Fuck you Canada post! Fuck you with a hard, flaming turd!

The BBQ Pit
1

Here is background.
Canada post, due to their cost cutting measures in the 80s decided that door-door mail was too expensive, so they decided in their wisdom to use “superboxes” for new developments instead of door-door service. Basically, just “superboxes” are just mailboxes every block or two where every homeowner has a compartment that their mail goes into. So, home owners have to walk a block to get their mail everyday. No problem. Exercise is good anyhow.

In March, Mrs. Bernse and I moved into a new home we got built. BRAND NEW. 6 months earlier it was a vacant lot. In other words, we shouldn’t be getting anyone elses mail.

So, imagine our suprise in March when I took the mail home one day and starting opening the letters and I opened a bill for another person… at another address. Shit. I felt badly. In retrospect, I should have made sure it was addressed to me, but oh well… Why would I get anyone elses mail?

I took it over to the rightful homeowner (that lives on 88C street, I live on 88A street) and apologized. They were cool with it, as they handed me a letter of mine that they recieved in their mailbox. <sigh>.

So, what happened is this. I receieved mail that was addressed to someone else, and they received mail addressed to me. Our addresses are similar. Accidents happen. I let it slide.

1 week later, the EXACT SAME THING happens. I opened my mailbox and their were 2 letters in it for the house a block over. Once again, it was addressed properly but for some unknown reason the posal carrier decided I should pay the bills from this other house or something. :rolleyes: . I delivered them to the house a block away… again. Luckilly, they didn’t have any of my mail. I let it slide again.

(FYI - I know I could have put it back in the mail with a “delivered to wrong address” written on it, but they looked like bills and I didn’t want them to get to the neighbor late, through no fault of their own).

Another week or so after that, I was suprised to see a Time magazine in my mailbox. I don’t subscribe to Time. It was addressed to 88C Street. SAME FUCKING THING AGAIN. This time, I thought enough is enough. I went to my local Canada Post outlet and explained the situation. I said -

“I live in 88A Street. This person (I showed her the Mag) lives on 88C Street. I receive their mail almost every week. It is addressed correctly. The carrier is delivering it incorrectly. I know they are similar addresses but this is the kind of thing a carrier should look at <the address>.”

She was very apologitic and appeared concerned. She said “I am so sorry this has happened. There is no excuse for it. I’ll talk to their supervisor.”

Thanks very much I say and walk away. Situation solved. I treat myself to an ice cream cone.

2 weeks later… guess what. SOME FUCKING THING AGAIN. Mail is addressed properly but the dumb fuck decides its better in my box then the proper owner. 2 pieces this time, and once again, it looks like bills. FUCK. I am starting to get pissed off. On my lunch, I go to the main mail sorting plant that the drivers are based out of. I wait in line at the desk. The lady behind the counter seems really bitchy and chews out the lady ahead of me for some reason. “Great” I think. My turn. I give her the background info, including going to the other postal outlet a couple of weeks back. I kept the letters that were delivered to me in error to show her.

The “bitch” turned out to be very nice to me and apologized. She wrote down our info. She said she would speak to the “supervisor”. I mentioned the other lady said she would too, but it still happened. She responded that there is no excuse for this ongoing mistake and she will follow up with the “supervisor” to make sure its looked after.

Fine, once again what else can I do. So, I leave and on my way home deliver the mail to the neighbor a block over. She shakes her head and thanks me again. I tell her that she may want to complain too, as it might be better if someone else does it. She said when she recieves someone elses mail again, she sure will. Good.

The very next day I get more mail for the other person again <sigh>. I don’t report it as maybe the delivery assclown didn’t get spoken too yet. So I deliver it to the person AGAIN. The following 2 weeks or so were OK, but I did get one or two more in June while we were on Holidays. I didn’t report it though as we were gone for two weeks and I don’t know when exactly it happened. It was however smooth sailing after we got back from Holidays. I thought it was solved.

