[guilloche]

I am so frustrated.

My mail delivery has just been getting worse and worse over the last few months. I had hoped that they were just overwhelmed with the holidays, but nope, it's still a struggle to get anything.

No mail for the last couple of days. I have "Informed Delivery", so I can see what I was *supposed* to get - none of it came through.

My mom sent a package several weeks ago. There was a notice (on Informed Delivery) that they "attempted" (ha!) to deliver on 1/7 - but couldn't access my house (this is very implausible, I've received other mail including a package since then and my house is very accessible, right on a major road). No attempts to redeliver - it now seems lost in the system. My mom called to have them look for it... not sure if they're going to send it back to her, or if it will find it's way to me, or if I'm going to need to drive somewhere to retrieve it. So incredibly frustrating.

But - there's more! I ordered some lovely perfume samples from an indie perfumer. This is technically a "package", but they're tiny vials shipping in a padded envelope that easily fits through my mail slot on my door.

They were supposed to come on Friday, but nope, no mail at all on Friday.

I checked online, and it now says that it's being held at the post office, "at customer request." Oh, heck no, I definitely did NOT request that.

So, this afternoon, I drove to the post office... stood in line to see the one person working, and tried to be friendly (he was obviously overworked and tired) while I explained what happened. He took my tracking number and disappeared in the back for several minutes.

Came back and said that they don't hold mail at this location, but it looks like it's at another post office. In another zip code. Circled it on the tracking papers for me - but when I looked at it, there's no address! Just the zip code!

So, now I'm supposed to try to find this other post office, not in my zip code, to retrieve mail that should have been delivered by the carrier? I'm so upset by this... maybe unreasonably so, but I paid for shipping!

On top of that, I asked if I could file a complaint against the carrier. It seems that marking "hold at customer request" when there is no request is fraud. He gave me the card for "1-800-ASK-USPS". The card says: "toll free / 24 hours a day / 7 days a week".

Amazing! I'll wait until late to call - maybe the wait time will be less. Nope - only the automated stuff is 24 hours, the rest is now closed.

Even better, Monday is a holiday for the post office, so no chance of reaching anyone then or getting any of the mail that isn't being delivered.

*o* *m* *g*

I did put in an online request for redelivery, but wow. What the heck is going on with this carrier?

Is it this bad everywhere? Are you all have problems too? This seems to be just... unbelievably bad here.

(Sorry for the vent!)

[Mountaindewed]

Yeah my mail has sucked too. I thought it was just my street. We used to get our mail between noon and 2PM. These past few months it hasn’t gotten here until 8PM or later. Plus we sometimes get our neighbors mail. And they get ours. Which is annoying since they open our water bills and stuff just to be nosy. A couple weeks ago the neighbors across the street knocked on our door because a package of theirs got delivered to the wrong house, and they thought maybe we got it.

It’s weird.

[unaluna]

I think they are using contractors. Stuff shows up eventually, has been my experience. It doesnt really match what is happening online in real time.

[Raindropvampire]

Our's runs later in the day but they are pretty routine even in bad weather. Rarely do they mix up our mail with the neighbors' mail but it does happen from time to time.

The last place I lived was a crapshoot as to when and if you'd get your mail. I finally just put a hold on all my mail and went to pick it up 3 times a week from my local office. It was less frustrating that way.

[guilloche]

Thanks (everyone) - and sorry to those who are also experiencing this. It's so frustrating. I understand that sometimes things come up, and mail may be a day or two later than expected - but it really upsets me that they'd just hold a package, and say that I requested it when I didn't. If I hadn't looked online, I wouldn't have even known!

Mountaindewed - That's terrible that your neighbors open your mail! I'd be really upset over that. And, I don't know if this is helpful but - when I get mail for someone else - I usually write "Delivered to wrong address. Please re-deliver" on the envelope and put it back in a mailbox. I *heard* (not sure if it's true) that this should flag it in the system, and if enough mail is mis-delivered, they'll figure out who's screwing up and take action.

Oh, and yeah, I sometimes get mail really late too - like after 9pm! I know when it comes, because I have a mail slot in my door, so I hear the door open and then *poof* mail gets tossed in (when I'm lucky. Sometimes they leave it half in the slot. I don't like that - it lets the heat or AC out of the house, and leaves a way for bugs to get in!)

