Sometimes, the USPS really annoys me.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I bought myself a new vacuum. It’s one of these Shark .
I ordered it about 4 weeks ago because it’s small, cordless, quiet, and it’s supposed to be really good at picking up small, hard, round things. Perfect for cleaning out the bunny cage, I thought. It wont scare them like the loud vacuum will, and it’s small enough to fit in the cage. Also, it should be able to pick up the little round turds they squeeze out every 10 seconds.

I had a feeling it would arrive today since I wouldn’t be home for the first time in a month. Sure enough, it did. However, at first I didn’t know it had arrived. Why, you ask? Because the idiot mailman put it in the garbage can I had sitting on the front stoop.

The garbage can was out there because it was dirty and I had left it to soak while I was gone. I didn’t want to leave it in the house because I’ve been very clumsy ever since my back surgery last month and I didn’t want to knock it over in the house.

For some reason, the mailman must have thought the garbage can was a mailbox. Never mind the fact that my mail box is half a block away from my house - just like all the mailboxes in my condo complex. The mailbox is also plenty big enough for the package the vac came in so there was no reason to leave it on my stoop in the first place.

By the time I got home, the box was sopping wet - 'cause the can had about 8" of soapy water in it! When I picked it up, it started pissing out water so fast it soaked my front stoop and part of my walkway. There was only about 4" of water left in the can.

What I don’t understand is how the mailperson didn’t notice the water in the can. If he/she just dropped it in, they must have noticed the plop of the water. If they placed it gently, they must have noticed the wet feeling - as the water covered the box completely. How thick can you get?

Despite being wrapped in plastic, the vacuum also pissed out water when I took it out of the bag. The box disintigrated as soon as I picked it up - as did part of the manual.

Strangely enough - the vac still works! Despite not having a full charge and still being a bit wet, it cleaned the top level of my 3 floor bunny cage, and the floor in front of the cage. From the brief time I used it, I’d say the vac is everything it’s supposed to be and that makes me very happy. It was worth the 4 week wait. However, I’m still really annoyed with the mailperson. I could have had to wait another 4 weeks for this thing.

2

The USPS ruined my credit.

The problem, apparently, started when I moved next door. Yes, that’s right I moved my family and all our possessions one house down the road. This caused one of our mail carriers a case of cognitive dissonance. I guess two families moving , but one of the names staying the same but in the wrong house just blew a circuit in the guys head.

The guy who delivered 4 days a week figured it out, but the two-day-a-week part-timer only delivered ‘occupant’ and ‘resident’ stuff. The rest he kept in his truck. For months.

Standard procedure is to deliver, regardless of name, all mail to the address. Undeliverable or refused mail is returned to the Post Office. Never is anyones mail supposed to accumulate in a truck somewhere.

One day when I was out the guy came to the door, asked my wife if her name was Mann, and handed her months of bills and past due notices. Some of them were 120 days past due!

My wife paid the bills and somehow didn’t seem to notice not getting certain bills for months which I wouldn’t have thought possible. In her defense, though, we did get most of our bills and got mail every day. The bills that we didn’t get must have always been sent the same day of the week and arrived on the days that the idiot worked.

We got a letter of apology and explanation from the Postmaster which helped a little with our credit and creditors but it still cost me interest points on a home loan years later.

So, yeah, they suck, but they’ve got a monopoly–so there–thhhhhppp

3

Oh my god, that’s awful! I hope that idiot was fired. At least my vacuum wasn’t damaged by his stupidity.

4

Well…at least the mail carrier was presumably trying to hide the package so no passer-bys would pick it up and make off with it. My mail carrier once left a package sitting right out in the road, by the mailbox.

5

Our carrier leaves boxes under the doormat. Any size box - they’ll drape the mat over it. I guess they think the doormat will make a two-foot high box invisible.

6

My carrier does that, too. Perhaps worse than the “invisible” large boxes are the small flatpacks that I may not even notice are under the mat.

7

Hi, everybody! I work at USPS Headquarters, so I’ll forward your complaints… :smiley: .

Actually, I work on IT projects there; I know nothing about mail delivery, but I do know that soon, they’ll be a lot better at knowing where your package is. But it won’t improve the service from the carrier, unfortunately. Getting a job as a mail carrier doesn’t require Mensa membership. Getting a job as a contract mail carrier has even less stringent requirements.

8

I look forward to the day when I can ask the computer where my package is and read the reply “it’s in the garbage can on the front stoop.”

9

In our case, it’s the UPS person who prefers to use the doormat. She explained to me once that it wasn’t so much to hide it as it is to protect it from rain, since our doormat is the plain, black, rubber variety. At least she moves the doormat to another position on the porch, so it’s obvious that someone moved it if there is a smaller package under it.

Our USPS mail carrier, though, has come up with a different trick that really does confuse me, though. For packages that are too big to fit in the box, he generally sticks the package in a big plastic bag, then ties the bag to the outside of the mailbox. How’s that for proclaiming to anyone who drives by that you have something other than the usual mail?

10

We very rarely have issues with our mail service. Our mailbox is actually one of the big ones apartment and condo complexes like to use. Each unit has it’s own locked section. They’re fairly decent size since we have the newest one in the association. Another nice feature which our box has and all the others lack is two very large boxes on the bottom. They open with two keys. If you have a package which wont fit in the regular box, the carrier puts it in the really big box and puts one of the keys in your usual box. The other key stays in the lock. This has worked out very well for all of us. Since the vacuum box would have fit in the regular size box, I can’t fathom why they would have taken the effort to bring it to the stoop in the first place.

Other than this time, I occasionally get my neighbor’s mail but since I have to walk past all their houses to get back to mine, it’s not an issue - I just drop it off on my way.

The only other thing that bewilders me about mail has nothing to do with the USPS. My fiancee’s father and sister have never lived in our condo. For some reason though, we get their mail. It is always sent to our address. I don’t know how the companies sending it know we’re related. The strangest though was when his sister still had her married name. We got her mail all the time and you wouldn’t know by looking at her name that she even knew us.