Can the USPS get any worse?

[RPBrown]

Hmm, got a bill today. It was already a day overdue. Looked when it was mailed, January 1, so 24 days to deliver a first class letter.

I kinda noticed I'm only getting mail every other day. Interesting development.

Congressman now involved.

https://www.kbtx.com/2024/01/22/texas-c ... ng-delays/

https://www.khou.com/article/news/local ... 6fd3b4e5a4

Won't be long before She Jack realizes she can get some air time.

Worried may affect primary in March.

At my office, we have not received mail on a Saturday in over 2 years even though we have a mail slot. As much mail as we get, you can't tell me none could be delivered on a Saturday. I just received an invoice back today that was sent out on 12/12 and shows no such address-Undeliverable. Funny, my technician drove right to it. So, I decided to go see if the house up and disappeared. Nope, still there. With the address that id on the invoice. Yet they want to keep raising the price of stamps. For what? To pay lazy postmen?

[Grayling813]

Yet they want to keep raising the price of stamps. For what? To pay lazy postmen?

To pay union postal workers.

[philip964]

https://www.click2houston.com/news/loca ... -lifetime/

Small businesses hurting from slow down.

[Grayling813]

I placed an online order from a company in Cape Girardeau Missouri on Monday. They offered no shipping options other than USPS. The package traveled north to St. Louis Distribution Center on Monday, across Missouri to the Springfield Distribution Center on Tuesday and back across Missouri to the St. Louis Distribution Center today.

No amount of taxpayer money can fix this mess.

[RPBrown]

Well, now a new wrinkle. My office has not received ANY mail in 2 weeks today. Some of my customers and vendors are now telling me they have received my mail back "undeliverable. No such address". I have been in the same space for over 10 years and have usually received my mail on a daily basis, except Saturdays. I have never gone more than 2 days without mail.
I did file a complaint last Friday with the post office and was told that they would investigate and get back to me in 2-3 business days. Yea, right. And I have swamp land in Florida that's perfect for a resort I will sell ya.

[puma guy]

Well, now a new wrinkle. My office has not received ANY mail in 2 weeks today. Some of my customers and vendors are now telling me they have received my mail back "undeliverable. No such address". I have been in the same space for over 10 years and have usually received my mail on a daily basis, except Saturdays. I have never gone more than 2 days without mail.
I did file a complaint last Friday with the post office and was told that they would investigate and get back to me in 2-3 business days. Yea, right. And I have swamp land in Florida that's perfect for a resort I will sell ya.

I hope you are no a victim of mail dumping that carriers have done in some cities. I'll be holding my breath for when yo get a reply from the USPS, NOT!

[Rafe]

My most recent credit card reissuance--new expiration date--was an American Express. I never received it, and didn't know exactly when it was mailed. Then I got a potential fraud alert from AMEX that someone had used the card to make a purchase of a few hundred dollars over 70 miles from me. The charge was reversed, but the card number had to be canceled and a new one issued. I had to pay for it, but AMEX sent the new card via FedEx.

I would say the USPS couldn't get any worse, but we all know that isn't true. It's a government function run purely by bureaucrats. Isn't it strange how I can have one problematic FedEx delivery in almost 10 years, yet almost every week there's some foul-up with USPS mail?

[RPBrown]

Last year we had mailed a check to a vendor for $700.00. It was mailed inside the post office because of reported theft at the outside boxes. Following month my wife (also my bookkeeper) came in with the bank statements with a strange look on her face (you know, like you had done something wrong ). The bank statement showed the check at $7,7700.00. We (she) immediately called the bank to discuss thinking it was their error. Nope, copy of the check had been posed for 7700.00. We got the Postal Inspector (no help at all) and Irving PD involved. Now, for the strange part, they had changed the entire check, like they had used someone elses blank check and copied our info including account, routing and check numbers. Also had it made out to the same vendor but didn't look at all like our check. The check was cashed (not deposited) in a BoA branch in Houston.
Now, this check along with some others, was made out and sent to vendors in the DFW area from Irving. The check, along with others, was taken inside, handed to a postal clerk to be mailed and she stamped it. I was buying some stamps along with mailing the stuff.
Our bank did refund our funds, stopped payment on the other checks, )which we found out later had been presented to be cashed but was denied), and turned it over to the FBI, or so they said.
This is a failure on so many ways. (1) some one in the post office, I assume, stole the checks (2) a bank in Houston cashed the check for an individual that was made out to a company with the companies name and address on it, and (3) our bank accepted the check (I later found out checks go through some sort of a clearing house so to speak)
BTW, never hear back from postal inspector after the initial report was taken. Hats off to the detective with IPD that followed up on it for us. Last I heard, he was still working on it.

