Postal Frustration

[Kogarashi]

Warning, this is long.

Go figure, I manage to go 6+ years with nary a package-delivery mishap, and karma had to bite me.

Hubby and I decided to order a specific book off of Amazon for our neice for Christmas. This book is one our own daughter (one year older than Neice) completely fell in love with when she checked it out of the library, and has checked out at least twice since. We managed to find an awesome price on the Marketplace for a used "good condition" copy, and noticing that there was another one around the same price and condition, we decided to surprise our daughter with a copy as well for her upcoming birthday. So we make the purchase. Two orders, two separate sellers. All's well and good. This is back in late November.

With the hustle to buy the rest of our Christmas gifts and order a few more things (resulting in a week straight of packages coming to the apartment), we completely forget about the books. Until this past weekend, that is. We were out all day on Saturday and thus not home to receive packages. Our apartment management finally got around to putting a security panel on the courtyard gate to keep people from reaching through and opening the locked gate from the inside (key access only from the outside), which has unfortunately locked out our mail carrier until he gets a key from the housing office. This means that instead of leaving a package inside our rear stairwell like he usually does, he had to leave a Missed Package notice in our mailbox because he won't leave packages on the outside steps and doesn't have a key to the front stairwell. Because we didn't check the mail when we got home that night or the next day, we didn't get the notice until Monday.

Various things kept me from going to the post office Monday, and I forgot the slip when I went Tuesday, so I ordered a redelivery for Wednesday. Collected the package, to find one of the two books we'd ordered. Reminded of the purchase, we wondered where the other package was, and immediately headed to Amazon for tracking info. Of the two, only one had tracking information, and it had been shipped FedEx, not USPS. Also, thanks to the packing slip included with the book that arrived, we confirmed it was the purchase without tracking, which we assumed had been sent media mail. Further investigation of FedEx's tracking information revealed that they had left the missing package with the local post office...on the 7th. By this point, it was the 15th.

So yesterday I headed to the PO with a printout of the FedEx tracking info to find out what happened. Long story short, they couldn't find it at the post office but did check the system and it came up as "delivered" on the 8th. Now, the mail carrier usually comes about the time I'm headed out to pick up Oldest at preschool, so half the time I'm out the door before he delivers packages. But he usually leaves a slip in the mailbox (we got none), or leaves the package with a neighbor/inside the stairwell if the neighbor opens the door. No dice there either. I was given a phone number to call this morning while the carrier would still be at the PO so we could ask him directly about it, but this PO is notorious for not answering the phones, and this morning was no exception. The last time I had to call, I just put my phone on speaker and let it ring and ring and ring until someone finally answered (over an hour, I believe), but their system has since been changed and now shunts callers back to the automated menu after a set amount of rings. So we can't annoy them into answering, and it's now well after the time when the mail carrier heads out. If I'm lucky, I'll catch him when I head out to pick up Oldest, but I'm not holding my breath.

And to top it all off, we're leaving this evening for a near-week-long vacation, and thus won't be here in person to handle any of this. I suppose we can continue calling, or see if Amazon can put some pressure on the PO to resolve this, but at the moment it seems we're out of luck if we can't catch the mail carrier (who is pretty awesome, normally, so I'm holding off blaming him completely until we get his side of the story).

And of course now I'm stressing out, and I don't handle this kind of not-knowing stress very well. Makes me twitchy and liable to snap at people.

[Aethian]

Wow... We had a problem like what you describe with a new management company and new locks... The carrier just stopped delivery completely. Took the new management another three days to finally get the post office new keys.

As for the missing piece, I do not know what to say.

[Kogarashi]

And I have something of an update, though not a very inspiring one I guess.

The mail carrier hadn't arrived by the time I left to pick up Oldest, so since he usually comes while I'm out, I taped a note to the mailbox asking him if he knew what had happened. When we picked up our mail later, the note was inside the box with a response on the back: the day the package was to be delivered was our regular carrier's day off, meaning it was a substitute carrier that delivered the package. All we can figure is that instead of leaving a "missed you" note when we didn't answer the door, he left it on the steps. The open-to-the-air steps in a parking lot that has had bikes and a car stolen from it before, just two blocks away from the bad part of town were more cars have been broken into and where drug dealers hang out. Yeah, I don't think we're ever seeing the package again. At least it was only $5. Now to formulate a complaint for the Post Office about the substitute carrier.

Why do we always seem to have these issues when our regular carriers have the day off? We've had substitute UPS guys leave a "missed delivery" note on the door when I've been home all day before, and when we get a substitute USPS carrier, they tend to stuff small packages in the mailbox, bending them out of shape, rather than ring the doorbell. Oi.

