AK (and other) project stalled: USPS is incompetent

[smittty]

They get a lot more deliveries between thanks giving and Christmas so they are under a lot more pressure. My package was marked delivered but I was left in the truck...a week later after I complained the mail man brought in my package. It's happened before but generally everything works out.

[ldsnet]

System wide. I ordered 3 different items from Amazon the week after Christmas. All 3 shipped from different vendors and I am using all 3 right now, yet the website still shows all 3 packages as "in route."

[valley82]

USPS...most that work there are Union dregs (of course I'm sure there are exceptions...never delt with one) that could not keep a real world job yet pretty much can't be fired and have good benefits and pay while USPS goes broke in a big way.
I get my neighbors mail at least once a month and they get mine...sad really that the mail lady can't read or doesn't care...

[greensoup]

Must be a local problem. I do at least 200 packages a year without ever losing a single box in probably 6 years.

9.9/10 if the package broke open it was improperly packed. Anything of any meaningful weight will punch holes in cardboard box if allowed to move freely.

[C.W.M.V.]

You are probably right. With several exceptions like the package bouncing around the Midwest for a week, it is usually between my PO and West Sacto dist. cntr. both outgoing and incoming. Literally one out of three or four package mail shipments incoming or outgoing gets fouled up, damaged, or lost. I need to start keeping a log with tracking numbers so I have something g to go to the postal inspectors with. This is absolute frustrating BS.

And that is exactly what you should do, go to the postal inspectors. If it is really that bad then I would have been there already.
We don't have our own air fleet anymore so a lot of cross country shipments take rather strange routes. Thats most of what I see.
The other biggest thing I see is ****ty packaging. I recently had to explain to a customer that their ebay purchase of an antique China vase should have been packed better than with a few pieces of newspaper chucked into a shoebox, hence they got a box of broken glassware. Even had someone ship a mirror wrapped only in paper grocery store bags. Much loling.
On our end management simply does not care about the customer, and won't even try to solve your problem. They have no motivation to. They keep adding more and more to fewer and fewer routes making the carriers overburdened. I personally walk 10+ miles a day and have 800 houses I deliver to. Regardless of volume, which is increasing, or conditions I am expected to adhere to a time standard that is generated by a program desinged to create garbage pick up routes. It is a flat out management failure.
Sorry, kinda went off there. Im really sorry you've had such a bad experience with the USPS. After your postal inspectors maybe contact your local and state elected officials as well.

USPS...most that work there are Union dregs (of course I'm sure there are exceptions...never delt with one) that could not keep a real world job yet pretty much can't be fired and have good benefits and pay while USPS goes broke in a big way.
I get my neighbors mail at least once a month and they get mine...sad really that the mail lady can't read or doesn't care...

Hey buddy, I'd be one of those union dregs I guess.
Damn right I'm a Union man. The Natonal Association of Letter Carriers is the only postal organization that gives a damn about me the letter carrier or YOU, our customers.

And couldn't keep a real job? Do you consider the armed forces a real job? The USPS is one of (if not the) largest employers of veterans in the US. But screw these guys right?! Furthermore 70+ percent of the people that apply here don't make it past probation because they can't hang. It's not an easy gig if that's what you thought.

*Edit:figured I'd throw this in here too: The average new letter carrier is what's called a CCA (city carrier assistant). I was recently promoted to carrier carrier but have been a TE/CCA for several years. Many have been since 2007.
As a CCA you get $15 an hour. Not too bad, but that is it. No benifits, no health care, dental, or retierment. You can earn up to 2 hours of paid leave for every 40 worked, but you are forbidden to use them. Your schedule is not set, it varies at management discretion. Your work week is every day, including federal holidays. I know of CCAs that haven't had a day off since October. You can and will work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and you can be terminated for any little thing. Oh speaking of which you get fired once a year for 5 days just so the post office can call you part time. Sure you may work 80 hours in a week (5 12 hour and 2 10 hour days) but hey, it's still part time. So ya starting out this job flat out sucks. Anyone who thinks being a letter carrier is cushy or easy is damn ignorant. If you do it right is good solid work.*

And pay? It isn't what you think pal. I took a 30% pay cut, and after my promotion to full time another 20% cut. But the benifits aren't bad, I'll give you that.

Sounds like your carrier sucks, I'm sorry for you. You need to call and complain, a lot. It will get better if you do.
I'm willing to bet you have a lot of brand new trainees delivering in your area. Theyes make a lot of mistakes. I'm a fairly experienced carrier on my own route and I still make occasional mistakes. We are human. It happens. Regardless it is incumbent upon you to hold our feet to the fire if we do screw up! We can't fix problems we don't know about! Taking the mail to your neighbors is enabling your crappy letter carrier.

