Post office troubles.

[customsawyer]

I was reading a post in the sawing board and some others were complaining about their local Post Offices. I hate to say it but I have more then my fair share of troubles with them. I had 3 different checks get lost last year. Had to stop payment on them and write new ones. Of course it's never anyone's fault. It's really sad that this seems to be a nation wide issue. 

[Nebraska]

Were their fraudulent attempts to cash them? We are blessed up here our post office is pretty good so far.  

[Bruno of NH]

The thing that bothers me the most in my situation is that I got the run around. The checks came out of Canada that's the bridge companies main office. 
I want to know where my checks got cashed. Locally?  Canada ?
We constantly get others mail in our po box 

[YellowHammer]

It isn't just the post office, Yesterday afternoon, I found this piece of "mail" right here, it was from the local utility company and it basically said "Call - Urgent - We Tried to Contact but Couldn't."

Obviously, they didn't try too hard - they could have hung it on the one fence wire, they certainly didn't as there was no wind yesterday to blow it off.  They could have walked under the one strand of fence wire.  They could have called me because my phone number is on the 5 foot sign right next to where they put this on the ground.   Oh, wait - they could have simply come in the gate, it was open all day.

 

[TroyC]

They lost 2 checks I mailed in February. A card i sent to Atlanta took 3 weeks. Order from Midway last week with projectiles was busted open and 41 of the 1000 leads were delivered. Somewhere there are 969 leads laying around. Another order from a couple months ago was picked up and let sit for 2 weeks according to tracking.

When a company ships with USPS nowadays you don't know if it will arrive or not. The quality of their service is terrible and shipping rates are absurd yet they are hemorrhaging money.

[Don P]

Our local PO is awesome, chicks were overdue, they found them 3 hours away and ran a truck, they wouldn't have made it otherwise. They have held mail and forwarded to us all over the country. They'll track down Michelle in town if something looks urgent or if it won't fit in our box here. In bad weather they are the morning call for road conditions. Good people taking care of their neighbors. I wish that attitude was everywhere.

[mudfarmer]

We have had this same PO box for right about 20 years now, on the whole everything has been great. I made some comments in the other thread but will add one from this year to this thread. My property tax receipt did not show up for over a month after paying. When it did show up it had been opened, and had a postmark from Kansas. You can tell from my profile I'm nowhere near Kansas, and the Town Clerk that mailed it is 7 miles down the same road

Property tax receipts are not "low stakes" for me, the county will seize your property here and sell at auction after 2 years of non payment. One year we got a letter that they were going to sell our property! Went to the county and they said yes that's right you bum you have to pay your taxes or we will sell your property. WE had the only receipts proving that the taxes had been paid

Wife reminded me of another funny one. Expecting some packages, got some packages -- opened them up and one was full of men's underwear??????? What the heck? Box number was off by 1. Brought back to the post office and they gave me grief for opening up someone else's mail

[Ron Wenrich]

We had one check that was lost in the mail.  It was sent to Dallas, and was mailed in out local Post Office, not in a drop box.  They tell you not to send checks in those boxes.  They're the ones that are having problems with theft.  No one tried to cash the check, and it may have been lost at the company. 

We had to put a stop payment on that check.  It was to pay off a credit card.  The card company was notified, and they still charged me a late fee and interest.  I no longer use their card.

The local postal service is good.  If something doesn't fit in the box, they bring it back our lane and to our door.  The mailman will have a good chat with us, if we're around.  I've never had smashed by the local PO.  UPS and USPS have been working together since 2012.  UPS will give packages to USPS for delivery.  So, damages might not be the PO fault. 

I'd rather have something come through the postal service than through FedEx.  Sometimes they marked our shipment as delivered, when it wasn't. 

The last UPS shipment was smashed, and they had a new guy that couldn't find us and the local UPS office changed our address that was on the box. 

[Larry]

What's a check? Oh, I think I know, that's one of those paper things used by really old people!

My bank pays all my bills, mostly some kind of electronic thing. The monthly bills are automatic and I don't do anything (except deposit $$$$'s). I think as a last resort they send out a snail mail check. Been doing that for about four years and yet to have any problems. Cost is way less than what stamps would cost me.

Incoming mail is a different story. Terrible and I'll fire off a documented letter to my US Representative. That really gets the post office excited and mail will get better for a short time.

[rusticretreater]

When things go through so many hands, stuff is bound to get damaged or lost.  A moment's carelessness.

Once I gave an historic building expert some old keys to a building so he could evaluate it.  He later said he mailed the keys to me, but they are gone into the ether.  I filed a missing mail report, but nothing ever happened. Now I have a bunch of doors that I can't open without going through the time and expense to get keys made.

