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The Rant I sent to the Postal Service (1 Viewer)

Scott Basham

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Oct 30, 2001
Messages
61
Although I checked off Priority Mail, this post deals with Express Mail as well.

I just want to say that the US Postal Service is the poorest excuse for a delivery service as I could ever imagine.

Last year, I mailed out (at about twice the cost of UPS) an insured package, only to have it arrive at it's destination so beat up that it was completely irreparable. After a 4 month run-around, a denial, and letters from my Postmaster stating that she helped me to properly package the item, we finally received an insurance payment for about half of the amount that I purchased insurance for and half of what the item was worth (about $300).

Today is the second day that that I have not received a package that I paid to have delivered Express Mail (1 day delivery). I'm sure with your poor method of settling a claim, I won't ever be refunded the money that I paid the US Postal Service to deliver the next day.

I have never sent such a negative comment or complaint to any business, but I am irate at such shotty service that you provide.

In the future, I intend to conduct as much of my communications and bill paying over the Internet and certainly hope that others do as well. Any packages sent will be by someone or some company that is competent in what they do such as UPS or Fed Ex. Only when you see your revenues threatened will you be forced to get with the program.

In the meantime, I hope you continue to raise the cost of all your shipping charges so that other services become more attractive to others and I certainly hope to not hear the USPS crying to Congress about the need of an Internet tax or to hear any laid-off workers whining when your lousy delivery ethics cost you jobs.

In the mean-time, continue on United States Poorest Service.

--------------------------------------------------------

Well, am I way out of line sending this to them?
 

Malcolm R

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2002
Messages
25,140
Real Name
Malcolm
I have not received a package that I paid to have delivered Express Mail (1 day delivery).
Technically, "Express Mail" is not explicitly overnight delivery, but "1 to 2 days," depending on the time when you get it to the PO. Still no excuse for the damage/insurance runaround though.
 

Scott Basham

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Oct 30, 2001
Messages
61
In all fairness, I'll have to say that my local Postmaster is great. Through it all, she has been the only one that has even bothered to try and help when I encounter problems with the postal service.

Wow, maybe this makes me sound like I'm a gun-jumper, but she just now called my wife to say that she tracked my package down and will have it for me via a late delivery this afternoon!

I guess that's the difference between a small town Postmaster and the others. She seems to be the only one that gives a turd about giving the customer what they have paid for.

Just in case you're wondering, I did send out another contact to the USPS basically telling that even though they had poor service in general, I had a hard-working postmaster trying to do the right thing.
 

MikeAlletto

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2000
Messages
2,369
I'm convinced I'm on a postal black list. Have been for awhile. I can go days without getting anything then all of a sudden my box is full. You can't tell me that all that showed up on the same day? Postal Service is a joke, but for some things there is just nothing you can do. I don't mail much these days. I pay most of my bills online and send lots of email.
 
E

Eric Kahn

the thing with not getting mail for days and then geting a full box is a result of the post office trying to cut overtime, they have a policy now of telling the carriers that they have to be off the street by X time and if they are not done, Oh well, if you are like me and are at the end of a route, you get screwed, you need to complian in writing every time this happens so that they will end this stupid policy and maybe hire some more carriers, right now they are pushing the carriers so hard that the old ones are retiring and the new ones transfer to another part of the post office and the remaining ones are overworked and pushed even harder

I work for the post office in building maintanance and here about this stuff from former carriers that have transfered inot the Main postal sorting facility that I work in
 

Travis Hedger

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 24, 1998
Messages
695
Only when you see your revenues threatened will you be forced to get with the program.
Nope, at least with the Postal Service they will simply raise their prices to make up for the loss, instead of cutting out all the poorest performing post offices, and trimming the fat cats bonus checks to save money and even attempt to improve efficiency.

Me Bitter? Naw!
 

Philip_G

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2000
Messages
5,030
to be honest I will ship USPS any day of the week, WWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY before I'll let UPS touch a package of mine. Anymore if I'm shopping online and I can't ship fedex ground or USPS, I refuse to buy there. UPS has lost, damaged, destroyed, claimed to have made delivery attempts they haven't made, and about every other possible mess up. None of them have been covered under insurance, calling UPS to complain is WORSE than calling the USPS, their customer service is probably the worst I've encountered. To add insult to injury, UPS is open ONE HOUR a day here, 5pm-6pm. SO that is the only time you can pick up a package. Next day of course, after calling, but before 3pm (or whenever)or it'll be second day :angry:
I know I'm not the only unhappy customer, I've seen rants on every msg board I read. What I don't understand is why people continue to use UPS
 

SteveGon

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2000
Messages
12,250
Real Name
Steve Gonzales
Considering the huge task that they're responsible for, I think the USPS does a damn good job. I have had a few things get lost in the mail over the years, but those instances were few and far between. I think it's safe to say that the United States has one of the better postal systems in the world. The USPS isn't perfect, but as far as I'm concerned, they do a pretty good job...
 