Unaluna Thanks - you're probably right, and so far stuff has shown up. With this, it's just so confusing, since it sure looks like they expect me to drive to some unknown destination to pick up the package. I'm also 50/50 better that my mom's package gets returned to her. Kind of sucks, it was supposed to be birthday stuff for me!

Raindropvampire - I can totally see why just picking it up would be less frustrating! Traffic around here is so terrible though (busy city area, lots of new apartments going up) I don't think I'd want to deal with trying to pick it up multiple times during the week.

At this point, I'm going to start turning off most of my paper bills, I think. I know what I get each month and track it on my calendar, I pay it all online, and I can access statements online. At least this way there will be less stuff for them to lose.

I think they're shooting theirselves in the foot though. I can't be the only one that is going to be cutting back even more on using USPS services.

Just so frustrating... ugh. Thanks!

[Travelinglady]

I haven't been having such problems. What poor workers you have! Sounds like the deliverer is just being lazy to me....

[eskielover]

I live out in the country. Mail delivery is pretty good. I get neighbors mail & mail for the same street number on a different road. I just mark "please deliver to correct address" & stick it back in my mail box. They actually deliver boxes on my front porch which means they have to drive in my driveway & get out & walk up to my porch. Some people around here have driveways that are 1 mile off the road to the house. They do a pretty good job considering our environment.

[sarahsweets]

I dislike my letter carrier. If anything requires a signature he will just slap an orange notice that says 1st attempt on my door. I have watched him do this without knocking and leave when I have been home. I took pictures of packages that were left out in the rain even though I have a note on my door that requests things be placed inside the porch. He will shove as much mail as he can into the mail box without coming to the door, or he will come to the door and jam the rest in the mail box. I have missing mail all the time including a new debit card so I had to run to the main branch and cancel the new one and have them make another card. My doctor used to mail prescriptions because she is a half hour away but they would get lost. ( try telling a doctor that your adderall rx is 'lost'). So now I pick them up every month. I am always getting everyone else's mail. I once a long time ago complained and the post master yelled at me. Everyone in my town has issues but we are all afraid because they have us by the you-know-whats.

[healingme4me]

The extent of my complications involves sticking 2 apartments worth of mail in 1 box despite the labels. It's not too big of a complication as my neighbors and I will just sort it ourselves. Packages aren't any issue. My postal carrier has to park and they walk up and down the block with their bag delivering.

Sorry to hear that yours is not working out for you. Sounds more like a sort issue in their main site/warehouse?

[WishfulThinker66]

You said 'major road' but gave no indication of your neighbourhood. Are you rural perhaps? Or urban, suburban? That really will affect your delivery times. The mention of a different zip coded postal outlet is what got me thinking of this. Regarding the accessibility... if you are in fact rural is it necessary to drive into your property? Mail contractors will not do this. And yes, as another poster mentioned, rural and country delivery is contracted out. Some will hold onto mail until there is a collection of it worthwhile delivering to your area. Yeah that sucks, but that may be the way it is.

Now, if you are in a town or city, there is no excuse for not getting your deliveries.

When it comes to anything other than mail you can track your item via the carrier's website. You should be getting the tracking numbers and the links via email at the time the orders are shipped. Similarly, your mother would have been provided a tracking number for what she sent. You are able to trace the delivery right to the point it is 'out for delivery'. If they miss you they will have provided a card to you notifying you of the postal outlet the parcel has been taken to. So while I am mysitified at the duration of your wait I don't get the mix ups you are describing. This is not the way it happens.

[Mopey]

Let me share a postal experience I had a few years back.

Ordered a small amount of merchandise from small business in Pennsylvania. Had ordered from them once before successfully so placed a second order. It never arrived. Called business, they claimed to have sent pkg out, said they hadn't gotten it back. I went back and forth with my local post office branch who kept claiming it had been "refused". (We were home - in our easily accessible house - the entire time). Situation dragged on and on over weeks.

Finally got access to a record of the package's travels: PA to some other post office branch near me, I supposedly "refused delivery". Back to PA. PA to branch nearby, "refused delivery". You get the picture. This treadmill effect continued through at least 6 "attempts". Meanwhile, I had never laid eyes on the package.

Finally called business in PA. At first they balked. They had sent the pkg out, never got it back, nothing they could do, etc. Then all of a sudden the employee I was talking to on the phone said: "Wait a minute. I know someone at our local post office branch, let me ask her."

