How's the mail delivery in your area? (1 Viewer)

[Paul D G]

We moved to a Chicago suburb about two years ago and we are getting really frustrated at the mail delivery in our neighborhood, and the fact that we can't get anyone to care at the post office (which, maybe, shouldn't be a surprise).

Essentially: while most mail is delivered in a timely manner (ie 2-3 days after mailing) some items take much much longer. My wife and I will both get mailed a letter from our corporate office on the same day. One will arrive in two days, the other a week later. Ad flyers sometimes arrive AFTER the sale. etc.

I've complained to the USPS who simply forwarded my complaint to the local office. They then called me and very curtly told me they are required to deliver the mail when it arrives at their office. My suggestions that the problem lay elsewhere were pretty much ignored.

I thought I had them when a package was sent to me on 12/30, first class*, and it didn't arrive until 01/18. I took the package in, which had a delivery confirmation label on it, and asked them if they could track the package. Even the clerk raised her eyebrows when I showed her the sent/arrive dates. But all she did was go on the website and type in the code which I could do at home. All it showed was the package was mailed on the 30th, arrived at the local office on the 18th and was delivered that same day. It had to have been sitting SOMEWHERE for three weeks!

Right now I still have two packages missing - one mailed mid november, one just after xmas, and one is fairly large

We've asked some neighbors and they are all having the same problem, but they all seem to shrug it off. I've moved around the country a few times and I've never experienced mail service this bad. I'm wondering if this is normal and I've just gotten lucky in the past.

-paul
*first class is 1-3 days delivery according to usps.com

 

[Scott Merryfield]

My parents had mail delivery issues in rural northern Michigan several years ago. After complaints to the local branch did nothing to improve the situation, they filed a complaint with the Post Master General's office in Washington. Service improved after that.

 

[Paul D G]

BTW - I just called to find out where my Superman mailer was. It was mailed on Dec 22nd and I'm still waiting for it. So that makes three things I know were mailed in at least the last month that I have yet to receive.

I'm going to call to bitch to someone and hopefully I'll get somewhere.

Scott: Unfortunately I don't believe the problem is with the local office; most likely a hub (most likely chicago, however, most of the stuff that goes missing is from California)

-paul

 

[Patrick_S]

It really doesn't sound like it's your local office. Scott's post has the best suggestion in that you should contact the Post Master General's office in DC with your complaint.

 

[MichaelBA]

My USPS service is fantastic. When I deal with Amazon or Netflix or any places with receipt or shipping centers within a tri-state area (I'm in Long Island, NY), the service from USPS is practically one day on a consistent basis.

 

[Scott L]

When I lived out in the burbs having houses with big lawns, big streets, and easy to find addresses, our mail service was great.

Since moving further north and closer to DC I've noticed Netflix arriving a day later than normal (3 dy turnaround instead of 2), and sometimes it takes over a week.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I went to my favorite post office down by Copley Square today. It's now apparently a pile of rubble, judging by the... well, pile of rubble.

 

[Linda Thompson]

My worst mail horror story:

Back in 1989, we were experiencing SEVERE mail delivery issues here in Darlington (ZIP 29532). Complaints finally reached the point of triggering an investigation by a very highly-respected local TV news journalist, Cecil Chandler. Long story short, he found out that mail was being dumped into regular trash dumpsters by Post Office personnel, so that they wouldn't have to deliver it. We're talking HUGE volumes of mail, and not just junk mail or bulk mail. We're talking ALL KINDS of mail.

The journalist, Cecil Chandler, won some sort of very prestigious Associated Press award for investigative journalism, which he very much deserved.

Needless to say, the situation has been much better since then. Not perfect (still far from it)...but definitely much better.

Here's Cecil's page at MySpace, with a mention of the incident and the award:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...ndID=129540140

 

[Jay Taylor]

The mail in our neighborhood is frequently delivered to the wrong residence. When I drive home after work I check the mailbox but never drive into the garage because about once every two weeks I'll get someone else's mail.

When I receive my next door neighbors mail I'll deliver it to them. When it's across town I'll write "Address is correct but delivered to wrong residence" on the letter and place it back in my mail box for the mailman to pick up the next day. This should be quick feedback to the mailman that he screwed up.

When most of my neighbors receive my mail by mistake they make sure that I get it. Unfortunately some don't....

 

[Stephen L]

More likely the person receiving the letter will blame their letter carrier that is delivering the letter correctly

 

[Joe S]

The mail delivery has been pretty good, but for the past couple years the mailperson has a habit of leaving the mailbox door open. This is not good when it rains and can attract people walking up the street. I've complained in the past, but they still leave it open maybe half the time. I was thinking of putting a little sign inside the door reading "Is it too much effort to close the door?"... other sayings came to mind too.

 

[Henry Gale]

The city carriers are like musical chairs, they are often passing off parts of their route to another in order to balance the load.
So, "he" may not have screwed up....but someone did.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

I get pretty good delivery, timewise. I just had the worst problem I have in a long time — a Media Mail package sent from Colorado on the 13th got here today. That was obviously a weather-related delay. The problem I have is that the packages sometimes look like they've been put in a rock tumbler. This one today, as usual, had a big right-angle hole punched in it. I have to tell people to pack securely, because there seems to be someone using a spade on my mail.

