I hate our post office

[Zácek]

Yes and not as my main occupation relies on the post service (I import from China)

Uff, that’s rough man. Hope it get better...

 

[Homer]

Yes and not as my main occupation relies on the post service (I import from China)

Hope Trump's tariffs don't impact you as they've done with large US corporations.

 

[Rhody]

After you get your package, you drop the key in the mail slot. If you don't then they will come and break your legs with hockey sticks.

Ha ha ha

 

[Ricksplace]

Update, from Canada Post:

Receiving parcels at a community mailbox

1. Check your compartment for the parcel.
2. If your parcel isn’t there, check your compartment for a key to one of the parcel compartments in the community mailbox.
3. Find the parcel compartment that matches the number on the parcel key tag.
4. Use the key to open the parcel compartment, remove your parcel, then lock it up again.
5. Drop the parcel key in the outgoing mail slot of the community mailbox.

It doesn't say what happens if someone hangs onto the parcel box key. Can't they use it to keep checking for other people's parcels?

The Posties won't put another parcel in the box until they get the key back.
I live rural and use this system now. It seems to work OK. The compartment key has a large red plastic fob attached to it. I doubt anyone would walk away with it. Although I did walk back to the car with it once...

 

[Rhody]

Personally i have no issue with raising the price of postage and increasing govt funding of the postal system especially for rural areas it seems odd to see rural areas wanting to cut services and then be the first in line to complain about reduced services related to the cuts.

we also give our letter carriers (home and office) holiday gifts. tis the season.

i guess you could leave a gift in the impersonal mail box you guys have. Im going to up our gift this year as the automated howling wolf Halloween decoration scared the dickins out of our letter carrier he was a good sport about it. It got me too we moved it to the other side of the porch

 

[preidy]

The U.S. Post Office preforms a service (by law) that no other profit minded business would (or could). They deliver to every address in the country and in many cases deliver to that lonely last leg address for some of the big package delivery boys. Imagine the gov't mandating that Pizza Hut, Papa Johns or other's that they must maintain a retail presence and deliver to every (rural) address in this vast country. That is what the USPS must do 6 days a week (universal service) and is partly why the they lost 3+ billion last year. Overall they do a great job plus 50 cents for a letter anywhere in CONUS is a bargain (no I don't work for the postal service). They are not perfect but like every thing else politics comes into play and prevents a fix.

 

[njpaddy]

My PO refuses to acknowledge that packages coming from Amazon UK belong in the USPS system and the sorting people toss them in the return cart. My mailman until last year used to pull them out of the return cart and deliver them. He was a conscientious guy who got a very big tip at Christmas. We have a bunch of different idiots this year, so I had to stop ordering from the UK. One of the idiots is a mail-woman who delivers packages to the wrong address and runs over recycling barrels. My wife seeing her knock the barrels over and driving off wasn't enough for the supervisor and postmaster, they want video, like we're going to waste our time filming mail deliveries. I solved that problem by tossing all our recyclables in the trash. No recycling at the curb means no extra cleanup on our part and we save $50-100 this year because none of the idiots who deliver our mail will get a Christmas tip.

 

[natenaaron]

Update, from Canada Post:

Receiving parcels at a community mailbox

1. Check your compartment for the parcel.
2. If your parcel isn’t there, check your compartment for a key to one of the parcel compartments in the community mailbox.
3. Find the parcel compartment that matches the number on the parcel key tag.
4. Use the key to open the parcel compartment, remove your parcel, then lock it up again.
5. Drop the parcel key in the outgoing mail slot of the community mailbox.

It doesn't say what happens if someone hangs onto the parcel box key. Can't they use it to keep checking for other people's parcels?

Our parcel keys lock in the tumbler when turned. I got a parcel key in my box and thought woo hoo I can get my stuff! They put the key in the wrong box. I could not get the key out and did not feel it was safe to just leave the guy’s package. He had to wait until I could get to the window. It took several days. They got grumpy with me for not getting it back right away. My response was not all together in the spirit of the season.

 

[KW Driver]

I’ve got a rural US PO Box. They run short hours too, closed on Saturdays for a few years as well. I had a really cranky postmaster for a few years. She’d complain at me that I needed to clean out my box more often because I was inconveniencing her, didn’t matter to her that I was paying extra for the service of having the box, that I would travel, etc.. she was stingy with package notifications in the box, and I would have to show her the tracking app to prove I knew I had a package. She wouldn’t load a parcel box if she didn’t think it’d be empty the next morning... she had physical ailments that contributed to her crankiness, and most people gave her a pass for it. The last couple of times she was egregious with me, I sent complaints to the USPS. She was gone pretty soon after that, so I assume I wasn’t the only one complaining about her customer service.

Small town power trips/politics can be so much more fun than random big city trips.

 

[ackvil]

In the community I live in we have a community mailbox similar to the Canadian one mentioned earlier. The outside of the mailbox does not contain the address but is numbered. In my section there are 50 boxes. The only problem we have is that the postal employee who delivers the mail changes almost every day. The result is that mail constantly is put in the wrong mailbox. Several months ago I was expecting a check. It never came and the sender had to put a stop on the check and send me another one by FedEx. Two months later my doorbell rang and that individual came with the letter containing my check. She was a seasonal resident and had put a forward mail request in. However, the mail carrier had placed my letter in her mailbox even though the mailbox had a paper posted on it directing all mail was to be forwarded. Not one postal employee bothered to take the check out of the box despite the fact that it remained there for two months.

Recently, the HOA sent out a letter to all members asking them to personally deliver any mail that was not put in the correct mailbox since this happens so frequently.