She got back to me later saying that her friend at the post office could literally not believe what she saw when she looked up the record, and my poor little package was literally sitting there forlornly at the PA post office awaiting its next trip to my area. Thank God the business had some savvy, went and picked it up, and Fed-Exed it to me that day.

Don't think I'll be buying from them again real soon, though. Nothing against the business, but you know....

[guilloche]

Thanks...

Travelinglady - I'm glad you've got a good delivery person! I think you're probably right... the fact that there was NO mail (regular, letter type mail) even though several things showed up on Informed Delivery kind of makes me wonder if they just decided to not bother delivering anything for a few days? It's so weird...

Eskielover Sounds like your carrier is also on top of things! That's great, especially considering, as you said, the layout/distances where you're at!

Sarahsweets - Oh wow, that sounds terrible. Especially about the meds... how awful. I know you said you can't complain to your postmaster due to the issues there, here's the 800 number they gave me to file a complaint (if you want to try that): 800-ASK-USPS (800-275-8777). You can't reach a person on Sundays, holidays (this coming Monday), or too late in the evening though. If they're stealing medicine, that's really really serious I would think. I'm so sorry!!!

healingme4me - That's good that you and your neighbor are both decent people and able to just work out the mail situation between you two! Glad things are otherwise working out for you... honestly, I have no idea. With this package, I think it has to be the carrier - that's who would have put in the note to "hold at post office at customer request". It just... drives me sort of crazy. I really can understand and live with mail being a couple days late (since I didn't pay for super fast shipping), but it seems SO wrong to not deliver at all, then to blame me! Since there was no notice, I wouldn't have even known, except that I was expecting the package so checked the tracking online...

WishfulThinker66 - Thanks, and yeah, it's actually a pretty major city. I'm just north of the city, a bit in the 'burbs, but still a very busy urban area. I'm in a townhouse/condo community, so you turn off of the major road and are then in my community. It's basically just one medium-ish loop (about half a mile around if you drive the full circle) with townhouses, and a couple buildings with flats. I'm in a townhouse, so my front door is right there... very easy access, and lots of open parking in front of me (because we're on an edge with extra parking, and not everyone in my building has a car).

And yup, I have informed delivery and can see the tracking online. For this package, the status is just "held at post office at customer's request". IIRC it shows my zip code, but the PO in this zip code said they don't hold packages. The other zip (just north of me, I think?) may be where things go first for sorting (I've noticed them sent there first via tracking, then to my local PO).

The other package, the one from my mom, hasn't had any tracking updates since 1/7, when it shows that delivery was attempted, but that they couldn't access the house. I don't know why they would have marked it like that, because I think it's lost somewhere since it hasn't been redelivered and there are no other updates. It's a little crazy.

Thanks everyone. Trying to relax and see if anything shows up next week. Fingers crossed.

[guilloche]

Hey Mopey - it looks like we were posting at the same time!

Thanks for sharing the story! Your poor package.... wow. That's just... wow. I'm sorry, I usually try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but with stuff like, I just... can't understand the amount of incompetence required to keep sending it back and forth, back and forth, without actually getting it delivered. How does that happen?

I'm glad they were able to get it to you! And, I totally understand about not ordering again... it's too bad, because it's really not the vendor's fault... but it ends up being so stressful, and with a lot of smaller vendors, they're not really in a position to just replace things that mysteriously don't show up.

Sigh. Of all the things that make life difficult, having things delivered shouldn't be one of them!

thanks!

[eskielover]

I did have an interesting experience a few years ago trying to send a package to my daughter several states away. I used an old box I had & went to the post office & got all the labels & bar codes to send the package ....& the tracking number. My daughter didn't get her package in the stated time so I started tracking it. Found it was at a post office in a state that shouldn't have even been on the route. I called that post office & told them tracking showed it was there....I wanted the package found (my return address was on it so no excuse). A very sweet & consciencious postal worker found my package. She pointed out that the old bar codes had not been marked out & the post office had scanned the wrong bar codes. She marked out the wrong codes & sent it on its way to my daughter. The cookies weren't as fresh as they would have been but she got her package FINALLY.

[Mopey]

(!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

[Medusax]

I remember when the PO was almost unstoppable. they would get you your mail come hell or high water. I live in a small town and our post office isn't the greatest. I am very often delivering the neighbors mail, and they deliver mine to me.

[eskielover]

Originally Posted by Medusax

I remember when the PO was almost unstoppable. they would get you your mail come hell or high water.

