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Has anyone had trouble with the USPS mail lately? I am getting so very angry!!! I mailed my father a birthday card. I mailed it 3 days ahead of his birthday... it got there late. But that is MINOR compared to my Sister In Law's card. She lives 3.5 hours from here. I mailed it Flat Rate Box because it was one of my favorite cards I have ever made and I did not want it to get smushed. They told me 2 - 3 days. It has been 10 Days and she STILL DOES NOT HAVE IT! I want to cry. I have pics of it (haven't posted it yet because I didn't want her to see it before she got it).
Is it just me? Have I somehow offended the postal gods? ACK. Is anyone else having this problem?:mad:
I think the weather may have something to do with it. If it was mailed flat rate box, that's priority mail and it does usually take 2-3 days. Did you insure the box? If you did, you should be able to track it. Sounds like something is amiss, but it could just be the weather. I'd call the PO from which you mailed it.
Everything does seem to be taking a very days longer than usual lately. I am pretty sure the weather is to blame. We seem to be getting storm after storm this year and each storm seems to push everything back a day or two and.
Likely it's the weather, but could also be due to their sorting system. We live in Oregon, my SIL and family live in Northern California in the Eureka area. The mail I send her goes to San Francisco (hundreds of miles south of them) to be sorted then gets sent back north for delivery. It takes days longer and I have to remember that for holidays, birthdays, etc.
Around me, even when weather is good, mail is taking forever. When I first moved here, mail delivery times were pathetic, then our congressman found out this area (his home district) was rated one of the worst delivery times in the country. After he took action, times improved dramatically and stayed great for quite a few years. Now they totally stink again. I pretty much mail things out a couple of weeks before I really need to just to make sure they get to their destinations in time.
My sister mailed my son and his family a "family" gift card (to Best Buy) the week before Christmas, along with a note. They received the note and the envelope in a plastic bag 2 weeks after Christmas, along with a note from the Post Office apologizing for the condition of the envelope. The gift card was nowhere to be found, and no mention of it was made by the P.O. The envelope was mailed directly from the P.O., so the theft had to have occurred somewhere in the postal system. I really hope someone enjoyed spending the gift card, and also hope they are repaid in kind.
__________________ Linda E
Caution: You are entering an artistic zone. This is not clutter - this is creating. These are not pajamas - it's my work uniform.
I am thinking it is just getting worse. A couple of years ago it would have taken 1 day... but now it took 3 days for a card to go from here to my daughters school 1.5 hours away. And I THINK the sorting facility for us is in Atlanta... which is where I was mailing the card for my sister in law. I think I am going to stick with Fedex or UPS from now on.
Here is my gripe, while we are on the subject. I have called and two times to our postmaster about this. My mail man obviously chain smokes in his mail truck. Whenever I get packages, they reek of cigarette smoke. Sometimes, to the point of leaving them in my garage to air out for a day.
I know I am not the only one on our route that has complained, because I have talked to neighbors about it. I would think that smoking in a government owned mail truck is against the rules to the point of being in big trouble about it, if not fired.
Anyone else ever have problems with this?
I live in MI and a package was sent from Florida. It went by way of California to get to me.
Somebody needs a geography lesson. (LOL)
I have called our po several times in the last couple of months. We have the strangest delivery. Trucks will go up and down our street several times a day, we get out mail afterwards, but no packages and then another truck will bring the other packages later on. It seems like a lot of wasted manpower. We also get our mail at 9:20 am one day and 5:30 pm the next. Lots of frustration.
Well I have a different problem. I ordered 4 orders from Scrap-Mart the last week of Dec when they had that amazing sale. I received 3 of them, but I haven't got the final one which, of course, is 4 times the cost of the others. We have a PO box in Blaine WA and we only go down there about twice/month. We went in the middle of Jan and the 4th package wasn't there, so we thought it would be, next time. Nope. I have communicated with Scrap-Mart and they sent the pkg and gave me the tracking info. It is showing delivered to our PO box company, but they say they have not seen it. I am so mad. We are planning on going to the Post Office in Blaine, but I don't know how much good that will do. Our PO box guy says they are getting more and more misdirected mail from the Post Office and it is always marked as delivered! I'm sure I'll never see my order, so I hope whoever got it enjoys my Spellbinder dies and JustRite stamps. Thanks for letting me rant.
The Postal service keeps cutting employees, and the service is suffering and they won't admit it. The only way is to complain to your congressman/woman.
It won't be any comfort to you but we are having exactly the same problem in England. Yes, we had severe weather conditions in early December but deliveries have been appalling for months and have been headline news in local and national papers.
The USPS closed several major processing plants and thew more mail into the over crowed city postal processing centers...In general my mail has slowed by 2 additional days..And when I send anything that is over sized and does not go through the automated processing machine (big green) has taken additional 4-5 days of processing!