I recall an incident where I once received a document in the mail at work and while going through it I found what I believe was a child support check between pages.  I sent it back to the address on the check. I bet that caused some fun.  So a check may arrive at the company, but some clerical errors may make the check disappear and then it never gets logged either.

And the most annoying of all is that my neighbors kids are trash and heavy into drugs and stuff and I have seen some more unsavory types entering and leaving the property.  Apparently they were taking stuff out of the mailboxes. I received an email from the USPS saying a package had been delivered but it wasn't there.  The mail carrier, who is a nice guy, said it was delivered and I also received a letter from the local postmaster about it.  Then I found out another neighbor said stuff was missing too from porch pirates.  We turned the deputies onto that and I talked with my neighbor and told him his kids might be getting into federal crimes as well as others in their various nefarious activities.  Problem went away after that.

[Southside]

It's beyond horrible here, last year every week my chicks would end up delayed, dead, or delivered to another PO hours away.  One time they called and said - oh we can send them back to the sort facility tonight and they can send them over tomorrow - 3 hour round trip for me was the only solution.  Another time they called and by the time i got to the PO they said "they were really noisy so we put them in front of the air conditioner to quiet them down" - yup killed the whole box. We have received X-Mass cards mailed from the same County four weeks later.  I could go on and on. 

[peakbagger]

FWIW, the Post Office scans the outside of every envelope and package that goes through the system. That is why most post offices no longer have a local mail slot or if it does, it goes in the same bag as out of town. You can sign up with the PO to see an online image of every item sent to your address. The scanning is done at a regional sorting center so if it gets lost between the center and your mailbox, you are out of luck. The post office uses common keys for mail boxes for a particular city, thieves are always trying to get their hands on them as once they have one they have carte blanche to steal from any mail box. PITA that it is, a P.O. Box is more secure but UPS and Fed Ex boxes will not be accepted unless the PO has a hand in the final delivery. In some cases UPS handles the shipping across the country and then the "final mile" is via US mail. 

I have transitioned to pay my bills online so with the exception of one offs, I dont send or receive many checks.  

[Sixacresand]

In Georgia, there have been negative news articles about the Postal Service.  According to the news, some local post offices are only open part time.  And all our mail goes to a new central processing building in Atlanta. If I mail letter to somebody in my town, then it goes up to Atlanta and back.  Before the new Atlanta place, the mail would to to Macon and back.  Before that, the local postal worker would take a couple of steps and put it in a PO box.  
  

[sharp edge]

I think, one thing that would help the P.O. is to use EV the IV keep putting oil on the road.

SE
 

[customsawyer]

To my knowledge none of the checks were ever found. One time I went to the letter/mailbox in front of the post office for out going mail. Couldn't get the letter in as it was full. Couldn't have been emptied in months. Walked in with the letter and told them it wouldn't fit in the box outside. Any decent person would have been embarrassed by such. They just looked at me and said they might get to it next week. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Our postal service is fair. Not great but fair. Our main PO in Charleston apparently has been converted to a regional office and much of the work and apparently several of the jobs going to Philadelphia. I can't tell yet if that will make a difference.
 
    We have always been dinosaurs and paid by checks in the mail (except when the wife would lose one and I'd find it too late or they would send me an e-mail then I'd pay them over the phone). With the price increase in stamps I am considering doing phone payments. 

    In Norway I was the office manager and had the only bank account for the company and the petty cash so I paid everything from the utility bills to local purchases to employee parking tickets and ski resort reservations. They paid me for their personal expenses like tickets and reservations and I paid them on line. The auditors hated me but it made more sense for an expensive ex-pat employee to bring  me his parking ticket or ski resort invoice, give me the money, I'd pay and give him a receipt. Otherwise he had to take an ho9ur off work to go to the bank in the company vehicle. The accounts were clearly separated by reimbursable by the client (Business) and non-reimbursable (Private/personal) and were never mixed. Auditors do not look at things like normal people. They also wanted 2 party signatures on all checks but Norway did not use checks and that blew their pea sized brains.

[Ianab]

Post isn't perfect here in NZ either of course, but I don't hear anywhere near the amount of gripes about it. 

But a few differences. NZ Post is run as a commercial Company, even though the shareholder is the "Crown" (Government), it's run like any other commercial business, and postal delivery is open to competition. Anyone is actually free to put things in your mail box, and there is an alternative post service operating. Most of the actual delivery "front line" staff are now contractors, and "Post Offices" are usually an agency located and operated by another local business. Here it's the Book Shop in town, where you can buy stamps / post letters & parcels etc, next town it's the Hardware Store, small town the other way, it's the Library. The amount of mail actually sent is now so low that it's not economic to keep a dedicated Post Office open, but a counter at the back of a book store is viable. It's also some extra income to keep a small town book store open. But bottom line is you can be fired for not doing your job. Post workers aren't Govt employees, and although NZ labour laws are pretty strict when it comes to firing someone (there are various steps you have to take before you just fire someone or they can claim compensation), if you don't actually put in at least the bare minimum effort (after being warned in writing a couple of times), you ARE out the door.  

