SCCY Rebates and our wonderful postal service.

[puma guy]

Sent a rebate form to SCCY in Florida in via certified mail December 31. Got tracking information all through transit until it left the Lake Mary,FL distribution center supposedly headed to the regional destination facility. A notice I received Jan 17 said "arriving late, moving through network". Another same on Jan 2 that was the last. Visited local post office and was given the same info. Today I called the SCCY rebated status phone number and made a query. An incredibly helpful young lady answered and gave me particulars on where they were handling the rebates. They are up to the first part of December presently. I was curious as to how they reference the rebates for status and was informed the use all the information even Model and serial numbers. I explained my situation with the postal tracking and sje told me she had received several complaints for the same issue. "In transit". Me thinks something is amiss, not with SCCY, but the post office or rather postal workers. I will have to wait and see. The young lady asked me to wait 4 weeks and give her a call as she works through the forms by date of arrival. Since I have copies of the form, UPC and certified mail receipt she said she could work with me on getting the rebate. How is that for service, especially in this day and age. We'll see how it works out and I will post any developments.

[Rafe]

And yet, for just about all purposes of legal notification, the U.S. postal service is all that's used. A few years ago it took me about 10 months to get my property taxes straightened out because the county tax assessor's office, having received my annual "here's your property tax status" postcard back from the USPS as undeliverable, decided I didn't live here anymore and removed my homestead exemption. The following year a company I do some occasional work for sent me a check that I never received, and my 1099 from them got bounced back as undeliverable. I'm still dealing with the IRS because they decided to send the smallest of the COVID stimulus payments as a paper check via USPS rather than an electronic deposit. I never saw the paper check, but they didn't allow me to include it as a deduction on my taxes.

Let me explain in detail precisely how much confidence I have in the 2020's version of the U.S. Postal Service:

Yep. That's how much.

[puma guy]

And yet, for just about all purposes of legal notification, the U.S. postal service is all that's used. A few years ago it took me about 10 months to get my property taxes straightened out because the county tax assessor's office, having received my annual "here's your property tax status" postcard back from the USPS as undeliverable, decided I didn't live here anymore and removed my homestead exemption. The following year a company I do some occasional work for sent me a check that I never received, and my 1099 from them got bounced back as undeliverable. I'm still dealing with the IRS because they decided to send the smallest of the COVID stimulus payments as a paper check via USPS rather than an electronic deposit. I never saw the paper check, but they didn't allow me to include it as a deduction on my taxes.

Let me explain in detail precisely how much confidence I have in the 2020's version of the U.S. Postal Service:

Yep. That's how much.

In an epidemic of mail theft and check fraud the USPS defunded it's own uniformed police last year. I can just see Babylon Bee doing a piece on that. "USPS states there is no evidence of mail theft! Post office police have reported no crimes."

[RPBrown]

We send most of our vendor payments via USPS. Have been getting not delivered checks and invoices back as well as we have had checks stolen and cashed by individual. They all have been cashed at BoA. Irving PD and FBI now involved. FBI is involved because the case was sent to them from postal police

[puma guy]

We send most of our vendor payments via USPS. Have been getting not delivered checks and invoices back as well as we have had checks stolen and cashed by individual. They all have been cashed at BoA. Irving PD and FBI now involved. FBI is involved because the case was sent to them from postal police

I hope they get to the bottom of it. I can only imagine the stress and difficulties all that presents for you. The fact that one bank is involved bodes well for the theory someone conspires with the thieves. My daughter had her purse stolen several years ago and immediately checks began to get cashed Chase Banks; all for just under $1000. Even though they reported the loss immediately and their account was closed it went on for weeks and totaled over $35,000. All the transactions went through drive thru tellers by a woman who's only resemblance to my daughter was being a brunette. Though her account was closed the bank said they were allowing it so they could "catch" them. She never found out if they were successful or not, but she did discover from police the perpetrators were doing the same thing on another account. I was flabbergasted when my daughter told me what the bank was allowing.

[Grayling813]

I am signed up to use the USPS Informed Delivery service and get an email every morning showing what is due to be delivered that day. I've had USPS tracked packages never delivered, just disappeared into the system. Also had packages marked as "delivered" that never reached my mailbox. Most recent event I eventually got the package that had been mis-delivered to a random address blocks away from me.
When I'm buying something online, if there is an option to use UPS or Fedex rather than USPS, I'll pay more to avoid the hassle of USPS.

[Rafe]

When I'm buying something online, if there is an option to use UPS or Fedex rather than USPS, I'll pay more to avoid the hassle of USPS.

Me, too. My most interesting instance of a misdelivered package that found its way to me was about a half-dozen years ago. My address has 5 digits and the street name ends in "drive." There is a similarly named street that ends in "lane," and I learned there is an address on it similar to mine, but with only 4 digits. Mind you, completely different zip codes.

I got a telephone call from the gas station at a Sam's Club about 16 miles south of me. The enterprising (or bored, or both) and very honest attendant took it upon himself to look up the person to whom the package had actually been addressed. I'm a Sam's Club member and told him I'd drive over to pick it up, do a little shopping while I was there. He asked to check my driver's license when I got there to verify the address, and it took me three attempts to get him to finally accept a few dollars tip for his honesty and industriousness. I also sent an email to Sam's about his exemplary service.

It ain't the postal service of yore. Yet we had yet another postage rate increase last month. First-class mail went up 6.5% (which the USPS spun by noting that that was less than the 7.9% annual inflation rate...I didn't get a 7.9% raise this year, how 'bout you?). The cost of a Priority Mail regular flat-rate envelope went up to $8.95 and a small Priority Mail box to $9.45. Standard first-class letter is now 63 cents for the 1st ounce. In 2020 that was 55 cents; in 2013, 46 cents; in 2003, 37 cents. That's a 37% increase over 10 years, a 70% increase over 20 years. And reliability of service is in the dumpster.

[srothstein]

The fact that one bank is involved bodes well for the theory someone conspires with the thieves.

I am not sure that anyone is conspiring with the thieves or if it is the bank's policies that make it easy for the thieves. My daughter was a victim of identity theft and the crook opened several accounts and got loans in several places in her name. When she was told about it (one bank actually called her to verify the deposited check), she immediately reported it to the police and the FTC (they track identity theft for the feds). All of the banks except one cleared the loans off her record and closed the accounts without a problem, only asking for the police report case number.

She had a savings account at BOA from when she was young and I did my banking there. It has $25.00 in it because they would not let us close it (it was opened with my name as trustee for her as a minor but she turned 18 while it was there so they wanted both of us in person at the same time to close it). The crooks had opened a checking account in her name and BOA insisted it was her that opened the account, even though the signatures do not look alike and used different middle names. Four years later, BOA is still insisting it is her account. We also still have not gotten to close the savings account because we both work and live in different cities and BOA is not open on Sundays when I got visit her in Houston. I told her to leave it and wait until they turn it over to the Comptroller as a dormant account and she can claim it from them at no cost.