I need to vent..USPS..UGH!

[pippa]

I want to start by saying that my father worked for the USPS for 30 years and I'm usually a big supporter if their's. I know their work is hard, I know the mail never stops, etc., etc.

In all my years I have never really had any problems. Until today:

I had a reasonably expensive item being shipped to me and it was scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday, March 31st. On Tuesday, I made sure I was home but no package came. Of course, the delivery confirmation said it had been delivered at 2:22pm. I waited. On Wednesday, again no package. So I contacted the main USPS delivery number last night. They asked for a bunch of information(which I gave them) and said they'd contact my local post office and have them get in touch with me.

Well, they just did. I essentially got 5 minutes of, *yeah, it was delivered.* I realize that the computer says it was delivered on March 31 at 2:22pm but um, yeah, don't you think I'd know if it had really been delivered to me!!?

Obviously, my carrier delivered this someone other than me. I just can't get over the fact that my local postmaster actually called and tried to tell me that it was delivered. As if, 1. I wouldn't know if it had really been delivered to me and 2. doesn't the fact that I called and said I hadn't received it sort of negate her calling me and telling me it was delivered? If I don't have it, then telling me it was delivered makes no sense!!!

Now, she's going to ask the carrier and, of course, he's going to say he delivered it. And, then I'm going to get a call where she says, *yeah, he said he delivered it.* And then what? Am I supposed to just be out the money on this because no matter how many times she tells me he delivered it, it still doesn't change the fact that IT'S NOT HERE!

Thanks for letting me vent!

 

[LaughingWater]

That's irritating. Perhaps the company that shipped the item will help you out.

I had this happen once, and they just reshipped the item with the requirement of a signature.

 

[LauraMax]

Holy crap Pippa, that's terrible! Have you contracted the vendor? Usually they insure expensive packages, & if USPS can't prove they delivered it to you the vendor will replace it.

If I may continue the USPS rant, occasionally I do bulk mailings for events. My last bulk mailing in Dec was lost. Disappeared into thin air. $2000+ down the drain.

Now they're "restructuring" (read: laying off staff) so bulk mailings have to be processed in Newark. I think, "great, now it might actually get to where it's supposed to go." But as it turns out, it's only being processed in Newark. So, I have to get it delivered to Newark, processed (weighed & paid for) & then have it brought back to my town's PO for mailing. So it'll be paid for someplace else, but still lost by the same people.

So basically for the customer, a reduction in services & an increase in expense. Get ready for those postage rates to rise again.........

 

[jgarr44460]

This happened to me recently with UPS. I ordered a new cell phone for my husband. A confirmation of delivery was sent to me. I could not get them to believe we did not receive it. After endless phone conversations with Sprint AND UPS they all finally agreed it was not delievred to me but another address because Sprint failed to put a house number on the package. It took forever but they finally filed paperwork for a claim and I did receive a new phone. Funny though, a month or so later I received a call on MY cell that someone in our town ( unknown to me) came home from a vacation and found a package with our name on it hanging from a tree in her front yard! It was our missing cell phone.
Maybe there is a procedure for filing a claim with the company you ordered from?
I really do understand your frustration - if I could have reached through the phone at the time it would not have been pretty.

 

[melimcn]

Oh God,
I wish that I would've saved one of my umpteen blog rants about the post office in Chicago. You would've at least gotten a good laugh and some sympathy out of how terrible it is here.

At my old neighborhood PO (I've since moved), it was a basic rule of thumb that any time you had to go to the PO, it would require a MINIMUM of 45 minutes. You would wait in line for that 45 minutes, and then hand the delivery notice to the clerk behind the desk, who would proceed to look at it as if it's something they've never seen before. Then they'd disappear into the back room that is totally devoid of any organization whatsoever, and come back 10 minutes later telling you that they don't have it. As if the delivery notice was left for you just for giggles.

Rinse and repeat.

I and everyone I know in that neighborhood basically resorted to not buying anything online from any vendor whose main delivery method was the PO - or if it were unavoidable, I'd actually PAY EXTRA to have it shipped via UPS.

The USPS has a 95% delivery rate in Chicago, and apparently that's an acceptable #. Oddly, one's landlord does not agree with that sentiment when your rent check falls into that mystical 5% of mail that's lost.

I could go on and on...

 

[nightowl81]

I had this happen recently with a trade.. was for a somewhate expensive workout. Since there is no vendor to contact, I was out of luck. It sucks =(


another thing to add, who ever received it didn't bring it to me or give it back to the USPS. since it was a personal package iI would think it was obvious if it was theirs or not...sigh.

 

[Beavs]

Now they're "restructuring" (read: laying off staff) so bulk mailings have to be processed in Newark. I think, "great, now it might actually get to where it's supposed to go." But as it turns out, it's only being processed in Newark. So, I have to get it delivered to Newark, processed (weighed & paid for) & then have it brought back to my town's PO for mailing. So it'll be paid for someplace else, but still lost by the same people.

And then USPS wonders why people opt to send things electronically.

 

[jthornton202264]

I know how you feel -- it happens all the time in my subdivision. A large majority of the streets in our subdivision begin with "Canyon" and the numbers are the same on each street, so I'm always getting packages for other Canyon addresses and vice versa. I always bring misdelivered packages to the intended people and sometimes people are nice enough to bring mine which were misdelivered to them. Other times I just have to complain (pretty much knowing that it was delivered, just to the wrong address). My mom, too, worked for the postal service for many years so I do know how hard they have to work, etc., and I hate to complain -- but!! Sometimes you gotta!

Julie

 

[Aquajock]

Try living in a townhome complex that is organized into 4-unit quads, with four mailboxes lined up in a row for each quad. I now know that one neighbor got a DUI (because of the number of criminal defense firms specializing in DUI defense soliciations), that another neighbor is a scrapbooking nut, and so on. And everyone in our quad knows now that I'm a home-ex nut, based on the number of misdelivered Collage Video catalogs.

A-Jock