In Iowa, if you have a forwarding address, your mail goes to a center in Kansas and is then forwarded. So, if you move across the street and someone in the community you a card, it will go first to Des Moines, then to local PO and then to Kansas before being returned probably with another stop in Des Moines. All local mail goes to Des Moines and then is returned. STUPID if you ask me.
WTF?!? How The Post Office Handles Your Mail
- Thread starter Reasonable Rascal
- Start date
patriotgal
Veteran Member
Similar setup here. In town mail goes out of town and comes back....if it survives the dark hole that is Fayetteville.
RememberGoliad
Veteran Member
Very small post office here. Two guys, and they're good. Both local boys. One part time, one full time who stays in the office. BUT....when one takes a vacation, we get some city slicker out here who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground and things go to hell in a hurry.
The PO building has about 300 mailboxes in it. I was in there buying stamps and the guy at the counter told me that if you drop a piece of mail in the blue box outside, it goes to San Antonio and (eventually) comes back to be put in the PO box about 50 feet from the mail-out box. Said if you bring it in and hand it to 'em, they'll hand-cancel it and stick it in the box right then.
But it gets better! We live on a county road that crosses a state highway. Our zip code is 780xx. Across the road is a different town, with a zip code 786xx. Different region. To mail something a mile down the road takes longer than mailing it to the furthest reaches of the lower 48! It goes from here, to San Antonio, then from there to either Dallas or McAllen, then to Austin, and only THEN does it go to Harper to be delivered into the recipient's mailbox!
Want the worse part of it? They're delivered by the SAME GUY!!! He works an HCR for Mountain Home, then drives the 15 miles to Harper and works an HCR for Harper! Says he tries to catch 'em and if he does, he'll hand-cancel and deliver that afternoon (to Harper) or the next morning (to Mountain Home) but he doesn't always catch 'em. Bless him for trying, though.
The PO building has about 300 mailboxes in it. I was in there buying stamps and the guy at the counter told me that if you drop a piece of mail in the blue box outside, it goes to San Antonio and (eventually) comes back to be put in the PO box about 50 feet from the mail-out box. Said if you bring it in and hand it to 'em, they'll hand-cancel it and stick it in the box right then.
But it gets better! We live on a county road that crosses a state highway. Our zip code is 780xx. Across the road is a different town, with a zip code 786xx. Different region. To mail something a mile down the road takes longer than mailing it to the furthest reaches of the lower 48! It goes from here, to San Antonio, then from there to either Dallas or McAllen, then to Austin, and only THEN does it go to Harper to be delivered into the recipient's mailbox!
Want the worse part of it? They're delivered by the SAME GUY!!! He works an HCR for Mountain Home, then drives the 15 miles to Harper and works an HCR for Harper! Says he tries to catch 'em and if he does, he'll hand-cancel and deliver that afternoon (to Harper) or the next morning (to Mountain Home) but he doesn't always catch 'em. Bless him for trying, though.
Countrymouse
Country exile in the city
Fed-Ex can't either.
My son and I have been living through a 3-week nightmare trying to get a package here via Fed-Ex that he worked odd-jobs 3 years to save up money for--a Kenwood radio/scanner he ordered from a company in the UK.
Much of the problem is the result of Fed-Ex’s VERY convoluted system which makes it impossible for customers to speak to a knowledgeable agent about their case, and Fed-Ex apparently pressuring employees to spend as little time as possible working on each customer complaint.
An investigation has been launched and someone named “Collette” (supposedly an “Escalation Supervisor in International Shipping”) assigned—but it is IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO DIRECTLY REACH HER. Instead, I have to call the automated Fed-Ex #, identify that it is for an “investigation or case” to speak to a live person (who is usually a speaker of English as a Second Language – ESL) in the far east, who I then have to ask to transfer me to International Shipping, where I may or may not get an ESL person, who either will not or cannot transfer me to the actual person handling my case (Collette) but can only “take a message” for her to call me—which she may or may not do. Additionally, I can only send written information to Collette via paperwork@fedex.com – where again apparently an ESL employee send the information to Collette—so again delay/confusion as the information has to be sent through several hands and then “interpreted” by them BEFORE Collette ever sees it.
Additionally, through my many calls I have learned FED-EX LIMITS THE AMOUNT OF TIME any employee may spend with any one customer call or issue—seems to be about 5 minutes. I have now been told, by separate employees with Fed-Ex while on the phone with them, that they are “nearing the end of their time allowed” to speak with me. If this is ALSO true of the amount of time any supervisor is allowed to take LOOKING at the DOCUMENTATION I have sent them, then NO WONDER this issue has not been resolved—the necessary time has not been devoted to looking into it!
