A Rant on the USPS -- warning, mad woman at large!

[KathieB]

Last week I ordered a couple of small things from one of our favorite miniature purveyors (a set of faucets and an umbrella stand). They were shipped out at the 2-day shipping rate through the US postal service with a tracking number. I thought they ought to be here by Monday, but with the Thanksgiving holiday, I gave it an extra day. No sign of it on Tuesday. I tracked it on line this morning (Wednesday) and discovered it was supposedly delivered at 11:32 am on Monday.

The mail carrier was in the complex, so I asked her about it. She allowed as how she was a substitute carrier with only her first day delivering in our apartment/condo complex, but she kindly searched the truck looking for the package. She seemed surprised that we didn't have a pick-up notice in our box. I explained to her that I'd received a similar package a couple of weeks ago and the parcel was small enough to fit inside the mailbox. I have no reason to suspect that this order was shipped in a larger box.

So, we went to the post office with the tracking information printout. The window clerk took our information and went back to check. She came back empty-handed and took the printout with the tracking number and went in back again. She came back a few minutes later and said it wasn't on the shelf, but someone was checking.

So, another postal worker came out with the printout in hand and said that according to their records, the parcel had been scanned as delivered twice -- once at 11:32 am as on the printout and again at 12-something. (Does that give a clue that the carrier wasn't on her game?) He said he'd called the regular carrier, who is on her day off, and she had no recall of a large package. I told him it wasn't a large package, it was a very small one that should have fit easily in the mailbox, and would he please call her back. No, he says, he doesn't like to bother someone on their day off. Oh, I say, so it's okay to have a customer bothered but not a postal employee? Well, he says, would you like to be bothered on your day off?

So he goes away for a minute and says the supervisor for the office was on the phone and would be with me in a few minutes. I got the same runaround from him. He went so far as to ask if I'd ever worked, because then I'd understand why he didn't want to bother someone on their day off but he'd speak to the carrier tomorrow. If I screwed something up, I'd expect to be bothered on my day off.

He pushed me to the point that I smart mouthed him. His immediate reaction was to call to another employee to phone the police. I told him that wasn't necessary (and I suspect it was a bluff, anyway). I took his name and had him spell it twice so I'd be accurate when I report this incident to his superiors.

This may not have bothered me so much if the clerks at the windows weren't busy telling the customers that they like to help all they can to make the customer's visit to the post office a pleasant one. I'm still fuming, several hours later, and I suspect my blood pressure is someplace it shouldn't be. This postal substation is nothing but trouble. I'm genuinely surprised when we get a package without a lot of fuss.

On the bright side: the postal service now automatically insures packages for $50. If they can't find this one, I'll be happy to collect from them and reorder, as the actual value of the shipment was less than that. But that's beside the point.

Stepping off the soapbox now. If you've read this far, bless you!

[morgansmith]

Considering the tests one has to pass to be a postal employee, this kind of situation should be a work of fiction. Considering what I have seen and experienced myself, you are far from alone, Kathie. The post office threatened to call the police on a very dear, very kind friend of mine. I forget why, I just remember they too were at fault and blamed her. I was once very connected to the postal service. Yes, they get wack job employees. But here is what I feel is the problem. Society is wacked! The reason you were threatened in that way? An employee was too ignorant to see you were justifiably peeved and decided you were angry/a threat. It's the real jerks in society you can thank for this treatment.

I'm sorry for your experience. No doubt anyone who witnessed it was disgusted by how you were treated.

[KathieB]

Thanks, Morgan. Lloyd worked for the post office many years ago. He remembers the time when your mailman knew who you were and went out of his or her way to be sure your mail was delivered. His theory is in sync with yours: the employees today just don't care. They have no pride in what they do. At least not the ones who work in this part of town. Maybe it's the difference between big town (New Orleans) and small town (Marshall, Mo.), but we know our mailman in Mo and he goes out of his way to be helpful. Here -- ha.

[chapchap73]

So sorry to hear about your experience, Kathie. Maybe his quick jump to calling the police was because that yucky office has frequent visits from irate patrons. Our regular mail-lady had to retire some years ago, and it did seem to take forever to get a good one. I'm quaking because he just told me he's retiring in the spring

[kellyannmo]

oh dear.... I am so sorry for this experience.... the mail and the postal workers have been odd these days.... I recently sent a package to Tennessee.... from California.... tracked the package when it wasn't delivered in a timely manner... and found it in Puerto Rico.... {{Really!!}} ... thankfully the package made it to it's correct destination a few days later... but I am STILL waiting for a call from the resolution center... (which I was promised withing 24 hours of filing my dispute)

your experience was so much worse.... thankfully I didn't have to deal with any of them face to face... I might not have been very nice....

