Rant on shipping

[kenmbz]

My dad the rural carrier still sends hand written checks to Atlanta Postal Credit Union for deposit. A lot of them never make it there.

I had a check stolen out of a road side city mailbox and washed to the tune of over $3K. Luckily after filing a police report I was reimbursed.

That's really sad, we had mail stolen from the box by a local PO and the police almost caught the people who did it. Had to stop the chase when they got to an area with too many people.
The perp dumped the mail out the window, most of it was recovered.
The same car had been reported previous weeks in other towns.

 

[JethroB]

I pay $130 annually to rent a large PO Box at the post office. Rural home (street side) delivery is available but I prefer to have a secure box and pickup point for mail & packages.

My question: Why do we have to rent a PO Box when home delivery is free? I asked our postmaster and she didn’t know.

 

[Pixguy]

I pay $130 annually to rent a large PO Box at the post office. Rural home (street side) delivery is available but I prefer to have a secure box and pickup point for mail & packages.

My question: Why do we have to rent a PO Box when home delivery is free? I asked our postmaster and she didn’t know.

We get it free because they don't deliver to our home but they'll only give the smallest box for free

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I have the largest standard mailbox on a post by my driveway. The carrier appreciates that a large shoebox (boot size) will fit. I haven't had much problem with mail theft. I did lose a couple parcels about 3 years ago, but good luck to the thieves. The parcels were electronic components useless to anyone without spare IC sockets, a collection of caps and resistors, and a project in mind. Good luck fencing those.

 

[Oaktree]

I did lose a couple parcels about 3 years ago, but good luck to the thieves. The parcels were electronic components useless to anyone without spare IC sockets, a collection of caps and resistors, and a project in mind. Good luck fencing those.

We used to have a substitute carrier who'd sometimes misdeliver my mail to someone else on my route (same first name, same street #). Was always able to get them by contacting the PO, they'd check the GPS reading when it was scanned delivered and would retrieve it.
Not once did the person who got my package by mistake ever lift a finger to do anything. If I hadn't gotten the PO involved, he probably would have kept it.

Whenever I've gotten someone else's mail I always put it back in the mailbox for the carrier to deal with, or if it's a nearby neighbor drop it off myself.

 

[ultrarunner]

I bring it to the house and they do the same... similar address for house number and part of the street name.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

I pay $130 annually to rent a large PO Box at the post office. Rural home (street side) delivery is available but I prefer to have a secure box and pickup point for mail & packages.

My question: Why do we have to rent a PO Box when home delivery is free? I asked our postmaster and she didn’t know.

The post office is mandated to deliver Mail. They have to lease space for post offices, and space costs money.

 

[ultrarunner]

The post office is mandated to deliver Mail. They have to lease space for post offices, and space costs money.

Grandma refused to pay for a box so she always had to go to the counter for her mail and it was labeled General Delivery.

That changed when they started home delivery.

 

[dodge man]

I had this show up in the mail box yesterday. It turned out to be a passport. It smelled like Windex or something similar must have leaked all over it. The passport smells a little but will be ok. It was so bad they stuffed it in a plastic bag.
View attachment IMG_3759.jpegView attachment IMG_3758.jpeg

 

[bdhsfz6]

Rural mail delivery is always a crap shoot around here. Mail carriers are always changing and don't stay long enough to learn the route. We frequently get mail addressed to others and just put it in the proper box ourselves. Unfortunately, there is one individual on the route that can't be bothered, and just throws it out. He won't even take the time to write "wrong address" on the envelope and put it back in his box for the mail carrier to sort out. We've lost several important pieces of mail because of this.

It seems wherever you go, there is always a crank like this to deal with.

 

[Jstpssng]

My question: Why do we have to rent a PO Box when home delivery is free? I asked our postmaster and she didn’t know.

I pay for a PO box because when I moved here I was often gone for weeks at a time. What always gets me though is that people have home delivery even though their mailbox is 50 feet of the post office.

 

[garry1p]

Lately Amazon ships UPS and UPS last tracking notice says it has been given to the local USPS for delivery.
That adds a minimum of two days for delivery.

 

[ponytug]

I had this show up in the mail box yesterday. It turned out to be a passport. It smelled like Windex or something similar must have leaked all over it. The passport smells a little but will be ok. It was so bad they stuffed it in a plastic bag.
View attachment 1576362View attachment 1576363

Yikes! I don't know what leaked on it, but it seems to me that a yellow residue isn't Windex. Is it waxy?

I hope that your passport turns out to be ok.

All the best,

Peter

 

[dodge man]

Yikes! I don't know what leaked on it, but it seems to me that a yellow residue isn't Windex. Is it waxy?

I hope that your passport turns out to be ok.

All the best,

Peter

I think what you see is from the shipping envelope falling apart.

 

[Tinhack]

Lately Amazon ships UPS and UPS last tracking notice says it has been given to the local USPS for delivery.
That adds a minimum of two days for delivery.

Amazon uses UPS, USPS and FedEx around here. USPS for light items from 3rd-party sellers. UPS and FedEx for heavy items (not trucked). And their own fleet for run of the mill packages. They also use a lot of contract private party deliveries. I get those for mostly next day morning deliveries. These folks use their own cars.

I'm waiting on an 80lb. tool coming by FedEx. I hope it arrives in one piece.

 

[scootr]

Domestic shipping costs are going up again and again.
Don't even get me started on import shipping.

 

[Dftodd]

Rural mail delivery is always a crap shoot around here. Mail carriers are always changing and don't stay long enough to learn the route. We frequently get mail addressed to others and just put it in the proper box ourselves. Unfortunately, there is one individual on the route that can't be bothered, and just throws it out. He won't even take the time to write "wrong address" on the envelope and put it back in his box for the mail carrier to sort out. We've lost several important pieces of mail because of this.

It seems wherever you go, there is always a crank like this to deal with.

I came home the other day and found a really large box on our landing for the ramp to our home.

Box was labeled 80lbs.

I happened to be on the phone with my wife, so I asked what she had ordered???

She stated she didn't order anything. So I looked at the tag and realized it was for our neighbors who just installed a gate close to their home on there long driveway.

I was out walking the pooch a few minutes later and ran into the neighbor leaving. So I flagged them down and let them know the package was there.

So they whipped in and snagged it.

If I hadn't seen them, I was gonna slide the box into the bed of the truck and drive it down to their place.

They informed me the package was for their son and he had also ordered a living room set that hasn't been delivered yet

I really hope i don't come home one day and find his furniture on my landing

 

[goeduck]

I pay for a PO box because when I moved here I was often gone for weeks at a time. What always gets me though is that people have home delivery even though their mailbox is 50 feet of the post office.

Around here mail theft is a huge problem, so most people have PO Boxes for important stuff and locking mailboxes for everything that seems to need to go to a physical address. Even some locking mailboxes are reported as getting stolen recently.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yep… here too.

Those that can have mail slots in the garage.

The rest of us have boxes that do get pilfered.

 

[lman]

No problems with mail theft here. We just use a regular mailbox at the road. Keep your thieves out on the left coast.