Reginald Trent

Screenwriter
Joined
Feb 18, 2000
Messages
1,313
I agree with SteveGon, given the sheer volume of mail ranging in many sizes I think they do a damn good job.

BTW they probably handle more articles than all the others (FedEx, Airbourne, UPS etc) put together.
 

CapnSharpe

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Dec 17, 1998
Messages
165
I don't think any of the delivery companies are ideal. The USPS varies wildly depending on the specific post office. I've had great service from some, and horrible service from others, such as my current post office. For example, for the past 2 Decembers my post office has decided to stop delivering my mail. During December 2000, I called and they promptly resumed delivery. During December 2001, I discovered that the post office had their phone number disconnected, no one at the post office would speak to me in person, and I got the run around from a 1-800 call center. After three days the mail mysteriously resumed again. I can't wait to see how much worse their service is in December 2002. :frowning:
 

Scott Leopold

Supporting Actor
Joined
Nov 21, 2001
Messages
711
It's refreshing to know that I'm not the only one with USPS horror stories. Also, I'm glad somebody else got this thread going. I was going to post something similar after mentioning that I've not received my Total Movie DVD's in a different thread, but it kept slipping my mind. Now, before I begin bashing away, I will admit that some postal branches and employees are great. The local branch that I go to (not the main branch), is fantastic, friendly, fast and helpful. I also had a problem on ebay a couple years ago that would never have been cleared up as easily without the help of a friendly postal worker in St. Louis. In this instance, a guy had misspelled the item (a Luke Skywalker Shadows of the Empire Royal Guard, spelled LKUE), I stumbled across it, and won it for $3.00 shipped (going price for the figure at the time was about $15). The guy didn't want to ship the item, but was glad to cash my money order. He insisted that he never received it. I got the runaround from the main branch, but found out the correct contact from my local branch, and called the central processing office for money orders, which happens to be in St. Louis. The person I spoke to was quite friendly. As luck would have it, not only was the seller also from St. Louis, and not only was he a frequent visitor to that exact branch, but he was such a well-known, frequent client, that the person I spoke to recognized the guy's name and signature. He found my cashed money order (which was cashed the day before the guy insisted he had never received it), and told me how to file a mail fraud report. I sent an email to the seller and explained the situation, told him what happened, and told him that I would wait to file a complaint until I received his response. I never received a response (or feedback, for that matter), but the following morning at 9am, a FedEx van showed up with the figure.
While the above were positive run-ins with the USPS, a lot of my more recent encounters have not gone so well. The first real bad experience came a few years back, right before Star Wars: TPM came out. I had joined the Star Wars Fan Club, which includes a subscription to the Star Wars Insider magazine, to ensure that I was able to order the exclusive figures, and keep my son's collection complete. Everything went fine until an issue or two before the movie was released. I had read online a couple weeks earlier that it had been released, but had yet to receive my copy. I didn't think too much of it until I received the next issue. I called the magazine and they promptly shipped out a replacement. Which I never received. They sent another, then another (a third issue had been released by this time). I reported this to the postmaster several times, and he always gave me his extremely unenthusiastic pledge that he'd look into it. I called the magazine again, and finally received the missing issue--via FedEx.
Around this time, they decided to use our route as a training route. I was told several times that this made tracking these issues more difficult. I asked if they didn't keep track of their shifts, routes, carriers, etc., but received no answer. I explained to them that I could help out because the following problems always ocurred when two particular trainees were handling the route. Our regular postman at the time would always have our mail delivered by 10:00am. The one trainee would deliver between 2:00-3:00pm, while the worst of the lot never arrived before 5:00pm--even on Saturdays. It was during the midst of the Star Wars Insider problem when the National Geographic problems began. This all started when NG was still using the wraparound paper sleeves. It's extremely easy to slip a magazine in and out of the sleeve, unless, apparently, you're a mailman taking a break. I noticed that my sleeves were arriving damaged. This wasn't normal damage, but large tears to the sleeve and bent pages in the magazine. I didn't think too much of this until I received an issue with a big thumbprint in the middle. Occasionally you'll get an issue that has