[Aethian]

Why are you complaining about the T-6 over some other jerk stealing the package? If there isn't a known note to not leave packages if your not home or if they don't fit in the mailbox then the carrier was just doing there job by leaving the package for you.

Now if you have that notice and the T-6 still left the package then there is some complaint. Even in what I thought to be a very safe neighborhood I had someone go behind me during the month of December and pick up packages I left. After that happened several customers gave notice that if they weren't home a notice was to be left.

[Kogarashi]

Ah, that part probably wasn't clear. We live in an apartment complex owned and managed by the university (subsidized graduate housing). The standing arrangement with the post office is that packages are left inside the carpeted stairwell of each of the three buildings, and the mail carriers are given a key that allows them to access that stairwell. If packages can't be left in the stairwell and no one is home, the carriers have always left it with a neighbor (four apartments per stairwell; just ring another doorbell and then leave the package inside instead of outside, unsecured), or left a notice in the mailbox to pick it up or schedule a redelivery.

Leaving the package in our stairwell was recently disrupted because of the new gates being put in, since our carpeted stairwell is adjacent to a fenced-in courtyard, and the mail carrier should soon be getting a key from the office to let him into our courtyard and thus into the carpeted stairwell. The problem seems to stem from the substitute being too lazy to deal with a lack of access to the courtyard, since it would seem that the package was simply left on our outside steps and stolen. The regular carrier's note even said they aren't supposed to do that; they're supposed to put it in the stairwell or leave notice that it's going back to the PO. Hence our annoyance, since our neighbors don't have it and are all people we trust implicitly, and the reason for our complaint. The substitute dropped the ball somewhere, and now we don't have a package we paid for.

[Aethian]

The sub may have dropped the ball but were they aware of the arraignment? There has been times before that I have been sent out to a route I don't know and just given the mail. No map, no start point, no heads up, nothing. A few times not even the correct keys to get into the buildings of a few apartment complexes. Once I had to carry a whole complexes mail with me because no one but the regular and their T-6 knew the gate code to park at every building.

Its starting to sound like your regular doesn't have a T-6 and so you get whomever is available to run the route or run that piece of the route on your regulars day off.

My whole beef is yelling at someone who may be innocent in this. They may not have known what the standing arraignment was. Yes you lost your package and I am sorry for that, but shouldn't you be more mad at your neighbors who took the package to keep?

[Ree]

Kogarashi, I totally understand your frustration, and I think you have every right to be upset by this situation.

Yes, the person who stole your package is really the person at fault, but if the mail carrier had not left the package, it wouldn't have been there to steal.

I'm having my own issues with my local post office, but even they leave a note to have packages picked up at the local depot, rather than leaving them on the doorstep if nobody is home...and we don't even have to make special arrangements for that service. It's standard policy for them.

I understand what you're saying, Aethian, but your defense of your employer only helps to underscore Kogarashi's frustration, as it sounds like sending mail carriers out with very little training or details regarding mail arrangements seems to be SOP for the USPS.

There has been times before that I have been sent out to a route I don't know and just given the mail. No map, no start point, no heads up, nothing. A few times not even the correct keys to get into the buildings of a few apartment complexes. Once I had to carry a whole complexes mail with me because no one but the regular and their T-6 knew the gate code to park at every building.

You're correct that blaming the carrier is misplacing the fault, but it does seem to me, after reading your explanation, that the management of the USPS needs to make much better arrangements in regard to providing substitute mail carriers.

[Aethian]

Ree, at times the post office doesn't know it's going to need a replacement. Yes we do have replacements that know things about the routes in a single office. I myself could tell you details of over 50 such routes but even yesterday I was placed on a route that I had never been on. What was supposed to take 50 minuets took over a hour twenty because of the street layouts were do tipsy turvy. Odd and even numbers being on the same side of the street.

I just feel that not all of the blame should be placed on the replacement. Going down there and complaining about that person as 100% at fault is wrong.

Look at it this way, a colleague of yours calls out and she's the only one who knows her duties due to day offs or vacations or even other call outs. You've been placed at her desk and oops a mistake happens. One that costs a customer the same it cost as that package, would want that person coming in and ripping you a new one because of that?

I'm not trying to defend my work place supervisors, they don't always know if we know everything on a route or if we know all the setups and arraignments that particular places have. They just know that they have to go around with limited personal to put a or several warm bodies on that route. Information gets lost then and my coworkers and I are always the ones that feel the brunt of the force. So I am trying to put myself in my sibling carriers shoes and trying to think of how the mistake happened. That's all I'm trying to get others to see as well, I'm just trying to get the other side of the coin to be realized.

As I'm not in that office I don't know what really happened, I don't know if she's on a route with a regular but no T-6. I don't know if the day in question had practically every carrier running two routes, I've seen that before it's not fun. So before pointing fingers and laying complete blame can we at least try to have a fuller picture?