Guess what, It's going to get worse...They are now going to start closing Post Offices that are not of value or loose money!
I have a friend that lives 2 hours from me, I went to the PO to mail her birthday card, paid the extra postage and hand cancel stamp...mailed on Jan. 6th, she received it postmarked Jan. 17th delivered on Jan 24th!
Got to love the postal service!
__________________ Karen
...My life is like a stroll on the beach...As near to the edge as I can go...Thoreau...
Here is my gripe, while we are on the subject. I have called and two times to our postmaster about this. My mail man obviously chain smokes in his mail truck. Whenever I get packages, they reek of cigarette smoke. Sometimes, to the point of leaving them in my garage to air out for a day.
I know I am not the only one on our route that has complained, because I have talked to neighbors about it. I would think that smoking in a government owned mail truck is against the rules to the point of being in big trouble about it, if not fired.
Anyone else ever have problems with this?
I just checked with my Dad, who works for the U.S. Postal Service, and smoking is a no-no; either in the delivery trucks or in the P.O. He said you can get fired for it. I would bring it up to the postmaster....
I mailed a couple of larger envelopes on Monday and one of them took until Saturday to be delivered. I was really surprised it took that long; I am guessing it might have something to do with the bad weather.
After complaining to the local Postmaster in our area over mail problems during the years (our address was classified as a training route for the Post Office), I found that is was much more effective to file a formal complaint at 1-800-ASK-USPS, as they will inform the Postmaster of the complaint and then the local Postmaster will have to answer to them and to you. You will get a friendly call from the local Postmaster about the problem.
Maybe they've overwhelmed their system with all of those flat rate boxes?
I've had things not arrive at all. I had to put a stop payment on a bill I did through bill pay. It is one of the TWO businesses who get a check instead of an electronic payment, and after 25 days (mailed from a business in the city, to another business in the city), put a stop payment on the check.
You know I went to the Post Office to pick up some more Priority Flat Rate Boxes and couldn't believe how small it was compared it to the one I had left at home. Same price but way smaller.....its a theme nowadays, isn't it?
I think the delivery has gotten worse due to cutbacks, reorganizing the routes, etc. I know it's gotten slower and less reliable here.
We now have several delivery people who do our street each week. How can anyone learn the neighborhood that way? As it is, I need to sometimes post a large sign, telling them to please use our mailbox instead of stuffing under the door. Can they not see the LARGE white metal mailbox right next to the door??
I mailed an anniversary card to my daughter and her husband, four hours away. It took three weeks, then I recieved a large envelope with a note about how they process four million pieces of mail per day at the sorting facility inLouisville. In the envelope was one third of my daugther's card. It wasn't lumpy or bumpy and I'm sure glad that there wasn't a gift card or anything in it.
the Postmaster general makes a fortune too ! good job to have when things get bad....you still make the big $$$$.
maybe they should hire consultants from fed-ex or UPS. they seem to be able to deliver stuff with little difficulty.
we have had a problem with delivery of USA today....for >2 years. paper blames the PO, PO blames the paper. no win there. the paper just started delivering it like a local paper, right in the paper slot on the mailbox. a miracle. now we always receive it.
A friend in California mailed me a package via USPS Parcel Post on December 15, 2010. I received it on January 5, 2011 - three weeks after its postmark date.
The attachment to this post shows how the package looked when it arrived, well, minus the blue boxes that I used to edit out the mailing and return addresses. Luckily the only thing that was damaged was the box itself; the contents were sturdy enough that they didn't get messed up at all.
I mailed this same friend a birthday card around 4:30 pm (eastern time) on January 18, and she received it on January 20. Amazing difference in delivery, yes?
I just checked with my Dad, who works for the U.S. Postal Service, and smoking is a no-no; either in the delivery trucks or in the P.O. He said you can get fired for it. I would bring it up to the postmaster....
No kidding? Our mail carrier is always smoking. I didn't think there was anything I could do about it. Thanks for the information!
__________________ My Gallery Team Jasper! "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" Mt. 6:21
My sister mailed my son and his family a "family" gift card (to Best Buy) the week before Christmas, along with a note. They received the note and the envelope in a plastic bag 2 weeks after Christmas, along with a note from the Post Office apologizing for the condition of the envelope. The gift card was nowhere to be found, and no mention of it was made by the P.O. The envelope was mailed directly from the P.O., so the theft had to have occurred somewhere in the postal system. I really hope someone enjoyed spending the gift card, and also hope they are repaid in kind.
I hope they kept hold of everything and reported it as a Federal crime.
Yeah, that gift card is long gone but it may help in the long run to get these sort of "workers" out of our postal system.