[puma guy]

Last year we had mailed a check to a vendor for $700.00. It was mailed inside the post office because of reported theft at the outside boxes. Following month my wife (also my bookkeeper) came in with the bank statements with a strange look on her face (you know, like you had done something wrong ). The bank statement showed the check at $7,7700.00. We (she) immediately called the bank to discuss thinking it was their error. Nope, copy of the check had been posed for 7700.00. We got the Postal Inspector (no help at all) and Irving PD involved. Now, for the strange part, they had changed the entire check, like they had used someone elses blank check and copied our info including account, routing and check numbers. Also had it made out to the same vendor but didn't look at all like our check. The check was cashed (not deposited) in a BoA branch in Houston.
Now, this check along with some others, was made out and sent to vendors in the DFW area from Irving. The check, along with others, was taken inside, handed to a postal clerk to be mailed and she stamped it. I was buying some stamps along with mailing the stuff.
Our bank did refund our funds, stopped payment on the other checks, )which we found out later had been presented to be cashed but was denied), and turned it over to the FBI, or so they said.
This is a failure on so many ways. (1) some one in the post office, I assume, stole the checks (2) a bank in Houston cashed the check for an individual that was made out to a company with the companies name and address on it, and (3) our bank accepted the check (I later found out checks go through some sort of a clearing house so to speak)
BTW, never hear back from postal inspector after the initial report was taken. Hats off to the detective with IPD that followed up on it for us. Last I heard, he was still working on it.

I'd venture someone at the bank was also involved. I won't go into all the details, but my daughter's purse and check book was stolen. Initially two checks were cashed as third party for just under 1000 each at a drive thru cashier. Even after reporting it to the bank BoA there was over $30,000 more in checks that were cashed on my daughter's account. (The account was used for their business and personal.) They learned that another person's account had the same thing happen and surmised that a bank employee was involved, but BofA wouldn't divulge any details as to how the fraud continued after it was initially reported.

[Ruark]

For us, it's not just the USPS in general, but the doofuses they hire to handle mail. Our local mail carrier looks like some hillbilly from the backwoods, and is constantly messing up people's mail (we have one of those community mailboxes): putting mail in the wrong box, putting parcels in the wrong locker or leaving the wrong key in your box, forgetting to leave the key entirely, or leaving your locker key in somebody else's box.

Several times he's left packages with our house number, but to a different street - like, he just looks at the number, eh? Cripes.

We've complained about him, but to no avail. Packages sometimes vanish en route, coming from a city a couple hundred miles away, but zigzagging all over the United States before getting here.

[Rafe]

For us, it's not just the USPS in general, but the doofuses they hire to handle mail. Our local mail carrier looks like some hillbilly from the backwoods, and is constantly messing up people's mail (we have one of those community mailboxes): putting mail in the wrong box, putting parcels in the wrong locker or leaving the wrong key in your box, forgetting to leave the key entirely, or leaving your locker key in somebody else's box.

Several times he's left packages with our house number, but to a different street - like, he just looks at the number, eh? Cripes.

We've complained about him, but to no avail. Packages sometimes vanish en route, coming from a city a couple hundred miles away, but zigzagging all over the United States before getting here.

We have those neighborhood "cluster" mailboxes, too. Seemed like a good idea at the time: a locking box like a PO box; the number on the box has no relationship to the house street number; no mailbox to have to maintain yourself and no mail slot in the door.

