Post Office Annoyance: How reliable is your local PO?

EverAfer

We got our neighbor's mail last week.

Delivered it to their mailbox and discovered..an rsvp to our wedding in their mailbox! (WTFH!)
URGH! 

Now I have 2 boxes of stuff I ordered that were "delivered" last week and is missing...and the PO said, maybe they'll come tomorrow since alot of boxes were returned and the regular guy who's been out will sort it. If not, call back.

Fingers crossed...at least now FI understands that we must follow up with everyone who hasn't replied.

HisGirlFriday13

AFAIK, none of our STDates were mis-delivered. At least two of our invites never made it (and never came back, so apparently they're hanging out in Post Office Purgatory.)

We did have to call people to follow up with RSVPs, but at least some of them admitted, 'Oh, since I couldn't come, I didn't mail back the card.'

*smdh*

We routinely get mail for other apartments in our complex, which worries me -- are they getting ours?

KatieinBkln

I CAN'T EVEN TALK ABOUT MY POST OFFICE.

Ok, yes I can. They are The Worst (TM). Just the worst. Lost packages, mangled mail, lazy personnel and no apologies. My mother subscribed me to a monthly magazine that shows up maybe quarterly? Sometimes three magazines come at once. Other times they just disappear. They lost an expensive package my FI got from eBay (so it's gone forever). They lost a package full of stuff my mom sent me and then tried to imply that "whoever sent the package" had lied about actually mailing it. Um, nope! Pretty sure it's more likely that your employees are thieves or incompetents than that my own mother would lie to me about having mailed something. 

In short, my post office=RAGE!

theartistformerlyknownas

My PO is a serious contender for The Worst, too. A piece of expensive, antique lace for my veil was inadvertently sent to my old address, which has a mail forward on it. USPS tracking says it was delivered; new homeowner says he never got it; PO says "it'll be put into the forwarding system, but once it enters there's zero tracking and zero expectation of delivery." Um, then why do you even offer a forwarding service if there's zero expectation of delivery? Way to give people a false sense of security. Gone forever.

I routinely got my neighbor's mail, too. And when I stuck it in her mailbox I always checked to see if she had any of mine.

wandajune6

I just got a card that my BM sent me. It was postmarked 5/2 and arrived Saturday. NJ to IL isn't that far...

When I checked the mail on Saturday, I also found mail for 3 other houses. Not all were even on our block (though it's easy to confuse 38th Street and 38th Place, but still...).

I loathe USPS and have for years.

KPBM89

There are three employees at my post office that I LOVE, and several others that I cannot stand.  The three I love are always super nice, answer questions that I have, and know how to do their jobs.  The others are just lazy and always in a pissed off mood.  One guy in there has no idea what he's doing, is a total racist, and has lied to me on several occasions about services they do/ do not offer.

I took our invites to be hand canceled (a week after my favorite lady weighed my invites-49 cents btw!-she said to come back for hand canceling any time) and the racist guy said "naw we don't do that shit here.  Your mail's just gonna go through the damn machine anyway so why waste our time?"  Um what?  Waste your time...doing the job you're currently being paid to do?  And another woman had already tried to tell me that they don't hand cancel either, months back when I was first printing the invites and asked out of curiosity.  I waited 30 minutes for my favorite lady to arrive to work that day and she did them, no problem.  

gildedcoyote

They tried to pull the hand cancel thing on me too. Until I pointedly asked him what that stamp was right their, and he fessed up that I was of course more than welcome to do it myself. So he stood there in the empty post office watching me hand cancel all of my invitations.

 

SMDH

jenna8984

HAAAAATE.

My mail carrier lady is the worst. I've been sitting in my living room and the tv faces the same direction as the front picture window so obviously if a car drives by or anything it's easy to glace a foot over from the tv and see it. I've seen her come, put stuff in my box, and leave. So I go out and get it and it's one of the little cards that says "Sorry we missed you, come pick this up at the post office". The first time I was like ok whatever. Then it happened a second and third time and I stormed into the post office yelling that "How did she miss me when she didn't knock on my door?!??! I was there!!" Such bullshit.

