New Thread, Old Subject - USPS

Gampa · Post by **Gampa** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 1:43 am

As a 20 year employee of USPS as a Rural carrier I can understand peoples frustration with our system. However, I would like to point out that the USPS is trying hard to correct the tracking system failures. I know from the packages I track they are scanned when picked up, scanned when they hit local distribution area, scanned again when the reach the distribution center at the other end, and then scanned as out for delivery if they arrive in the morning or scanned as arrived at unit when received in the afternoon at your local post office. The post office constantly monitors thier tracking system and shoots for 97% on time delivery. Currently they average 95%. This however will go down if Congress and the Postmaster General get thier way and go to a five day delivery.

As far as placing stamps on letters for people I know I still do it. I highly encourage people to buy stamps and put them on themselfs. It is a pain to try to remember to put a stamp on an envelope when I get back into the office 4 hours after having picked it up.

AS far as loosing market share USPS is actually delivering more packages then they have ever before, it is the only area where we are actually growing. I haven't heard how UPS is doing but FexEx has reported thier deliveries down 15% every year for the last three years. We must be doing something right.

As for that awful mail box picture your location really dosn't say where you are at but my guess is you live on a contract route. I know I do and receive bad delivery myself. As the Post Office and Congress keep trying to cut the throats of real postal employees and take our jobs away from us and give it to contractors that they have little to no control over all I can say is expect more of it.

Gene Howe · Post by **Gene Howe** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:31 am

We are lucky, I guess. Our rural contract carrier is a gem. We used to put out-going mail in the box and put the flag up. One day the carrier left us a note saying that the flag was up but there was no out-going in the box. Since there were several hundred $$ in checks in it, we were very grateful for his warning.
Stop payment orders are EXPENSIVE, though.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:40 am

Gene Howe wrote:We are lucky, I guess. Our rural contract carrier is a gem. We used to put out-going mail in the box and put the flag up. One day the carrier left us a note saying that the flag was up but there was no out-going in the box. Since there were several hundred $$ in checks in it, we were very grateful for his warning.
Stop payment orders are EXPENSIVE, though.

WOW, I did not know. The stop payment fee at my bank is $30.

Sorry. Did not mean to derail this thread from postal services. It just happened naturally.

letterk · Post by **letterk** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:57 am

I personally like the USPS at most times. No one ships small packages for the prices they offer. If you can fit it in a fixed rate envelope (not the box) you can ship anywhere in the US for a low flat rate. Priority mail generally ships faster than UPS and Fedex ground for around the same rates.

The services that bother me are UPS Mail Innovations and Fedex Smartpost. Both these services rely on the package being transferred to the USPS to deliver. These are all services meant to save money at the expense of speed.

UPS and Fedex are great if you ship a lot of packages and get discounts. My work gets a 50% discount over book rates. Amazon gets an unbelievable discount. I've shipped items to them by UPS to sell online and they allow you to ship with their discounted rates. I've been able to send a 20 lb boxes that my humidifier came it (probably 28" x 15" x 15" for $11. Unfortunately, you don't get these rates if you ship the items to buyers directly.

mrhart · Post by **mrhart** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:11 am

Last Christmas, I mailed a couple items I made with the SS to my sister in Virginia. I used USPS and at the postal annex (where it was busy) I filled out the label myself to help the line go faster. The box never arrived after I'd called her and told her to be on the look out for it. I went in to the postal annex after 2 weeks, and they said since they did not do the label themselves electronically, there was no tracking info and it was gone forever. I've often wondered if someone was sharp enough to notice the packages at Christmas time that have hand-written labels, and swipe them becuase they know there can be no accountability for them. Someone out there got some nice gifts, boxes can't get lost that have TWO addresses on them.
Never ship anything without a tracking number.

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:02 am

I'm not sure what a "contract route" is or whether my mail carrier is one or not. I just know she is our face to the USPS and it's not a good one.

But I also realize she's not representative of the entire USPS. We absolutely loved our mail carrier at our previous home. He was one of the friendliest and most personable guys I've ever known. He took great care of our packages and obviously had a lot of pride in his job. I wish our current mail carrier was half as good as he was.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:05 pm

heathicus wrote:I'm not sure what a "contract route" is or whether my mail carrier is one or not. I just know she is our face to the USPS and it's not a good one.

But I also realize she's not representative of the entire USPS. We absolutely loved our mail carrier at our previous home. He was one of the friendliest and most personable guys I've ever known. He took great care of our packages and obviously had a lot of pride in his job. I wish our current mail carrier was half as good as he was.

About the only thing I know of that you can do is "report your complaints" to USPS management in your community. If she is as bad as you say, you are not the only one having problems. Eventually, the negative reports will become significant enough for management to have the tools to get rid of her.

Removing employees like this one is not easy. Employee rights you know.

fjimp · Post by **fjimp** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:35 pm

I remember the branch manager of a small town Virginia post office leveling with me one day when I asked for a complaint form over a Christmas gift that was never delivered. He walked over to a file cabinet with four open drawers which were stuffed beyond capacity. Then he explained this was where complaints in process of investigation were kept. No I didn't bother with the form or a formal complaint. Why bother.

As to placing mail of value in the box in front of my house. I quit doing that when our daughters mail box along with forty others at her town house unit were stripped clean of mail awaiting tenants. People will steal anything anywhere anytime. Sad but reality. Jim

skou · Post by **skou** » Sat Nov 03, 2012 10:25 pm

heathicus wrote:I have had so many problems with the USPS, but most of it has been because of my local mail carrier. I've stopped subscribing to magazines because they always arrived looking like they rode around on the floorboard of her car for a week. Shoe/boot imprints on the cover, all torn and crumpled up. The last straw was when I had some comic books shipped to the house. They were in a flat rate envelope, well packaged inside, with "Fragile" and "Do Not Bend" stickers all over the package. This is how I found it:

That's it on the lower side of the mailbox, folded in half, and crammed in.

She has also left packages for us at my in-law's house. Laying in the driveway. In the rain. She just pulled up the driveway, dropped the box out the window, and drove back off.

Remember when, if you didn't have a stamp, you could put the money for the stamp in the mailbox along with the unstamped envelope and the mail carrier would handle it? Not mine. She just takes the money and leaves the letter there still unstamped. And every time I've mailed a Netflix DVD back from our mailbox, Netflix has never received it.

We've complained but it has done no good. The only result is the lack of mail for a week or so following a complaint. So, I have packages mailed to my work. And I drop off letters (and Netflix DVDs) at a post office I pass on my way to work.

Man, after listening to this (and the other ) horror stories, I'm not moving, unless my mailman quits!

This guy delivers at my house, as well as work. If I know something is coming, I can ask him to deliver it at work, instead of at home.

My UPS guy does the same thing, too.

steve

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 5:51 am

skou wrote:Man, after listening to this (and the other ) horror stories, I'm not moving, unless my mailman quits!

This guy delivers at my house, as well as work. If I know something is coming, I can ask him to deliver it at work, instead of at home.

My UPS guy does the same thing, too.

steve

That is pretty good service. I would not be surprised if you were "small town" but Mesa is not small. I like my carrier but I don't believe he would do that.