filing a complaint to USPS - a rant...

[parris]

I've had similar problems over the years. The biggest one was the carrier left a box between my storm and regular doors during a windy day. The wind caught the outer door with enough force to break not only the storm door but also the door frame. It was a 6 month process but usps did pay for the replacements.

The issue with my neighborhood is that due to how the routes are assigned we're in the middle of Two routes and always get someone different. This is according to our local post master.

[AngryScientist]

Originally Posted by jtbadge

+1. This goes for every major carrier.

These threads come up over and over again, this is always the best solution.

NOT a convenient solution for me at all, for USPS:

1) these are low dollar items, usually household goods that we order and have coming a few times a week. the whole point of ordering online is convenience. i'm not going to the post office a few times a week, that would be silly.

2) my local post office is under staffed and crowded. any time you go there for anything, minimum 15-20 minute wait in line. i'd have to be crazy to try that on a regular basis. the thought of it makes my blood pressure go up.

3) the post office is open during the hours my wife and i are at work. they are simply not open when we have "free time".


anyway, it's not a huge deal, as the packages will get delivered, i just think it's dishonest and a bad business practice to incorrectly mark tracked packages as "delivery attempted" if that is not the case. nothing will get better if no one is aware of the problem, so i am indeed going to file a complaint with the post master. i dont really expect anything to come of it, but i feel like it's the right thing to do.

[R3awak3n]

the people that say have it held at the post office never been to a NYC post office. The PO here is the last place you want to go. Like Nick said, always crowded, always under staffed. You can look at the reviews of any PO in the city, most have 1 star for a reason. I luckily don't have to deal with this anymore but the worst type of morning was the one I had to wake u and go to the PO before work (since when I left work it was already closed), it was a nightmare.

[shovelhd]

When I was out of work, fed up with IT age/wage discrimination, and ready to make a career change, I took the postal exam and applied for jobs. I had one of the highest scores in my state so I got quite a few interview requests. 95% of them were for temporary positions. They don't hire for full-time much anymore. It's all on-call, off-hours, and traveling positions. They don't care about consistency of service, they just want warm bodies.

My local PO never delivers all of the mail on bad weather days like today. We'll get a few light items or nothing. Tomorrow's mailbox will be loaded with yesterday's mail. And so it goes.

[tigoat]

Recently, I had a package that shows it was delivered but the package actually arrived about 5 days late. I think their tracking system sometimes screw up and could be unreliable. I think the mailman usually would get the blame for a delivery problem while the system might be the problem.

[superbowlpats]

If you really are concerned about tracking don't use USPS. There's a reason they are typically the cheapest shipping option. UPS and FEDEX have a lot more tracking infrastructure in place than USPS. Considering what people get charged for shipping (typically "free"), the volume of packages in this day and age, I'm just happy when it arrives.

[peanutgallery]

So... you guys bypass the local retail chain to save a buck and the the postmaster gets you with a few extra days, some runaround and added aggravation. I love it, long live local retail

[chiasticon]

Originally Posted by R3awak3n

the people that say have it held at the post office never been to a NYC post office. The PO here is the last place you want to go.

I dunno... I've never had a good post office experience. big city, small town, suburbs... doesn't matter. everyone working there seems miserable, in absolutely no hurry, and like they spend the majority of their time praying for death.

Originally Posted by superbowlpats

If you really are concerned about tracking don't use USPS. There's a reason they are typically the cheapest shipping option. UPS and FEDEX have a lot more tracking infrastructure in place than USPS. Considering what people get charged for shipping (typically "free"), the volume of packages in this day and age, I'm just happy when it arrives.

basically this for me. I generally am not expecting anything of great value or urgency via USPS, and I've usually paid little to nothing for shipping. I get the annoyances, and we have some too of course, but I don't get super fired up about them. usually we just laugh about how ridiculous they are.

[Tickdoc]

Originally Posted by chiasticon

I dunno... I've never had a good post office experience. big city, small town, suburbs... doesn't matter. everyone working there seems miserable, in absolutely no hurry, and like they spend the majority of their time praying for death.

That's funny. I list the DMV and the court house as the only places worse to visit. Uncomfortable waiting with an aire of akwardness.

most questions are answered with a curt rudeness that is just so degrading.

Aholes.

