shipping responsibility question

Serendipitous that you should bring that up Alex, just as I was looking for the tail end of this thread to steer the topic to USPS "Quality Control."

Is it just me or have others noticed a surge in miss delivered and never received mail in the past year or so?

I'm seeing more and more of that both at home and at our small business. Yesterday the pile of mail dropped off on the front desk at our office had about 10 pieces for us and 14 for another office in the same building, plus one which belonged to someone on a completely different street in the same town.

At home it's just as bad, almost every other day we get at least one piece of mail in our curbside box addressed to someone else on a different street in our town, and sometimes I find mail addressed to me which has been opened and then taped closed (Prolly by someone who got it by miss delivered and didn't notice it.) with a note scrawled on it saying "Deliver to the correct address."

Someone about six states away has mailed me some documents in 9x12 envelopes twice in the last month and I haven't received either one yet. My lawyer, 15 miles away, mailed some documents to our home two weeks ago and they are also among the missing.

I can only hope that everyone who gets our mail miss delivered to them is courteous enough to drop it back in a mailbox and not just toss it out.

A couple of doozies happened with our mail at home recently. I started flipping through one of the two Harbor Freight catalogs which arrived in the mail that day and between two pages was an envelope addressed to a different street in our town. If I'd picked the other catalog to flip through or just tossed both out unread, that letter would have been toast.

The other funny was receiving a greeting card sized envelope with lots of postage on it addressed to someone else, but with the same street name and number and the same town (Winchester) as our address. But, right after the town name was "UK" and below that a Brit postal code.

Am I just witnessing just one more example of the decline and fall of everything around me, or what?

Jeff

And the rates continue to go up!

And continued pressure to "tax" other forms of communication to recover "lost" revenues. It's pandemic of most service industry in the US, but cutting quality and raising rate is a very short term fix for revenue issues. I personally will pay for "better" service if there is such an alternative. If the quality drops below what I feel I am actually paying for, I will avoid /reduce usage of it as much as possible.

I personally have moved almost entirely to e-bills because of the increasing rates of postage. Convenience is also a factor, but saving $5/mo by just using e-bills vs hand mail is sure nice too. I don't have to worry about my payment getting lost/delayed(which has happened) either.

JW

I dunno, Jeff, I haven't seen any missing mail.

(shrug) find me a cheaper way to get an ounce of material across the country in 4 days.

He: I've been seeing spots in front of my eyes lately.

She: Have you seen a doctor?

He: No, just spots.

Jeff

Reminds me of some history book I read as a kid which reported:

"There is no recorded evidence of the successful use of camouflage during WWI."

Regards, Marv

Home Shop Freeware - Tools for People Who Build Things

4 days?! I would be impressed to see that. If I need it there that quickly I make sure to send Fedex or Priority mail.

I rarely see anything I mail First Class get where it's going in less than a week. Judging by cancellation stamps, incoming is typically 5-7 days as well. I have had a few in excess of two weeks.

Just my experience.

JW

JW

Either this man is dead, or my watch has stopped.

I agree with your findings...service has gone from decent to "who gives a rat's ass". What's really killing me now is credit card bills showing up only a day before they are due...of course it could be the credit card companies playing a game but, damn, it costs a bundle when they arrive that late and I'm gone a day or so on business.

As to miss-directed mail, happens constantly here. I get reminded of a scene from the movie "better off dead" where letters are falling out the (wasted) the mail carrier's bag as he walks from house to house without a care. After several complaints to the local postmaster, I now realize that the crappy service goes from top to bottom.

UPS seemed to take the same dip in service over the last year or so but I believe they are coming back a bit.

Interesting, though, that even though about 70% of what the post office handles is junk mail, when revenues fall short they immediatly tack the biggest increase on first class.....

Koz

Hm. I sell a lot of stuff on eBay (coins, mostly). Need to get back at that now that I again have a working digital camera, but that's beside the point. Anyway, I typically get 3 days to New York & Florida (I'm in Wisconsin), and 2-4 days to the west coast.

That's surprising. I've usually got a round trip of payment -> item by a week.

I love these lost item stories. The stuff is not lost. nothing gets "lost". there is a whole industry out there that deals with this misplaced stuff. I met a person once who made about 50 grand a year just selling stuff that was lost and found at airports.Cameras, phones and whatever else people drop or forget

You are correct Jeff. The world is melting into a mushpile of inneptitude. Postal and delivery persons are so well paid for what they do or don't why should they give a dog's butt if you get the stuff.

I've switched to paying my credit card bills online and scheduling in advance payments to be withdrawn by the card company from our checking account on the very day they are due. Also, checking the status of current charges online sometimes lets me catch mistakes and duped billings a few weeks earlier. Plus, it costs nothing extra and saves my paying for a 39 cent stamp. Works for me with MasterCard/VISA and AMEX, and I imagine any other major card players have the same deal. As a bonus, AMEX will ping me with an email to tell me when a payment due date is coming up.

Or as I'm fond of putting it, "A fish rots from the head down."

I did file a polite complaint about the sloppy mail delivery service to our home via the USPS's 800 line. A manager from our town's PO called me the very next day to apologize and say he'd ask the carrier (Whom he called one of his "more experienced" guys.) to be extra careful with our mail. That was a couple of weeks ago and thus far I haven't noticed any great improvement.

Jeff

It used to be that most of the people I bought from on Ebay were using FedEx, with UPS a distant second, and USPS a far more distant third. Just in the last couple of weeks I've noticed a lot are using USPS Priority Mail. I bought two things on Ebay on a Sunday evening, the in State one showed up in my mailbox on Tuesday, and the out of State one showed up in my mailbox on Wednesday. Hard to beat that!

ality

It's called "the curse of the postal office" I've lost confidence in the ability of the post office to do much more that deliver junk mail. Which never gets lost. They lose an average of 60k letters a day, a small percentage but still a lot of mail down the black hole.

It's an act of faith to send a check first class without any accountability attached anymore.

E commerce for my money is the future. Sad day.

The local delivery quality here has declined over the past few years. A contract driver got a prison sentence for theft in this area last year, just one that got caught. I will say that when suspicions were aroused the feds didn't fool around. Put out the bait and made the arrest.

It's one of the costs of growth IMO.

ED

Hm. Shipped over 300 silver coins in the last 60 months, not a one has been lost. All first class USPS, maybe 3 of 'em insured.

Or a matter of perception...

That should read "6 months", not "60 months".