USPS is BAAAAAD Lately

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While we're on the subject, I mailed a lab report to the VA hospital in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I got the lab report back and the envelope was marked "Moved." Someone didn't know their butt from first base and was too lazy to figure out where it was supposed to go. The hospital is in the same place it has been for years.
 
This is a different slant. Lots of major companies will not ship to a PO Box. Just won't.

Lots of small towns do not deliver mail IN TOWN to the street address (physical address). You must have a P.O. Box to get mail. Even our local post office will not hold mail unless you have a box. It all goes back if it does not have a Box number in the address.

In many / most cases, even if the postal people know you and are related to you, if the box number is not on the address, it gets sent back.

When you try to tell large companies this, their first reply is "the post office will put in your box. Me: You don't know small town governments and post offices!

Many times I have added a P.O. Box under the street address to online companies only to have it deleted or tell me they cannot accept that address.

But large companies are not the only ones that get hard headed. Once when I was living overseas and back home for a month, I had to get my DL renewed here in MS. The DL offices was in the next county so I went. The lady was a crabby as they get. "You can't have a P.O. Box address on your DL!"

I asked, "IF they need to contact me by mail, such as one of those camera citations, how will they contact me?"
She said they will send it to your street address. I said, Oh they send by FedEx or UPS? She quickly replied NO! By USPS. Me: The PO does not deliver (in my home town) if it does not have a Box number on it.
She said rather sternly that they would.

Since this conversation from her side was rather loud, several heard it and 3 other people said, NO they don't in that town.

I got my Box number on the DL!
 
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MRDucks2 said:
While some I have complained to over the years will quickly explain they are independent and not a part of the government and not funded by tax dollars, it is a false statement. They would not exist if it weren't for the federal level bailing them out annually.

If we took the bail-out dollars and put it toward truly improving the postal service, it could be done, would be expensive and would result in pretty significant job losses.
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If the post office was free to operate like private enterprise such as UPS and FEDEX, we would pay a lot more in postage, because the post office would raise the rates to make a profit. Also the rates would be a nightmare. To mail a letter to a remote location would cost more than a local letter, the farther the letter/package traveled the more it would cost. The goverment still mandates mail be delivered everywhere, even remote locations, our current postage subsidizes those deliveries, in a private enterprise world, the customer pays extra to deliver to remote locations.

Sometimes I feel it should be completely privatized, but these remote locations, would lose all services if the rates were standardized across the country as they are now. Who would bid on a route in the Big Bend area to deliver mail to a handful of ranchers and the National Park? Drive 200 miles a day to deliver a handful of mail and your pay is less than the cost of the gas to get to the first ranch mail box. Nobody, so the goverment would have to pay a huge subsidy, so we still lose. Even in some populated areas, most rural routes do not produce enough revenue volume to cover the cost of delivery.

I used to ship and receive about a 100 plus packages a month, the few screwups I remember, the ones that made it on time I tend to forget, The system isn't perfect, but it works pretty good for the cost in today's market.
 
This is a job for Amazon, they are into everything else. Deliver packages and mail at the same time by drone. Newspapers are going down the tube as people are getting their news by Internet. The local paper mill is switching from newsprint to toilet paper....something that is useful.
 
My latest USPS Experience

Shipped a small priority mail package on Monday, Dec 17, @ 11:04 AM, from southeastern US.

Arrived at a rural PO, more than 100 miles from a big city in northeast US, already out for delivery Wednesday, Dec. 19, @ 9:39 AM.

GREAT JOB USPS! Let's give some positive credit where credit is due.
 
As stated earlier, USPS does well for the cost. As a percentage of mail/packages delivered to me by a carrier I have had a higher percentage of items from Fedex and UPS delayed, damaged or Mis-delivered than USPS. Higher cost corporate carriers do not necessarily mean 100% satisfaction. Every since the court ruling that "absolutely, positively will get there overnight" does not mean something will "absolutely, positively get there overnight", all bets are off. Lol.


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leehljp said:
This is a different slant. Lots of major companies will not ship to a PO Box. Just won't.

Lots of small towns do not deliver mail IN TOWN to the street address (physical address). You must have a P.O. Box to get mail. Even our local post office will not hold mail unless you have a box. It all goes back if it does not have a Box number in the address.

In many / most cases, even if the postal people know you and are related to you, if the box number is not on the address, it gets sent back.

When you try to tell large companies this, their first reply is "the post office will put in your box. Me: You don't know small town governments and post offices!

Many times I have added a P.O. Box under the street address to online companies only to have it deleted or tell me they cannot accept that address.

