The Post Office is lazy, but Amazon keeps employing them.

[makattak]

At least it is here.

Twice in the past two months, I've had "Heavy" packages from Amazon. (One was two packs each of diapers and wipes. Another is the Christmas present from my wife to me.)

Both times, the postal service has reported to Amazon that "Delivery was attempted" way earlier than they ever try to deliver at my house and cite the reason for failure was "Mailbox is full". (As evidenced by the updates I get through Amazon on my phone.) As a note, my mailbox is never full and the above packages would never fit in ANY mailbox.

UPS and FedEx have both delivered similar packages without an issue.

Each time, the USPS has indicated that I need to come to the post office to pick up the package. Each time, I've contacted Amazon to complain about this arrangement and the Post office agrees to ACTUALLY deliver the package.

So far,  this has only happened twice, but it has happened every time with a heavy package. I'm rather surprised that Amazon is continuing to use the USPS.



I doubt complaining about this here will help, but I'm just annoyed and want to rant.  

[K Frame]

Postal Worker's Union.

[Ben]

They must have some weird rules. I get rural delivery (though the guy drives a USPS mail truck vs a personal vehicle). My mailbox is 1/4 mile from the house* out on the county road. I actually bought an extra large box so he could drop Amazon packages in it. Otherwise, if the package doesn't fit, he drives down the road to the house, then sits in the truck and honks the horn until I come out. Though a couple of times when I wasn't home, I've found the package sitting on a chair on the porch.

UPS and Fedex both just drive to the house, leave the package on the porch, and ring the bell without waiting for someone to come out. The delivery guys that bother me are the contractors that Amazon has started using that show up in their own vehicles. I have found packages sitting on the far edge of the driveway 50' from the house, and also left there in bad weather. I also a couple of times found packages sitting on the rear bumper and once in the bed of the truck. I have no idea what those knuckleheads are thinking.


* While we don't have any real mailbox theft problems, I've always wanted to install one of those wireless sensors in the mailbox to let me know when the mail has been delivered. I can actually get a wireless signal with my phone at the mailbox this time of the year, but when the corn is up in the Summer, I barely get anything 100 yards from the house. That's also the time of the year I can't see the mailbox from the house.

[dogmush]

I suspect it depends a lot on your letter carrier.  I would call the Postal Inspectors hotline with dates, times and documentation.

I have a rural route letter carrier, but she is awesome.  Mail is delivered on time, boxes that don't fit in the mail box are driven up the driveway and left by the door. My UPS guy is also pretty good, where as the Fed Ex guy that does my route is kinda an idiot.

[slingshot]

... Both times, the postal service has reported to Amazon that "Delivery was attempted" way earlier than they ever try to deliver at my house and cite the reason for failure was "Mailbox is full". (As evidenced by the updates I get through Amazon on my phone.) As a note, my mailbox is never full and the above packages would never fit in ANY mailbox.

UPS and FedEx have both delivered similar packages without an issue.

Each time, the USPS has indicated that I need to come to the post office to pick up the package. Each time, I've contacted Amazon to complain about this arrangement and the Post office agrees to ACTUALLY deliver the package.

The USPS folks always just leave a package on my front porch or occasionally in the garage if the door is completely up.  Actually it's the UPS folks that do the garage drop versus USPS.  They usually include the other mail that was to be delivered that day.  The service is good and I think their fixed price two-day Priority Mail packages are a wonderful bargain in today's world when comparing to other options with no better reliability.

[MillCreek]

My regular letter carrier is awesome, and she delivers packages to the front porch when they won't fit in the parcel box of the community mailbox stand.  When I am working from home, I can see her driving up, and she loves it when I take the dog out to see her.

[Hawkmoon]

At least it is here.

Twice in the past two months, I've had "Heavy" packages from Amazon. (One was two packs each of diapers and wipes. Another is the Christmas present from my wife to me.)

Both times, the postal service has reported to Amazon that "Delivery was attempted" way earlier than they ever try to deliver at my house and cite the reason for failure was "Mailbox is full". (As evidenced by the updates I get through Amazon on my phone.) As a note, my mailbox is never full and the above packages would never fit in ANY mailbox.

UPS and FedEx have both delivered similar packages without an issue.

Each time, the USPS has indicated that I need to come to the post office to pick up the package. Each time, I've contacted Amazon to complain about this arrangement and the Post office agrees to ACTUALLY deliver the package.

So far,  this has only happened twice, but it has happened every time with a heavy package. I'm rather surprised that Amazon is continuing to use the USPS.



I doubt complaining about this here will help, but I'm just annoyed and want to rant.  

