USPS at its finest ...

[CountryGent]

So, I shipped a fairly expensive technology component some time back. Almost a month later, it shows up at the midwest address it went to. And by show up, I mean it looks like it underwent the Ace Ventura treatment:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YrpmZFixp0


The machine inside is completely destroyed. I tried, in vain, close to a dozen times to file a claim online. Did it work? Of course not. No browser, no device, no combination of data elements would get it to work. So I called the 800 number and let it sit on speaker for a near eternity to get to a human. She said she'd "escalate" the case, which means I get a stock email stating such, and that I can call yet another 800 number to request a paper form, circa 2025, to mail in. Or I can ask at the local PO. (A week later I got another stock email with a canned list of things to try, which I already did, but they did stamp it "resolved".)

I go to the local PO. Do they have the form? No. Have they ever heard of the form? No. Does the Postmaster know what that is? No. After burning a surprising amount of time on their incompetence I tell them I got to go and I'm told they'll eventually figure out what it is and will put it in my box. The next day there is a grainy, monochrome print out of the contact page and 800 # that I already talked to with a highlighter line through it.

I called the other 800 and got a "Oh, yah, the online form hasn't worked in a while", but she's mailing me out a couple of copies. This is a filing system that couldn't be more pedestrian from a technological standpoint.

Still waiting on the paper form, so we'll see. Sweet, merciful, crap, on the eve of 2026 this is the postal system? Pure brilliance all around.

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[dplev4]

Well. There's a reason for the saying…"going postal."

 

[roseburger]

 

[ma96782]

Awwwww......Come On Man
It's not like I even got a little Christmas Thank You from anyone in your household.



Aloha, Mark

 

[TTSX]

Look man, you chose to use a government service instead of a private, for profit ... Oh wait, UPS and FedEx suck gorilla sack and gargle the glue just as bad. I'm now waiting on a FedEx package that was supposed to be second day air delivered last Wednesday. It was "out for delivery" Friday. When I've used UPS, they refused to keep my package at a hub and let me pick up in person. Well, they deliver only while I'm at work and I already got the "last attempt" notice on my door so I had to take a day off work just to get a package. My day off cost me less than the package value, but still. Every option is a bad one.

 

[CountryGent]

LOL. Yah, normally, I'd avoid DotGov, but around here UPS and FedEx manages to be as bad, if not worse. (And not just here, there was that wild ride to France that a little Webley I bought from Simpsons, before both seller and buyer gave up. A package going from Illinois to Oregon ending up about 15 miles from Paris ... priceless. )

 

[gmerkt]

That business with the 800 number has been going on for at least twenty years. Every post office used to have a local phone, of course. In one of their waves of "cost containment," they decided that not answering local phones was one way of saving money. So they created the central phone centers. Which were way less than ideal, because they weren't able to deal with local or specific issues. They could pass along messages. Which often went unanswered because people on the local end didn't have time to address them. Formerly, offices of a certain level had an office secretary, in part whose job it was to answer the phone and respond to routine correspondence. Also to plug holes in the budget, those secretary jobs were eliminated.

Re. claims. Those all used to be handled at the local level. Larger offices had a claims clerk, whose job (or maybe part of it) was to process those claims that were presented in that particular office. I suppose in smaller offices, a postmaster might even have done it. But as the PO started slashing positions and budget hours, processing claims was an early casualty. Without a local employee to do it, the claims started piling up, unprocessed. Somewhere along the line, somebody up the command figured out that they could process claims like they did phone calls.

I've only submitted one postal claim since I started selling stuff online circa 2007. That was done online and it went fairly quickly with no problems. But it was only a $15 claim. I shudder to think what a claim for a significant amount would entail. I've shipped six or eight long guns this year via the USPS. I always sweat them out until I get confirmation that they've been delivered.

Everything in the PO is governed by the concept of "hours." Each hour costs X amount per in labor cost. This is the only thing they know. If you've gone to the PO and been stuck in a long customer line waiting for your turn with a counter clerk and there is only one on duty, it's because of "hours." It's been decided that there are only so many hours available in the budget to work that line, no matter how long it gets.

 

[gmerkt]

I've never been able to communicate with the VA using government cyber systems, either. The last time I tried to do it, I first had to set up a basic US Government web account. With that, I could set up another one at the VA "portal." This was the obstacle that I could never get past. Because one of the authentication steps included providing a picture of some sort of ID. Like a passport. I took picture after picture of my passport with two different kinds of cameras. None of which the system liked. Each one of these steps was timed, that is, I had X amount of time to load the picture then it would kick me out of the system. I finally gave up.

