Going postal...

wsuffa

wsuffa

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Feb 22, 2005
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Display name:
Bill S.
/rant on

I almost went postal this afternoon. I had 7 or 8 large envelopes to mail at the end of the day. So I went down to the local branch of the post office. They had just closed the doors inside (a few minutes before 5 PM... there were a couple of folks in line, can't keep the counter workers too late). So I used the automated machine. Took me a good *minute* per package to weigh and dispense the postage. While doing so, I heard them collecting the mail from the mail slot. No problem, this post office has a 7 PM drop time.

WRONG.

Apparently they recently changed the pickup time to *5 PM*. And they eliminated ALL the morning pickups (used to have a 7 AM pickup), so the earliest the stuff would go out is *1 PM* tomorrow. I missed the pickup by literally a minute or two while waiting for their stupid machine to go through each of 8 prompt menus per package and dispense postage.

So I ended up driving 10 miles to the main post office, no, make that 20 miles... 10 up, 10 back.

OK, so we keep seeing postal rates rising, yet they cut service for people who might actually need to mail things at the end of the work day.

Ba$^#@*s.

Any wonder why people go postal???

/rant off

(no, these were not things I could email, unfortunately)
 
I feel your pain and more besides...

My post office is open 10:30AM to 12:30 PM. No machines. No Express Mail.

Oh, and a post office box is $45/yr even though no home delivery is available. So, if you want to receive mail you can either have it thrown in the general delivery box and get to the post office during the 2 hours per day they are open so you can pick it up personally, or rent a box.
 
wsuffa said:
/rant on

I almost went postal this afternoon. I had 7 or 8 large envelopes to mail at the end of the day. So I went down to the local branch of the post office. They had just closed the doors inside (a few minutes before 5 PM... there were a couple of folks in line, can't keep the counter workers too late). So I used the automated machine. Took me a good *minute* per package to weigh and dispense the postage. While doing so, I heard them collecting the mail from the mail slot. No problem, this post office has a 7 PM drop time.

WRONG.

Apparently they recently changed the pickup time to *5 PM*. And they eliminated ALL the morning pickups (used to have a 7 AM pickup), so the earliest the stuff would go out is *1 PM* tomorrow. I missed the pickup by literally a minute or two while waiting for their stupid machine to go through each of 8 prompt menus per package and dispense postage.

So I ended up driving 10 miles to the main post office, no, make that 20 miles... 10 up, 10 back.

OK, so we keep seeing postal rates rising, yet they cut service for people who might actually need to mail things at the end of the work day.

Ba$^#@*s.

Any wonder why people go postal???

/rant off

(no, these were not things I could email, unfortunately)
Click to expand...

UPS, FEDEX, are a couple of choices that come to mind
 
igottafly said:
UPS, FEDEX, are a couple of choices that come to mind
Click to expand...

A bunch of USPS Mail goes via FedEx now a days. I used to work there when they made the switch.

Bill I feel your pain. You pay more but get less customer service.
 
Bill:

When we opened up our office in '98, this building (a 16-story one) had what was called, a "VIM Room" (and I have no idea what "VIM" stands for), essentially a small extension of the lost office at which mail for the building was sorted and distributed to the post boxes for the various suites in the building. Our mail was routinely distributed and ready to pick up from the boxes by 9:30 a.m. At that point, the carrier would deliver any "sign-for" mail, certifieds and the like, and be out of the building by 10:15 or so, returning at 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. to pick up outgoing mail from the VIM room drop slots.

About three or four years ago, the local postmaster (postmistress, actually) decided that it would be "more efficient" to sort the mail at the post office, rather than here at the building VIM Room. As soon as that happened, we started getting the mail, at the earliest, around 2:30 p.m. At the same time, the last pickup for the day was at 1:00 p.m. Hence, we had almost effectively lost two days in the cycle, since outgoing mail went out before we got the day's mail and, thus, we had no no way to do anything today with the mail we got today.

In conversation with the regular carrier, he told me that the postmistress gets bonuses based upon time-in-transit, and the effect of her changes was to buy a "free" day- better statistics, bigger bonus for poorer service.

Meanwhile, as carriers retire or quit, they are not replaced, and the regular carrier got tired of covering three or four routes, so he retired. Now, we frequently do not get our mail until 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. (if at all), and even then, a good 15% of the mail is misdelivered (which has actually led to us getting to know other building tenants better, as we exchange mail between each other).

The USPS apparently has a system in place which rewards bad performance, and it has got to stop, or the postal service will die away.
 