Oh and my favorite, the we are losing money line.
We aren't losing money. We are being robbed. Our organization has overpaid something to the tune of 30 billion dollars to the US government, and GAO says we should be paid back, but they dont. On top of that they demand we pay 5 billion a year for the retirement of people not yet born. No organization could deal with the gross mismanagement, government lethargy (obozo hant even appointed a full governing board for the USPS), and outright robbery we have had foisted upon us and do what we do.
You get rid of that and we aren't just in the black, we're making 700 million in profit per year.

And with that, have a great day.
OP, Im genuinely sorry for the thread jacking! That went MUCH longer than I planned.

[valley82]

CW, nothing personal, as I said I am sure that there are exceptions...my rural PO is kind of like walking into a sideshow at the circus's of long ago...limps and all.

Trust me my wife lights them up, all the way up the food chain, everytime the mail gets jacked up, pictures tacoed in half and shoved in the box with DO NOT BEND OR FOLD printed on the envelope, wrong address, damaged mail, lost mail/packages. The best part is we have had the same carrier for quite a few years (you would think that after enough time on the same route she would figure out the addresses or get fired)
She has complained enough times that they know her by name...but still the trainwreck goes on. I can only base my opinions on the performance of the people and their inabilities that we are forced to deal with daily.

[C.W.M.V.]

CW, nothing personal, as I said I am sure that there are exceptions...my rural PO is kind of like walking into a sideshow at the circus's of long ago...limps and all.

Trust me my wife lights them up, all the way up the food chain, everytime the mail gets jacked up, pictures tacoed in half and shoved in the box with DO NOT BEND OR FOLD printed on the envelope, wrong address, damaged mail, lost mail/packages. The best part is we have had the same carrier for quite a few years (you would think that after enough time on the same route she would figure out the addresses or get fired)
She has complained enough times that they know her by name...but still the trainwreck goes on. I can only base my opinions on the performance of the people and their inabilities that we are forced to deal with daily.

Oh well, honestly that changes everything.
Rural and city carriers are two very different animals. My apologies for my reaction.
Are you sure you don't have a contract carrier? Many of our rural routes are contracted out to non usps employees for delivery. I'm not exactly sure how it works. I know that in my area carriers that have done that (folded pictures) have been made to pay for damages or replace the items in question, and rightly so.
Have you contacted your postal inspectors and failing that elected officials? Believe it or not they can help. If your post master gets a letter from Barbra boxers office things tend to change really quick.

[SMarquez]

I haven't had any problems. My wife orders a ton of crap from Zoolily and everything ordered at Christmas came on time. My USPS carrier brings packages that don't fit in the box to the door and place it behind the columns out of casual view. Same with UPS and Fed-Ex. And no broken or crushed packages.
It must be a local thing.

[MAILMAN187]

usps is the best.

[C.W.M.V.]

Keeping it real!
Lol! Real was kept!

[FML1982]

OP I feel your pain, Ive been waiting on a package that was supposed to be here on the 5th. It went to 3 places in Texas then went to Colorado before being sent back to Texas and now has been in transit from Bell Gardens,CA to Oceanside, CA for the last 3 days. I have complained before online when I would get the delivery attempted status on the tracking yet the carrier never showed up at my house, that is what really grinds my gears. Its a shame when I can buy some crap off ebay and have it shipped from China faster than what I can get something shipped here in the states.

[valley82]

Oh well, honestly that changes everything.
Rural and city carriers are two very different animals. My apologies for my reaction.
Are you sure you don't have a contract carrier? Many of our rural routes are contracted out to non usps employees for delivery. I'm not exactly sure how it works. I know that in my area carriers that have done that (folded pictures) have been made to pay for damages or replace the items in question, and rightly so.
Have you contacted your postal inspectors and failing that elected officials? Believe it or not they can help. If your post master gets a letter from Barbra boxers office things tend to change really quick.

Thank you,
I will pass this info on to the wife...not positive to be honest about the contract or official USPS (now very curious)...but she wears a USPS Uniform and drives a USPS funky jeep/van thing. And again nothing personal...just built up frustration...

[imarangemaster]

Well, it shows that it is still in Dallas, since the 9th... According to the seller, it was supposed to be delivered to California on the 10th...

Meanwhile, my Saiga is a useless pile of metal until it shows up. I even tried to find a place in the Sacramento area that had a FCG and T nut and screw in stock when I was down there today..What a joke. I just locked everything up in the safe, because it was pissing me off driving my BP up looking at it on the work bench.