@lolo883 Uuuugh I still feel bad about your lace story every time I hear it. I ordered a lace bridal headband on Etsy. Well it came, too champagne for my dress so I asked the girl if I could send it back for a lighter ivory color. She said sure, here's the address. Well I just assumed it was the same address as the one on the box she sent me. So I mail it back. A month later, I email her that it delivered weeks ago and what's the hold up. She says oh I gave you the address, you must have used to the one from my old apartment and now I have no way to get it". I was like wtf, kinda my fault but she should have specified "Hey I moved, don't use the address on the box". So she agreed to send me a new one for half price. Hopefully the color matches this time!

lleblanc33

When I went to drop off my invites, I asked them to hand cancel and/or not run through the machine. The lady behind the counter said that is not how it works and looked at me like I was crazy- so I explained to her that people do this all the time with wedding invites so they do not get ruined in the machines, she said, "Just give them to me, we know what to do with the mail" LOL! I was livid! Then, it took my family, one state over, 2 WEEKS to get their invites. 

Now the RSVP's- I did little postcards- they are the smallest size that the Post Office accepts and I chose that size based on how they fit into my pocket folds... well as it turns out, the PO is not truly capable of getting these little guys from point A to point B on a consistent basis- which is incredibly important for something like an RSVP. Long Story Short- we are making a lot more calls about RSVPs than we had expected- and many of the people we are speaking with say they sent them back right away... UGHH!  Oh- and one of my neighbors has walked over our RSVPs on two occasions since they were carelessly delivered to the wrong house. 

EverAfer

gildedcoyote said:

They tried to pull the hand cancel thing on me too. Until I pointedly asked him what that stamp was right their, and he fessed up that I was of course more than welcome to do it myself. So he stood there in the empty post office watching me hand cancel all of my invitations.

 

SMDH

And they wonder why they're barely making money?

@HisGirlFriday, I know the neighbor is getting our mail. Sadly, I just don't think they're the type to bring it to us. 

I just hope they deliver my packages today, the company I ordered from won't give me a refund unless I get the Post Office to open an "investigation" since both packages were marked Delivered.

I don't have these issues with FedEx or UPS.

lyndausvi

My RSVPs went to my mom's. We had quite a few not get to us in time that were sent to us well before the due date. In general I've had hit or miss when it comes to the PO. Indy and here seem to be pretty good. Even NOLA was okay. Other places I've lived they have really been bad.

EverAfer

@Jenna8984, I am sitting home all day waiting... (it just so happens that i have the day off.)
@lolo833, did they do anything to make up for losing the package or when it's delivered, it's gone?

smalfrie19

I dont have too many issues with the post office, they normally deliver my things pretty timely and I haven't lost anything of mine to my knowledge. I am getting concerned though because I ordered theatre tickets like a week ago and they haven't been received yet.

JCbride2015

My PO is pretty good.  But this is a large city right outside of NYC with an enormous PO and lots of employees.  They come to our apartment complex twice a day because we have so many people.

Occasionally I get mail for another tenant, but only every once in a while.  We just have a table in the lobby where we leave other people's mail.

selenathegreat

Oh, the Post Office. I finally found the nice employee who I will now always go to... when I brought in my invites she was SO excited to help me pick out stamps and so complimentary. At another branch when I asked what stamps they had, instead of showing me the employee just pointed at a poster at the back of the room, forcing me to GET OUT OF LINE to go look at it. Sigh.

Now I just hope all my RSVP cards make it back to me...

