A Txdigest poll: How's your mail service?

[Bob Of Burleson]

Eh, eh, eh?

[crackertoes]

We have a whiney carrier. His arm hurts. His knee hurts. It's too hot. It's too cold. It's too sunny. It's too cloudy. The sack is too heavy. His shoes bother him. His hand feels funny. He takes a lot of sick time. When he's gone, the service is good. When he's back, it just sucks.

[knotlazy]

Mine is awful. She will try to shove boxes too big into my mailbox just so she won't have to get out of the truck. She regularly leaves other people's mail in my box...wonder where mine goes? She once left a roll of 100 stamps in my box. I called the PO and reported it and they said leave it in your box, she will pick it up. She did...then left it again the next day. I was tempted to keep it but I'm a good Boy Scout Mom and took it to the PO and talked to the PostMaster. She regularly slams the doors shut on all our boxes which makes them pop open again....then she leaves and our mail blows around the street or gets wet. I have the PO on speed dial to make complaints but she is still on my route.

I rarely get mail on Saturday anyway (I think she is at the park reading my magazines instead of delivering) but I'd go with every other day delivery to get better deliveries.

Don't even get me started on the attitudes of the people who work the desk at the PO in town......

[FlashM]

Ours used to be a 10 when we had a different lady. She had to retire when her little vehicle was rear-ended when she was making a stop on a rural road and injured her back. She would bring the mail to our door when it was too big for the box and knock so she didn't disturb the napping babies (or mother).

A few years ago we were living in and sorting-out my deceased aunt's home in Chicago. I mentioned to one of her neighbors that my husband had mailed me something I'd forgotten. Without hesitation, he said, "You won't get it." And I never did.

Apparently Chicago's US Mail Service is exactly like the rest of Chicago (and the TSA) - utterly, completely corrupt.

[ann jusko]

IF you have service from Cedar Hill, I'll whole-heartedly agree with you. One morning, we received a huge box
(probably 100) of baby chicks that should have gone to Cedar Hill. I took them to Cedar Hill when I got off work, just because I didn't want them stressed or possibly dead. No one at Cedar Hill even said "Thanks". One guy told me "Throw them over there." I wasn't throwing baby chicks anywhere and told him so. If someone from another office brought something to us, we took it, gave it to the carrier, offered them coffee and if we have them, a donut. The post master always came to say "thank you", too. There were rude. I'd worked all night, drove from Greenville to Cedar Hill, was tired but getting them to their destination was important to me. BTW, no overtime $$ was paid. I volunteered.

[knotlazy]

IF you have service from Cedar Hill, I'll whole-heartedly agree with you. One morning, we received a huge box
(probably 100) of baby chicks that should have gone to Cedar Hill. I took them to Cedar Hill when I got off work, just because I didn't want them stressed or possibly dead. No one at Cedar Hill even said "Thanks". One guy told me "Throw them over there." I wasn't throwing baby chicks anywhere and told him so. If someone from another office brought something to us, we took it, gave it to the carrier, offered them coffee and if we have them, a donut. The post master always came to say "thank you", too. There were rude. I'd worked all night, drove from Greenville to Cedar Hill, was tired but getting them to their destination was important to me. BTW, no overtime $$ was paid. I volunteered.

I can probably describe the counter attendant who told you that. I'm sorry you had that experience. This town (that used to be a "little" town) has grown beyond being gracious. Only a few of us long termers left.

[GFB]

I have a different one nearly every day..they all suck.

[crocmommy]

The post office workers over here were quite rude last time I went over there right before closing (which is early) to mail something. Made me want to go back over there again at the same time with something really nasty to mail....

[kent]

I can't really complain about ours. We occasionally get the neighbor's, but not too often. If it's our regular guy, he will deliver even if my daughter's car is too close to the box - sub, no way. He will get out and leave a note, but won't put the mail in the box.

If I drop mail at work, it's picked up at 5pm and gets locally the next day. If I go to the post office across the street, 4-5 days for local.

My dad was a carrier until it hurt him too much to walk. He had to manually sort all of the mail on his route. Once he couldn't carry, he moved to the window. People would want him to put the stamp on their mail and he would just point to the table behind them and say "there's a perfect spot right behind you. Next!"

[Gigi]

We went on vacation for a week and a half this month. I stopped our mail using the official website and got the confirmation e-mail. When we came home our next door neighbor brought over all of our mail. It had been delivered every day. My husband printed out the confirmation and the e-mail informing us that the stop mail service was ending on our requested day. He took both of them to our postmaster who acted perplexed how this could possibly have happened. She said those online requests go directly to her desk. Husband asked her what we could do to assure that this would not happen again. Her response was to hand him the yellow stop mail postcard and said to fill it out and put it into our box 2 or 3 days ahead of a trip for the mailman to find. So next time we will do both the new and old fashioned ways.

