Forum Discussion
Amazon Prime Day is coming!
...I would not use the USPS at all. In over 20 years I've been an Amazon customer, I have never had a problem with their deliveries when they send via UPS.
Agreed! USPS has 1. left a package outside in the rain and 2. left it outside which lead to it being stolen. The USPS mailpeople have a key to the apt building so they can't use the "unable to enter the building" excuse, but they do. If that actually were true, we would never get our paper mail!
I had the package in the rain thing happen a week or two ago. I was very lucky that the item was not damaged because there was all kinds of styrofoam inside that protected the item and it wasn't wet, but the box was soaked thru and disintegrated. They didn't even bother to leave it on the porch; they just left it by a gate, in the monsoon rain.
The instances of "attempted delivery but no one was around" have increased too. They say a notice was left, but there was no notice. My suspicion is, the postman didn't come at all that day but couldn't say that on the record, so they fibbed. This has happened when there are actually people at home, too.
I wonder if working conditions at the USPS are so bad that people are angry and don't care anymore. Perhaps if the whole outfit were privatised there might be better quality control.
I complained and today I have to put in a call to someone at the post office. I imagine that the wet box was the very last delivery to my address -- from now on everything will mysteriously fail to arrive.....
they fibbed
I thought the same too, especially since I live on the 3rd floor, I figured the person that day just didn't feel like going upstairs. I also called and filed a formal complaint on the second incident. A ticket was opened and I would receive a call back the next day.... It's been 5 months LOL
-A
Amazon delivery disasters (continued):
I have no problem with them overnighting to do a "free delivery" SmartPost type of thing with the USPS. My problem is how my regular mail is delivered to the wrong address a minimum of 2-3 times a month, ever since they closed the local post office for deliveries. Having it happen to an Amazon delivery is always a possibility and has happened twice in the past year. It's really bad when you see "delivered" on both the Amazon app as well as the USPS app, and there's nothing on your porch.I got a call the next day -- the postmaster left a message for me to call back. I called and he said that "the package went to the wrong carrier." I also mentioned the package left out in the rain. He said maybe it wasn't raining when the carrier left it.
Fantastic.
So now that my carrier knows I've complained, I expect everything to either get lost (because it was shipped to a carrier in Morocco by mistake, or accidentally placed on a space shuttle), or to arrive damaged.
I have met a lot of neighbours this way, by driving to their homes with their mail, which was left in my mailbox. I see this is not unique to my area. Sounds like it's high time to overhaul the whole agency.
Amazon delivery disasters (continued):
I have no problem with them overnighting to do a "free delivery" SmartPost type of thing with the USPS. My problem is how my regular mail is delivered to the wrong address a minimum of 2-3 times a month, ever since they closed the local post office for deliveries. Having it happen to an Amazon delivery is always a possibility and has happened twice in the past year. It's really bad when you see "delivered" on both the Amazon app as well as the USPS app, and there's nothing on your porch.
maratsade wrote:Sounds like it's high time to overhaul the whole agency.
Indeed. I mean, a simple GPS tells you the address you're at or even near.
I think part of the problem is as it's presorted. I mean, in some instances I get people's mail from next door (mail carrier clearly got out of synch somehow) but sometimes I get mail for people with a similar house number but for the next road over, grouped with my own mail. That can't be a mail carrier issue. Sometimes it's other people's bills!
Yes, it may have something to do with the sorting -- I don't really know how this works -- doesn't the mail carrier check the mail to see if it's really going the right address? Don't they know the neighbourhood after daily delivery for years? In my area sometimes they don't come at all. You see the flags up on the mailboxes for a couple of days sometimes. I wonder sometimes if it's such a crappy job that the carrier just couldn't care less.
And yes, definitely a simple GPS will tell you where you are. This is why I think sometimes it's a willful act.
maratsade wrote:I had the package in the rain thing happen a week or two ago.
I've been lucky when it comes to this. With UPS, if it's raining and the item is small, they'll put it between my screen and inside door. If it's too large to do that they'll put it in a bag and on the end of the porch. They'll also bag it if it's not yet raining, but looks like it will. My UPS guy is pretty good.
When they use SurePost, the UPS/USPS service, it ends up at my post office, as I have a PO Box due to a snow plow taking out my mailbox a couple of winters ago and me not having installed another one since it happened. I really only have one place I can put it, and in order to put a new one there I have to dig the 100lb blob of concrete from the old one out of the ground.
Sounds like we all need to start saving for personal mail drop off boxes....
I have a gated yard, and the postmaster told me the postmen aren't allowed to go into gated yards, because there have been severe incidents involving dogs. The UPS and FedEx people seem to have no such constraint, as they leave packages on my porch all the time.
I don't blame them, though, for looking out for the safety of their employees, and I'm glad they have this policy. This is one of the reasons I was looking 'round the Web yesterday, pricing extra large mailboxes. I'm seriously considering getting one to set up outside the gate.
GabeU wrote:
maratsade wrote:I had the package in the rain thing happen a week or two ago.
I've been lucky when it comes to this. With UPS, if it's raining and the item is small, they'll put it between my screen and inside door. If it's too large to do that they'll put it in a bag and on the end of the porch. They'll also bag it if it's not yet raining, but looks like it will. My UPS guy is pretty good.
When they use SurePost, the UPS/USPS service, it ends up at my post office, as I have a PO Box due to a snow plow taking out my mailbox a couple of winters ago and me not having installed another one since it happened. I really only have one place I can put it, and in order to put a new one there I have to dig the 100lb blob of concrete from the old one out of the ground.
Could always build a MailBox... We have a steel reinforced wooden crate with a keypad lock on it that goes to the end of our drive when we are expecting oversized deliveries... Ya know, large car parts, tv's, that sorta thing. Saves everyone headaches, and the delivery guys always know the code as they are making constant deliveries here. Have never had an issue with theft... I would love to see a thief try to take a 200 pound crate that's bolted to a concrete pad! Would be even more fun to watch them try to break it open.
I'm seriously considering this.
C0RR0SIVE wrote:Could always build a MailBox... We have a steel reinforced wooden crate with a keypad lock on it that goes to the end of our drive when we are expecting oversized deliveries... Ya know, large car parts, tv's, that sorta thing. Saves everyone headaches, and the delivery guys always know the code as they are making constant deliveries here. Have never had an issue with theft... I would love to see a thief try to take a 200 pound crate that's bolted to a concrete pad! Would be even more fun to watch them try to break it open.
- I think it has a lot to do with the individual mail carrier with USPS. When we lived in Sacramento, my (now ex) husband and I got some packages containing some very precious items that were part of his inheritance from his grandfather. The carrier, apparently not wanting to leave the packages on the large, covered front porch, threw them over the back fence in the pouring rain! Into mud! Then our dogs tore the packages apart. We didn't even find the stuff until two days later because no note was left indicating that packages had been left in the back yard. The Post Office refused to do anything.
The guy I have now is great! If it's something he knows is too heavy for me to carry inside, he'll bring it right into the living room (if I'm home). If it's raining or snowing and I'm not home, he'll leave the packages in my carport so they don't get wet. If he's delivering a package, he always brings my mail too, so I don't have to make a separate trip out to the mailbox.
Also, there is a stand of about eight mailboxes almost right in front of my house. However, I was the "cutoff" house, so my mailbox was way down the street at the next row. So I went into our tiny post office and talked to the post master and asked how I could go about petitioning to move my mailbox to the stand in front of my house. She said, "I know which row you're talking about (!). There's plenty of room for your box. Just go ahead and move it and I'll let Larry (the carrier) know." That was it. No paperwork, no fuss.