 

[Ad Astra]

Wife loves Christmas, wanted to tip our USPS guy.

Apparently our assigned guy is also the local union chapter president... As a result of this prestigious appointment, he doesn't actually deliver MAIL any more.

We have a rotation of careless individuals as a result, who randomly deliver to the wrong address, keep packages in their vehicle for days, leave us notes to pick up things that are lost, etc.

I am really proud of our union man, though. I am sure it is important work, whatever he is doing for our tiny town's Post Office.

The man at the desk who I was speaking to - and I feel his sanity is in question - knows to the number how many thousand more days he must work to retirement.

Best part - he's half my age ... Godspeed, fella.

AA

 

[Frozenshades]

Our parcel keys lock in the tumbler when turned. I got a parcel key in my box and thought woo hoo I can get my stuff! They put the key in the wrong box. I could not get the key out and did not feel it was safe to just leave the guy’s package. He had to wait until I could get to the window. It took several days. They got grumpy with me for not getting it back right away. My response was not all together in the spirit of the season.

Same here. My apartment complex has a couple package boxes like that. The postman puts the key in your regular mail box and it locks in the tumbler once you open it to get your box. I wouldn't imagine people would intentionally steal post box keys, but that's a solution if there are issues with the keys walking away.

 

[Rhody]

With the holiday rush the heat is on. Two days in a row the fedex guy (clearly a temp) with ear buds going has delivered two different neighbors packages to my door. After the first miscue he was on the phone or whatever by his truck holding his hand held computer not even noticing me as i walked past him up my steps, collected the errant packages walked them across the street and put them at the correct address. At that point he noticed me not sure if he saw me in the delivery process and we exchanged pleasantries as if nothing had happened.
At least my usps person and we are on a training route can figure out the complex numbering system (with each house having a different number) we employ on my street.

Further reason that my precious shave supplies are expertly delivered to my office by George / usps. He keeps my secrets!

 

[YouYou]

Hello,

Maybe a friend / neighbor / partner could help?

Take care
YouYou

 

[Doc4]

My favourite postal experience ...

I was visiting my parents for Christmas. They still get door-to-door delivery. I'm sitting in the livingroom looking out the window, and see the mail man coming up the driveway, so I go to the front door to get whatever he's dropping off. He holds up a parcel and asks "is this you guys?" It was a parcel from my Uncle in Alberta, with the correct name and address on the official Canada Post mailing label, but lacking the street and house number. So ...

Joe and Mary Smith
1234 Evergreen Terrace (this is the missing line)
Smalltown, British Columbia
V2A 1B2

Now, you have to fill that label out by hand at the post office, and they are rather small. (We need a better system.) Anyhow, I say "yup, that's us" and the guy goes into this long story about how they tried every trick in the book to figure out where to deliver the parcel and dang it was hard work and they almost had to "return to sender" as undeliverable, but thankfully they managed to use their supreme Post Office Jedi skills and figure it out.

Off he goes.

Then, as I am waking back inside, I turn the package over and ... on the other side written in large "sharpie" letters ... the entire, correct address. Plain as friggin' day.

*sigh*

I think the bottom boxes are for parcels, but I don't know the particulars.

As described above, they leave a key in your mailbox to open the big bottom box. Then you "mail" the key back to Canada Post by dropping it in the mail slot.

Unfortunately, we almost always don't get "the key" but a parcel pick-up notice instead. So we have to go way out of our way to "our" Postal Outlet to line up and hopefully get our package.

*sigh*

It doesn't say what happens if someone hangs onto the parcel box key. Can't they use it to keep checking for other people's parcels?

Doubtless they track who gets which key, and if the key doesn't come back, you get a bill to re-key the box.

 

[John Rose]

Then, as I am waking back inside, I turn the package over and ... on the other side written in large "sharpie" letters ... the entire, correct address. Plain as friggin' day..

Clearly they lack the ability to "think other side of the box", let alone "outside of the box".

 

[natenaaron]

The U.S. Post Office preforms a service (by law) that no other profit minded business would (or could). They deliver to every address in the country and in many cases deliver to that lonely last leg address for some of the big package delivery boys. Imagine the gov't mandating that Pizza Hut, Papa Johns or other's that they must maintain a retail presence and deliver to every (rural) address in this vast country. That is what the USPS must do 6 days a week (universal service) and is partly why the they lost 3+ billion last year. Overall they do a great job plus 50 cents for a letter anywhere in CONUS is a bargain (no I don't work for the postal service). They are not perfect but like every thing else politics comes into play and prevents a fix.

For the most part I agree with you. Everywhere I’ve lived the PO has done awesome service. this one with their asinine decision to do go to their stupid hours has been the exception. They blamed it on a disaster. It didn’t make sense then and does not now.

I used to order a bit of camera equipment from Ukraine. The first time I picked up a weird paper wrapped and tied package, with straw coming out (yep one of my cameras came packed in straw) the sole postal worker in the extremely rural town I lived in said “weird package. Weird stamps. Can I have it?” I unpacked my camera and she was tickled pink to have the packaging. From then on the stamps would be carefully cut off those packages before I picked them up. No, it did not bother me. That lady was awesome.

 

[Macfrommichigan]

We have a pretty good carrier. On her day off, the sub is two hours behind and the mail usually contains something for a neighbor.

Any given day 2/3 of stuff is circulars and such.

 

[Daiķon]

That's garbage. Here, they go through new delivery drivers every week so sometimes we just don't even receive our parcels. Once we even had mail delivered after 7pm!

 

[HarryAU570]

Nowadays you can understand why.