U.S. postal service rant

[mnrose]

Just make sure UPS isn't using 'Sure post." They do a lot of shipping TO the post office, which then delivers it to the end user. This is where I've seen the system break down. Also, a friendly word of advice as we head into holiday season. UPS and FedEx are both trying to do a LOT of seasonal hiring, and are having a difficult time getting people on board. I would definitely do my shipping EARLY and not expect to be able to order December 23 for December 24 delivery. Get it done BEFORE December 10 if it absolutely positively has to be there for Christmas.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

I’ve had issues with USPS and UPS past three months-

Card to my nephew sent back to me by USPS saying address wrong (it was correct) and took 6 weeks to get back to me.

UPS- had item shipped through Costco. UPS showed it had been picked up and scheduled delivery date. No other info ever found- got a refund from Costco. It was a exercise rebounder so not a small thing.

I actually love my local post office employees and my mailman is fantastic. I’ve had same mailman off and on for 20 years. The in between ones have been great too! Know they are flukes happening with deliveries but odd—

 

[Disney Ella]

Some of the mail carriers here also don't knock on the door if there's a package, but just leave the slip. I work from home, so I'm here most of the time, yet, I still have to drive to the post office to pick up packages. Are the carriers under such a tight time constraint that they can't wait a few seconds for someone to answer the door and sign for a package?

 

[I loveStitchnippyjon]

Yes, I just discovered that to do a change of address online, the USPS charges your charge card "a nominal fee to verify your actual address". I don't care about the amount, I'm not paying!
Years ago, when we lived in the snowy North (way out in the country) I had ordered a bunch of Christmas toys from WalMart.com. Unfortunately they shipped USPS. Tracking said they had been delivered, but we didn't receive them. Mail carrier claimed the box had been left on our front porch....but in winter we only used the side door from the driveway and the front porch had 2 foot snowdrifts around it (and no tracks in the snow!) I hope someone at the PO enjoyed my kids' gifts! WalMart was great and re-shipped at no charge!

 

[mickeyboat]

USPS has been a nightmare for me, too. We live in town, less than a 1/2 mile from the PO, and we are forced to go to the PO to get our mail instead of having it delivered to the house.

Our PO is only open from 8-5, and is closed for two hours at lunch time. How is anyone who works a regular job supposed to get there? I have to leave work early to pick up my mail.

Since I can't make it to the PO regularly, I almost always have an overflow box. They put a card in my mailbox, I bring it to the counter, and they get my mail. But for some reason the person behind the counter can never find my mail. They can't find packages either. And forget Smart Post. When I order things I try to include both my street address and my PO Box, but it throws the whole system into a tizzy. If I list my PO Box when I order something, I am told they can't deliver to a PO Box. When I list my physical address, Smart Post drops it off at my post office and they can't figure out which box to put it in.

I ordered photos from Walgreens.com about a month ago. They were supposed to take 10 days to arrive. Tracking said it was sitting in a post office 180 miles away. It took a month to finally arrive. I called Walgreens and they reprinted them and sent them via FedEx so I would have them in time for a project I was doing.

Just this month I did not receive my HELOC statement in the mail. Where did it go?

It shouldn't be this difficult to get the mail.

 

[disneyeveryyear]

I recently tried to send a package to my DD at college. FYI her school is approximately 100 miles from home in a major metropolitan area (STL).

I used a priority mail box and took it to my local post office. The employee input the address incorrectly into the computer. When the package had not arrived in 7 days (it was supposed to be 3 due to weekend), I called. Tracking indicated that daily it would start at regional sorting center, go to post office, go out for delivery, go back to post office, go back to regional sorting center to start all over again the next day.

Trying to talk to a human is nearly impossible. After 7 days an employee found the issue with the address (Friday) and indicated that it would be delivered Monday. Nope, still bouncing around St. Louis.

It took 18 days to get the package delivered. Apparently I will have to be more diligent when I take the package to the post office and verify the address they put into the computer.

 

[leebee]

The USPS is going to improve service and the PO be open for longer hours, they need to hire more mail handlers, drivers, etc. Unfortunately the USPS is required, by law, to fully fund their pension plans for 25 years into the future. That takes a LOT of money, so services are trimmed to the bone. There is a reduction in income as advertisers are going away from bulk mail and more into online advertising. People are relying on the internet for sending communications, reducing the income from letters. It's pretty much a circle, and I worry that it'll mean the end of the USPS in another decade.

 

[superme80]

I'm happy to get be able to get packages on Saturday and Sunday.

Not if the package was supposed to be there Thursday.

 

[okeydokey]

USPS hasn't turned a profit or even broke even in years. IMO it needs to be dissolved. There are lots of private shipping companies that people can use.

 

[DVC-Don]

I'm constantly getting other peoples mail. Wrong name, wrong house number and even wrong street. Does my letter carrier even look at the address? But, then again UPS delivered 4 tires (yes FOUR tires) to another street in a neighboring town. UPS rep kept saying "but it shows delivered, have you looked around your house?". Got them the next day when UPS sent a truck to pick them up and deliver them to me.

 

[kmb584]

I've come to really dislike the USPS over the last couple of years. My main gripe is mail delivery. There will be days when I get no mail (funny, autocorrect tried to change "mail" to "email" ... sign of the times!) and then I come home to a mailbox so full it's overflowing. I've had packages marked as delivered only they weren't. They'll be delivered 2+ days later. I've had packages tracked to an area across the country when they are, in fact, sitting on my front porch.

I live in a small town and we have a USPS branch. Two years ago, they closed the two USPS offices in neighboring, much larger cities. The handful of times that I've gone to the branch to mail a package, I backtrack down the street and pay a little more for UPS. Because the other branches have closed, our teeny tiny one is inundated with people. It's not uncommon to see the line out of the door and the staff, while I'm sure are qualified, are terribly slow and chat with every single person. The last time I mailed a package from there I walked in at 10 am and out at 11:30 am. That was when the proverbial lightbulb went off and I started utilizing UPS a lot more.