Much the same thing happened to me a few days ago. Amazon tracking said the USPS attempted delivery on Thursday, the day before Veterans Day. There was no notice of attempted delivery either in my mailbox or on my door. Friday, of course, there was no service due to the holiday. Saturday evening they claimed the package had been left in my mailbox at 8:30 p.m. I went out and looked at 9:30 -- I also walked up and down the road to check the neighbors on each side. No package -- and it wouldn't have fit in any of the mailboxes anyway. And there's no way a USPS rural route delivery drone is out delivering packages at 20:30 on a Saturday evening.

The package was finally delivered mid-afternoon on Sunday. Dropped in the middle of the driveway, because it was too big to fit in the mailbox.

[Andiron]

If you  think that arrangement is bad,  wait until something you order is delivered by one of those fly by night bullshit contractors.  They blast up your driveway in a shitty minivan or econobox,  chuck the package wherever and take off again.  First time I saw one I thought were were getting panhandled or reconed for a robbery.

[Ben]

First time I saw one I thought were were getting panhandled or reconed for a robbery.

Ha ha - that's what I thought too. 

[Andiron]

Postal Worker's Union.

You said that and my mind went immediately to the golems from Going Postal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett%27s_Going_Postal

[Andiron]

Ha ha - that's what I thought too. 

Mine just act shady,  luckily no bumper/truck bed deliveries 

Seems like they get the same degenerates that deliver unwanted phone books every spring to backup Fedex/UPS/ USPS during the holidays.

[HankB]

I got a new letter carrier about 6 or 8 months ago. Since then, I redeliver neighbor's mail a couple of times a week, and I've had a guy one street over ring my bell and redeliver MY mail.

I saw the letter carrier last week put my mail in my box . . . and she dropped a small Amazon package next to the box. It EASILY would have fit IN the box.

Would it be improper of me to say something negative about diversity hires? 

[RoadKingLarry]

I wonder how much of those kind of problems are regional culture issues?
The only place I've ever had craptastic USPS service was in Connecticut. Sometimes we'd go 2 days with no delivery then they'd make 2 rounds on the third day.
Everyplace else I've lived mail service has been pretty much exactly what it's supposed to be.

[mtnbkr]

RKL, I think you're on to something.  I've been in my current home for 15 years and we've always gotten good service from our carriers.  In fact, they've gone out of their way to be helpful multiple times, such as bringing large/heavy packages into the house when my wife was pregnant.

We have an issue with a local business' mail being delivered to us because it has the same street number and same first letter of the street name.  Apparently, the mail is sorted and bundled before the carrier gets it, so they don't notice the error unless they go through each piece of mail individually, which is not possible with their schedule.  When I was going into the office, I could drop it off by the business on the way in, but with me working from home these days, we just write "Wrong Address" on the envelope and put it back in the box.

Chris 

[freakazoid]

If you  think that arrangement is bad,  wait until something you order is delivered by one of those fly by night bullshit contractors.  They blast up your driveway in a shitty minivan or econobox,  chuck the package wherever and take off again.  First time I saw one I thought were were getting panhandled or reconed for a robbery.

Was it this guy? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xP75qj3nTU

[Andiron]

Was it this guy? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xP75qj3nTU

 

Close.   I actually have a basketcase 47 chevy that looks like that.  So many projects so little time.

[Hawkmoon]

And the USPS strikes again.

On Wednesday, my rural carrier left a pile of mail in the mailbox, and a package that was too large to fit in the box lying on the ground, leaned up against the mailbox post. My house is set back from the street by 100 yards, and the mailbox isn't visible from the front door or the kitchen window of the house. I found the package at 2:00 p.m. today (Thursday), when I drove out on my way to a friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner. It's a miracle and a blessing that nobody decided to snatch it in the almost 24 hours it was there. I couldn't see it from the house, but it was in plain view to everyone driving through on my street -- and since my street is a through street that connects two state roads, there's a LOT of traffic that goes through in any 24-hour period.

[grampster]

It used to be hard to get a job at the Post Office.  I took the generic clerk/carrier exam in 1962.  My dad, who was a postal clerk at the time, trained me up on how the exam played out.  There were chain questions.  If you made a mistake on one of them, that error contributed to repeated errors on all the questions after in that series.  It was not an easy exam and not many passed.  Oddly, I passed the postal exam and the police department exam and got notified that I passed both on the same day.

The exam for Clerk my dad took, required a ton of memorization to prepare for the exam.  Test takers had to be able to sort mail by address to sub station and what carrier for particular numbers on that street if it was a long street.  He set up several boxes with pigeon holes for sub stations and carriers and reduced the multiple pages of addresses, sub stations and carriers to 3X5 cards and practiced and studied and sorted for weeks before he took the exam.

I think now a days if you know how to spell your name correctly, you get the job.  No offense to the good employees.  We have a couple of good ones.  They converse, smile, wave and bring the mail to the door if they have a package that won't fit in the box out by the road.