Ven&Radio

As much as I hate USPS in general, I can't complain too much about our local branch/letter carrier.  There was one day where our entire street's mail was mis-delivered.  We had out next door neighbor's mail, the people across the street had ours and hadn't found theres yet...  We had one RSVP that we were told was mailed never show up.  We also had one thank you card come back to us SIX WEEKS after we mailed it... turns out our guests moved (which is fine) but for some reason the letter couldn't be forwarded.  We were very confused when we got a card from that couple at the wedding asking if we received their gift, since we had mailled the thank you four weeks earlier... I'm not sure that's my local branch's fault, though.

theartistformerlyknownas

@EverAfter nope, no recourse. Both USPS and the seller said "your fault for not correcting the address; tracking said 'delivered' so my hands are clean." Except... it wasn't. And the Etsy seller waited 3 days to reply after I told him the address needed correcting; he had time to change it.

@jenna8984 I hate when the honest Etsy sellers get shortchanged by the USPS sucking at life. I had ordered some personalized compact mirrors for my bridesmaids, and after 3 weeks the Etsy status still said they were processing and hadn't been shipped. So I asked the girl when they'd go out, and she said "oh my goodness, I shipped them 3 weeks ago. Darn USPS has lost so much of my stuff lately. I'll send new ones out right away for free." So she did, and I got them 4 days later... and 2 days after that, got the original package.

erollis

I've only lived one place where I never received mail except for junk mail. No packages, letters, or bills ever got to me. I had most things sent to my parents home when I lived at that apartment.

The post office delivery where we live is excellent. We live in an apartment and they will come to our door to deliver packages. They'll leave a slip if we truly are not home.

Going to the post office does leave a lot to be desired. There's one nice person who works there. The rest are unhelpful and short. Sometimes even a bit condescending.

Where we pick up packages is a different post office. They do nothing but deliver mail or give you your package when you go there. They are very nice at this location, thankfully.

With our wedding invitation we got so many returned back to us. It was awful because they were the correct address! We did receive all our rsvps back ok.

phira

@lolo883 I remember you posting about that! UGH!!!

There's one post office location near us that's a little reliable (e.g. I never trust them, but shit arrives at the right location). The one I usually use right near work is just awful, though. I went one day to mail three things: return a dress to Modcloth, send my sister our old N64, and mail my state tax return.

Everything eventually showed up at the right location, but the N64 was marked as delivered 3 days before it was delivered, and my state return took 2 weeks to show up in my bank account. I assume the dress return worked (long story, but there was no way I'd know if it was returned or not).

I'm going to go to the slightly reliable location to mail invitations.

Cookie Pusher

I've always had great luck with our post office. I live in a fairly small town, and I know all of the employees. Some are nice, others not, but that's pretty normal wherever you go. We've had several of our postal employees transfer to other nearby branches, and it's amazing when I walk in there and they still recognize me after all these years. One was even reminiscing with me about sending out my college applications (15 years ago!!). Our delivery is good, too. We live in a an apartment complex with cluster boxes, and we've gotten very little misdirected mail (unless the sender put the wrong address, which happens sometimes).

lkristenj

I posted about my handwriting issue a little while back. I mailed my STDs on 5/3/14. I got one back last week "undeliverable". Last week! But that isn't the best part. That address is in the SAME apartment complex I live in. She's a neighbor. It takes me less than 5 minutes to walk to her door. The address written on the return line is the exact same address written on the address, just with a different apartment number. All clearly written. If it can make it back to me, why couldn't it have made it to her? And why would any of it take 3 weeks?

Simky906

Our local PO branch isn't too bad. Really the only weird thing was that when we mailed out our StDs it took 3 weeks to get to a couple who live in the next town. I sent two others to that same town and they were delivered within 2 days. Very odd. 

What we have to worry about is our buildings concierge desk. When a package is delivered that doesn't fit in your box they're supposed to put a note in your box to alert you. The first year we lived it that worked well but in the past year they have ceased to do so entirely. Which is so great when you don't know when packages will be delivered. I guess I'll just start checking every few days as we get closer to the wedding.

FiancB

Ours is pretty okay. Once in a while we end up with someone else's mail. I feel kind of bad that I often don't get around to redelivering it. But that's only been about 3 times, and we haven't noticed anything go missing. We do joke that our carrier must use a bazooka to put things in the mailboxes because things are always shoved way in the back so that I have to crawl out my car window or get out to reach them. 