[Ti Designs]

With me, USPS sends me an update via e-mail that my package has been delivered. Last time they sent the update was around 1:30pm and the package was delivered just 4 hours later. What bothers me about that is the use of technology to be wrong, but to be able to claim that they're accurate. It's like the networks advertising their weather forecasters as super accurate when they're anything but. The reason people aren't better at what they do is that they're spending too much time convincing everyone else that there's no room for improvement...

[BumbleBeeDave]

Take a chill pill and try to consider it from the other side. I was at a job fair the other day and stopped by the USPS booth. Almost all their listed positions were part time and at odd hours, and the pay is not nearly as great as you might think. The only verified full time slot they had was a 4am-1pm shift.

That guy delivering your packages is likely temp, just that "warm body" somebody else mentioned. We have no idea if he got training or how much. He may also have been given a route with a distance to walk and a volume of mail that makes it practically impossible to complete the route in his allotted work time unless conditions are ideal, i.e., perfect weather, low mail volume, etc. This guy/gal may also be scared stiff of losing their job.

What's your package? Life or death medicine? Deadline financial docs? . . . Oh, it's bike parts? Does an extra day or two to deliver really matter that much? Relax.

BBD

[AngryScientist]

Originally Posted by BumbleBeeDave

Relax.

believe me, i'm relaxed. this is not a major issue for me. sending an email complaint is hardly taxing my psyche.

what you are basically saying is that if someone gets a job to do that is impossible for them to complete - it's OK to lie about getting it done.

IMO, it is not OK.

[eBAUMANN]

Can we hit the pause button for a second here to recognize that we (as bike nerds constantly buying/selling/trading parts) are a bit more hyper-aware of our shipments than the majority of the population?

When most people order something, they arent following along via a package tracker app like most of us...they just wait and it shows up when it shows up. Only after an excessively long period of no-show will they remember "hey, where the hell is my _____?!" and look into it. THIS is the ideal/majority USPS customer.

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The craziest experience I had with USPS was with a package I sent that was labelled with the wrong zip code and without a return address...the perfect storm of undeliverable mail. Now, in this case I would kinda expect them to chuck it in the back of some mail warehouse never to be seen again. However, they ended up shipping it back across the country to a lost-mail facility in Atlanta, where it was eventually located, re-directed and finally delivered. Granted this all took about a month to sort out but it actually got sorted!

----

Also, I do agree about with the "relax" sentiment...at the end of the day, its just an extra day delay on delivery. They mark is "notice left" because its the easiest thing (within the constraints of their system) for them to do, there is no malicious/dishonest intent. Its just not worth stressing over, unless the thing never shows up, then maybe file a complaint and such. But so long as they are eventually getting to you, just take a deep breath and let it go, life's too short.

[bicycletricycle]

That kind of thing is annoying, it would certainly be interesting to try and figure out why it is happening, it seems to me that a lot of things could cause this sort of problem (unorganized driver, bad sorting at the office, etc.)

However

USPS does not guarantee a time frame delivery for priority and first class mail, from the post office-

"Priority Mail: Priority Mail is the United States Postal Service's standard air service. Packages usually arrive to their domestic destination within 1-3 business days. Transit times vary depending on how far the package has to be delivered from its origin."

The operative word here being "usually"

If they forget to drop it off and bring it back tomorrow they are still giving you the service you paid for, the reason a lot of packages are shipped USPS is that it is cheaper, perhaps the very reason it is cheaper is this relaxation in time pressure. If you just can't wait one extra day for that package perhaps you should pay for a better delivery service?

Is it reasonable to expect the cheapest service to also be the most organized and punctual?

[Jaybee]

It's not OK to lie about it, but I think BumbleBee has an important point.

Say the scenario he lays out is correct: A temp worker with little training being asked to do a job that is only possible to complete in the ideal conditions that exist 1 out of every 20 or so working days. His failure to complete the job is really a management/planning issue, not a worker productivity issue. What are his recourses? He could complain to his supervisor that the expectations are out of whack with reality, but they will probably just fire him and move on to someone else. He could leave the package undelivered and be honest about not attempting it, but then that's a black mark on his performance and... he gets fired. Or he could do what he did- game the system in a way he is strongly incentivized to do to keep his job.

I'm not sure there is a good answer here, just pointing out that your mail person is a human and perhaps deserves some empathy.