BS: Over night mailing notice

Subject: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: kendall
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 01:37 PM

If you plan to spend $17.50 to mail something important over night, reconsider. I sent a piece of mail to a friend in PA. and it was not delivered overnight, nor was it delivered today. Apparently the mail carrier didn't bother to ring the doorbell or knock, and I suspect he probably didn't even get his lazy ass out of his vehicle.

Neither rain not snow nor gloom of night stays there couriers...horse shit.It's people like this that gives public servants a bad name.

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: gnu
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 01:47 PM

Here's what pisses me off. They ring the bell and wait only a very short time and leave. Like my only job is to run to the door... from the john, shower, laundry in the cellar, etc.

Nobody has any patience, manners, compassion or even intelligence these days.

K... they had a contract to deliver! Raise hell!

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 01:51 PM

...then there's the Fed Ex guy who drove up our long driveway on a snowy evening this Christmas Eve, knocked at the door, heard us us practicing, came in to hear the music (after delivering an ENORMOUS box which had been mis-addressed, which he had attempted to deliver to 2 other houses), chatted with us, turns out his sister is a well-known contra dance pianist- wished us a Merry Christmas before continuing on his merry way.

So it's not always bad. Of course, he wasn't with the USPS...

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 02:10 PM

That's neat, Animaterra!

Rant on: Out here, it's the UPS guy who just dumps and runs. I understand they are monitored and told to be right quick about their job, but they are supposed to knock and wait for an answer, ESP. if a signature is required. They are also NOT supposed to drive 40-50mph in a 20mph no-sidewalks-narrow-street neighbourhood! I even chased him down one time about that.:-)Rant off.

The O2 delivery guy, a new one, was not knocking loudly enough when I was in the back office, but he and I have worked out a system. He gives me a call on the phone when he gets here and doesn't get a response. Works quite well.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 02:33 PM

With any of the delivery services, including USPS, you can choose whether the package can be left "in the mailbox," whether the package is "tracked" so that you can see where it is prior to delivery, whether the delivery person sends a notice back to you to confirm the date/time when it was "delivered" and/or whether someone at the delivery address must sign for the package.

As with anything relating to "big business" it can be very difficult to know, in advance, what delivery conditions are applied. You must INSIST on a full explanation of how the package is marked, and what the markings mean, when you deliver it to the service. And some "intake persons" seem uninformed about what the various service classes actually mean, and may not be able to explain.

The USPS is particularly notable for its "special conditions." They will sell you the "next day delivery" service even if the fine print states that next day service is not available from the PO from which you are sending, or is not available at the PO from which the package is delivered. There are also, where the service is available, fairly specific limits on when the package must be sent (e.g. "postmarked" before noon) and on weekend/holiday delivery dates.

It ain't easy to send it right and getting it at the delivery end remains pretty much a crap shoot until you've "learned the rules" and follow them carefully. (And the rules change with surprising regularity.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: olddude
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 02:38 PM

Captain,
here is a ditty they don't tell you, take your receipt into the post office, overnight is guaranteed delivery, you will get a full refund. Did it 3 times over the last year ... Once they said by noon, it got their at 3 PM, still got my money back

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: Rasener
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 02:38 PM

The worst example is sitting on our toilet (right by the front door) having a dump. Obviously you are not going to answer the door right in the middle of it.
So try quietly to call the missus to answer the door, but she doesn't hear you, so you have to shout louder (all the time the guy is no more than a few feet away from you, wondering what the F*** is going on).
So your missus finally hears you calling.
She screams "You answer it"
At which point you try to say quitley "I am having a crap dear"
She says "I can't hear you"
So you belt out "I am having a crap"
At that point she realises and answers the door.
"Oh sorry my husband was having a crap"

Well I ask you LOL :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 02:49 PM

UPS is easily as bad. Once they left a box of catalogue pages (destined for my customers) on the front porch to be rained on overnight. In checking the delivery, it was placed at 5:15pm. At that time we were in the kitchen preparing and eating dinner...about 30 feet from the door. We heard neither ring nor knock. Spoke with the local delivery depot, as if they gave a FF.

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: gnu
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 02:49 PM

Doesn't work if you are alone and indisposed and the windows are closed.

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 03:05 PM

JohninKS, in the case of UPS leaving stuff, it has been cellphones which the sender, T-Mobile, specifically paid for a signature on delivery. I understand your point, though. Fortunately, at our little PO the guys are really good about pointing out the caveats.

I had a houseplant sent to me from New England, by a nursery. Clearly stamped "LIVE PLANT" with noted temperatures to keep it at AND to be hand-delivered. Instead the postperson put it in our metal mailbox at the end of the end of the driveway in 100 degree plus heat with no notice at the door or anything. We get most of our mail at the PO, so don't check the box out front that often. I though the company was using UPS or FedEx, so it wasn't until Rog came home that night and happened to check the box that we found the, by then, dead plants. They'd been cooked.

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 04:18 PM

This morning!...Saw our screen door was partially open...opened door...package there from UPS, marked "FRAGILE" and "PERISHABLE"...we hadn't ordered anything. It was for our neighbor around the corner, whose address is similar...ours is 'street', theirs is 'place'. I have had a LARGE sign on my door for 8-9 years explaining to UPS/FedEx/USPS...etc... who we are, where the other address is, and what names are and are not at this address.

Yes, I walked up the block and around the corner and put it at the neighbor's door.....though I seriously considered calling UPS and making THEM send the guy back out.