[Minis On The Edge]

I'm so sorry to hear of your post office pain! We live in A condo so I totally get it. We have the worse service because we don't have a regular postman. We are on an auxiliary route so our person changes daily. We are the "punishment" route :/

[KathieB]

I'm so sorry to hear of your post office pain! We live in A condo so I totally get it. We have the worse service because we don't have a regular postman. We are on an auxiliary route so our person changes daily. We are the "punishment" route :/

Oh, Tracy, I feel your pain! Our apartment/condo complex has more than a thousand units and only one postman. The postal worker I spoke to today was here for the first time, had only just begun making the deliveries, and was already pulling out her hair.

[kat57]

I have to say,one person to deliver to a thousand units...no wonder there's goof ups! Each of us is only human. I'm sorry for what you went through-they should be much more professional than that. But who among us would really want their job this extremely busy time of year? That absolutely doesn't excuse any rudeness or foul-ups the rest of the year,of course. I just hope the higher ups don't keep making it harder for postal workers to even be good employees,loading them down to the point of that one postal worker's route,for example-that's ridiculous! That's what needs to be addressed,making their job doable in the first place! Just my opinion. And you should not have had to go through all that to the point of stressing yourself out over a small package. I hope you have a better day tomorrow.

[WyckedWood]

Ive been ordering minis through the mail for 8 years...Ive only had one go missing, it shipped out of Florida and made its way to the Bermuda Triangle (apparently). I (very illogically) now never order anything that ships out of Florida. I consider it a small miracle everytime a package actually makes it into my hands.

Wow Kathie...that's an amazing story of incompetence. These people sign on for the job, theres no excuse for this attitude.

[morgansmith]

I have tracked every package I get from ebay. 500+. In 3 years, I never had a legitimate loss. (one seller never sent the item, I am sure & one package traveled the world for months) However.....in the last several weeks, I have ordered 32 items. I believe about 6 arrived 'on time'. I currently have two tracked packages due the 3rd that still aren't here and one ordered over two weeks ago that the ebay seller won't even respond on. That's something like a couple late packages in 3 years and now 25 in less than 2 months. No exaggeration. Not coincidence.

[havanaholly]

I sent Kathie a doll for her quilt shop that the USPS' equipment managed to mangle and destroy; several months later they found enough of the return address on the package's remains to return that piece to let me know it wasn't delivered; of course, I'd already found out from Kathie that it had vanished.

[KathieB]

Anybody else recall the ad run by the USPS some years ago (late 50s) bragging that the Hope diamond had been shipped via USPS, implying that if such magnificence traveled safely, then our far less important parcels were also safe? I'm not sure that registering a package would make delivery a sure thing today. And I'd bet lunch that Harry Winston jewelers no longer ships via the USPS.

[grazhina]

Hope diamond had been shipped via USPS,

...bad ad - the Hope diamond isn't exactly breakable.

[Roxxie2]

I am not surprised Kathie. Its even worse out here where I live. The USPS doesn't deliver any packages to our houses out in the desert and mail comes to a central box miles down the road. I track packages that say they have been delivered to the PO and it is days before we get a message that they are ready to be picked up. I have gone to town ( 14 miles) to pick up a package they say is ready and they can't find it today.....come back tomorrow. A couple of years ago I mailed a package out here and they said they couldn't find it at the PO. They called a year later saying that they found the package on the shelf. It had only been sitting there for over a year and a half!!! I won't go on...............No wonder the PO is losing money!

[Selkie]

Lets not forget the disappearance of our beloved Molly Moose - the traveling moose sent out by THmini2 a few years ago. Since we participated in that one my grands are still sad over that loss.

[Roxxie2]

I use FedEx or UPS now if I have anything of real value ( sentimental or other). I have never had them loose anything so far. They are a little more expensive but its worth the aggravation factor!

[DocGreen]

And this is the same government that will be in charge of your healthcare!

[havanaholly]

Perry, these USPS problems predate the new health care law. Let's keep the politics out of this; this is a PR problem.

[KathieB]

This forum is lacking an important emoticon: the one that shows egg all over my face.

I printed out the sales receipt this morning to begin an insurance claim and discovered MY MISTAKE. In completing the address, I transposed two numbers. Our condo # is 2106. I typed 2601. That's five buildings over and who knows who lives there. Lloyd is on his way over there right now to see if they perhaps have the package or have returned it to the post office.

I apologize for tearing up the bandwidth with this unacceptably off the wall rant. Whatever shortcomings the USPS has exhibited, this particular incident was not one of them. I'm going to contact a mod with a request to lock this thread. Than I need to go to the post office and eat crow in front of the supervisor.

Again, my profuse apologies.

[havanaholly]

One of the dubious advantages of being our age is that when we make mistakes, they're doozies. Here's a cyber :hug:, a pat on the back and a dry shoulder.