Yesterday, I go get my mail. Whats this? A Time magazine. FUCK. For the love of Christ - FUCK. What else can I do? I am seriously tempted to wait by the mailbox for the mail delivery moron deliver, but I don’t want to risk getting pissed off and tearing a strip off them (which I may do if I lose my temper) but I don’t know what else to do.

So, WHAT THE FUCK ELSE CAN I DO? I’ve taken time out of my workday to try to clear this up to no fucking avail. I’ve gone down in PERSON and explained the situation to Canada Post personel. I’ve wasted MY TIME and MY FUEL because of this walking eggplant. I’ve been understanding and courteous, to no fucking avail. WHAT ELSE CAN I DO? Put a bomb in the mailbox so when the dumb fuck picks up the mail it kills them so I can then get a new carrier that can hopefully fucking READ A FUCKING ADDRESS? WHAT???

GAHHH!!!

[sub]FYI - I am not serious about killing the letter carrier[/sub]

2

I feel your pain. I had a similar thing happen to me. No one at the post office really gives a shit, and they’ll tell you what you want to hear so you’ll leave. I was finally told that if I want the carrier to stop fucking up (he was forwarding all of my mail to my ex-wife) I should leave a note in the box. I complied, and the lunacy ended promptly.

I’d suggest either doing that or confronting the idiot as he’s delivering the mail. Or perhaps one of the neighbors could do it if you’re afraid you’ll beat the living crap out of him/her.

3

I’m not familiar with Canadian “superboxes” so I dunno if this is possible, but can’t you just leave a note on both compartments saying something to the effect of, “This is the mailbox for 88A. Please do not deliver 88C’s mail here. Thanks!” Obviously, it would need to be reversed for the other box.

If there is some reason that can’t be done, I suggest you train the mailman in the same way you might train a hamster. You know, hook up a generator so he gets an electric shock and a “bad” buzzer noise when you see him using the wrong compartment, but a “tada” buzzer noise and a cookie when he gets it right.

If that doesn’t work, perhaps you and 88C could swap houses? :smiley:

4

mutter Do what MachV said.

:o

5

A note!

Of course, that just makes too much friggen sense, doesn’t it? I think I’ll give it a shot.

6

Wow. Had you reported your mail delivery woes to someone at the USPS here, the response would have been, "And…?

7

I harbour a bitter hatred of Canada Post for a different reason entire.

THEY.

ATE.

MY.

COOKIES.

Those were my cookies.

Stoopid Canadia Post.

8

Erm. Different reason entirely.

My hatred has blinded me and my rage clouds my spelling abilities.

[sub]They were STILL my cookies, though.[/sub]

9

They’re a monopoly. A govenment-owned monopoly, protected by guns. If they want to screw up your mail, there unfortunately isn’t a lot you can do.

Hell, I can’t even get the cable company to fix my cable.

10

Ah, no. The mail deliverers are not government employees. They are subcontractors to Canada Post. Slack-jawed, drooling idiot subcontractors, but not Government of Canada employees. I am sure that if you leave a note in the superbox o’ doom, you should get some kind of postive response - like your own friggin mail.

Good luck, Bernse baby.

11

Feh, Canada Post has partnered with Amazon.com, for crying out loud.

The first time I saw the newamazon.com
-------Canada Post / Postes Canada--------

…trucks, I nearly fell over.

Who can take them seriously anymore?

What’s next? PAYPAL/Bank of Canada?

12

The same sort of nonsense was happening to me. I started by complaining to the staff of the President of Canada Post, who referred me to the Regional Manager (Jim Brick of Sudbury), who took are of the problem (he picked up my mis-delivered mail and delivered it to me quite a few times, until he solved the problem). I think the trick was to start at the top and work down, rather than at the bottom.

13

No, eBay is buying PayPal, so they’d probably just shorten the whole thing to eBaynk of Canada.

