bummed: postal mail

[shootingstar]

Each year, I trust the postal service less and less.

Methinks I had a gift card stolen. It was for my birthday.
In fact I knew someone who did work for the postal service who explained how stuff could get stolen before it gets to recipient.
Maybe now everyone uses email, etc.,hence there's less mail pieces for them to deal with ...Whatever. :mad::(

[limewave]

My parents sent cards to all the grandkids for Valentine's Day. They put $2 in each card. Only half the cards were delivered with the cash still inside :mad:

[NbyNW]

Don't get me started about Canada Post ....

[zoom-zoom]

I recall a news report a while back about this...cash and GCs stolen in the mail. Of course the USPS wouldn't cop to any guilt. :rolleyes:

[Irulan]

Don't get me started about Canada Post ....

hahaha
I was just going to say the same about USPS.

[Owlie]

Funny. My grandmother used to send us cash for birthdays/Christmas ($20+), and it never got stolen. (She's since switched to sending my parents a check and telling them to distribute it.)

[Kiwi Stoker]

Most of the time I can feel plastic cards in letters. I wish that banks, people etc would find someway to put in card or something so you cannot feel a credit card sized piece of plastic.

Really it's like putting a $20 note on the table in front of someone and leaving the room.

[ny biker]

I don't know anything about Canada's mail service, but for US mail you should report theft (including mail delivered with contents missing) to the Postal Inspectors.

https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/contactUs/filecomplaint.aspx

The USPS is a huge organization employing a huge number of people. Unfortunately not all of them are honest. If incidences of theft are reported to the Postal Inspectors, they can look for patterns that can help them track down the criminals.

[Koronin]

Hence the reason I've kept a bank account in Ohio. That way my parents can just deposit money in that account and I can get to it without money/checks/gift cards ever going through the mail.

[Pedal Wench]

I attempted to return a purchase to the UK by US then international mail. For some reason, they never picked it up at the post office since I sent it by registered mail, so it was returned by mail. I shipped on 11/16/11, it started its return journey on 12/3/11. I just got the returned item on 2/16/12, exactly 3 months after I shipped it.

[NbyNW]

hahaha
I was just going to say the same about USPS.

Having experienced both ....


CP lost/damaged more of my mail in 2 years than USPS has my entire life.
CP charges extra to pick up mail from residential addresses. In the middle of the city, at addresses they are making deliveries to, anyway.
For a fee, CP will forward mail to the U.S. USPS does not have a comparable service to forward mail to Canada.
Actually, CP charges for mail forwarding anywhere in Canada. I have never had to pay in the US to have my mail forwarded to another US address.
CP charges you for Hold Mail service; USPS does not.


Even with the budget cuts and layoffs that I've seen happen at USPS over the decades, for what they charge the service is good value. Yes, I've had my share of deliveries gone wrong, and while inconvenient and unfortunate, not the end of the world.

[badger]

the worst for me was when FedEx "lost" one of my packages (lost, my eye, how does a box get lost? it got stolen is what happened). It had a tracking number and got stuck at Mississauga and never advanced from there. And when it came time to filing a claim, they only paid $100 Canadian (maximum allowable), even though it was paid in US funds and cost more than $150.

I recently sent a Starbucks gift card to my friend via Canada Post, and fearing that employees can feel a card and be tempted, I put in a very stiff cardboard so you couldn't feel anything inside. She got the card.

[shootingstar]

I would never send cash through the mail.

Confession: my sister found the gift card still at the bottom of her shopping bag! I asked her to get a refund for herself and forfeit the gift goods card for my birthday. I'll get a gift eventually.


Actually, CP charges for mail forwarding anywhere in Canada. I have never had to pay in the US to have my mail forwarded to another US address.
CP charges you for Hold Mail service; USPS does not.

Since I have moved several times within Canada, with the most recent relocation within last 18 months:

If one is moving to new home address, yes one pays CP a flat fee to have mail forwarded xxx days (on their web site) automatically to new address. That's been in effect for last few decades.

I am not certain what hold mail service is. But I've had packages that were held at the local postal office free, for a limited number of days after they attempted delivery. Then I pick it up, etc.


Honest, I'm not an online shopper because I like to immediately touch, feel or wear something before I buy. I dislike time wasted on returns/refunds. So I don't know the range of mail, courier problems.

