I have a question that you may be able to shed some light upon.........
What comeback do I have when I pay to have something shipped to me by United States Postal Service by Priority or Express Mail and then my mailman doesn't bother to come to my door with it but leaves me a note (every time!) in my mail box?
This is when someone is at home, expecting the package.
I've already complained to the post office the last time and the postmaster said he didn't want to leave the package on the porch as it looked like it would rain. It did not rain until that night, my porch is quite weatherproof and UPS/FexEx have no problem with it - not to mention the fact that two of us were home and capable of answering the door to take it off his hands.
It's pure laziness surely? So what do I do now? The Americans I know say not to stir it up - small town post office, lost/delayed mail etc. but it's maddening when I order something I need quickly, pay the extra for express shipping and then almost lose an entire day because my post office is long since shut when I get off work.
I've had to ask my partner to get my neighbour to drive her down to the post office to pick it up - which was no easy task convincing them evil
What would you do?
We just went through this last night with UPS evil
They have no complaint line. I only found out where and when we could go and pick up the package by talking a UPS store employee into giving me the ex-directory number of the local depot.
So I feel your pain but have no answers right now, sorry.
I've been there with FedEx and UPS also but that was a long time ago.
They both have electronic signatures from me, granting permission to leave stuff in a particular place if no one is around.
The FedEx depot is quite nice, new and designed for customers to go in and collect packages. The UPS depot is old, grotty and not at all accommodating to customers who finally despair of them and just go and get it themselves.
We got tired of the mail delivery here, same thing small town. Sometimes the mail wasn't delivered until 6 or 7 in the evening and even then when it was obvious we were home they would leave a note in the box to say package would be at the Post Office. Our local PO hours are 8-12 and 1-4.15 which means we are not in town when they are open. So we decided to rent a PO Box and I justswing by the PO on theway home from work and pick up our mail. If we have a package that is too large for our PO Box they put a key in side with a number of one of the bigger spare boxes and we get it from there.
This has worked pretty good for us and only costs $20 a year. Maybe you could try that?
With us, the guy next door just had bypass surgery. As a result, they are in. All day. With extra family visitors. They don't have enough bathrooms for everyone to go at once. They agreed to take the package if I was out when it came. I went out for an hour and came back to a note telling me no-one was in next door. shock roll The UPS woman who was pissed off because someone had given me the ex-dir number said they must all have been in the bathroom. ???
Don't talk to me about mailmen! Ours actually came to the door to ask me not to park my car near the mailbox. We live on a cul de sac and he wanted to be able to drive around all the mailboxes and deliver mail without getting out of his van!
[schild=9 fontcolor=FF0000 shadowcolor=C0C0C0 shieldshadow=1]Don't park near the mailbox![/schild]
It can't be laziness....if I were a mailman, I would find it far easier to just leave the package rather than taking it back to the depot. I think they're just so incredibly beaurocratic that they follow a big rulebook by the letter rather than think for themselves.
Surely if you are using the United States Postal Services there would be a central place to contact in your state. With them not being a private company, wouldn't there be different ways to get round this problem? I'm just thinking out loud here but with it being against the law to interfere with the US mail then couldn't you use something to do with that to get the service you paid for?
Never had that problem here. Only once has a package not been delivered and when we put the note back in the mail box stating that we would be in the next day, the parcel was delivered no problems. Never had a problem with UPS or Fedex either.
Don't want to jinx myself now lol
Don't shoot the mailperson, He/she has a lot of places to go. If you have a mailbox at the curb, he is only allowed to deliver to it. If he takes it to the porch and something happens to it, you will be pissed, he will be wrong and he will be in trouble. Poor people can't win for losing.
Celticana, the man is supposed to drive to each box, he has a right hand drive vehicle to allow him to do this. His workday is predicated on him doing this.
I have an old house in a development of the fifties. The houses in the development don't have boxes at the curb but I have to because my house is more than fifty feet from the road.
I have three porches showing, the first is screened and the door locked, one time, USPS delivered some packages and left them on a wall outside the porch, with a rainstorm gathering.
Fedex leave things at the next porch, if they can, between the doors. I don't use that porch, I use the next porch and that is where my car is parked. UPS leave their deliveries there, always. But they leave the package, bang on the door and leave if they don't need a signature.
The time and motion people have set these people a difficult task to get everything done in the normal workday, so they don't hang around for very long, and yes, some of them don't knock because that uses more time, and that is wrong.
Our mailman comes down our driveway (about 150 yards from our mailbox) to deliver any packages directly to our front porch. My suggestion would be to keep complaining.
Our mailman comes down our driveway (about 150 yards from our mailbox) to deliver any packages directly to our front porch. My suggestion would be to keep complaining.
Ours does too and if we have letters he brings them with him if we are in :)
I do remember someone telling us that it is illegal to prevent your postman from being able to reach your letterbox, even in the winter when there is a couple of feet of snow on the ground! We have to dig round the mailbox and make sure the road is clear for the mailman to get to it.
They've had this problem in England the last few years - they DO NOT ring the doorbell, just leave one of those stupid "you were out" cards and then you have to drive 25 miles to the nearest depot for a package.
I don't understand the post office over here - I was showing a house that is for sale about 11 houses down the street from mine at 11am one morning and bumped into the post lady in the garden. Yet we don't receive our post until about 3.30pm....?!?!?! Why?? How can she be so close at 11am and yet not get to us for another 4 and a half hours?
I'd start causing a fuss, Mark. You're intitled to the service. Otherwise, can you have things shipped to your office?
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I was looking for the fifty foot requirement but I found this instead
What is the policy about not Delivering mail to Blocked Mailboxes?
Mail will not be delivered or picked up if the mailbox is damaged or blocked
You are responsible for clearing the obstruction to the mail receptacle before delivery resumes
If the car or property causing the obstruction belongs to someone other than the addressee, contact your local Post OfficeTM.
Specifics on required space for delivery are decided by the local Postmaster. If you have questions, please contact your local Post OfficeTM.
Please contact your local Post Office™, to resolve the situation.
A lot of whinging going on!
Question In the UK, with all the terraced houses with no porches or anywhere to leave anything, and with a letterbox the size of Yorkie bar, AND with more thieving b*stards per square mile than anywhere else, exactly how do packages get delivered to those houses when it takes two working people to afford the house. Therefore no-one in all day there either!!??
Thank you for the feedback so far - much appreciated and it is always good to look at things from a different angle, especially when you are annoyed by it.
The thing that gets me is that the package was sent Express Mail - that is to say that by definition, it needs signing for. This is NEVER going to happen if the person delivering it does not actually get out the vehicle and knock.
How about if I send a package and pay the extra for the USPS to collect payment for it then (COD)? I challenge the postman to pull that off without getting out of the vehicle.
I'm very tempted to complain to the USPS - had I not got the package until today, it would have been the same as if I'd paid for just Priority mail (about 1/3 the price) and then been a lottery as to whether the postman delivered it to the house or just left the note again like the time before last. As it was, this package did just get to me within the allotted time before I would have demanded my money back but I had to get outside help.