Getting packages can be really frustrating though. I hate it when we aren't home to accept one and they won't just leave it. If you deliver at 1 in the afternoon on weekdays, chances are no one will be home. But that isn't really their fault, I just wish it was a bit easier to go and pick it up. 

sophhabobopha

Our PO and delivery is always just fine. Small town luck?

LadyMillil

My PO is fine, but DHL is the fucking worst shipping company. They were delivering a package for DH. Our buzzer doesn't work, so we always leave a note and phone number for deliveries. They never called because apparently the drivers don't have phones and no one thought to call us from the depot. They also didn't leave a delivery slip on the door and the tracking was screwed up, so we had no idea they had tried to deliver the package until some one called and told me that if I didn't pick up the package in 24 hours they would DESTROY IT. I think that was the only time I lost it on the phone and yelled about how we had no fucking idea that they tried to deliver the package and how dare they threaten to destroy it. We refuse to ship anything with DHL now and will pay extra for other shippers if we have to.

lovesclimbing

Our PO was bad before we moved. They would have only one person at the counter and fifteen or twenty people in line. Holidays SUCKED.  There would be thirty people or more in line and only a couple people working. And the employees always seemed really disgruntled and annoyed and short with people.  Which isn't really their fault when they have endless lines (I went early in the morning once to try to avoid the lines. It was ten minutes before it opened and there were already four people waiting to pick up packages, the lines during the day were that bad!) and they're probably overworked and underpaid.

Also, our mail box at the end of our driveway just disappeared one day.  And the one next to ours had the door missing. The road graters hit the stand one too many times. Luckily, we never get mail at it. (Except once when the company required a physical address and my box with my BM shoes!!!! sat at the PO box until a couple days before the wedding!)

We've moved and we now have one of these boxes.  vv  I'm so excited because I've always hated traditional mail boxes at the end of a driveway.  I've felt that they are incredibly unsafe, which is why we had a PO box although the lines were terrible.  Anyone could open one of those and steal mail.  I'm excited to have one of these because, unless we have a large package or have to mail something, we don't even have to go to the PO.  Although we live in a smaller town now, so lines probably aren't as bad.

amakayeb

My local post office is usually no problem. However, we have a mailbox like in the picture above, and over Thanksgiving, somebody crashed into it and took it out. So when I came back, there was no mailbox. The post office in town closes at 4:30, and I don't get back from work by then. On Saturday, after a full week without a mailbox or, you know, a note or phone call or something, I went in and was told that they had to order one, it would take a couple weeks, and we needed to pick up our mail at the PO until then.  So for the next month, during Christmas card season, I could only get my mail on Saturday and if I needed to mail ANYTHING I had to stop at the post office (there are not just mailboxes everywhere in our small town).

But I was near livid with the PO in my hometown. When we were choosing invitations, we found a square design we loved. I knew we would pay extra postage because it was square. We wanted to make sure it wasn't oversize. My mother took one in and asked them how large it could be. They told her 6 1/2". Perfect, these were 6 1/4". They measured them, and said, "Yes, they're good, you only extra for them being square." She went in on another day to ask another employee and got the same answer.

When she was here by me and we were printing them, she took in one fully complete invitation to my post office just to triple check that the weight was okay. And then they told her that it was actually 6 1/8. My mom was very glad that she had gone in and not me, because I may have had a meltdown! And then the stamps they showed her for that price were ridiculously ugly--some brown thing... My mom realized that she could do one of the oversize stamps and a forever stamp for the same price, so she was able to get cute ones. She paid for the difference in the postage, and then proceeded to call her local PO and inform them that they should really make sure they are giving accurate information to people, especially when that information is going to cost people like $100!

Inkdancer

Until recently, we had a separate mail carrier on Saturdays. Our regular carrier was fine, but the weekend carrier was a moron. Our house is at the center of a T-junction, just where the other street ends on my street. The mail carrier would drive right past our house and turn onto that street without delivering our mail. Heaven knows where it went after that. It would arrive weeks or months late.