A number of “excuses” have been given as to why my package is STILL being held. First, the package on the DOUBLE-BOXED radio was supposedly torn up so badly that all packaging was lost and all labels destroyed, so that they no longer knew whose radio this was. I sent (repeatedly) copies of the Invoice that had this information (Name of radio, series #, part #, SERIAL # WHICH IS SPECIFIC TO EACH RADIO AND WHICH SHOULD BE THEIR MAJOR / ONLY NECESSARY IDENTIFICATION CRITERIA). I also sent the actual website URL for the radio from the site where we ordered it. I also sent PICTURES of the previously-ordered radio we had already received (that one was sent through UPS).
Though I explained that the pictures were NOT of the radio Fed-Ex was holding at Memphis but of ANOTHER radio we already had at our home, Fed-Ex employees STILL got this confused and reported back to me that “the serial # of the radio in the picture does not MATCH the one we have”--! Well of COURSE it didn’t-that was ANOTHER radio! Common-sense, people---if I already HAD the missing radio, why would I be sending you a PICTURE of it?!?
Then after we got that straightened, out, I STILL got push-back that the people in Overgoods “needed more proof” that this was MY radio I ordered. They were “still investigating.” I RE-SENT the INVOICE, and they said, “No—we have to hear FROM THE SHIPPER that this is the correct serial #.” So I had the SHIPPER, Mark Henson, Director at Brabourne Ltd, DIRECTLY send Fed-Ex communication again containing the FULL INFORMATION to identify the radio, including the SERIAL NUMBER (the only # that matters), AND another copy FROM HIM of the invoice.
During this time, while making numerous calls to Fed-Ex in vain efforts to reach Collette, I spoke to many OTHER Fed-Ex agents in “International Shipping”—Maria, Evelyn, Lee, Pam, Jackie, and others. ALMOST EVERY TIME I CALLED I WAS GIVEN DIFFERENT INFORMATION. Some told me the package had NOT been found and they didn’t know where it was; others told me it ‘had’ been found but they couldn’t match it “exactly” to me; others told me it had “cleared” and I would receive it “in two days”; others said “We have SO MANY ITEMS in Overgoods it TAKES TIME to investigate if this is YOUR radio”---so the left hand doesn’t seem to know what the right hand is doing at Fed-Ex!
Then this past Friday AT my WORKPLACE, a Fed-Ex INVOICE was sent to the name of MY EMPLOYER (!) for this radio. This Invoice---which fortunately I happened to catch as I happened to be the first to open the mail that day—was a bill IN THE NAME OF MY BOSS for the customs and duty for the radio—the same one Fed-Ex is TELLING ME THEY CAN’T IDENTIFY AS BEING MINE AND AREN’T EVEN SURE THEY HAVE. This bill contained VERY DETAILED information about the radio—making it ABUNDANTLY CLEAR THAT FED-EX DOES STILL HAVE THE RADIO AND THEY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT RADIO BELONGS TO ME. The invoice was a Duty & Tax Invoice for $15.53 additional money—and it is odd that this was NEVER charged for the previous radio that came via UPS—but I paid their “ransom” immediately so that Fed-Ex couldn’t use THAT excuse to STILL keep my radio! I (again) tried to call Fed-Ex and read Collette—this time two Asian (by their accents) Fed-Ex employees REFUSED to transfer me to International Shipping, even though Collette had INSTRUCTED me that this was the department I was to ask for! Even after (as she told me to do) asking for their Employee/Badge #s or asking to be “escalated to ICE 2”, they refused to pass me on to the correct department! I was in a panic, since—HAD MY BOSS SEEN THIS INFO, WHERE THE BILL WAS BEING CHARGED TO HIS NAME AND ACCOUNT #, I COULD HAVE BEEN IN DEEP TROUBLE AT WORK OR EVEN FIRED! My employers had given me permission to have the radio sent CARE OF my workplace—but at NO TIME was my BOSS’S name even involved with this order! What was Fed-Ex THINKING by sending a bill to my BOSS?!??
So finally, today, I filed a BBB complaint.
I put the tracking # and case # AT THE TOP of the description pane telling about my problems.
BBB submits it to Fed-Ex.
What does Fed-Ex do?
Writes me a notice that "Fed-Ex requires the tracking # to process the complaint."
