The post office - a question

[chic]

I don't order a ton online but do order some things. Within the past two months I've had major problems with USPS first class mail. I understand the P.O. has recently hired a lot of new people but who and what are they hiring? Yes, I dare to ask that question at this point whether it's correct to do so or not. The PO used to give job applicants a test they had to pass before they could be hired. They haven't done this in a long time. But can the new employees even read English? From the tracking history of most of my 1st class orders, I would say no.
I've had orders missent. One order was missent 4 times in one week. I never did receive it. Eventually tracking information told me it was presumed lost in transit. I was not happy because it was a hard to find product and it was from Amazon and they didn't care either. I've even had orders shipped by the PO out of state, instead of to my address. The problem has not gotten any better in recent days. I had and order en route to me that is over a week late and has arrived back where it was shipped from. Another hasn't budged. Ditto a third.

Is this happening to anyone else in the U.S.?? It's beyond frustrating. Have you found a solution if this is happening to you.

 

[HoneyNut]

I haven't had any problems recently that I've noticed, but I don't get very many things sent thru the post office, only prescriptions and a few random Amazon purchases. A couple days ago our post person brought my package to my door and rang the bell, which was way beyond normal, but possibly simply because I'd been down to the lobby a few minutes before and asked him to help me because I'd put a small package in the outgoing box and forgot to put my return address on it. He'd had to open up the outgoing container to find it, and lent me his pen to put my return address on.

I'd guess reading addresses is done by machine, so maybe the machines have a software bug in whatever their latest software update was?

 

[ArnoldC]

Hey chic, you're not alone. Mail gets here routinely after dark, sometimes as late as 9:00p.m. Complained to the postmaster at USPS local and she says, "We don't deliver mail after dark." Really? Mail here is misdirected and often doesn't even get here. Shrug. Dunno. USPS is broken and apparently nobody cares. Of course, the continual flow of junk mail continues unabated.

Oh, and yeah, first class rates are going up yet AGAIN in July. Absolutely insane management. Had a question for my mail delivery earlier this week. Met her on a early delivery (horray!). Happens infrequently. She pointed to her ear and shrugged as in being deaf. So much for the question I had concerning an overdue mailing.

Good luck.

 

[Myra]

I have had issues with packages. My mail arrives straight away to the house. My packages go all over to two or three states before returning here. They start here and then come back. It makes no sense whatsoever.
Another thing that ruffles my feathers is they often deliver my packages to the neighbors instead of me. What if they don't return it to me? I can certainly sympathize with your frustration @chic.

 

[SeaBreeze]

Haven't had any problems getting mail or packages from the post office. Just had one this past week. I go there at least once a week to mail my bill payments.

No complaints about orders not being delivered. Years ago, we had a mailman who came during a certain time of the day, I knew his name and we always said hello. Now there are some different people delivering at different times of the day. I assume the post office is getting the job done in the best way possible.

USPS. UPS. Fed Ex. Walmart, Lowes, etc. no problems with deliveries. All is good.

 

[SeaBreeze]

I haven't had any problems recently that I've noticed, but I don't get very many things sent thru the post office, only prescriptions and a few random Amazon purchases. A couple days ago our post person brought my package to my door and rang the bell, which was way beyond normal, but possibly simply because I'd been down to the lobby a few minutes before and asked him to help me because I'd put a small package in the outgoing box and forgot to put my return address on it. He'd had to open up the outgoing container to find it, and lent me his pen to put my return address on.

I'd guess reading addresses is done by machine, so maybe the machines have a software bug in whatever their latest software update was?

Happy you had a friendly postal worker to help you out with your return address. They often try to help.

 

[SeaBreeze]

I have had issues with packages. My mail arrives straight away to the house. My packages go all over to two or three states before returning here. They start here and then come back. It makes no sense whatsoever.
Another thing that ruffles my feathers is they often deliver my packages to the neighbors instead of me. What if they don't return it to me? I can certainly sympathize with your frustration @chic.

Every now and then a piece of my mail will go to my neighbor, or I'll get theirs. This has been happening for many, many years, nothing new. We always just return it to the neighbor it was meant for, not really a big deal.

 

[chic]

Hey chic, you're not alone. Mail gets here routinely after dark, sometimes as late as 9:00p.m. Complained to the postmaster at USPS local and she says, "We don't deliver mail after dark." Really? Mail here is misdirected and often doesn't even get here. Shrug. Dunno. USPS is broken and apparently nobody cares. Of course, the continual flow of junk mail continues unabated.