Our post here in our part of the UK is usually pretty good and efficient. Yet I posted a parcel to a dear friend in the US on 6th December. It was postmarked 6th December but my friend in America didn't receive it until 17th January and the sturdy box I posted was so battered and crushed it looked as though it had been thrown into the road and run over by a very heavy truck! Not at all impressed with the US postal service.
I live in MI and a package was sent from Florida. It went by way of California to get to me.
Somebody needs a geography lesson. (LOL)
Florida to California to Michigan is definately not right. Something on the zip code or bar code was likely misread.
I have called our po several times in the last couple of months. We have the strangest delivery. Trucks will go up and down our street several times a day, we get out mail afterwards, but no packages and then another truck will bring the other packages later on. It seems like a lot of wasted manpower. We also get our mail at 9:20 am one day and 5:30 pm the next. Lots of frustration.
It depends on where you live. If you live in a metro area, the volume of mail does not allow for the regular postman to deliver packages, so another truck is necessary. It is possible that you may see more than one truck a day just delivery packages depending on the class of mail they are (class determines priority) and then an additional truck deliver your mail. As far as your regular delivery, again it depends on location. Some routes are contracted out, and that mail is delivered in the carrier's personal vehicle. You also may be on a route that is serviced only by substitute carriers, meaning a different person may be delivering on different days. Certain routes also have priority.
I live in MI and a package was sent from Florida. It went by way of California to get to me.
Somebody needs a geography lesson. (LOL)
I have called our po several times in the last couple of months. We have the strangest delivery. Trucks will go up and down our street several times a day, we get out mail afterwards, but no packages and then another truck will bring the other packages later on. It seems like a lot of wasted manpower. We also get our mail at 9:20 am one day and 5:30 pm the next. Lots of frustration.
I was told by someone that UPS (as opposed to USPS) and Fedex sometimes map it out so that they don't have to make left turns. Right Turns only. So you may have two different trucks delivering on the street to get each side. Doing it this way saved time in actuality as they weren't dependent on left turns across traffic, etc... and cut down on accidents.
My sister mailed my son and his family a "family" gift card (to Best Buy) the week before Christmas, along with a note. They received the note and the envelope in a plastic bag 2 weeks after Christmas, along with a note from the Post Office apologizing for the condition of the envelope. The gift card was nowhere to be found, and no mention of it was made by the P.O. The envelope was mailed directly from the P.O., so the theft had to have occurred somewhere in the postal system. I really hope someone enjoyed spending the gift card, and also hope they are repaid in kind.
With the volume of mail nowdays, there are almost no workers hand-sorting mail. It is almost completely mechanized these days at the volume of 38,000 per hour for one letter sorting machine. There are multiple letter-sorting machines at most facilities. What happens many times with gift cards is that they are stiff and get jammed and shredded in the sorting machines due to the high speed they go through the machines. Most of the jams have to be cleared by a mechanic and in doing so, may have to severely damage other mail in clearing the jam. In that case, they wouldn't know there was even a gift card in that particular envelope, and it's against the law for them to read your mail (your note) to know that there was a gift card in that envelope. They'll clear the jams out, but it's possible that the gift card may be laying in the bottom of a letter sorting machine in pieces until they tear the machine completely down for maintenance (about 3 times a year), in which case if it is there, it will go to the dead-letter office. They try to track people down from that office, but with no name of identification on the gift card, it would be destroyed.
I mail my gift cards and some of my delicate cards in a bubble-padded envelope.
And please note, there are not postal workers standing around in sorting facilities feeling for the envelopes with gift cards or money and tearing open envelopes and stealing gift cards, etc. There are so many supervisors and postal inspectors around and cameras in post offices where employees don't even know where they're at. In addition, management rides the a**e* of employees so much that my husband couldn't stand it anymore and retired as soon as he could get the heck out of there. My husband's crew frequently hit new production highs, but it was NEVER good enough. The pressure is unbelievable. Yes, there is tremendous waste in the P.O. It is the most overmanaged and mismanaged government entity. But it is not the lazy postal workers.
Tours of any postal facility are available by requesting. Some facilities have open house days and group tours are appreciated more.
Likely it's the weather, but could also be due to their sorting system. We live in Oregon, my SIL and family live in Northern California in the Eureka area. The mail I send her goes to San Francisco (hundreds of miles south of them) to be sorted then gets sent back north for delivery. It takes days longer and I have to remember that for holidays, birthdays, etc.
DH worked in the P.O. in Indianapolis, IN. South Bend is in extreme northern Indiana, but their mail has to come to the main processing center in Indianapolis to get the first sorting, then back to South Bend. So all mail must go to the nearest main processing center in their own state. South Bend's mail couldn't go to Chicago even though it's much closer, because it's in Illinois.
Seems crazy but the fact that one little letter can get through billions of pieces of mail a year to find it's way to one little home - whether it's in downtown New York or on a remote ranch in Montana - all for 44 cents - is some sort of miracle.
