Delivery people who, literally, can't read numbers.

treeguy64

treeguy64

Hari Om, y'all!
Location
Austin, TX.
Nothing, today, shows me the abject failure of the US education system than the imbeciles who deliver packages, these days. My house has its address directly in front of my front door in large, 8", black numbers. The same large numbers are on my mailbox support, and illuminated, at night. All of the above notwithstanding, I still get packages for other addresses, and my packages end up at a house down the street that has one different number in its address. I even got permission to put numbers on that mailbox, with no change in incorrect deliveries! How can companies employ these people for their delivery personnel, when these people obviously can't understand simple numerical addresses! This problem has gotten much worse in the last five years. What do they teach in school, these days? Am I alone, in my plight?
 

Oh, it has happened here too. Twice, just in last few months, I have had Amazon deliveries delivered to the wrong house. Most recent, a different street. Our mobile home park has 3 streets in it. Amazon showed my package was delivered. My house number is 56. Well..it was delivered to 56..but on one of the other streets.
Another time all the mail on our side of the street was delivered wrong..all one house off. My neighbor at 58 got mine, I got the mail for 54...all the way down. The only reason I caught on quick was that my neighbor at 58 was on vacation, and I was collecting their mail for them.
 
treeguy64 said:
Nothing, today, shows me the abject failure of the US education system than the imbeciles who deliver packages, these days. My house has its address directly in front of my front door in large, 8", black numbers. The same large numbers are on my mailbox support, and illuminated, at night. All of the above notwithstanding, I still get packages for other addresses, and my packages end up at a house down the street that has one different number in its address. I even got permission to put numbers on that mailbox, with no change in incorrect deliveries! How can companies employ these people for their delivery personnel, when these people obviously can't understand simple numerical addresses! This problem has gotten much worse in the last five years. What do they teach in school, these days? Am I alone, in my plight?
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I totally agree with this but,as a delivery person (flowers),I`ll tell you my biggest pet peeve. Do you know that at least 75% of homes have no address posted-or in such a dumb place (behind a huge bush) or painted over so it`s the same color as the house. It just blows my mind!If nothing else, don`t people worry about an ambulance or other emergency services being able to find them?? OK,rant over...
 

We were taught to "solve" problems. Barcodes and calculators do that now. I deliberately pay with cash at times just to watch the facial expressions on cashiers faces trying to figure the correct change. Listening is another problem as they almost always ask "for here or to go?" after I make it a point to state that very clearly and slowly before I order.
 
We haven't had any mistakes in package deliveries, but I sometimes get neighbors mail in my box. I just return it to them and hope for the same, a few have brought me my mail over the years that was put in their box accidentally/carelessly. My house address is in large numbers on my mailbox, which sits right at the edge of my lawn near the sidewalk.
 
fmdog44 said:
We were taught to "solve" problems. Barcodes and calculators do that now. I deliberately pay with cash at times just to watch the facial expressions on cashiers faces trying to figure the correct change. Listening is another problem as they almost always ask "for here or to go?" after I make it a point to state that very clearly and slowly before I order.
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I pay with cash all the time. No problems at all with cashiers. Sounds to me you're just in a crappy mood. And I don't believe for a minute that you have as many misplaced packages as you say you do. But maybe you just live among very dumb people. See, now you've got me doing it. :aargh:
 
Olivia said:
I pay with cash all the time. No problems at all with cashiers. Sounds to me you're just in a crappy mood. And I don't believe for a minute that you have as many misplaced packages as you say you do. But maybe you just live among very dumb people. See, now you've got me doing it. :aargh:
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Try re-reading my post and tell me where I mentioned misplaced packages. Maybe what is misplaced is your ability to comprehend what you read.
 
From what I understand, the mail is sorted and grouped at the post office, by someone other than the delivery person. So yeah, while the person who actually delivers the mail SHOULD be glancing at each piece to make sure it's been grouped correctly, the dude back and the post office who put it in the wrong pile shares some of the blame as well.