My post office here in Manhattan is a nightmare and a nuthouse, and that goes for everybody on both sides of the gate. I've been to a few rural post offices, and they seem a little better, but I avoid USPS at all costs.

No wonder USPS has been loosing to UPS and FedEx.
 
SCCutler said:
... or the postal service will die away.
Click to expand...
And what would the problem be with that? 90% of what I receive each day is bulk or junk mail. Most bills are handled electronically and the only thing I get in the mail I enjoy are magazine. 'real' mail is handled via FEDEX with a real tracking system.
 
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alaskaflyer said:
I feel your pain and more besides...

My post office is open 10:30AM to 12:30 PM. No machines. No Express Mail.

Oh, and a post office box is $45/yr even though no home delivery is available. So, if you want to receive mail you can either have it thrown in the general delivery box and get to the post office during the 2 hours per day they are open so you can pick it up personally, or rent a box.
Click to expand...
You forgot to mention that the plane with the mail leaves at 10am. So if you pay for next day air it takes 2 days because they do not open early enough to get the mail on the plane.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
If that's postal, what can we expect when they lose or mangle those packages Bill?!
:rofl:
Click to expand...

Well, there was the time, back when I lived in the DC suburbs, where the local carrier kept delivering mail on the wrong street. I'd keep getting social security checks, investment statements, etc. for a neighbor a block or two over. Complaints to the carrier & local PO went unheard.

So, the next time it happened, I packed the check along a couple of other misdelivered items, along with a letter of complaint and sent it to the regional postmaster... by Federal Express (this was long before their deal with FedEx). I also copied the local congresscritter, also by FedEx. I pointed out in the letter that since it was clear that the USPS was completely unreliable, as evidenced by the fact that they couldn't even deliver Gov't checks properly, and that I wanted to make sure my correspondance got to it's destination, and that FedEx was the only way to do that, blah, blah....

I got a call from the regional postmaster the next day, apparently he had a pretty chapped a$$, telling me how embarrassed he was that FedEx delivered there, and how I should call him the next time, blah, blah. I pointed out how I had TRIED addressing it another way, and that I'd make my point the same way next time if things didn't get fixed.

It took about a week for the congresscritter to respond.

The neighborhood got a new carrier the next week, along with ongoing audits of the mail delivery.
 
Nice job Bill!!

We had a similiar problem and ended up schedulling three meetings with the post master but got no relief. So we started writing on the misdelivered mail notes like 'delivered to wrong address, please read the address and pay attention to the street you are on since the postmaster will not train you to deliver mail correctly or respond to customer input' and then dropped those back into the postal box in another town.

After about 5 of those happened every postal patron on our block got a mail from the postmaster stating that it was illeagal to write on mail that had been misdelivered and it should simply be given back to the PO. We also got a new postman on our route.

I am pretty sure our postmaster got spanked for not dealing with this problem.
 
If you have problems with your local post office and the Post Master seems unwilling to help. Here are the magic words - Postal Inspector.
Tell the Post Master the next time there is a problem you will be calling D.C. and requesting that they have Postal Inspectors come and check on the problem.
Having a Postal Inspector in a post office checking on a Post Master is about the same as a pilot on the ramp hearing "hi, I am from the FAA and here to help you".

Mark B
 
The only thing I send USPS is letters I drop in the mail box in
front of the post office. I NEVER send anything larger than that
thru them. And I make very specific instructions to people sending
me things NOT to use USPS. They absolutely refuse to leave anything
by the front door that won't fit in my mail box. They take it all
back to the post office (not the closest one .. one about 6 or 7 miles
away) and leave me a notice I have to come get it it. Only problem ..
they aren't open when I'm off work till Saturday morning.

Any time I send packages I go to the UPS Store. They've always
been very nice and keep the addresses I send stuff to on the
computer so I don't have to keep filling out the forms. I have no
problem paying a couple extra bucks for the good service.

RT
 
RogerT said:
Any time I send packages I go to the UPS Store. They've always
been very nice and keep the addresses I send stuff to on the
computer so I don't have to keep filling out the forms. I have no
problem paying a couple extra bucks for the good service.

RT
Click to expand...

UPS has even gotten easier. I keep it all on my UPS account and can prep the shipment, print the tag, and then just drop it off for free at the UPS stores. Thos stores BTW are open past 5pm on weekdays unlike the PO.
 
We've received numerous notices that the USPS was unable to deliver a package because "Attempted Delivery - No one home". My wife has watched the usps mail carrier put out mail in the box, walked out to pick it up and find one of these notices. Ironically, we're on a cul-de-sac on the inbound route. My wife was standing in the middle of the street with said notice in hand as the carrier was on her way back out delivering mail to the other side of the street. I can only imagine she was wearing what our boys called "Don't mess with mom" face... you know the one - where the vein is bulging on either side of the neck? Don't think we've had any non-deliverable notices since then!
 