But they've proved to be the absolute worst. Like you, it's a weekly event that our mail gets scrambled among neighbors (I suppose, on the positive side, that's done more to get neighbors meeting and talking to neighbors than any national night out ever did), and on top of that in our subdivision we've had at least three instances of break-ins of those cluster boxes. Easy pickings: you use a forged master key or just pry open the back panel at zero dark thirty and you can steal mail to dozens of homes in a couple of minutes.

[Mel]

My Wife just discovered that the "stupid" post office can't even correct an address. She inadvertently put incorrect address on her friend's Birthday card and it came back to her. (After a little over 3 weeks of course!)

Seriously though, we don't have too many problems. We live in a rural area and everyone at the post office knows us.

[Grayling813]

Seems like the USPS sees this thread's topic as a challenge. They just keep getting worse.

[mayor]

For us, it's not just the USPS in general, but the doofuses they hire to handle mail. Our local mail carrier looks like some hillbilly from the backwoods, and is constantly messing up people's mail (we have one of those community mailboxes): putting mail in the wrong box, putting parcels in the wrong locker or leaving the wrong key in your box, forgetting to leave the key entirely, or leaving your locker key in somebody else's box.

Several times he's left packages with our house number, but to a different street - like, he just looks at the number, eh? Cripes.

We've complained about him, but to no avail. Packages sometimes vanish en route, coming from a city a couple hundred miles away, but zigzagging all over the United States before getting here.

We have those neighborhood "cluster" mailboxes, too. Seemed like a good idea at the time: a locking box like a PO box; the number on the box has no relationship to the house street number; no mailbox to have to maintain yourself and no mail slot in the door.

But they've proved to be the absolute worst. Like you, it's a weekly event that our mail gets scrambled among neighbors (I suppose, on the positive side, that's done more to get neighbors meeting and talking to neighbors than any national night out ever did), and on top of that in our subdivision we've had at least three instances of break-ins of those cluster boxes. Easy pickings: you use a forged master key or just pry open the back panel at zero dark thirty and you can steal mail to dozens of homes in a couple of minutes.

They don't call them "cluster" for nuthin'

[Rafe]

For us, it's not just the USPS in general, but the doofuses they hire to handle mail. Our local mail carrier looks like some hillbilly from the backwoods, and is constantly messing up people's mail (we have one of those community mailboxes): putting mail in the wrong box, putting parcels in the wrong locker or leaving the wrong key in your box, forgetting to leave the key entirely, or leaving your locker key in somebody else's box.

Several times he's left packages with our house number, but to a different street - like, he just looks at the number, eh? Cripes.

We've complained about him, but to no avail. Packages sometimes vanish en route, coming from a city a couple hundred miles away, but zigzagging all over the United States before getting here.

We have those neighborhood "cluster" mailboxes, too. Seemed like a good idea at the time: a locking box like a PO box; the number on the box has no relationship to the house street number; no mailbox to have to maintain yourself and no mail slot in the door.

But they've proved to be the absolute worst. Like you, it's a weekly event that our mail gets scrambled among neighbors (I suppose, on the positive side, that's done more to get neighbors meeting and talking to neighbors than any national night out ever did), and on top of that in our subdivision we've had at least three instances of break-ins of those cluster boxes. Easy pickings: you use a forged master key or just pry open the back panel at zero dark thirty and you can steal mail to dozens of homes in a couple of minutes.

They don't call them "cluster" for nuthin'

Amen to that, brother. Just this week I rented a UPS Store mailbox and sent a forwarding request/notification to the USPS.

These years of incorrect and inept USPS deliveries have caused me massive amounts of difficulties, including missing 1099 forms, a never-delivered COVID stimulus check, and vanished client payment checks.

I respect the people who try to deliver the mail, but the entire system is vastly broken. It isn't 1980 any longer.

Running operations solely by bureaucracy—and by bureaucrats—is a recipe for failure. Get a clue, USPS. And get a clue, Congress.