Sorry about your FedEx incident, teigyr. I've had better luck with them than UPS, tho (although I don't think I really like any of them). But I do know that when TE ships things with priority mail- it gets here toute suite!

Yeah, the Post Office does suck sometimes. DH works for them, so they're our bread and butter- but they are still very frustrating. The problem? The have been in a hiring freeze for over a year and are severely undertaffed. My DH has to work mandatory overtime everyday (yes, he's paid- but he'd rather work 9 hour days than 10 or more) and only gets Sundays off.
If your regular mailman is gone for a day or a week- you can count on the person filling in to misdeliver mail (they have to know a jillion other routes- so it's hard to be too mad at them). We always know when our mailman is gone- we get mail from the person who lived here 6 years ago. And if you're on an auxillary route (no regular mailman- just subs everyday) then... you're kinda SOL. Call your local branch and complain (about the reasonable stuff anyway). If they get enough complaints then maybe (and that's a BIG maybe) it'll change.

While they mostly do a good job- they can be very frustrating. The employees are sometimes just as frustrated as the customers. Stupid big companies....