Post office wtf?

[Jay 2K Winger]

FedEx and (UPS is even worse) will ring the bell, wait about 30 seconds and leave with a notice stuck on the door to come pick up the package.

You mean they actually ring your doorbell?!

They don't even seem to bother doing that here. They used to knock, but I think they eventually even stopped that. But they won't bother leaving a notice. They'll just leave the package there on the front step. Often in full view of the street.

[fireheart]

and I got a slight half-fail today.

They did respond, promising to talk to the guys who handle the mail for our area.

They left a note alright. except that it was a case of "here is the mail, we left it in <insert location here>"

[dalesys]

... "here is the mail, we left it in <insert location here>"

... so *that's* why I'm walking funny now...

[Ophbalance]

Back in the late 90s I lived in a little mining town. The row home had a mail box hanging on the front stoop. Now, when I was a kid, we never had post delivered. It wasn't until I had moved away that our house even had a postal address (for 911 upgrades). So up to this point I would have to go to the post office to get the mail at a PO Box. There was much to hate about our row home, but the mail box attached to it was not one of them. Except for one item.

The thing that truly annoyed the crap out of me was our post workers of that little mining town. I could be in the house, by the front door sitting on a couch, and hear the flap on the box open and close. I'd go check the mail and if I EVER had a package delivered by USPS there'd be a little yellow card there with "missed you while you were out. Come to the PO to pick up xx". Heck, they'd even do it to certified letters. I don't know if it was just policy for our little branch to only deliver letters or what, but that always annoyed me.

[EricKei]

I will admit that I reserve my greatest amount of bile for Big Brown/UPS -- While this may be a corporate policy; I really don't know -- They refuse to just hold a delivery at their distribution station unless a delivery attempt has already been made. They even refused me when I've tried calling several DAYS before the package is due to arrive, when I have a tracking number in my hot little hands >_< Back then, I lived maybe ten minutes from the center, and I wanted them to hold it for the reasons listed above -- essentially, I didn't want to risk the item getting stolen or waterlogged; once, it was because I was gonna be out of town for a few days and I was dealing with a delivery that should have been there much much sooner.

The best part is, said company's drivers have this wonderful habit: As soon as they pull onto a given street (even if it's 20 blocks long, with half an hour's worth of deliveries), they mark EVERYTHING on that street as "successfully delivered"...Thus, while they have a method in place for holding packages after an unsuccessful delivery, they won't do it unless a delivery gets marked as "successful," then (presumably) edited to "could not find" or something after the fact x.x

[suburbandecay]

The best part is, said company's drivers have this wonderful habit: As soon as they pull onto a given street (even if it's 20 blocks long, with half an hour's worth of deliveries), they mark EVERYTHING on that street as "successfully delivered"

When I worked at FedEx, that was a good way to get fired immediately, and without warning. Managers tended to take any falsification of company documents very, very seriously.

[EricKei]

I have been present for FedEx deliveries, both at home and at offices -- they DO wait until the package is "delivered" to scan it. UPS is the one who does that early-scan crap. FedEx drivers, in my experience, just park in no-parking zones all day long (Yes, I know they're not supposed to)...SOME of them drive too fast, but the same can be said of a similarly small number of truckers, pizza dudes, et al -- generally, the ones who drive too fast in their civilian lives, as well.

[evilfarmer]

The worst delivery I have had was a rather expensive shipment of carded wool that the USPS man left on my husbands car which was damp from a rain that just finished. My carport was not even 5 steps more. I live in East Tennessee if it has rained once that day it will rain again and again. Luckly my husband, who was home, saw it and grabbed it. He called the head Postman and we've never had a problem again but it was also apparently a substitute postman that was delivering then.

[bunrotha]

Delivered- one box, education.

The Royal Mail aren't too bad round our way, since they switched to these shopping trolley things instead of shoulder bags. Much less chance of heavy packages mysteriously having to be picked up from the post office.

My particular pain is a little company named after a form of alpine singing heard in The Sound of Music. Their trick when running late (and we're at the end of their round, I suspect, they turn up about 4pm) is to get out of the unmarked van, leg it to the door, "missed you" card in hand, knock lightly once (ignoring the bell) and push the card, almost sprinting back to the van.

Unluckily for the cowboy in question, my home office is directly above the front door. I can see everything in our little street.

First time, I walked downstairs, opened the door as the van sped off, saw nothing on the doorstep, rang the bell myself to check, and phoned the depot.

Second time, very next day, my GF was downstairs- I yelled to her, she wrenched the door open seconds after the card, called to the empty-handed guy halfway along our path, who stone cold ignored her and got in his van.

Third day, I was already dialing the (cordless) phone to their customer service centre when the van turned into the street. They answered to a running commentary of the process of me sprinting downstairs, and had them on the line as I yelled after him and was ignored.

I recounted the guy getting out of the van with no package in hand, described him, and his van including registration number, as he drove off. I politely informed the courier to return the package to sender because clearly the driver had no intention of actually delivering it, and then called the sender to tell them exactly what happened. Seems (according to alpine-singing-delivery depot manager) that pods for coffee machines are eminently resaleable in certain locations (wtf?), and he opined that the delivery paperwork would say my package was left on the front step.

Sadly, with no photographic or other evidence to settle the difference of opinion, and I guess thieving git didn't manage to turn in the fake delivery note and dispose of the package before he was nabbed, he was investigated but apparently not fired (seen him since), and another driver turned up with coffee pods the next day.

In about two months, I'll need more coffee pods. My camera awaits by the office window. Just in case.