IT WAS THE FIRST LINE AT THE TOP OF MY SUBMITTED COMPLAINT, PEOPLE!
I have never seen such ignorance and stupidity in all my life.
feralferret
Veteran Member
Doesn't surprise me. I have had to deal with their alleged "customer service" before with many similar interactions. When I was still working, I avoided having anything sent via FedEx if at all possible. They were experts at damaging and mishandling parcels. The contents were much more likely to get damaged by them than UPS or even USPS. Even DHL was less likely to damage or lose an item. DHL is just very slow.
ShadowMan
Designated Grumpy Old Fart
We live in a mountain community in Southern California. We have to use THREE DIFFERENT ADDRESSES to get packages. Our local PO Office does not deliver mail directly to any homes up here on the mountain, because about half of them are vacation, weekender and Air B and B short term rental properties. So regular mail, magazines and some packages can only be received in our PO Box. I think one of the major reasons they don't deliver drectl to homes here is with so many being empty the vast majority of the time there'd be PILES OF JUNK mail blowing all across our mountain. Not to mention how many USPS drivers they'd have to have to cover all the back streets and alleyways we have up here. There's only three folks that work in the small local Post Office and they do as good a job as they can considering.
ADDRESSES:
1. Our actually physical street address that FedEx will deliver to and most of the time UPS will deliver to. But sometimes UPS will get lazy and just drop off packages at the nearest Post Office to our physical address.
2. Our USPS post office box is in the nearest town, but a different town than our actual physical street address, which most packages can be sent to....however quite a few vendors refuse to send anything to PO Boxes. Not sure why? Probably due to people ripping them off or something.
3, We also use a combined street address, the nearest town and our PO Box number written like an apartment number, which is the local work around, that works most of the time.
I also like the time we sent a care package of goodies to our daughter that lives in FINLAND.......it was returned about a month later stamped FRANCE....and someone had snagged the Pop Tarts out of the box and then sent it back to the states? WTF?
ADDRESSES:
1. Our actually physical street address that FedEx will deliver to and most of the time UPS will deliver to. But sometimes UPS will get lazy and just drop off packages at the nearest Post Office to our physical address.
2. Our USPS post office box is in the nearest town, but a different town than our actual physical street address, which most packages can be sent to....however quite a few vendors refuse to send anything to PO Boxes. Not sure why? Probably due to people ripping them off or something.
3, We also use a combined street address, the nearest town and our PO Box number written like an apartment number, which is the local work around, that works most of the time.
I also like the time we sent a care package of goodies to our daughter that lives in FINLAND.......it was returned about a month later stamped FRANCE....and someone had snagged the Pop Tarts out of the box and then sent it back to the states? WTF?
Josie
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I have so many packages and letters either get lost or take "the scenic route" that I now pay almost all of my bills online or with automatic bill pay. The post office as it stands now, cannot handle the volume they have been tasked with. I guess that's a byproduct of Affirmative Action hires...too dumb to walk and chew gum at the same time, so let's give them a job handling the mail because they are of the right gender (whatever that may be) and skin color, which apparently is more of an asset than IQ.
I watched a package go from a Chicago suburb, to Milwaukee, to some town in Kansas, down to Tennesse, to Ohio, to Indy, over to St. Louis, up to Champaign before it landed here in south central Illinois. About a thousand miles to go a bit over 200. Now tell me again how they are saving money when they sent that package 800+ more miles than needed and lord knows how many people were paid to "handle" it before it got to my house.
I watched a package go from a Chicago suburb, to Milwaukee, to some town in Kansas, down to Tennesse, to Ohio, to Indy, over to St. Louis, up to Champaign before it landed here in south central Illinois. About a thousand miles to go a bit over 200. Now tell me again how they are saving money when they sent that package 800+ more miles than needed and lord knows how many people were paid to "handle" it before it got to my house.
Here is how the professional USPS delivered my Amazon order today. The mailbox was stuffed with several packages and could not be closed. People walk down this street all the time. It was just asking to be taken. Luckily, I got to it first. The red reflective tape is for the Amazon driver that ran over my last mailbox.... sigh...
Krayola
Veteran Member
Within the last couple of months I had to switch to paying all my bills online or over the phone because I can no longer depend on USPS to get my payment to its destination on time. A couple of months ago I had two bill payments arrive after the due date. My dentist (about 45 mins away) sent me a post card and it took over a month to get to me. It's a shame because USPS used to be very reliable in my area for as long as I can remember. Not anymore.