[ann jusko]

I actually blame the union. It's very, very hard to fire someone (must be like the VA). We had workers who just didn't care. However, we also had many that really did care about getting the right mail to the right people promptly. A co-worker and I were cancelling Greenville mail at 5 am that had been dropped in overnight or early in the morning. The "new" postmaster threatened to fire us (yeah, right) if we ever did that again. "The standard is we only process mail that is in the drop before 5 pm." What?!!! I thought he was kidding. Paul said "I don't think he was kidding." He wasn't. I never trusted another person who came from the Dallas/Coppell offices. I wasn't allowed to help the regular clerks when mail was heavy. My job was "accountable mail". That is registered, certified or express mail. The union filed grievance if I did jump in to help. I'd be caught up with my work and there was no earthly reason not to help except the union wanted more clerks. I can't tell you how hard it is to get out of the union. I finally had a lawyer friend write a letter. I had followed the rules to the letter. I made sure I sent my letter certified, that it arrived within the 10 day window of my anniversary date, etc.

[bodine]

I can't complain about the service to the house. When I go to our local post office, the line is always to the door. Most of the line is caused by foreign students mailing stuff home who have no idea what they are doing. Not enough clerks, either.

I used to use the automated postal center in the lobby, but it started huge printing postage labels that overlapped the address box on my small priority mail boxes. So this is no longer a valid option for me.

The USPS is probably broken beyond repair.

[bodine]

Mine is awful. She will try to shove boxes too big into my mailbox just so she won't have to get out of the truck. She regularly leaves other people's mail in my box...wonder where mine goes? She once left a roll of 100 stamps in my box. I called the PO and reported it and they said leave it in your box, she will pick it up. She did...then left it again the next day. I was tempted to keep it but I'm a good Boy Scout Mom and took it to the PO and talked to the PostMaster. She regularly slams the doors shut on all our boxes which makes them pop open again....then she leaves and our mail blows around the street or gets wet. I have the PO on speed dial to make complaints but she is still on my route.

I rarely get mail on Saturday anyway (I think she is at the park reading my magazines instead of delivering) but I'd go with every other day delivery to get better deliveries.

Don't even get me started on the attitudes of the people who work the desk at the PO in town......

knot, when we lived in Cedar Hill, our female carrier was less than optimal. Until she found out that I had hired her daughter at my bank....

[knotlazy]

I used to use the automated postal center in the lobby, but it started huge printing postage labels that overlapped the address box on my small priority mail boxes. So this is no longer a valid option for me.

The USPS is probably broken beyond repair.

bodine..I use the automated postal center here all the time. LOVE it! I use it often enough that I can zip right through the automated stuff because I already know what it says and I know how to answer. There is an option that you must be missing that asks if the big postage label will fit on your package...you can say no and it will print a small one that is about the size of 2 or 3 stamps.

My complaint about using the apc is that the place to put the package after I bought the postage is WAY too small for some of my packages and is usually jammed shut by people who put too big packages in it. Then, to get my package mailed, I either have to ring the doorbell on the door that services the post office boxes (where there is usually a long wait to be opened and the attendant acts like I interrupted a very important meeting with the President), to THEN stand in line and hand it off to a grumpy clerk at the desk (which I REFUSE to do after I just got my postage myself at the apc), or just leave my package on the counter unattended. Seems to me they could have made a window that would at least take the largest Priority Mail box fit.

That all being said...I use USPS because it is the cheapest option and my packages arrive usually within the time frame I am quoted. I have never had to make an insurance claim.

Last month...I ordered something from Amazon Prime on a Thursday and the door bell rang on Sunday Morning at 10 am....the USPS delivered the package. We were shocked.

[bodine]

I used to use the automated postal center in the lobby, but it started huge printing postage labels that overlapped the address box on my small priority mail boxes. So this is no longer a valid option for me.

The USPS is probably broken beyond repair.

bodine..I use the automated postal center here all the time. LOVE it! I use it often enough that I can zip right through the automated stuff because I already know what it says and I know how to answer. There is an option that you must be missing that asks if the big postage label will fit on your package...you can say no and it will print a small one that is about the size of 2 or 3 stamps.

My complaint about using the apc is that the place to put the package after I bought the postage is WAY too small for some of my packages and is usually jammed shut by people who put too big packages in it. Then, to get my package mailed, I either have to ring the doorbell on the door that services the post office boxes (where there is usually a long wait to be opened and the attendant acts like I interrupted a very important meeting with the President), to THEN stand in line and hand it off to a grumpy clerk at the desk (which I REFUSE to do after I just got my postage myself at the apc), or just leave my package on the counter unattended. Seems to me they could have made a window that would at least take the largest Priority Mail box fit.

That all being said...I use USPS because it is the cheapest option and my packages arrive usually within the time frame I am quoted. I have never had to make an insurance claim.

Last month...I ordered something from Amazon Prime on a Thursday and the door bell rang on Sunday Morning at 10 am....the USPS delivered the package. We were shocked.

LOL. Our local machines must be programmed differently, or settings changed, because my choice has been "if label will not fit" is to take the package to the counter.

I used to run a lot of eBay auctions that ended at night or on the weekend; lots of folks pay immediately at the end of the auction; I would take the box to the APC and mail them within minutes of receiving payment.

Many Sunday nights the bin would be so full that the door to the package drop would not open. I also knew when the APC performed its nightly shut down and how long it took, and scheduled my trips to the post office around those times.