a page or two with ink that's not 100% dry, and you'll end up with ink on your fingers and smeared finger-or-thumb prints in the magazine. I own 32+ years of NG, so I was a little familiar with these smudges. However, it's my understanding that you have to actually open the magazine to create one of these. Since this was the first time I had opened it, and since the size of the print didn't match any of my fingers or thumbs, I was pretty sure it wasn't mine. I tried to let it pass, but the next issue arrived in an even worse sleeve, and the pages had clearly been rolled back while someone had read it. I called on this one, but was told there was nothing they could do. The next one was similar, but the next one was the topper. The mailing sleeve was ripped in half, then wrapped back around the magazine. I could tell just by looking at it that the pages had been rolled back, and that a couple corners were folded. I flipped through the magazine, and then I found it. In the middle of the magazine was a big, smudgy finger/thumbprint covered with mayonaise. And before anyone asks (or makes vulgar jokes), I know it was mayonaise because there were also a couple pieces of shredded lettuce. When I called this one in, the postmaster called me a liar, and said he was really getting sick of hearing from me!
Now, I'm sure that if I was only calling about the NG's and the Star Wars Insider, I wouldn't have gotten this response. However, things got so bad that I was calling nearly once a week, and sometimes 2-3 times in a week. We had bills arrive opened on numerous occasions, as well as Mother's Day cards for my wife, and one of my birthday cards. I felt tacky, but I had to call my aunt and ask if she had sent me any money or a check in the card. We received a replacement Lowe's card during this time, and had to cancel the account then get another new card because the envelope had been opened, and the card had been removed from the paper and replaced. I received numerous packages from a friend in Canada during this time, most of which had clearly been opened and resealed. The worst had 3-4 mangled layers of packing tape, all different varieties. I asked my friend about this, and he insisted that the box only had a single layer of 3 clean, flat pieces of tape on the box when he had shipped it. Thankfully, none of the contents were removed, including his nasty, handwritten note threatening legal action against anyone who messed with the contents of the box.
I checked with some of the neighbors, and they were all experiencing similar things, although not quite as frequently as I was. I suggested that they call on every issue they had. I also recommended that they do what I had recently started doing, which is never mail anything from my home mailbox--everything I mail is taken to one of the local branches. I found out from my grandmother, who lived about 5-6 blocks away at the time, that she and her neighbors were having problems as well, ranging from missing packages, to stolen cash, prescriptions (which led to an ER visit for one of my grandmother's neighbors), and Social Security checks. Based on this and the nasty comments from the local postmaster, I placed a call to the state postmaster and insisted that something be done.
According to him, they were currently investigating due to the large number of complaints in the area. After several weeks, things started to improve, although we still have the occasional problem. As far as I know, except for the one magazine, I never lost any merchandise during this time. Numerous packages were messed with, but none that I can recall were packages maile from businesses (Amazon, various video companies, etc.). I believe all the packages were Priority Mail packages from ebay auctions, or packages sent from friends. Of the 10-12 packages my buddy in Canada sent me, I believe 8-10 of them arrived opened and resealed--although none of the merchandise was ever missing. Also, except for the one instance, I never had problems with any magazines other than NG. I considered this extremely odd since I also subscribed to Playboy for 3 years during this whole thing. I figured it was due to Playboy arriving bagged, but when NG switched from sleeves to bags, the problems didn't end. Over the course of 3 years, I had 12 issues of NG messed with, averaging out to 1 out of every 3 issues. I had at least three instances I can think of when my mailboxed was "ad bombed." Basically, it appeared as though nearly every piece of junkmail for our street was placed in my box. These instances all occurred within two days of a complaint. To the best of my knowledge, none of these problems occurred on days when our regular carrier was on duty. Unfortunately, our regular carrier has had health problems recently, and taken quite a bit of time off. I hope it's just a coincidence, and this is just a case of slow mail, but as I stated elsewhere, I've not yet received my free DVD's from TME--which were shipped out on 3-29-02. I told the TME operator that I'd be calling back on 5-3 if I hadn't received the DVD's yet. I have the nagging feeling that I'll have to place that call.
 

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