Rant on shipping

[Dftodd]

^^ But most rural POs probably get less than a couple of hundred letters or packages addressed with the same zip code per day, maybe per week. It makes no sense not to move it from one box to another in the same building rather than send it hundreds of miles. There isn't enough scale to matter.

They do that in my rural area. Neighbor dropped an Xmas card in the box for us, and since we were two houses down and on the way, they just deposited into our mail box. Anything we send out to them though, went to the city, then back to the neighbor since they were after them on the route.

We always hand delivered our card to the neighbors since I walked past their house while walking the dog.

 

[Jstpssng]

2-3? Try 4-6, or more.

You had to read through a catalog or magazine/newspaper ad, cut out the order form and fill it in by hand, add cash, check or money order, then address and stamp the envelope and send it off. You never even knew if they received it until you got the package two months later.

And if you didn't get it, there wasn't a whole lot you could do.

It's been a long, LONG time since I sent an order through the mail... probably back in Nineteen Seventy something. We have this amazing new invention called the telephone, which is how I placed my orders before the internet. Even when I did, it took a lot less than two months.

Yours is a valid point though, and one which I raised before Covid. There was a time when you paid extra if you wanted it this week; in that case, the vendors and the shipping companies were compensated accordingly.

 

[California]

Saturday night, I ordered a pint of special furniture paint on Amazon with free Prime shipping. I didn't expect to see it soon. No problem.

UPS shows it was picked up in Cleveland yesterday noon, and was sent Overnight Air. It was delivered to me in rural California at 1pm today.

Not bad, Amazon!

 

[Jstpssng]

They do that in my rural area. Neighbor dropped an Xmas card in the box for us, and since we were two houses down and on the way, they just deposited into our mail box. Anything we send out to them though, went to the city, then back to the neighbor since they were after them on the route.

We always hand delivered our card to the neighbors since I walked past their house while walking the dog.

I know I'm a prude but... years ago a customer of the flower shop decided to save the price if a stamp and left a check in our mailbox as he drove past on his way to work. He called my parents a couple of days later, apologized, and said that the mail carrier reported him and he was in deep trouble. Even though you buy your mailbox it's still USPS property, and a federal offense to put anything in it which isn't US Mail. I never heard what came out of that.

 

[Dftodd]

I know I'm a prude but... years ago a customer of the flower shop decided to save the price if a stamp and left a check in our mailbox as he drove past on his way to work. He called my parents a couple of days later, apologized, and said that the mail carrier reported him and he was in deep trouble. Even though you buy your mailbox it's still USPS property, and a federal offense to put anything in it which isn't US Mail. I never heard what came out of that.

Neighbor would put a stamp on the envelope for the card, to mail it teo houses down to us.

Neighbors had a little sign with a clip on their front door for notes. When I would walk the card down to their place, I wouldn't put it in the mail box. I would put it in the clip on their front door.

My grandfather was a retired rural mail carrier. I was schooled on the ins and outs of the usps at a very young age

 

[PILOON]

Purchased a fairly pricy gift and UPS said Monday but it's 10:00 PM and no sign yet.
Getting concerned!

GOOD NEWS
Ding dong, as I looked he was running back up the hill and parcl was at door.
I shouted a big THANK YOU!
Wasn't UPS (my error) was FedX.

BUT
as I went to community mail boxes I spotted a bag hanging on the neighbor's garbage bin.
Fortunately for him they were very late and he retrieved his parcel B4 the automated truck dumped his bin.
That was UPS!

 

[Diggin It]

and said that the mail carrier reported him

A carrier would have to be a real Claven to do that.

 

[Jstpssng]

A carrier would have to be a real Claven to do that.

It's his job.

 

[California]

It's his job.

"I'm from the government. I'm here to help you!".

When I audited the contractors of big freeway contracts I loved to introduce myself with that.

Actually the customary bid winners kept decent and compliant records. They would just reply come on in and we'll find you some desk space. No Problems Noted was the usual final report. But I think we kept them honest.

That phrase actually was a test. If the guy looked spooked then that was where we might find some work billed that was imaginary, with no payroll or materials cost records to support his billed 'cost'. Those got interesting.

 

[tallyho8]

To explain why some emails are received saying item mailed when they aren't mailed yet. I mail many items daily. I put them in my mailbox and the mailman picks them up when he passes. On Saturdays he passes about 11 AM. When I get orders online I usually mail them within 30 minutes but if the orders come on Saturday after 11 the mailman will not pick them up till about 4 PM on Monday. They sit in the post office to be scanned until Tuesday and then tracking marks them picked up. When they pay with PayPal, then PayPal will email them as soon as I print the label that they were mailed so they might get the letter saying they were mailed on Saturday but tracking will show they were picked up on Tuesday even though I mailed them 30 minutes after I received the order.