[Tri Girl]

Many times, with packages, thieves will follow postal workers (or UPS drivers) around and when they leave packages on doorstops- the thieves will come after them and steal the packages. Happens more than you know. If you're ever worried about it, always ask the sender to get a signature. More of a pain for you to get it, but at least you know you'll get it. My DH works for the post office as a carrier and more than once he's caught people stealing packages off of porches (and not always in bad neighorhoods- the thieves know rich people order good stuff). There's also been times when a supervisor has asked if he left a package at so-and-so house and he says yes, but the package wasn't there when the people returned home. He wouldn't risk his job and prosecution on a package- but an opportunist thief would have no problem with it.

Sucks, tho. :(

[zoom-zoom]

Wanna hear the most tragic story ever? A friend of mine lost her husband (he was only in his mid-30s) to cancer on Christmas day a few years back. The married at the JP <2 weeks earlier, on their way to the hospital. Her wedding/engagement ring was a gorgeous Tiffany platinum setting. The diamond had fallen out and she miraculously found it where she had filled up her gas tank.

So she takes it to Tiffany and they ship it back to her. When the UPS guy hands her the box she discovers that a hole had been carefully cut in the bottom of the box and the small ring box inside removed. The shipping box in no way identified it as having come from Tiffany, so someone within UPS was aware of who the shipper was and managed to remove the contents.

It was insured, so the ring was replaced--but it wasn't the ring and stone that her late husband had purchased for her so shortly before passing. It was insult added to injury.

[Irulan]

Wanna hear the most tragic story ever? A friend of mine lost her husband (he was only in his mid-30s) to cancer on Christmas day a few years back. The married at the JP <2 weeks earlier, on their way to the hospital. Her wedding/engagement ring was a gorgeous Tiffany platinum setting. The diamond had fallen out and she miraculously found it where she had filled up her gas tank.

So she takes it to Tiffany and they ship it back to her. When the UPS guy hands her the box she discovers that a hole had been carefully cut in the bottom of the box and the small ring box inside removed. The shipping box in no way identified it as having come from Tiffany, so someone within UPS was aware of who the shipper was and managed to remove the contents.

It was insured, so the ring was replaced--but it wasn't the ring and stone that her late husband had purchased for her so shortly before passing. It was insult added to injury.

I had this happen iwth a FedEx package containing a custom backpack. I shipped it from the Fedex facility and it was opened enroute and resealed with a new label and (less) weight over the original label. I don't know how anyone would have known what was in it, but it did happen. They paid the claim but the pack was irrepelaceable.

No shipper is 100% infallible. I ship anywhere from 30-100 packages a month with my business.

With the USPS though... they make it so difficult.
- The recent rate change: you cannot download a PDF chart off the web. It doesn't exist.( The web support people said, Oh we should have that, what a good idea!!) You have to drive to the post office and stand in line to get one. It still doesn't make sense to the average layperson. They keep telling me, you can use the online calculator. Sorry folks but that takes 10x longer to fill in a web page than is does to put something on the scale and look at a chart on the wall.
-making labels on the USPS website takes 10x longer than doing it on the UPS website.
-You can't put a signature release on file for deliveries that require a signature. You can do this with Fedex/UPS; you can also sign the tag and the guy will bring the item back the next day. USPS? If you miss the guy with the signature tag, you have to go to the post office and stand in line.
-OMG, the lines at the counter. The glacial pace at which they consistently move.
-overall complexity. I had a packaged returned to me because, although it was the same size/color/font/logo as a "flat rate box" it was some other kind of USPS box. Jeez louweez, can't they just send it on already?

And here's the one that really gets me. The USPS makes most of its money processing junk mail. Therefore, a constant deluge of junk mail is important so people don't lose their jobs. I've read many quotes to that effect. Sorry, I don't get that. I should have to sort my mail over the recycling bin or throw it away to keep someone in a job? Surely there's another way to do it....

[Koronin]

If a thief every stole one of the packages I get they'd be highly dissappointed as most of the packages I get are for work and typically contain ads that get put up in grocery, drug, or dollar stores. Nothing they could sell or anything else.

[NbyNW]

I am not certain what hold mail service is. But I've had packages that were held at the local postal office free, for a limited number of days after they attempted delivery. Then I pick it up, etc.