 

[Neal_C]

I think every post office has some little quirks:

At my old house in the DFW area, our postman would not deliver the mail if a car was blocking the mailbox on the curb. And it didn't have to be completely blocking it either. If he couldn't pull up to the mailbox and drop off the mail and keep going forward, I didn't get mail. I can't prevent people from parking on the curb.

I moved in with my parents for several months after a divorce about 18 months ago. Everything was going fine until one month my health insurance bill doesn't arrive. Then the next month, it arrives in my dad's PO Box that he keeps with a forwarding sticker on it. Apparently, after several months of no problems, out the blue USPS just decided it would send that piece of mail back to my health insurance company undeliverable. And we are still baffled how it got forwarded to my dad's PO Box.

Another instance with this house address was some paperwork I was getting from a company. It had been about 2 weeks and I hadn't received it yet, so I called them about it. It had been returned to them undeliverable. She double checked the address and sent it out again. A week later, she gets it back again, same thing. She called and I again clarified it was the correct address. So she mails it again, same address on the envelope. This time it arrives.

And all the time I'm having trouble with certain pieces of mail that are important, my magazines and credit card offers and other junk are arriving under the same name and address with no problem at all.

Talk about baffled.

 

[Paul D G]

Thanks for all the replies.

I called USPS Customer Service again and spoke with a very nice lady. She documented everything I told her, even that I stated the local office is not the problem IMO. Unfortunately someone else determines where the complaint gets sent and it was my local office who called back. Same curt, rude woman I spoke to before. She got nicer as the conversation went on (esp when I stated the problem was somewhere else) but she told me anyone I spoke to is going to tell me the same thing: They get mail in, it has to go out the same day.

So, I think my best option is to write the Postmaster General.

I will say this: the staff at my office when I go in, and our mail carrier are all very nice and friendly. None of the dour stone faced drones I've experienced in the past.

The thing is, I'm very wary of sending anything thru the mail now. Like these corrected Superman disks (which I'm still waiting on the envelope for). I may get the envelope, but I might never see the discs.

-paul

 

[Radioman970]

I wave at my mailman almost every day. Very small town kind of thing. He's delivered things at least twice to my workplace without me even requesting it. Big boxes he didn't want to hail around all day...saying it's better than leaving outside the door of my house. The workers at the office downtown are very friendly folks. I generally don't have any problems. I only wish they'd filter out the junk mail for me. We used to have this mailman who'd deliver the mail in his own car and he'd have very southern religious programs blasting out of the windows the whole time. So I figure my mail was blessed or something.

 

[Jim_F]

They're pretty good here. An odd misdirected envelope here or there but no big deal. For packages, they've been better than UPS but not quite as good as Fedex. I was happily surprised when I ordered some carpet squares online. The website said USPS S&H was $20 for orders over $100. I was sure I'd missed something, but sure enough, the USPS truck showed up within a week with 800 sq. ft. of carpet squares delivered to my patio for 20 bucks out of my pocket.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Generally pretty good, although when it's not, it's bizarre. I think I still get mail for about five different people who have lived in my house before, which is bizarre, since I've been here almost a year and it stood empty for nearly as long before I rented it.

Also, in December, I got mail from someone in Oklahoma that was meant to go to the U.K. And not even Cambridge, England, but somewhere else.

 

[Paul D G]

So, I've written my letter to the Postmaster and was in "sit on it for a day and mull it over before sending it" mode when what happens? I get a Christmas card. On Feb 1st!

Additonally, I get a letter from the same guy on the same day, that was mailed two weeks ago.

Now, to be fair, he DID send the mail 3rd class bulk (via his company) but you can't tell me a Christmas card mailed mid December, and a letter mailed mid January from the same place and arriving the same day is a coincidence. That Christmas card had to have sat in a post office somewhere for a good month before it was processed.

I emailed the guy and asked when he sent these. He tells me they are having major mail issues. His sister, who lives in the same city, just got her xmas card last week. So he sends a letter to himself To and From work. It took 10 days to get back to him. When he confronted the post office with this the manager just barked "well, we can't guarantee when the mail will arrive!" and walked away.

My friend lives in California, which is also where most of my missing mail is coming from. But I'm also missing a couple items from Maryland. And it sounds like the problem is within his local post office, but clearly it can't be.

Some mail has to be getting through. I'm STILL waiting on either of the two Superman return envelopes Warner Bros sent me. Clearly others are getting there's, and even getting their discs back. And yes I confirmed the address.

Now I've got to figure a way to incorporate this new information in my letter and have it make sense, and stress that it's not this one post office, but possibly a hub in CA.

argh!

-paul

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Ok, I agree now that you have a problem! I think tht several years back the USPS stated that they had some sort of a 'standard' number of days for the 'it's in the mail' syndrome, and I think that is 3 days.

You might be better off sending a letter to the postmaster general, via USPS, from two different locations, explaining what you're doing. You could go one farther and enclose a self-addressed stampled envelope for them to send back to you, and see how long that takes.

Glenn