 

[two_bit_score]

I know I'm a prude but... years ago a customer of the flower shop decided to save the price if a stamp and left a check in our mailbox as he drove past on his way to work. He called my parents a couple of days later, apologized, and said that the mail carrier reported him and he was in deep trouble. Even though you buy your mailbox it's still USPS property, and a federal offense to put anything in it which isn't US Mail. I never heard what came out of that.

It's his job.

I’m pretty sure that the penalty for this “federal offense” is limited to the “offender” being billed for the postage due on the improperly delivered mail piece(s).

And it’s at the discretion of the local postmaster to enforce it.

Most often it’s a warning at the most. Never goes beyond the local post office if it’s only a couple pieces.

 

[California]

I’m pretty sure that the penalty for this “federal offense” is limited to the “offender” being billed for the postage due on the improperly delivered mail piece(s).

And it’s at the discretion of the local postmaster to enforce it.

Most often it’s a warning at the most. Never goes beyond the local post office if it’s only a couple pieces.

I wonder what happens when its the local realtor spamming everyone for several blocks. We see this occasionally.

 

[two_bit_score]

I wonder what happens when its the local realtor spamming everyone for several blocks. We see this occasionally.

You can report it and see then let us know.

I doubt it will be anything more than a simple form letter warning them, if anything.

 

[goeduck]

I wonder what happens when its the local realtor spamming everyone for several blocks. We see this occasionally.

Here it is the landscaping companies

 

[Diggin It]

And then drivers have to deal with this kind of thing:

UPS Worker Finds Frozen Body of 80-Year-Old Michigan Man Outside Home
Richard Theodore Kokochak's body was found frozen in a curved driveway close to his car.

UPS Worker Finds Frozen Body of 8-Year-Old Michigan Man Outside Home

 

[Frankenkubota]

And then drivers have to deal with this kind of thing:

UPS Worker Finds Frozen Body of 80-Year-Old Michigan Man Outside Home
Richard Theodore Kokochak's body was found frozen in a curved driveway close to his car.

UPS Worker Finds Frozen Body of 8-Year-Old Michigan Man Outside Home

This just happened to a friend, truth. His basket case ex called him to come over, the renter in the trailer in the back of the lot has not been out and about for a few days.

Apparently, while my buddy was on his way over, the UPS guy went to the renters trailer to deliver something and the ups guy finds the renter with a shotgun in what was left of his mouth.

My buddy walks in on the scene and called police.

 

[aczlan]

The letters are processed by OCRs that sort the mail at the rate of 25 - 30 K per hour. The machines only do what they are told to do. If the letter gets back to your local PO, the carrier is supposed to make a notation in his/her "edit book" that will direct the sorting machines to handle the mailpiece accordingly. If you see the same letter repeatedly, the carrier is not making the notation. There are a lot more steps involved but that is the simple explanation.

Sounds like our carrier has been slacking, we still get mail for the previous owners (who moved 8-9 years ago).
Must be that they are too busy opening every box that comes in via Media Mail and complaining that I wrote "return to sender, moved 8 years ago" to update their edit book.

Aaron Z

 

[Diggin It]

Would *YOU* (generic you) want to be a rural route carrier?

I applied many years back, took the written, passed, got on the list, but was never called since no positions were open in my area. Back then I could have done it ... probably. Now, not so likely.

 

[Dftodd]

This just happened to a friend, truth. His basket case ex called him to come over, the renter in the trailer in the back of the lot has not been out and about for a few days.

Apparently, while my buddy was on his way over, the UPS guy went to the renters trailer to deliver something and the ups guy finds the renter with a shotgun in what was left of his mouth.

My buddy walks in on the scene and called police.

Sometimes the delivery drivers and mail carriers are the only contact for some of the elderly with no families in the area.

Gramps was a rural mail carrier. He's found a couple elderly that needed medical attention after there mail started stacking up and he went and checked on them.

He's also called the police to due welfare checks on a couple others when something didn't seem right, or the resident nutter seemed unusually nutty.

Plus one resident that he found deceased in their driveway. Cops figured they had a heart attack walking up their steep driveway.

 

[Oaktree]

Saturday night, I ordered a pint of special furniture paint on Amazon with free Prime shipping. I didn't expect to see it soon. No problem.

UPS shows it was picked up in Cleveland yesterday noon, and was sent Overnight Air. It was delivered to me in rural California at 1pm today.

Not bad, Amazon!

How does Amazon's warehousing system work? I get that not every item is in every warehouse, but is it like Rock Auto where (for example) exhaust components are in Warehouse A, brakes in warehouse B, etc (or so it seems)?
I'm on the east coast and most of my orders tend to come from western states, you're in Calif. and you're getting orders shipped from Ohio.