So I’m waiting for a number of packages to arrive from all around the world. Today I get this shiny postcard:
It said:
TODAY:
you will ship a package from your kitchen buy stamps during the “late late show” use our free eco-friendly packaging create Customized Postage™ of your kid’s artwork put a hold on your mail from the airport change your address while sitting in a coffee shop have the time to do more of what you want
Nope. I just want my mail. Three times in the last month, I have had to head over to the local post office to pick up mail that would have fit fine in my mailbox. For some reason, they don’t even bother anymore, and just send the mail person out with those little slips. I say “hi” and she says “another one for ya.” and I have to go to the post office.
So don’t fucking send me a postcard that says "life moves fast. now the mail has more ways to help you keep up."
At least the post office is open on Saturdays and less than 2 miles from my house.
UPS won’t leave any packages at my house, and it is 30 miles away from my house, 53 miles away from my work, and only open M-F 10am-5pm. DO YOU NOT THINK PEOPLE HAVE JOBS?
Uh, you guys do realize who you’re bitching about don’t you? If you’re lucky they’ll just hold up your credit card bills/utility bills/tax notices/license renewal letters for a few days. If you’re not lucky, well, it’s been nice knowing you.
Hey, you’re lucky. I can’t have Netflix because, in lieu of leaving one of those slips, my mailperson will cram the fucking DVD into my roughly three-inch-square apartment mailbox, effectively snapping it in half, every fucking time. I (and Netflix) lost four DVDs to this idiocy. One actually managed to emerge unscathed after being placed perfectly diagonally, but I had a hell of a time getting it out.
On the same note, if I go away for longer than a couple of days, I am certain to return to a 3x3x10" mass of crumpled-up wads of illegible trash. Gee, hope I didn’t get anything important.
It’s enough to make me appreciate UPS’s habit of leaving those “Attempted Delivery” slips at the apartment office without so much as a knock on my actual door. I may have to wait a day and drive all the way across town, but at least I eventually get my package in some semblance of a recognizeable form.
I’m not saying your rant isn’t valid, but…just count your blessings, is all.
I don’t have any mail issues and the nice UPS man will actually set the packages at the back door since we have a sign on the front to use the back door. It is really nice of him as there is better coverage for rainy days and it can not be seen.
Where I used to live it was bad. Post cards when you were home they just didn’t drive down the driveway and knock. Packages left at the door in the rain and snow with no knock. Once a package was left at the mail box at the end of the driveway.
Once we had a new postman that was delivering a package on a Saturday that needed a signature. He drove down the driveway and I signed and went inside.
About ten minutes later I get a knock and there is Mr. Postman. He did not realize that the driveway he came in is the way he needed to drive back out. He went around the side of the buliding that leads to the back apartments. He kept driving through the yard and when he realized he could not leave that way, because there are trees blocking his way, he attempted to back up but it was muddy and he buried his front tires up to the axle.
He literally drove onto the back lawn for 100 yards towards a tree line BEFORE he got stuck. Why he did this and why he did not realize before he got that far that he could not leave that way is beyond me.
He wanted me to help drag him out with my truck. I don’t think so. I am not stupid enough to drive back there. I did let him use my phone though. He was not even in a mail truck. He was driving his own car. I am not sure how they got him out as I had to run some errands but when I left I could see him standing with several other people all scratching their heads.
I haven’t had any problems with the mail since I moved. But then, I’m renting a condo and the building I’m in has large mailboxes and several even larger boxes where the carrier can leave packages and place the key to that box in my mailbox.
UPS is pretty good, too; when I was moving in I had ended up shipping quite a few boxes to myself (one day I had twelve boxes delivered!) and never had any problem. Since I don’t drive, I order a lot of things online, and I’m practically on a first-name basis with the local UPS driver now.
Since I’ve gone totally electronic bill-paying, the USPS has only very limited relevance in my life. I’m surprised that on a board like the SDMB that 99% of the people here aren’t doing all electronic banking. In any event, typically 95% of all my post is junk mail, and I don’t get that much mail overall.
I like the USPS service here quite a lot, however. Did you know that those folks deliver packages on Christmas day? I didn’t until they delivered a 50-pound one from England last December 25th to me. Amazing.
When my husband started in the postal service, he was one of those Christmas Day workers. He saw an awful lot of happy and grateful customers that day. Just FYI, I think you have to specify Express shipping or something similar to get holiday delivery. If you’re shipping out close to Christmas, please confirm what your delivery method will get you.
I’ll agree, the USPS does have a lot of idiot workers, and supervisors that create situations which lead to idiocy, but there are dedicated workers too. (Same as with any delivery service.) The apartment situation that Roland mentioned might be the structure of the mail box; the carrier might be unable to open the box. Then again, it also sounds like he needs an education in what exactly those red envelopes are and how he might have to bring them back to the office and leave a card for you to retrieve them. (Did you call and speak to the delivery supervisor? Note, since some carriers are in fact idiots, this may not work.)
And the junk mail from them? Well, even though they get most of their revenue from outside companies’ “junk mail” they do notice the reduced mail from residences, and they are trying to lure people back to using their services. Considering my husband’s job, I actually have to look closely at anything with their logo on it as I have to be sure it’s not something related to his job, so it makes my junk mail sorting longer.
My husband once got yelled at for bleeding on a customer’s mail. We’re not talking gouts, just a recognizable spot from a cut on his hand. Even after he pointed out that it was her narrow mail slot with a sharp edge on it that caused the wound in question, the customer asked him what she was supposed to do about it (and not in the “gosh, that’s awful, what do you think I can do to fix it?” manner and tone of voice but in the “so what?” tone), he suggested that if she didn’t want to have a worker in to cut a slightly larger slot in her house’s door and put in a bigger mail slot, then perhaps she could show a little understanding.
We got one of those postcards when we went to pick up the mail yesterday. They have been holding our mail for us on a “vacation” hold since the most recent destruction of our mailbox. We have had our mailbox destroyed 6 times in the 10 years we have lived here. Once, they took the mailbox, post and everything with them. This time we opted not to replace the mailbox and got a PO Box instead.
So yesterday we went down and got our PO Box after a week on the waiting list (and waiting 10 days to get put on the waiting list). And they told us that we could change our address online. But the website won’t let us change our address online, because we have to continue to have a vacation hold until the local PO gets notified about the change of address from the website. Where I can’t change my address because of the vacation hold. That they have to keep on until I change my address. Which I can’t because of the vacation hold. Which they won’t take off until I change my address. Holy fuck, you idiots, you told me to change my address online!
We got the smallest box because, like Una, I do most of my stuff online. However, no matter how many times I pay my utility, gas, and phone bills online, they still want to send me paper statements. ARG!!! So I spent yesterday calling people and giving my new address because all the online address changes I attempted balked at a change to a PO Box. Fucking mail is really not worth all this hassle.
I left a huge note on my door written in sharpie. UPS: PLEASE RING BELL WHEN YOU DELIVER MY PACKAGE.
So, of course, I go outside to get something out of my car and almost trip over the box placed under my door mat. It’s a great hiding spot, especially for a box about the size of a toaster oven. No one will ever notice.
My mail guy will put a delivery confirmation slip in my mailbox and not even attempt to come to the door.
Don’t even get me started on DHL. I’ll take UPS, USPS and whatever mail service the former soviet republics are using over them.
It’s not the blurb. It’s the fact that every single one of them has a Cathy cartoon on it. I don’t want to read the adventures of that noseless bitch, stop putting them on the postcards!