But large companies are not the only ones that get hard headed. Once when I was living overseas and back home for a month, I had to get my DL renewed here in MS. The DL offices was in the next county so I went. The lady was a crabby as they get. "You can't have a P.O. Box address on your DL!"

I asked, "IF they need to contact me by mail, such as one of those camera citations, how will they contact me?"
She said they will send it to your street address. I said, Oh they send by FedEx or UPS? She quickly replied NO! By USPS. Me: The PO does not deliver (in my home town) if it does not have a Box number on it.
She said rather sternly that they would.

Since this conversation from her side was rather loud, several heard it and 3 other people said, NO they don't in that town.

I got my Box number on the DL!
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Interesting Hank. I live in a small town in Montana and due to where I live the PO will not deliver to my home, nor will UPS or Fedex. But...I'm given a free PO Box for my mail and if someone just puts my street address on it, it always finds it's way to my PO Box. I actually got a Christmas card this year and the delivery address was
Tom and Barbara
Wolf Creek Montana
And it got to my PO Box cancelled stamp and all. I think in your case maybe the people at the PO are reading the "rules and regulations" book way too hard. Especially if they know who you are or are related to you.
 
leehljp said:
Many times I have added a P.O. Box under the street address to online companies only to have it deleted or tell me they cannot accept that address.
Click to expand...

Some people insist on all mail going to a PO box, others get both home delivery and PO box delivery. The bar code that is put on the mail determines where it will be delivered, this is done by machines. Until it gets to the delivery point nobody knows where it is going.

I had an accounting client that lived in a nearby town where he had a PO box. His business had a street address in my town, but no mail box. Any mail addressed to his business street address was refused by his secretary and was returned to sender. Then he complained about the mail service, it was his contention the mailman should know he wanted his mail delivered to another town to a PO box.
 
I once moved from the postal zone of one town to the postal zone of a nearby town (move was maybe 3 miles). 3 months later, the DMV sent me notice that I had 18 points on my license out of a possible 12 points. Sent it to my old address. That Post Master knew I had moved, but realized it may be important mail that would be delayed through the return over the Holidays. So she hand delivered to the New Years Eve Party she knew I would be at across the road from her house. This was about 20 years ago.


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When I was in seminary, a friend lived in a real small town in Kentucky. His mail was always filed at the post office under "P" for preacher.
Edit- reminded me of a mail carrier in Louisville, KY who delivered mail to the daycare where my wife worked. He learned that the envelope from Canada contained the paychecks. He made a special trip to deliver the paychecks in the morning so the teachers and staff could go the the bank on their lunch time. Since the school closed after banking hours, this allowed the teachers to deposit their paychecks.
 
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Talking about UPS service, when I was living in Humble, Texas - a town north of Houston, the UPS man also lived in my neighborhood a few street over...he also knew that I often worked late at my job, so he would take my packages home and deliver them after hours, when he knew i was home.... I didn't know him personally, but he took care of me.



At my job in Houston, I often handled letters of credit that ran into 7 figures... I would handle the negotiation of the documents, then needed them delivered to the banks down town. I always used FEDEX as they were best at handling sensitive documents like the LC's... My office was for a while at the Airport, then later out on the 610 loop around Houston and near the ship channel... the packages with the million dollar documents always went to Memphis then back to Houston for deliver... fortunately, I never had any go missing, but also always struck me funny that a document destined downtown from my office, a distance between 10 to 12 miles, always made a trip to Memphis first. Some of the documents went to banks in other cities, like New York, San Francisco etc... those I could understand making the trip to Memphis, but 10 miles to downtown Houston?? 'Course I could have used a local courier, but they weren't near as reliable as FEDEX.



When FEDEX first started up back in the '70's. everyone said the concept would not work... now all courier companies use that concept to handle documents.
 
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It sounds like it's a Houston area issue during the holiday times. I don't recall is being like this last year, but I don't recall a lot of things.
 
I typically ship pens USPS. If it's one or two pens, First Class, padded envelope is cheap and efficient. I had one last big order to get out this week (20 pens.) I looked at a large flat rate box, $ 17.00 +. I was shipping Monday, they estimated Thursday delivery, but the customer was worried about not having enough time to wrap them (they were gifts for employees.) I ended up going to UPS, it cost $ 10.59, ground (it was only 200 miles or so) and they were there the next day. I'll look at UPS more often now.

Gary
 
I just learned a couple of weeks ago that in Indiana, USPS shipping charges do not require sales tax to be collected on them but shipping through any other carrier i.e. Fedex or UPS requires collection of Indiana sales tax on the shipping costs. All if sold in Indiana, of course.


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