[TKM]

And that is exactly what you should do, go to the postal inspectors. If it is really that bad then I would have been there already.
We don't have our own air fleet anymore so a lot of cross country shipments take rather strange routes. Thats most of what I see.
The other biggest thing I see is ****ty packaging. I recently had to explain to a customer that their ebay purchase of an antique China vase should have been packed better than with a few pieces of newspaper chucked into a shoebox, hence they got a box of broken glassware. Even had someone ship a mirror wrapped only in paper grocery store bags. Much loling.
On our end management simply does not care about the customer, and won't even try to solve your problem. They have no motivation to. They keep adding more and more to fewer and fewer routes making the carriers overburdened. I personally walk 10+ miles a day and have 800 houses I deliver to. Regardless of volume, which is increasing, or conditions I am expected to adhere to a time standard that is generated by a program desinged to create garbage pick up routes. It is a flat out management failure.
Sorry, kinda went off there. Im really sorry you've had such a bad experience with the USPS. After your postal inspectors maybe contact your local and state elected officials as well.



Hey buddy, I'd be one of those union dregs I guess.
Damn right I'm a Union man. The Natonal Association of Letter Carriers is the only postal organization that gives a damn about me the letter carrier or YOU, our customers.

And couldn't keep a real job? Do you consider the armed forces a real job? The USPS is one of (if not the) largest employers of veterans in the US. But screw these guys right?! Furthermore 70+ percent of the people that apply here don't make it past probation because they can't hang. It's not an easy gig if that's what you thought.

*Edit:figured I'd throw this in here too: The average new letter carrier is what's called a CCA (city carrier assistant). I was recently promoted to carrier carrier but have been a TE/CCA for several years. Many have been since 2007.
As a CCA you get $15 an hour. Not too bad, but that is it. No benifits, no health care, dental, or retierment. You can earn up to 2 hours of paid leave for every 40 worked, but you are forbidden to use them. Your schedule is not set, it varies at management discretion. Your work week is every day, including federal holidays. I know of CCAs that haven't had a day off since October. You can and will work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and you can be terminated for any little thing. Oh speaking of which you get fired once a year for 5 days just so the post office can call you part time. Sure you may work 80 hours in a week (5 12 hour and 2 10 hour days) but hey, it's still part time. So ya starting out this job flat out sucks. Anyone who thinks being a letter carrier is cushy or easy is damn ignorant. If you do it right is good solid work.*

And pay? It isn't what you think pal. I took a 30% pay cut, and after my promotion to full time another 20% cut. But the benifits aren't bad, I'll give you that.

Sounds like your carrier sucks, I'm sorry for you. You need to call and complain, a lot. It will get better if you do.
I'm willing to bet you have a lot of brand new trainees delivering in your area. Theyes make a lot of mistakes. I'm a fairly experienced carrier on my own route and I still make occasional mistakes. We are human. It happens. Regardless it is incumbent upon you to hold our feet to the fire if we do screw up! We can't fix problems we don't know about! Taking the mail to your neighbors is enabling your crappy letter carrier.

Oh and my favorite, the we are losing money line.
We aren't losing money. We are being robbed. Our organization has overpaid something to the tune of 30 billion dollars to the US government, and GAO says we should be paid back, but they dont. On top of that they demand we pay 5 billion a year for the retirement of people not yet born. No organization could deal with the gross mismanagement, government lethargy (obozo hant even appointed a full governing board for the USPS), and outright robbery we have had foisted upon us and do what we do.
You get rid of that and we aren't just in the black, we're making 700 million in profit per year.

And with that, have a great day.
OP, Im genuinely sorry for the thread jacking! That went MUCH longer than I planned.

$700,000,000 in profit but still paying Fedex $1,500,000,000 annually to move the mail.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-23/fedex-to-fly-mail-for-postal-service-for-10-5-billion.html

[imarangemaster]

Well, it showed up today (a week for priority mail). It was showing in Dallas this morning, but amazingly it was in Northern CA at 1 pm> Oh well, at least I got it, even if it is 4 or 5 days late. At least it is not MIA like two other packages I am waiting on for the last two weeks...

Now the problem is my days off are gone, and it will be next week when I can finish it.

Haha! My wife decided she had to run to town instead of us working on the chicken coop and yard. So.... I put it all together. I didn't bother with the bolt hold open right now. I still have the modified Tapco hammer for it, just did not want to screw with it and cutting the latch down. i'll do that on a rainy day!
Pics coming when I can take some daylight pics to do it justice.