Oh, and yeah, first class rates are going up yet AGAIN in July. Absolutely insane management. Had a question for my mail delivery earlier this week. Met her on a early delivery (horray!). Happens infrequently. She pointed to her ear and shrugged as in being deaf. So much for the question I had concerning an overdue mailing.

Good luck.

They didn't used to deliver mail after dark but they sure do now. I receive delivery at or after 9 pm according to tracking info. I'm relieved to learn so many are having the same experience. I wonder what can be done about it?

 

[OldFeller]

I often get other people's mail delivered to my house. The worst case was when a man's mail delivery of a medicine came to my house but should've been delivered 8 blocks away. My son took it to the post office and told them to try again.

 

[Shadowman]

My service declined last fall with a new delivery person in my rural area. Pickup and delivery went from about noon to late afternoons and then 8-9 pm. Getting the neighbor's mail and them getting mine became a common thing. In November I sent in a credit card payment two weeks before due date. In December I got a notice from the credit card company charging me for non-payment, penalty, interest, etc. I filed a complaint for lost mail locally and nationally. The end of December, I saw the payment taken out of my bank account and arriving at the card company. Now I send almost nothing from my home mailbox unless it is not important.

 

[VisualBrian]

I don't order a ton online but do order some things. Within the past two months I've had major problems with USPS first class mail. I understand the P.O. has recently hired a lot of new people but who and what are they hiring? Yes, I dare to ask that question at this point whether it's correct to do so or not. The PO used to give job applicants a test they had to pass before they could be hired. They haven't done this in a long time. But can the new employees even read English? From the tracking history of most of my 1st class orders, I would say no.
I've had orders missent. One order was missent 4 times in one week. I never did receive it. Eventually tracking information told me it was presumed lost in transit. I was not happy because it was a hard to find product and it was from Amazon and they didn't care either. I've even had orders shipped by the PO out of state, instead of to my address. The problem has not gotten any better in recent days. I had and order en route to me that is over a week late and has arrived back where it was shipped from. Another hasn't budged. Ditto a third.

Is this happening to anyone else in the U.S.?? It's beyond frustrating. Have you found a solution if this is happening to you.

My last job, just before I retired about 9 years ago, was mail carrier with the U.S Postal Service. Not sure why I even wanted the job. I think I was just bored. What I found was a business so confused and inept that I resigned in the same year.

My mail today in the very small town I live in is hit-and-miss at best. I get my utility bills about 60% of the time, and that includes other people delivering them to me when the post office mis-delivered them to them. A lot of my mail is not mine.

As for packages, I just about quit ordering anything online because the delivery percentage is even worse. I can track my packages going all over the country and either getting lost in the system or returned to sender.

What I hear from friends in the business is that it's getting worse. The only thing you can do is find another way to communicate, shop, and pay your bills. You're on your own.

 

[Myra]

Every now and then a piece of my mail will go to my neighbor, or I'll get theirs. This has been happening for many, many years, nothing new. We always just return it to the neighbor it was meant for, not really a big deal.

If you're lucky enough to have nice neighbors all goes well. So far I've had no serious issues. Someone made an attempt to steal something off the porch but, they were interrupted I believe.

 

[Murrmurr]

Back in 2020, a newly elected Postmaster General had hundreds of high-speed mail-sorting machines dismantled and removed from postal facilities because of a huge decline in letter mail. Then he had mail collection boxes removed from streets and people in some areas couldn't use the house boxes, they had to go to neighborhood collection boxes.

That 2020 Postmaster General had to testify before congress about what the heck he was doing, and he said the PO had a massive deficit because in 2019 (I think) the PO was ordered to pay employee benefits 75 years in advance or some weird thing, plus people just weren't mailing enough letters and postage stamps weren't even coming close to covering costs. Plus, he was questioned about a report saying a bunch of 2020 mail-in ballots got lost.

I don't know what finally happened in congress, but then Covid happened.

And you're right, @chic, the USPS also stopped their regular training program. That was back around 2009 or 10, when the then-president ordered USPS to pay toward the US deficit.

I went through their truck-delivery training program in the 80s; 2.5 months of training, if I remember right, mostly in a classroom, and it included learning to re-sort your load after it was already sorted. Now they train for a few days and there's no re-sorting, just load up and do your best....or the minimum.

The USPS is still in severe financial trouble.

 

[Myra]

I am considering a lock box for package deliveries. Although I don't know if the people delivering the goods will take the time to pay attention.

