Got home the other day and saw the orange ticket on my front door. The one that says, "Sorry we missed you while you were out."
It should just say," your order was too heavy and I didn't want to lug it to my little white van today. Oh and that free shipping you were gonna get, well you owe us $6.40, so come and get it."
So I drive my grumpy old man self down to the post office, wait in a 30' long line of equally happy customers, and finally get called. I hand the nice lady my orange ticket, and she goes to the back. Literally 20 minutes later, she emerges, with nothing but my orange ticket. "I can't find it, its not here. Should be here, but its not." Gets on the phone, asks someone what should she do, "Should I charge him and get him to come back tomorrow?"
I then assured her I would not pay to leave empty handed. So she took my number and said somebody would call in the morning. Mkay.
I've had things left on my porch, much more valuable, heavier and bigger than these two brake rotors, but they did not involve the usps getting their paws on them. Somehow I feel better sharing all that. Saga continues tomorrow.

Well if it makes you feel better I just paid to renew my tiny PO box to the tune of 244 dollars.

Yep, our local neighborhood Post Office is a hateful place to me. This is the second time I’ve gone down there and they’ve told me that if I wanted to tape anything, I’d have to buy the tape (unlike ups, which has a customer friendly policy and keeps tape out for your use). When she took my return tag, she cut off my return address - and then told me she couldn’t mail it because there wasn’t a return address. It’s not even worth arguing at that point.

I had to drive home and reprint the label that I was supposed to “hand to them” per the return instructions.

The fricking item was originally shipped UPS. Why return by usps? Grrrrrrr.

quote:

Originally posted by MRBTX:
"I can't find it, its not here. Should be here, but its not."

One of my customers ran into this issue yesterday and it is just as frustrating to me. I'd gone out on Saturday with the postage due package, arrived to find nobody home, and left the tag. Next day, I had another delivery and he was home, so I explained he should go to the Post Office to pay for the postage and get the package. I'm hoping it turns up tomorrow morning so I can deliver it, as he actually paid for the postage due while at the Post Office.

I’ve had USPS-tracked packages get “delivered” (e-mail notification) to my USPS-post office box in the USPS facility, but when I go to get that packaged, it’s not there in my box. I then go to the service desk to see what the status is, and the counter folks can’t find it anywhere, including in adjacent boxes. Make one think and go hmmm. THIEVES ?!?!?!?!

I once made the comment. It’s a good job for a retired person to work. Somebody countered with, don’t you mean retarded?

The USPS workers in every local post office I go to in my area are always disgruntled looking , slovenly in appareance and just not professional at all. That's what you get with gov workers who are virtually impossible to fire I guess.

I recall one year around Christmas with a line out the door and ONE counter worker moving at a slug's pace, her two coworkers just stood there in the back and watched us. God forbid you open up another register

No, Amazon or some other private entity cannot take over this mess fast enough for me. The UK already did just that, it's all privatized now.

quote:

Originally posted by Marlin Fan:
I once made the comment. It’s a good job for a retired person to work. Somebody countered with, don’t you mean retarded?

Maybe if they’re retired at 50. Our oldest carrier just retired a couple months ago at 63 and she was on a super easy route that had no packages weighing more than 2 lbs.

This job is mentally and physically taxing, and I struggle from time to time even though I’ve been delivering for 8 years.

I'm lucky I guess . There's a small Post Office about 10 minutes away that is an absolute joy to use. There are two young ladies that work there that could not be more pleasant and helpful. I'll admit , it's a crapshoot when you stop at a Postal facility .

Our post office is small and friendly. Residents in the central "Old Town" area do not get home delivery, so we had to go to the post office to pick up our mail. The population is mostly retirees and Main St business owners. The staff are friendly and helpful.

Now that we're in the outskirts, we get home delivery so we rarely go into the PO. I kind of miss it. It was one of a few reminders of the small town it used to be before tourists.

In our little town, Covid seemed to put an end to the friendly and competent folks working at our local post office.

Pre-Covid, they mistakenly delivered my package to my neighbor’s house. I called and spoke to the postmaster. He had the employee come back out the same day, retrieve the package, and deliver it to me.

Post-Covid, my son who lived with us got his own place and mistakenly had all our mail forwarded instead of just his. I called and was told the postmaster was too busy to talk and didn’t have voicemail. It took more than six weeks and several calls and visits to the post office to get it straightened out.

and then the Post Office wonders, why they are losing money and about to go broke

We're in the negative billions at the end of every fiscal year. That seems pretty broke to me.

quote:

Originally posted by MRBTX:

Did it go so poorly you ended up in jail? Because you sure left us hanging here....

Sorry. They never called. If I'm close to the post office again soon, ill give it another shot.

My postal carrier is a 70 year old guy with 30 years in after retiring from carpentry work. Nicest guy you'd ever meet. Doesn't even bother to use my outside mailbox because he always opens the porch door and puts it inside so I don't need to go outside to retrieve it.

So, it wasn't at the office. You got a notice because they had it with them, they're too lazy to carry it up? Notice was on your front door, they didn't leave it because you owe postage. Guess who pays the postage due? The carrier.
Some asshole oldman on my route last winter got postage due for 4 bucks, he has the same reaction you did "I don't understand, it should go back to them", no, if it goes back (after you refuse it) they pay postage to get it back (because they didn't pay it the first time), then they complain about it on the internet. I was stupid/nice, and left it, with the little Postage Due brown change bag, they "Couldn't find it at the office", because I delivered it...Put the fucking money in the bag.
Guess who he still owes $4 to. Guess who will never collect that $4, guess who will never do anything for that old bastard again.
No wonder they can't make money...

quote:

Sorry. They never called.

Had three days of notices “sorry couldn’t deliver to your mailbox.” Neighbor next doo got the same.
Problem was the HOA installed gang locking boxes on the street. (Years ago).
To deliver the form the carrier had to park, walk across the street, up the driveway and stick the note on the door.

We have two post offices. One about a mile from us and one 3 m8les away. Drop mail at the first and it takes an additional two days to deliver. Drive down the hill and you cut those two days out.

If you want single payer health insurance, look to the Post Office.

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
I'm lucky I guess . There's a small Post Office about 10 minutes away that is an absolute joy to use. There are two young ladies that work there that could not be more pleasant and helpful. I'll admit , it's a crapshoot when you stop at a Postal facility .

I've been lucky with wonderful employees in our small post office over the years, too, though I'm expecting my PO box renewal to be >$200. In 1978 when I opened it, it was $6/year.

What's worse is tracked parcels disappearing in sorting centers (black holes ) for days at a time. That, and parcels doubling back on themselves after getting close and then receding for a day or two.