Declining mail volumes. That's the main driving force behind the local Post changes. Mail volume has dropped by ~80% over the last 20 years. From ~1 billion letters, down to only 220 million last year, and still dropping by about 10% per year. Checks are no longer used in NZ, The problems people have mentioned in this thread (lost / stolen), the cost to process them, and their general declining use, the banks basically just said "no more". So of course that adds to the dropping mail volume. I think we have received 2 letters this week, and one of those had "GO Paperless" on the front in large friendly letters. 

So NZ Post is putting more emphasis on it's parcel / courier services, as those have grown, and still operates at a profit overall. I drive part time Rural delivery, and we basically deliver for ALL the courier companies, either via a deal with NZ Post, or via another company run by the actual rural mail contractors. We also deliver mail for the other "mail company", as legally NZ post has to accept mail from them, at their "cheapest bulk commercial rate". The DX Mail guy isn't going to run his 125cc scooter out to the end of our run to deliver 1 letter 

[Machinebuilder]

Talking to some of the delivery people here, the amount of packages is the biggest volume.
I asked why the USPS delivered packages on Sunday and was told if they don't they wouldn't keep up.

I forget to check the mailbox often because i get so little actual mail

[Ianab]

I asked why the USPS delivered packages on Sunday and was told if they don't they wouldn't keep up.

I can see that. What we used to get as a "Christmas Rush" is now basically a normal day, but maybe only 1/2 the volume of letters. The letters take time to sort before the run, but delivery is pretty quick, especially if we are already stopping for junk mail / community newspapers / farming newspapers etc. Parcels have to be scanned and often walked in, so more time consuming. I started out just sorting the mail and parcels for Sharon to take out on the run next day, but she was finding the parcel volume was making for up to 12 hour days. so she bought a spare van that I take out for the last part of the run most days. It's only 1/4 of the boxes, but about 1/3 of the distance, mostly out in the hills. 

We are actually dropping the Saturday deliveries, which is now only parcels and newspapers anyway. Going to make for a bigger Monday, but that's generally our next quietest day anyway. 

I guess the main thing is being able to adjust to the changing situation. If mail volumes are decreasing, but parcel delivery is a growth area, where to you aim out business model? Simply doing what you have always done isn't going to work. 

[SwampDonkey]

Mail delivery has been decent is recent years. I don't even have to go to a post office for a parcel. If it doesn't fit the community box, it's delivered to door. Been no weekend hours at the local PO now for 6 years or more. The parcel volume has increased dramatically at least 10 years ago. They say they are losing money, but is it because some corporation says this is what we are willing to pay to deliver our stuff or is it a government entity low balling rates to keep everyone struggling in the business? Or is it inefficiency? It's amazing the volume of stuff that goes by then back tracks to it's destination. Here in this region, everything has to pass through NB to get to anywhere else. Why not make to sort at the Quebec border then send it forward. Doubling travel within the region makes no sense.

[Ianab]

Here in NZ there are only 2 mail sorting centres, one in the Nth and one in the South, so your "across town" mail will travel several hundred miles, and back. Because paying a meat sack to sort mail costs more than a big machine that can scan and sort 100 letters a minute, 24 / 7, and get them 99.9% right. 

"Courier Post" gets sorted locally, and could be delivered same day, or at least stay local for next day delivery. 

Chain stores have clicked onto this, and you can order stuff from their web site, and it gets sent from the local store if they have stock. Means they only have to pay for the "local" or "outer area" courier rate, not the "long haul". But again that's about adapting to changing conditions. 

[Sixacresand]

The new mail distribution is in Palmetto, GA which is in "fulton County" .  Stay tuned for missing  ballots/found ballots in the news this November election. 

[maple flats]

USPS, I think it was better back when a first class stamp was 4 cents. Just last Saturday we had a check (a payment going out, the USPS generally picks up outgoing mail if it sticking out the front of our on the wall mailbox.) Well, the USPS delivered 2 packages but didn't take the maill going out, it was still there as we gathered the new mail, still sticking out the front, they had just dropped the new maail on the porch. I also ship maple syrup orders often, when I do I schedule a pickup as suggested, but about 20% of the time the mail comes but the outgoing mail just sets on the stool, that is specified in my pickup scheduled. They keep raising the cost over and over while the service gets worse.
My bet is that if the mail was handed over to a company who's job it was to do the mail (private) it would get a lot better. Gov't employees aren't what they used to be, or I should say, many employees, I'll bet some are still top notch.