Say you were going to be out of town for a week or two, or a month, or as is often the case in Alberta, 6 months. And you don't have someone to check your mailbox for you, or for whatever reason you don't want to inconvenience a friend by asking them to empty your mailbox every day. You can fill out a request with the postal service to automatically hold ALL of your mail at whatever postal location normally serves your address. It's a great alternative to having your postal carrier stuff and overflow your box and then leave a pissy note about how your box is full, and having your mail spilling out of your box while you are away, alerting any passing opportunists that you are out of town and no one is looking in on your home.

And then you can opt to pick it up or have it delivered when you return.

So, CP charges for this service; USPS does not.

[shootingstar]

Say you were going to be out of town for a week or two, or a month, or as is often the case in Alberta, 6 months. And you don't have someone to check your mailbox for you, or for whatever reason you don't want to inconvenience a friend by asking them to empty your mailbox every day. You can fill out a request with the postal service to automatically hold ALL of your mail at whatever postal location normally serves your address. It's a great alternative to having your postal carrier stuff and overflow your box and then leave a pissy note about how your box is full, and having your mail spilling out of your box while you are away, alerting any passing opportunists that you are out of town and no one is looking in on your home.

And then you can opt to pick it up or have it delivered when you return.

So, CP charges for this service; USPS does not.

I'm actually not surprised there is a charge. As long it's a small charge. Pile up of mail takes up (leased commercial) space. Multiply that.. by number of customers. But hey, you no longer need to worry in the U.S. now.

That's really sad about the ring.

[ny biker]

And here's the one that really gets me. The USPS makes most of its money processing junk mail. Therefore, a constant deluge of junk mail is important so people don't lose their jobs. I've read many quotes to that effect. Sorry, I don't get that. I should have to sort my mail over the recycling bin or throw it away to keep someone in a job? Surely there's another way to do it....

Actually I think they make more money with First-Class mail, or at least they used to until recent years when the volume declined so much.

The Postal Service does not create the advertising mail. The companies that are trying to sell stuff use it because they make money with it. Honestly, many of them dislike the Postal Service. If advertising mail went away, most of the people who would lose their jobs would be the people who work for the companies that are selling the stuff (and the printers, data processors and fulfillment companies that work for them).

You can sign up with the Direct Marketing Association's Mail Preference Service and their member organizations will stop sending you mail.

https://www.dmachoice.org/dma/static/learn_more.jsp

As for the USPS, they have been cutting jobs for years now, and are trying to cut more and to close processing facilities that they no longer need. But Congress needs to approve their plans and they're whining about it.

[Irulan]

been there, done that for mass marketing mails, catalog removal requests...

I guess its split for junk mail revenue/first class, found this at first glance
http://stateimpact.npr.org/new-hampshire/2011/09/27/how-junk-mail-is-helping-to-prop-up-the-postal-service/

[ny biker]

been there, done that for mass marketing mails, catalog removal requests...

I guess its split for junk mail revenue/first class, found this at first glance
http://stateimpact.npr.org/new-hampshire/2011/09/27/how-junk-mail-is-helping-to-prop-up-the-postal-service/

It's split on number of pieces, but First-Class still accounts for more revenue because Standard Mail rates are lower.

And this is most important statement in that article, although the author was bound and determined to ignore it and keep focusing on the point she wanted to prove regardless of the facts:

“Mail is about the most economical way of advertising. You can get it in more hands at less cost than virtually any other form of advertising."

[NbyNW]

I'm actually not surprised there is a charge. As long it's a small charge. Pile up of mail takes up (leased commercial) space. Multiply that.. by number of customers. But hey, you no longer need to worry in the U.S. now.


Here's what they charge:

$20 for the first 10 weekdays.
$8.50 per additional week (5 weekdays).


You're right, it probably does make sense to charge. But I guess I was surprised, and thought that it was a lot, given that I'm accustomed to having this service for free in the U.S.

[Koronin]

IMO, that seems excessively expensive to hold you mail.
In the US they don't charge to change your address or to hold mail. I should know, have had to do both recently. Changed addresses twice in the past two years and have mail held for the minimum 3 delivery days twice a year when we go to the races.

[badger]

my mother had her mail re-directed to my brother's place when she was out of the country for 3 months. When she returned 3 months later, she assumed that her mail would resume, but she realized she wasn't getting a lot of regular mail like bills and stuff.

Turns out the post office assumed that she had moved and was returning all the mail to the sender. It was a lot of hassle for her to get the post office to resume her regular mail.