After complaining to the local Postmaster in our area over mail problems during the years (our address was classified as a training route for the Post Office), I found that is was much more effective to file a formal complaint at 1-800-ASK-USPS, as they will inform the Postmaster of the complaint and then the local Postmaster will have to answer to them and to you. You will get a friendly call from the local Postmaster about the problem.
I agree. I had to do the same thing. Went through the local postmaster first and was getting the run around. I called the 1-800 number too and filed a complaint and all my missing mail showed up a week later in one big envelope. Its worth calling the 1-800 number
Our post here in our part of the UK is usually pretty good and efficient. Yet I posted a parcel to a dear friend in the US on 6th December. It was postmarked 6th December but my friend in America didn't receive it until 17th January and the sturdy box I posted was so battered and crushed it looked as though it had been thrown into the road and run over by a very heavy truck! Not at all impressed with the US postal service.
Are you certain it was the US side? The reason I ask is that my youngest son's birthday present was stolen by a postal worker in Swindon in September 2010. The padded envelope arrived in the US empty and was processed to us with that note attached by USPS that was the condition it arrived to the US. A complaint has been filed with Royal Mail.
I think its time for us to resort back to sending checks/cheques unless you are going to see the person. Those are harder to steal especially if you use the embedding ink that wont wash out.:rolleyes:
Oh and I have had issues with DHL in the past with their sorting in Ohio (again stealing from children). So going with a specialist isn't always better. We had to use them again recently and had no issues so I hope that means they sorted out their original light fingered issue from a couple of years ago.
I've intended to come on here and ask sellers/traders to tape the living daylights out of the packages they're sending to me. I've gotten several things over the past couple of months that are very damaged and one had an item missing from the box where it was torn. I'm not sure what they're doing with packages in the back room but it looks like playing kickball with some of the packages I've been getting.
i also have received packages in awful condition......sometimes an apology..."sorry, we destroyed your stuff, have a nice day" ! well, they didnt say that, but i am sure there was no heartfelt sympathy involved.
even if packages/letters are secure, some evil troll-alien in the PO is having his way with them
At my day job we mail thousands of packages. We also receive many complaints regarding opened packages and item missing from them. Ususally the high dollar items like Jordan shoes and such.
Not to long ago an investigation was done after several of these opened packages in a certain area was done. It was getting very costly for the company to mail to this specific area. Usually the PO would not take responsibility for them so we had to replace those items at our cost.
It turned out the mailman admitted to opening those packages and taking out what he wanted and then delivering the packages opened with missing items.
He is no longer a mailman.
So yes it does happen.
I've had several swaps not make to the addresses. and I've had things returned.
I can tell you our Mail lady does what she wants and delivers how ever she wants too.
I've called her on it. and she just flips me off. I turned her in for this.
Of course the next couple of weeks she is as nice as can be.....
Lately we have been getting out mail and it's ripped to shreds. So Again I'll called the Postmaster. and so far nothing has been done about it.
My daddy was a letter carrier for 30 years. And he never treated anyone this way. So I know it's just the person who is delivering the mail She is the one with a BIG ATTITUDE!!!
this reminded me of our experience. we had just moved to a new home in SC.....the mail carrier (lady) drove onto the lawn each time ruining our newly installed sod. we put up little flags to indicate where the lawn was (end of a cul-d-sac so maybe she was confused?) and i got a call from the local postmaster who wanted to set up a "conflict resolution meeting". we met and she said "if you want mail, i will drive over your lawn, if you dont, pick it up in town". that was it ! imagine. i wanted to put down spikes but DH wouldnt let me. i was soooooooo mad.
My favorite was when a birthday invitation from my kids' cousin who lives a mile or so away from us took two weeks to get to us. Needless to say, we knew of the party without the invite, but really?!?! Two weeks!?!?
My sister mailed my son and his family a "family" gift card (to Best Buy) the week before Christmas, along with a note. They received the note and the envelope in a plastic bag 2 weeks after Christmas, along with a note from the Post Office apologizing for the condition of the envelope. The gift card was nowhere to be found, and no mention of it was made by the P.O. The envelope was mailed directly from the P.O., so the theft had to have occurred somewhere in the postal system. I really hope someone enjoyed spending the gift card, and also hope they are repaid in kind.
I haven't read the rest of the replies, but wanted to ask if your sister contacted Best Buy about the gift card.
A few years ago, some gift cards from Target went missing in the mail. The lady who bought them contacted Target, who said that the cards had been spent. Then Target tracked the gift cards down to WHEN and which store had processed them, and caught the guy leaving the store on CAMERA! The guy was a postal worker, who now isn't a postal worker anymore.
So maybe if Best Buy has some kind of number on their gift cards, they can track it down.
Trouble with the Mail Lately?
