back at our local PO. She went in and asked if they had it. They did. She asked why. They couldn't give a reason...had no idea but it had been back there for a while. She went to the postmaster (who works at another local PO), and was told that it was because the box had stamps on it instead of the printed label. She pointed out that the PO put the stamps on it, not her....their printer was down the day she went there. They did resend it, but it obviously did not arrive in two days. She asked about a refund or at least a partial refund. Nope. So what is the guarantee??

I really could write a book. I love when greeting cards arrive opened and taped shut or just left open. Family and friends know not to send us cash or gift cards because they do not arrive.

A novel...that's what it would be. When I see news reports of carriers arrested with stashes of mail, I expect it to be Amy. It never is. I think she doesn't have it stashed...she just tosses it out the window as she drives down the road. When we ride the motorcycle and see stuff in the ditch, we stop to see if it is ours. If it is, I pick it up and file a complaint. If it isn't, I leave it where she "delivered" it.

 

[Hoosier45]

When I track a package that makes it to "out for delivery" status, it is a crapshoot as to when it will actually show up. It always changes to "held at post office - customer request" for a couple of days before it finally shows up.

 

[KellyinAvon]

Yeah, we used to complain to the postmaster. Never does any good, and sometimes made it worse. My wife would take in a Walmart bag FULL of mis-delivered mail each week. He had the nerve to be mad at HER for not bringing the misdelivered mail back IMMEDIATELY. I can only imagine what she told him after that. Then, we didn't get mail for over a week. That next week, she jammed the whole mess into the box, the newpaper bin, and rubber-banded the rest to the OUTSIDE of the box. We too a pic, complained, and then finally gave up. What are you going to do, when no one in the entire organization cares one lick? Sue? Ha! I don't know if you even can, and I am sure the Judge would simply laugh and toss it out.

We had a fantastic mail carrier as a kid, back in the 70's. She was super nice, took personal responsibility for making sure your mail got thru. She left Christmas cards for everyone on her route, and we left her treats in the box.

I grew up with the address "Rural Route #1". Box numbers didn't come around until 1989. Our mail carrier went to high school with Dad. The substitute carrier was one of Grandma's cousins. Those days are long gone I'm afraid.

 

[USA#1]

Most of the time I don't get my mail until the next day after it is delivered because they usually deliver after dark.

 

[putsjunior]

[video=youtube_share;JWnaNtxyn0A]https://youtu.be/JWnaNtxyn0A[/video]

 

[croy]

I have all my Bill's emailed to me. My only complaint with my current mail person is she has the bass blasting on her car and has woken me up because of it

 

[thindman]

We live in Indy and don’t get mail until between 7-8pm everyday. We’ve missed mail 4 days in the last 2 weeks. Last Saturday, we got 3 deliveries! One was for the missing Friday mail, one was a package and the third was our regular Saturday mail. Might be time for the PO to stop delivering 6 days a week except for packages. Not much in the mail worth getting anyway unless you order something.

 

[Alamo]

Just talking to a friend of mine who among other things runs the mailroom for a financial company that mails thousands and thousands of letters per month. He noted that with the new rate changes at the USPS, the cost of the 1st ounce of a first class letter is going up by five cents, but the cost of the 2nd (and subsequent, I think) ounce is going DOWN six cents. Since most of the letters they send are multi-page (and multi-ounce) their monthly postage costs are actually going down.