That was when it was the Pony Express & they relied on ponies instead of "horse powered" vehicles.

[Medusax]

All joking aside...If I were handling other peoples' bills and important documents that NEED to be delivered and are entrusted to my care...I am going to do the BEST job I can, and even go above and beyond to do a good job. But, that is called work ethic, and doesn't hold the importance that it once did.

[Velvet Lounger]

At around Christmas time when sending money in the post, I never trust the post office., Instead I'll send the card with a banknote or cheque enclosed by Registered Post. Or send out valuables via ups.

[eskielover]

Originally Posted by Medusax

All joking aside...If I were handling other peoples' bills and important documents that NEED to be delivered and are entrusted to my care...I am going to do the BEST job I can, and even go above and beyond to do a good job. But, that is called work ethic, and doesn't hold the importance that it once did.

Work ethic has definitely become a rarity.

[seeker33]

Recently my package came to the post office but I didn't get a notice, neither physical nor electronic. Only after I'd, contacted the sender she checked online and said it was already in my town. I went to the post office and yes, it had been there for several days.

[Mountaindewed]

My mail came early today for once. And my prescription payment booklet came today too. We were not sure if it had gotten lost in the mail or what. But we had asked for one on December 29th, and were starting to get worried since it’s almost February and I want my meds to be covered by my insurance.

[guilloche]

An update! One of the packages (the one that they said was being held at my request) was delivered yesterday (Tuesday, first day after the holiday) - along with ALL the mail that should have come Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (per Informed Delivery).

It's so incredibly frustrating. I'm glad that I finally got that package (still no word on the one from my mom). As I said, I understand that Informed Delivery isn't really set up to be 100% accurate and that things might end up being a day or two late, here and there - but to have NOTHING at all delivered for 3 days before a holiday weekend, then everything dumped the first day back, just feels like they're not doing their jobs.

Anyway, I'm glad my package came - perfume samples from a little indie place, so I'm really happy to have those to try. One was a special winter scent (that's not available anymore) that smells like a fireplace, in a castle, in Scotland - whiskey, smoke, wood, and wool blankets. I really like it!

eskielover That's crazy that it ended up somewhere totally off the route, but good for you for being persistent and locating it! I can understand that sometimes things get shuffled around, but - it had a correct address and return address, I don't understand how it doesn't end up forwarded on to the right location. Maybe it would have made it there, eventually, but you got it moving a bit faster?

Mopey Yup!

Medusax - I know that they used to have a reputation for being unstoppable, the whole "neither wind, nor rain, nor... " thing. I can even understand/accept that when the weather is really bad here, it makes sense to not send them out (no use in putting more people in harm's way and causing more accidents). I just wish they would own up to things - instead of blaming the customer. You know, mark something as, "We're so sorry, we're currently short staffed and we weren't able to get your package to you today. It will be first on the list for tomorrow!" - something like that would help, and would at least give you a sense that they were on top of things, rather than looking completely incompetent ("What? You didn't ask us to not deliver your package? Are you sure, this form says that you did? And, by the way, we don't have it... we don't hold packages here, you'll have to go somewhere else, but I can't give you that address.") *Arghhghghhghgg* - lol.

And yeah, you'd think that they'd realize the importance of the stuff that they're delivering. *sigh*

Velvet Lounger - That sounds smart! Sad that you can't trust them, but smart!

Seeker33 - Isn't that kind of crazy though? What if someone sent you a gift, as a surprise? You wouldn't know to contact them, because it would be unexpected. I'm glad you were able to get your package though! That's good!

Mountaindewed - Glad your prescription book came! And, you know what's funny, when my mail comes early, I bet it's usually because they have somebody else doing the route (not the regular person). I only say that b/c last week when it was early and I was able to stop the carrier to ask them to check for the package, the person told me that they weren't the regular assigned carrier, they were just filling in (and they were very nice, offered to double check the truck for me, but there wasn't anything else that they could really do).

Glad you got what you needed though.

I have no idea what happened to my mom's package. No updates on the tracking I'm a little scared that she may have made a mistake with the address. She *shouldn't* (I've been here for 10 years) but she seems to be getting a little... wobbly mentally, maybe. She sent me something today that was supposed to be about finding freelance work, but it was actually about online auctions (And no, I don't blame the Post office if she messed up the address, but I'm still worried about the package!)