We have had a new carrier for the past three months. Often mail is not delivered until the next day, there is misboxed mail and unpredictable delivery times. On one occasion the mail was delivered well after dark. I have made two formal complaints at the Post office {filling out the proper forms and having them stamped.} My neighbors have done the same. Nothing has changed. What is the next step? The clerks taking the complaints indicate that this is a carrier who has been with USPS for some time and that she asked for the route. The clerks acknowledge there is a problem. Suggestions from those who work for the USPS would be appreciated. I have been courteous and polite.

There's no excuse for the mail not being delivered on the day it's issued to the driver. Three months is also plenty of time to get used to the route and avoid misdelivering mail. As for the delivery times, the post office gets slammed with mail, catalogs, and parcels in December. All carriers on all routes are affected equally and many run late into the afternoon or early evenings during these weeks leading up to Christmas. You'll just have to put up with it.

The only thing that can truly get a carrier in trouble is deliberately withholding mail or throwing it away. Unless the carrier on your route is doing those two things, it's anyone's guess if your complaints will affect the carrier's behavior.

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:

There's no excuse for the mail not being delivered on the day it's issued to the driver.

What's the excuse for delivering to the wrong box?

The joy of dealing with entitled semi-government employees.

Anyone who fancies socialized health care should just think of the the USPS in charge of your health services - instant cure to that kind of stupidity.

We have had three different carriers in the last six months. The current one claims to be the final one. Everything that you can imagine has been done incorrectly. Most notable was the second carrier who would leave boxes on the ground by the mailbox instead of leaving them by the house entry or garage.

ZSMIchael, I'll do my best to explain.

First, there is no time frame for mail delivery, but everything that a carrier has that day, should be delivered. And if for whatever reason they can't deliver it, it should be annotated by the carrier on why it wasn't delivered. Dog out, snow/ice on steps, box blocked, etc... And in extreme circumstances, it will be written up and given to the supervisor on duty, but that's extreme cases: road closures, police activity, etc...

You mentioned "misboxed mail", I'm not sure what that means. Do you have a clusterbox? I'm assuming you have a large multiple unit delivery box, and if that is the case, I would advise you to put a sticker with your name and address in the box, if there isn't one there already. Honestly, I advise anyone with a mailbox to put their name and address number inside their mailbox. I'm amazed at how many people don't have house numbers on their residence. I've had forced overtime on unfamiliar routes, and I've had to use GoogleMaps more times than I can remember, because of a simple lack of house numbers. Thank God they have pics of the house, because there is no way I would know what house is the right address.

As far as a delivery time, there is no set standard, as long as the mail gets delivered. I am not on the overtime list, but I get forced overtime daily. The time of year especially, I do my overtime in the morning, because I know when I'm back on my route, I know where I am going in the dark. So if my "normal" time is 3:00, I'm pushing 5:00 now. Right now pretty much every carrier in the US is working 12+ hrs a day, whether they want to or not.

quote:

Originally posted by hi-power man:
We have had three different carriers in the last six months. The current one claims to be the final one. Everything that you can imagine has been done incorrectly. Most notable was the second carrier who would leave boxes on the ground by the mailbox instead of leaving them by the house entry or garage.

If you have a mailbox on the street, then yes, that is not acceptable. Otherwise the "point of delivery", is the mailbox, and they will be placed by the mailbox.

One thing I have done is get a bigger mail box. That allows smaller packages to be put in the box verses on the front porch.

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:

The only thing that can truly get a carrier in trouble is deliberately withholding mail or throwing it away. Unless the carrier on your route is doing those two things, it's anyone's guess if your complaints will affect the carrier's behavior.

Which is precisely why the USPS postal delivery service has so many issues.

The post office is crazy it’s not even worth trying to figure them out. My mom works for the post office and the stories she tells me are insane that a company can do certain things they do. In their defense every form of mail (USPS, Fedex, ups) are all out crazy late hours this time of the year so any complaint of mail not showing up until later in the day is probably falling on deaf ears because there’s nothing anybody is going to do about that.

I used my bank's bill pay to pay my kid's swim team fees. The swim team got it in their PO Box and cashed it last week. The bank sent the check Nov. 7, 2017! Over two years USPS has had that check. I'd love to know how that could happen.

quote:

Originally posted by 41:
One thing I have done is get a bigger mail box. That allows smaller packages to be put in the box verses on the front porch.

This solved my issues. A big box with my name stenciled in big letters. Can't miss it and most packaged fit inside.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
The joy of dealing with entitled semi-government employees.

Anyone who fancies socialized health care should just think of the the USPS in charge of your health services - instant cure to that kind of stupidity.

Do you use Tricare?

To add some details. The problem with mail delivery predates the holiday rush. It began three months back. The mail is delivered to individual mailboxes in a subdivision. Prior to this carrier, the problem of missed delivery, misboxed mail and unpredictable delivery times did not exist.

I understand that the USPS is a quasi governmental agency. Is sending an email to my Congressional Representative a waste of time?

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

Is sending an email to my Congressional Representative a waste of time?

It couldn't hurt!

I did some online checking about congressional complaints and it seems it is an exercise in futility. The most one can gain is the Congressman meets with the local Postmaster who then explains "the many challenges faced by the USPS, and then promises to do better. I gleaned this from an online story about chronic delivery problems in Florida's capital.

I think sadly that Orguss's intial response is accurate. The fact that it is a quasi governmental agency makes the problems even worse. I think one option may be to remove my street mailbox and pick up my mail at the Post office since I am there daily to get office mail from a PO box.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
I think one option may be to remove my street mailbox and pick up my mail at the Post office since I am there daily to get office mail from a PO box.

If you're already paying money for a PO Box, I'd have everything sent to that.
They hire people off the streets now, there's no test anymore. Almost all of the stupid stuff people complain about is a direct result of the lowering of standards, so they can bring in a lower wage employee. You probably get the wrong mail because some jack wagon wants to listen to his headphones and not pay attention to what he's doing. It's not "because it's the government", when it really was "The government" pre-1972 this sort of bullshit didn't fly. Misdeliveries? People used to get fired for that pretty quickly. They used to send people home for not having shined shoes. When was the last time your mailman knocked on your door to hand you a package that didn't require a signature? Now we can't keep people because they pay them less than what I made when I started +15 years ago, they might as well go somewhere else and not walk 15 miles a day in the ghetto, 6 days a week and maybe make regular in 3 years. And all the time you aren't a regular, doesn't count towards anything. The general attitude of "Pfft, it's junk mail", or "IT'S the Post Office", or my favorite "Oh well", new hires have it too (because they're sooo jaded after carrying mail for two months), and thus the product you get.

The Post Office is run by literal retards who have never done any of the jobs they oversee.