As for lack of training.. We get training but it would be next to impossible to have two carriers on every route. When I became a T-6 I had never carried any of my regulars routes before. I was given maps and a couple carriers looked me up during the day but other then notes left by the regular I was on my own. And as far as I know it's been like that since we left horses.

[iradney]

Ya'll want postal frustration? here's one for you. The Post office in my country (SAPO) is infamous for irregularity and post getting "lost". Put it this way, amazon.com has blacklisted them as a provider. You want to order something from amazon? Be prepared to pay an extra R100 or so for a third party courier service to deliver your package.
Why? Because packages were getting stolen, and amazon was tired of replacing everything.

Here's another perspective - I sent Christmas cards to a few friends - none of them got em. Not even my parents in Canuckistan.

Two of my friends got married - their wedding invites didn't make it because they were in pretty envelopes, so the SAPO must've thought there were presents in em. My wedding invites made it to all my guests because I put em in plain white "bill" envelopes.

[Kogarashi]

I understand your points, Aethian, but I would also like to defend mine. First though, I'm not sure I understand what a T-6 is, so an explanation would be wonderful if you could provide one.

The note left by our regular carrier explained that it had been his day off, rather than a sick day, so I would assume that the need for a substitute would not be a sudden surprise for the depot. Additionally, the note indicated that not leaving packages on the steps was standard procedure for the route, an arrangement between our housing office and the post office. Our regular even stated that the substitute should not have left the package on the steps if that was the case.

Rest assured, we don't plan to go in yelling all SC-style about the substitute carrier. Our intent is to voice displeasure at the cirucmstances that led to our package disappearing on us. We don't plan to complain about the substitute in particular. We plan to complain about the package being misplaced, whether it was because the substitute didn't follow proceedure s/he knew about or because the post office didn't make the substitute aware of the correct steps to be taken.

With your example of replacing a colleague without knowing everything about their job and making a mistake about it...no, I would not want the wronged customer to come ream me out about it or demand my head or job or anything. But I wouldn't expect the customer to just go, "oh well" about the situation and not say anything, because then the problem doesn't get corrected. I do think the customer in that scenario is well within their rights to complain to the company about the chain of events that led to them being wronged, and then it is up to the company to find out why and correct the problem. Hence our intent to voice a complaint to the post office.

I do thank you for your input, though. It's interesting and helpful to get some "insider" info.

[Ree]

Before this goes further, I think it's important to ask that this thread not continue on down the fratching road.

It has stayed civil, but it is gradually turning to a debate of whether Kogarishi has a valid point, or whether the post office deserves to be criticized in this situation.

Aethian's insider information was certainly helpful, but none of it should negate the fact that Kogarishi lost an important package because somebody didn't think ahead to what can happen to an unattended package.

In the same situation, I would be very upset, myself, and I would be making a complaint.

[protege]

In the same situation, I would be very upset, myself, and I would be making a complaint.

You, and me too, Ree.

Even though my porch is covered (and currently 'inaccessible' because there aren't any steps ), I wasn't about to risk my new laptop "disappearing" when it arrived last month. I've never had a problem with things getting stolen, but I wasn't going to take a chance. There's always a first time for everything. Instead, I had it shipped to the local "yellow tag" store, and picked it up. Less stressful for all involved.

But, that's not to say that the local UPS guys are "creative" when hiding things. When I'd order parts for the MG, they always made sure to put the boxes in such a way, that you can't see them from the street. Even better, was the guy that delivered the tires (from Tirerack.com...freaking awesome service) awhile back. Not only were the tires neatly stacked up behind the garbage cans, but they were somewhat 'disguised' with black tape (instead of clear). They were even the right height...and looked just like another garbage can by the wall.

[BookstoreEscapee]

This is why I have packages delivered to my parents' house. 1. There's a decent chance they'll be home during the day, and 2. I think there's less chance of a package being stolen off their porch than mine. I live in a second floor apartment facing a busy road, and the downstairs door locks automatically, so unless the neighbors are home to open the door the carrier can't put it inside, and there's no real "hidden" place to put anything (other than inside the downstairs balcony rail, I suppose, which my neighbors probably wouldn't mind, but then I wouldn't likely look at a box that was left there, either, since it's not my balcony. I have come home to find packages that were sent to my roommate on the steps inside the door, so either the neighbors were home or the door didn't close all the way.

[Chromatix]

Here, the normal postman has a key to enter the building, so there is a letterbox in every apartment door. Even though that area is relatively secure, they will still keep sizeable parcels at the post office.

But UPS needs to contact the recipient to be let in...

There is a local ubiquitous chain of small shops which has, among many other services, the ability to act as a more local parcels receiving point than the post office. I've never used it, but if I lived in a more remote area where the post office was some distance away, I might.