You’re serious about the amazon thing? That’s pretty bad.

14

I Thank God each and every day that I still get door to door delivery and I know the Mail guy. The day I gace him the wood from a tree we had cut down I’ve been given nothing but great service. He even automatically pulls the old residence mail we used to get.

But like when complaining to waiting staff you are best to be nice polite when you complain and You’ll get a good response. Leave a nasty one and you might get something worse. No mail… late mail…A stinking turd… damaged mail…

15

My SO lives in Toronto, and he frequently has the same exact problems. Not sure what it is… the mail delivery here seems to be decent. At least none of my packages I’ve sent him have been misdelivered.

16

Not sure how the mail system works in Canada, but in the US, most carriers deliver to anywhere from 300-1000 people a day. Multiply that by the average 5 pieces of mail, and you can see how overwhelmed we can get.

Some carriers, like myself, are still on an outdated system of having to sort this mail to the proper address/family before we ever leave on the route. This generally takes me about 3 hours in the morning. I have to remember who’s moved, if it’s the entire family or just a kid away at college.

On other routes, the mail is presorted into trays, with all the forwarded mail supposedly removed, and in theory, all the carrier has to do is pick up the mail and go. Because they don’t have the added 3 hours to sort the mail, their routes are longer. Instead of 3-4 hours of delivery time, they might be out there for 6-7. That makes for a very long day, and some of us work 6 days a week.

Add in duplicate/triplicate/quadruplicate numbers, apartments where the turnover rate is very high, substitute carriers who aren’t as familiar with the route as a regular carrier, and you’re going to have problems.

We don’t misdeliver the mail on purpose. Honest. We try very hard to get the job done right the first time, most of us do, but with Management breathing down our backs about hours, the added stress of holidays or weather, and then unhappy customers who want to tear into us because we made a mistake…well…they don’t call it “Going Postal” for nothing.

The best thing you can do is identify yourself with your carrier. Then you become a person, not just a name and number. It has nothing to do with bribery, just identity. But please…PLEASE…don’t hover while the carrier’s delivering. People hover around those central delivery boxes, watching and talking to the carrier who’s trying to concentrate. It’s very distracting, and children are the worst!

With the USPS in the red by billions now, they’re really coming down hard on the carriers especially, since we don’t just have a “9-5” job like a window clerk or mail sorter would. We’re done when the mail’s delivered. That could be 6 hours, could be 11, all depends on the volume.

Anyway…just try to make friends with your carrier if possible, and direct your complaints to the carrier. You take it to a window clerk, the message may never get to the carrier, or may be two or three days, and we’ve gone through an awful lot of mail by that time. The best way is to just put it back in the box, raise the flag, and that lets the carrier know it’s not at that address. Or attach a note. Please, don’t write all over the letter.

Okay, I’m done.

17

I remember during one of the many strikes by Canadian postal workers a friend of mine worked as a “scab”. He said that he hoped that they never went back to work. The hourly wage is mind numbingly high and the benefits are fantastic and really all the sorters need to know is how to alphabetize (bernse, maybe you can give your letter carrier a book on learning the Alphabet and Numbers for the holidays).

18

I love my postie, he rode his motorcycle to my door yesterday as I had a parcel too big for my box yet not big enough to be delivered by the parcel delivering service. He said if I hadn’t answered the bell he would have put it in my meter/fuse box and written a note and put that in my mail box. In the past he has come and asked me if the silly merkins sending me things who always reverse my address somehow (from unit X number Y Something Street to Y/X Something Street) really mean me instead of the address as written.

Australia Post sucks but my postie rocks.

I did have some interesting discussions with a Canadian Postie when I was over there, I could not imagine an aussie postie ever climbing stairs as she did endlessly to get to in door mail slots. The USPS folks in the midwest were annoying though, they refused to deliver my mail to my SO’s house. Can anyone explain to me why it was any of their damned business who was living there? That was a box at the end of the block too.