 

[OneEyedDiva]

How frustrating Chic! Recently I ordered medicine which usually gets here a couple of days after being shipped out. There was some kind of delay and it took from April 5th to April 13th for me to receive it. I was notified that there was a delay but I don't know why. But it seems from the tracking history that at first it was shipped from a USPS facility fairly close to my town to one that's further away, then to another that's a bit closer. It was held there for a week. The package was out for delivery the same morning it arrived at the facility in my town and I received it that day.

 

[Fyrefox]

My small town post office employees are good, helpful, and down-to-earth people. It’s the processing and routing of mail that seems a kilter, and snail mail has never been slower! Got a bill to pay? Better send it out at least a week in advance, or it won’t make it across the state in time, and you’ll be hit with a late fee! Routing seems circuitous to the point of being illogical; mail is almost to me, then gets sent further away! I’ve gotten smashed and even emptied packages.

I think that “Mr. Zip” is dead, or at least in exceedingly poor health…

 

[PeppermintPatty]

I’m not in the states but we usually get our packages. A while back a postal worker messed up and delivered our package to our neighbours down the street and we got theirs. We are informed our postal workers and they fixed it.

Another mistake was made with a business package we sent off to Germany. The customer didn’t get the package so it got returned to us. Since it was the postal workers fault, they didn’t charge us and it got sent out again. Luckily the customer was ok with it. We communicated what had happpened and they were very understanding

 

[Oris Borloff]

The postal board of governors are appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate. If I remember correctly there are 9 members and maximum limit on 5 that can belong to the same party. The post master general is appointed by that board.

The congress is the one that passed laws requiring the post office prefund retirement benefits for 75 years. The only government or quasi government agency required to do so.

Under the current post master general delivery standards were cut about in half, meaning if it took 2 days now it would take 4. This came about as a cost cutting measure reducing the number processing centers and equipment also. Mail boxes on the street were being pulled as early as 2005 where I lived. Again this was a "cost cutting" measure.

The post office currently also acts as a hub for Amazon deliveries, depending on location. This is in my rural area and came into being after my time with them was up. Something else being implemented was setting up each post office the same so they could worked by anyone available. One problem with that some post offices are 300 sq feet some are 30,000 so it can't be done literally.

Every couple of years or more, they change how things are done, for example how mail is forwarded. I worked for them from late 2011 through 2014-- that was changed 4 times, one change happened in the same week.

They are losing money as demand drops, and it drops farther with the deterioration of service.

As for the people they are currently getting to work for them--it's a grab bag some of very good, some are not. Somethings aren't the carriers fault like when mail actually arrives for them to deliver, some are.

It's a top heavy organization and it's run that way.

 

[jimintoronto]

I am amazed at the high number of people on this forum who are living so far in the past. By that I mean the practice of sending bill payments through the mail system. Have none of you heard about using the Internet to pay your bills ? I am by no means a computer guru, BUT I do know how to manage 99 percent of my business from my home computer keyboard. INSTANT payments, and instant recognition of the account being credited. The Interact bank transfer system allows me to send or receive money within ONE MINUTE of time.

I recently asked my financial management company to transfer a couple of thousand dollars from my RRSP account, to my CIBC personal account. I sent Terry ( the rep at my financial management company ) an email. He did the transfer within 5 minutes, and sent me back a confirmation e mail. The CIBC sent me a "payment received " message 5 minutes later. That was a movement of $5000.00 done in ten minutes, all through electronic means. No postage stamps were used to do this.

I buy and sell gold and silver, as a small retirement business. I deal with a company in Calgary , Alberta, who buy my used gold items for the melt price. They use Canada Post secure delivery service, to ship gold across Canada. When I send them gold, the shipping label shows a "spoof address " in Edmonton on the label, but the package actually goes to Calgary. The same company sends new gold coins to their customers across Canada using the Canada Post secure delivery system. The customer goes to a Canada Post office after being called to inform them their parcel is ready to be picked up. Photo ID and a pick up serial number are required, before you get the box. JimB .

 

[911]

We pay 99% of our bills and whatever else using the online banking software. I haven’t written a check yet this year. I haven’t even reconciled my checkbook probably in 10 years. I do keep an eye on it and verify the bank’s numbers. Generally, I do that on a Sunday evening.

 

[OldFeller]

We pay 99% of our bills and whatever else using the online banking software. I haven’t written a check yet this year. I haven’t even reconciled my checkbook probably in 10 years. I do keep an eye on it and verify the bank’s numbers. Generally, I do that on a Sunday evening.