I wanted to set up this account in order to file an add-on to my disability claim. Not being able to do it online, I decided to do it on paper. Which I took down to the regional center. The office that I was directed to was closed and locked. I was sitting there wondering what to do when a VA employee wearing a tie came by and asked me if he could do anything for me. It turned out he was some kind of ombudsman (trouble shooter), of all things. He took my paperwork and mailed it off to Minnesota for me. But this process left me feeling like I was the last guy in the country submitting something on paper.

 

[gmerkt]

I should add that diminishing customer service is not restricted to the post office. I've experienced the same institutional thing over the past nearly 40 years in my business with Bank of America.

 

[bionic knees]

A couple years ago my dad, "93" at the time wanted to see what the V.A. would do for him. VERY reluctantly I set up an appointment downtown to go "see what they had to offer" dad is legally blind and mostly deaf which he attributes partially to working on aircraft carriers during the Korea conflict. Anyway, really long story short the hoops to be jumped and the mountain of paperwork that needed to be done he finally said screw it. Which I told him from the start is exactly what would happen.

 

[gmerkt]

A couple years ago my dad, "93" at the time wanted to see what the V.A. would do for him. VERY reluctantly I set up an appointment downtown to go "see what they had to offer" dad is legally blind and mostly deaf which he attributes partially to working on aircraft carriers during the Korea conflict. Anyway, really long story short the hoops to be jumped and the mountain of paperwork that needed to be done he finally said screw it. Which I told him from the start is exactly what would happen.

That's too bad. My experiences with them have been largely positive. But not in the way of trying to do anything online.

 

[nammac]

I should add that diminishing customer service is not restricted to the post office. I've experienced the same institutional thing over the past nearly 40 years in my business with Bank of America.

Yea, BoA is something else. I remember going into the local branch, hadn't been in there in many years. I had a simple request, turn this $10 bill into a roll of quarters…. Do you have an account sir? Yes I do, is an account required to get a roll of quarters? Yes sir, I'd be happy to help you with that….

I walked out muttering to myself, what has happened to the America I grew up in. Need a danger account to turn a $10 bill into a roll of quarters…

 

[gmerkt]

Yea, BoA is something else. I remember going into the local branch, hadn't been in there in many years. I had a simple request, turn this $10 bill into a roll of quarters…. Do you have an account sir? Yes I do, is an account required to get a roll of quarters? Yes sir, I'd be happy to help you with that….

Wait until you try to deposit a single quarter. For which they will require ID because it's a "cash" transaction. Really.

 

[Provincial]

After going through the process to apply for a Federal government program, I was asked by the local representative for suggestions on how they could improve the process. My response was:

You need to have an initial questionaire, which would have two questions, with yes or no answers.
1. Have you ever experienced a colonoscopy?
2. Did you enjoy it?

If you answered Yes to both questions, proceed to fill out the rest of the paperwork.

 

[arakboss]

USPS has screwed the pooch again. My $270+ worth of blem BCGs were delivered today. So I go down to our locked mail boxes and no package. I suspect they delivered them to complex next door, this has happened numerous times before. So I run down to PO and explain the situation, it took 45 min for them to tell me they'll look into it and give me a call. Btards.

 

[gmerkt]

USPS has screwed the pooch again. My $270+ worth of blem BCGs were delivered today. So I go down to our locked mail boxes and no package. I suspect they delivered them to complex next door,

This issue right here is one of the holes in the tracking system. And not just USPS. That is, records show delivery, but an erroneous delivery can be difficult to prove. It can screw up a claims application because records show delivery.

 

[arakboss]

This issue right here is one of the holes in the tracking system. And not just USPS. That is, records show delivery, but an erroneous delivery can be difficult to prove. It can screw up a claims application because records show delivery.

Yep, supposedly they can geo track it. But if the neighbor gets to it first, it may be gone for good. One time the mailman retrieved it before it got collected by the neighbor. One time the neighbor brought it over. But there was at least one misdelivered package that never made it to me.

If the PO doesn't rectify it by Friday, I will go over to the other complex and knock on the door of the same number unit as ours and see if they got the package.

 

[nammac]

This issue right here is one of the holes in the tracking system. And not just USPS. That is, records show delivery, but an erroneous delivery can be difficult to prove. It can screw up a claims application because records show delivery.

Suffered this myself, a missing Christmas gift, vendor shows it as delivered. Same thing, mail locker, but I never received it. At first the vendor didn't want to reship, but when I threatened to have the charges challenged, they suddenly want to reship with signature and proof of delivery.

USPS should abandon their DEI hiring and hire intelligent individuals.

 

[Stomper]

Well. There's a reason for the saying…"going postal."

 

[CountryGent]

Funny this thread brought back up; just got done with a refund hassle due to USPS. Package shipping from Rhode Island to Oregon. Three weeks since shipping, still stuck in Anchorage, Alaska. Another bullseye!