I am good friends with a postman/ex military guy, Richard, and he has so many frustrations about the way the mail is handled before it EVER gets to him to actually put in someone's mail box. And as someone else said up there ^^ he has more than his share of problems trying to deliver mail to places that have zero discernible numbers on the houses or the mail box. He can't go home till he gets all his deliveries done, and the mis-handlings at the post office sorting facility that he has to resolve, plus the invisible house numbers, AND this time of the year, and he often doesn't get home till 7 or 8 at night. I don't envy Richard his job, nor Nadine, his wife, her issues with never knowing when he'll arrive!!
 
fmdog44 said:
We were taught to "solve" problems. Barcodes and calculators do that now. I deliberately pay with cash at times just to watch the facial expressions on cashiers faces trying to figure the correct change.
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I don't see how this is a problem. Making change is an entirely automated action now. It's been many years since I've encountered any cashier person anywhere having to do anything more than look at the readout on the cash register to know how much change to return.
 
fmdog44 said:
Try re-reading my post and tell me where I mentioned misplaced packages. Maybe what is misplaced is your ability to comprehend what you read.
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I stand corrected. I did conflate what you said with what treeguy said. But, really, I don't understand what joy anyone could get by purposely trying to get people flustered. That's really what got me.
 
Mail doesn’t get delivered out where we live
So we have a PO Box
I’ve always liked PO Boxes
Secure
Quicker delivery

Right?

Not in our Podunk post office
My pension comes via mail (can’t get that changed, tried)
One month it was late
The company I retired from told me when it was mailed,
and asked if I wanted the check stopped and another mailed (my dime)
I went to the post office one more time
It had been delivered to another box, and whoever had that box, gave it back to the postmaster
I asked how that could happen
‘oh well, my bad’
‘Oh well, my bad???!!! (sputter spit #@%!), lady, that’s my pension!!
‘stuff happens’ (shrug)
I wanted to come across that counter
Instead, I wrote the postmaster
Guess I was one of many complaints
Don’t recall seeing that lady there anymore
 
I'm getting confused about what deliveries are we talking about? The USPS? UPS? FEDEX, DHL or deliveries from private companies that you order from? It's very rare that I get someone's letter in my mailbox. That is caused by the people who sort the mail that your mail person picks up. The rest, I don't know how they do it. I really like my mailman and he will ring the doorbell what I get packages. It may depend on where you live and how busy the mail and delivery people are.
 
I always use informed delivery on the usps website to see what I m getting each day. Our mailman has been with the post office and gets upset with the substitutes on his route. He says they are younger and do not care if they do a good job or not. He sometimes makes 3 trips a day as some of the newer ones do not finish their route, so he takes up the slack. He is close to retirement and I dread the day that happens. Most of my ups packages are being delivered by usps and they do not like it at all.
 
Yep. Gary O' put it as right as I could: They ALL are terrible, they ALL deliver packages in a slipshod manner. The younger personnel simply don't take the time to match delivery label addresses with actual addresses of the homes on their routes. I'm glad the poster, above, has skilled delivery personnel who rarely make mistakes, leading her to think, incorrectly, that I'm exaggerating, but the facts are what they are. I'm in a fairly large town, and the younger, working class folks I deal with, seem to be, in general, not the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. The irony is that my town attracts young techies who are the cream of the crop. Too bad the semi-skilled laborers have made me lose faith in the public education system in the US, at least where the teeming masses are concerned.
 
I can see how that would be frustrating, treeguy. Over the past several ... well, decades really ... improperly delivered mail has been a rarity for us EXCEPT:

A couple years ago we got one new mailman who didn't make the grade. Deliveries were consistently messed up or just didn't happen at all. I don't believe for a minute it had anything to do with the presorting at the post office. Anyway, his customers started complaining to USPS management right up to the regional level. Within several months he had been replaced and good service was restored. We really appreciate our current mailman and make sure he knows it.

Funny story. One time during that period our heating oil bill was late. As we get a substantial discount for paying promptly, we always watch for it and turn it around quickly. We called the oil company and were told "It's already been paid". What?? Turns out, the bill had been mis-delivered to a neighbor up the road and she had paid it without realizing it wasn't hers. She was rather embarrassed when we told her.
 
Tommy, I also strongly doubt that pre-sorting at the post office has anything to do with the carrier not being able to differentiate between correct and incorrect delivery points.
 
Tommy said:
Funny story. One time during that period our heating oil bill was late. As we get a substantial discount for paying promptly, we always watch for it and turn it around quickly. We called the oil company and were told "It's already been paid". What?? Turns out, the bill had been mis-delivered to a neighbor up the road and she had paid it without realizing it wasn't hers. She was rather embarrassed when we told her.
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That was funny!
 
treeguy64 said:
Tommy, I also strongly doubt that pre-sorting at the post office has anything to do with the carrier not being able to differentiate between correct and incorrect delivery points.
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I agree. I remember years ago when I made a written complaint - twice - about misdelivered mail I got a lengthy reply about millions of pieces of mail and a lot of mumbo jumbo about the sorting procedures. Pfftt. :rolleyes:
 

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