I had to go to online bill payment after a check fraud occurred where somebody stole all the mail in a mailbox just outside of the Post Office. They got a hold of my electric bill and washed it and made it out to themselves in an amount 3 times as much.

 

[ArnoldC]

They didn't used to deliver mail after dark but they sure do now. I receive delivery at or after 9 pm according to tracking info. I'm relieved to learn so many are having the same experience. I wonder what can be done about it?

Bolded and colored part of your reply to comment, chic. Hope that's o.k. by you. If not, apologies and won't do it again.

Not sure there is a solution. As a "government or quasi-government" (thanks to Oris above at #18 - I don't know where USPS fits either) agency we be stuck with what we have.

For what it's worth, here's what I'd do:

get USPS out of the package delivery business. First class mail only.
begin charging first class mail rates for junk mail
charge first class mail rate for post cards
get USPS out of the designer stamp business. Settle on one stamp design.
get rid of the side hustle of greeting cards and pre-paid credit cards
accomplish all mail delivery within normal working hours 8am - 5pm
end Saturday delivery
end Sunday Amazon delivery. In fact end special delivery consideration contracts with any commercial business.

But wait! There's more. That's just for starters.

 

[fuzzybuddy]

Aahhh, the US Postal Service! I have a package that's been "In Transit" since 1997. My mailbox is not on my front yard, it's on the main road, with a bunch of others, three streets away. So, if I get a package, I have to go to the Post Office to get it. There's a Post Office 1.5 miles from me, but that's not in my zip code. I have to drive by that P.O. ,and go 9 miles to get to my Post Office. Somehow United Parcel and FedEx can find my house, but the U.S.P.S. can't

 

[againstthegrain]

get USPS out of the package delivery business. First class mail only.

Completely gut the business to depend on a declining source of revenue? Yeah that's a winner.

begin charging first class mail rates for junk mail

Are you crazy? Eliminating a subsidy for business......no way.

charge first class mail rate for post cards

haha , post cards what a great source of revenue.

get USPS out of the designer stamp business. Settle on one stamp design.

People buy stamps to collect and NEVER use them. Again that eliminates a low cost source of revenue.

get rid of the side hustle of greeting cards and pre-paid credit cards

Pre paid cards are a huge money maker, because many are lost or forgotten about.

accomplish all mail delivery within normal working hours 8am - 5pm

Why?

end Saturday delivery

That's probably a good idea.

end Sunday Amazon delivery. In fact end special delivery consideration contracts with any commercial business.

Why eliminate something that makes money.

The idea is to diversify and make use of the huge amount of fixed assets and overhead costs not to reduce volume and increase per piece costs.

 

[chic]

Back in 2020, a newly elected Postmaster General had hundreds of high-speed mail-sorting machines dismantled and removed from postal facilities because of a huge decline in letter mail. Then he had mail collection boxes removed from streets and people in some areas couldn't use the house boxes, they had to go to neighborhood collection boxes.

That 2020 Postmaster General had to testify before congress about what the heck he was doing, and he said the PO had a massive deficit because in 2019 (I think) the PO was ordered to pay employee benefits 75 years in advance or some weird thing, plus people just weren't mailing enough letters and postage stamps weren't even coming close to covering costs. Plus, he was questioned about a report saying a bunch of 2020 mail-in ballots got lost.

I don't know what finally happened in congress, but then Covid happened.

And you're right, @chic, the USPS also stopped their regular training program. That was back around 2009 or 10, when the then-president ordered USPS to pay toward the US deficit.

I went through their truck-delivery training program in the 80s; 2.5 months of training, if I remember right, mostly in a classroom, and it included learning to re-sort your load after it was already sorted. Now they train for a few days and there's no re-sorting, just load up and do your best....or the minimum.

The USPS is still in severe financial trouble.

Yes, I do remember DeJoy and the mess he made. I had to drive my mom to a special drop off box at city hall so she could vote. The changes made at the PO could have impacted voting so we had to do that. Deliver in person.

My issues have just been in the past two months with USPS first class mail. Things are sent all over my state and country. They get lost in transit and I never learn what happened to them again. I honestly can't see online retailers putting up with this for long because eventually they will do something as the alternative would be losing all that business. I can't see Amazon putting up with that. Postage costs will rise but with better, more expensive service/delivery. Priority mail is a good option. It will cost more and it will hurt those on a budget like they aren't hurting enough already. But it seems to be either that or you don't get your order. It's a sad change, but I think a necessary one.