RogerT said:
The only thing I send USPS is letters I drop in the mail box in
front of the post office. I NEVER send anything larger than that
thru them. And I make very specific instructions to people sending
me things NOT to use USPS. They absolutely refuse to leave anything
by the front door that won't fit in my mail box. They take it all
back to the post office (not the closest one .. one about 6 or 7 miles
away) and leave me a notice I have to come get it it. Only problem ..
they aren't open when I'm off work till Saturday morning.
Click to expand...


That's an easy fix. All you have to do is live in an apartment. They'll put any packages they get for you at your door regardless of what it's worth and leave it there for whoever wants to stroll off with it. They're even polite enough to not even knock on the door in case you're taking a nap. But you won't receive your bills and the only way to pay the non recieved bills after an hour on the phone playing press 1 for ___ press 2 for ____ is by dropping it off inside at post office in person. Those drop boxes have a funnel that drops the contents directly into garbage cans.
 
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smigaldi said:
'real' mail is handled via FEDEX with a real tracking system.
Click to expand...

Scott...thank you for keeping food on my friends tables....and all you others who ship FedEx. Not only that but your bills go on an airplane that has a really cool paint scheme too Scott.
 
This is one of the reasons why i love living out in the sticks. I have a PO box here in Cashmere (we don't have a mailbox at the house). I pick up mail there once a week or so. Usually there is one of them yellow notices that says I have to go to the counter because the box is overflowing. The lady at the counter sees me walking in and has my mail waiting when i get to the counter. She doesn't even need to ask which box number is mine.

She even put mail in my box that AmEx had sent to the house. Nice lady.

The only think I don't like about the post office here is that they lock the door to the lobby after hours. Apparently some folks kept trying to bust open the stamp machine. I can get a key, but I'd have to pony up a $25 deposit. Kinda of a pain.
 
We have the curbside mailboxes on a stick here. And being in a country club housing development, everyone's mailbox has to look the same. Same style, same color (even brand) of paint. The Golf Cart Nazis occasionally tour the neighborhood to look for people with peeling paint on their mailboxes or whatever. Given that, imagine my consternation when I looked out my office window one day and saw the mailcreature in his little truck pull up to my mailbox one day, DRIVE OVER IT, stop to unmangle the door enough to stuff in the mail, and then drive away. I was on a conference call and couldn't get out there fast enough to catch him before he drove away, and the USPS denies any culpability for it.
 
DeeG said:
This is one of the reasons why i love living out in the sticks.
Click to expand...
Yep, growing up in a small town in South Dakota, the mail would get delivered to the rural route box with sometimes just name, city and state. Sending mail without postage was no problem... attach the appropriate postage to the envelope with a clothespin and the carrier would stick a stamp on it for us. The UPS guy still occasionally finds my parents having coffee at the local cafe and delivers their packages to the table.
 
At my post office in Austin, they have a wall of lockers of varying sizes where they put oversize packages. If you have a package delivered that's too big to fit in your PO box, they put a key in it with the locker number on it. You get your package out of the locker and the key stays in the lock. Seems to work pretty good. That area of the PO is open 24 hours a day, and they have one of those automated post office machines for mailing packages and things. I never use the counter any more, and I don't get mail at my house unless it's FedEx or UPS. I live outside of Austin and have a PO down the street, but it's one of those tiny ones that doesn't have after hours counter help, lockers or automated mailing machines. That's why I prefer to use the one next to the office.

The FedEx guy knows me, so I never have a problem getting packages delivered or left at the door for me. If there's a question, he calls my cell phone.
 
Y'all have no idea how often I have to explain to customers why they didn't receive their bills in the mail. I can reprint it and mail it out again, but that never seems to be good enough. The post office loses more bills than an 18 year old at his first strip club.

Ooh - I just came up with that! I'm proud.

We need to find a way to fix this nationwide. The USPS will never go away, it will just continue to be subsidized by our tax dollars until taxes are its only means of income.

Seriously - a few letters to congress may help. We may just need to try to get the USPS shut down, and let FedEx and UPS deliver all of our mail (at a cheaper rate and more reliably).
 
SkyHog said:
Seriously - a few letters to congress may help.
Click to expand...
I understand that standard postal delivery is the worst way to get letters to our congresscritters...isn't that ironic? FAX is the best, I hear.
 
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