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 04:48 PM

I was in the process of selling my father's house and the title company over-nighted some papers to us using Airborne. The driver left the papers on the porch (signature required) at a house three blocks over, same number, wrong street. The cretin at that house opened the package (clearly addressed to me) and shoved the papers back in sideways. And two days later gave them to the USPS mail carrier who brought them to me. (Very nice of her--it wasn't her job!) I'd had the title company checking their records for their shipment. I was seriously considering knocking on that neighbor's door (what on earth did they think they were doing, opening that?) and I let the title company know the get their money back from the carrier.

I've used a post office box most of my adult life, and at the last postal station before the one I use now I had a book I'd mailed come back for some reason undeliverable. The person who puts stuff in boxes FOLDED A HARDCOVER BOOK and shoved it into my box. It was wedged in and someone had to pry it out from inside. And of course they weren't in any way going to consider themselves responsible for destroying that book. The station postmaster said "I'll tell them not to do that again. . . "

I've got a million of them. I've encountered the postal threshing machine many times with mail. Though lately I've had very good luck shipping eBay packages through them. So I suppose it averages out.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: gnu
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 04:51 PM

Bill... you shoulda opened it by mistake... mighta been sommat good... hehehehe

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 04:58 PM

I had a REALLY important Fed Ex package once that the driver marked two days in a row as "attempted delivery, recipient not home." Turned out he wasn't even trying to deliver. I called, pointed out that I'd been in the living room with the door open at the moment that the driver reported his delivery, and they got the driver to come back with it.

More recently, a friend of mine in Maine was sending me an important piece of mail - he paid $17.50 to send it overnight and it was not delivered overnight, nor was it delivered today. (Sound familiar?) We were in the living room all morning, but the mailman didn't bother to knock. And unlike FedEx, the post office doesn't have radios in he trucks so they couldn't get him back. Eventually my friend had to pay to fax everything to me, which he could have done in the first place - and because the driver marked that we weren't home, even though we were, the post office won't give my friend his money back.

Which is why Kendall's pissed.

Dan

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: gnu
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 05:12 PM

Here.... you get a notice... pick it up at the nearest postal oulet. Last time, the lass asked asked me to sign the delivery slip and I picked up the package, said sorry but I would have signed that if it had been delivered as I had paid for and walked away.

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: DebC
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 05:15 PM

When I bought my concertina, I knew that it would be coming on or around a certain day. I told my postman, Dana about the package and where it would be coming from and to just be on the lookout for it.

a few short days after I told Dana about the parcel, I got a knock on my apartment door at 7:30 AM. Dana had been going into work early for the past two days looking for my parcel. When he spotted it, he grabbed it and personally delivered it to me.

Ever since then, I leave a tin of home made cookies for my postman.

I think the postmen are like anyone else; you have some really great ones and you have some not-so-great ones.

Debra Cowan

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 05:16 PM

Hmmm, we've always had good luck with FedEx. We used to get Roger's checks sent to us by FedEx and it usually came for Saturday morning delivery. The driver knew we were waiting for money and was always really good about making sure we got it. He even came around the corner and found me at a Girl Scout tag sale when we weren't home. He was very enterprising. I had some Jolly Joker pansies in a pot on the porch. He noticed they were "fedex" colours and asked where I got them. He was going to recommend the company give seed packets of them to their customers. I don't know if he ever did, but it was neat that he noticed.

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: Maryrrf
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 05:23 PM

I have nothing but good things to say about UPS. I had several packages that came when there was a lot of snow on the ground. I hadn't shoveled or anything because I didn't want to risk my back - I was just hoping it would melt fairly soon (it did). They slogged through the snow up to my porch to deliver the parcels!

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 08:07 PM

My mail carrier here at the house is great. And he's a hero, too. He's one of those guys who notices when an elderly customer isn't answering the door or picking up the mail, if they haven't turned in a notice, and has called 911 on a couple of occasions and saved lives. Sometimes we might get a false alarm (we had one of those last spring, several of us put our heads together and figured out an elder neighbor must be out with her daughter for a couple of days, but the next door neighbor would be sure to keep an extra sharp eye out to be sure she got home.)

I'm always surprised when I say something to a neighbor about Anthony and they don't realize that that is his name! Heck, he has been delivering my mail for 7 years and he has a name tag on his jacket. Our children go to the same school. You should at least know the names of the people who do jobs like this for you. (A friend of mine is taking his building super out for lunch next week--the man is retiring, but has been the super there for 22 of the years Tom has lived in the building. I think it's a very nice gesture.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: catspaw49
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 08:09 PM

I need to get back to this thread when I have more time. Christmas brought some wacky shipping arrangements.

However......I got Karen a ring for Christmas from New York. It arrived on a Wednesday and was the wrong ring. I call the jewellwer in NYC and they send me a return label but I really wanted it back at least 2 days before Christmas. I sent it USPS Overnite/Signature required at 4:25 PM and it was delivered at 12;35 PM the following day AND they sent me a copy of the signature by e-mail! The jeweller sent it back to me under the same setup and it arrived as promised once again.

Now there were some wacky things UPS and FedEx but I'll save those for another time.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 08:24 PM

My worst problem here has been with UPS.

Since for many years I worked away from home and lived at home alone, there was never anyone there when a delivery was attempted.

They always left a note to say that they had attempted delivery, with a phone number to call.

Unfortunately, the number was in Kansas City (about 170 miles from here) and the switchboard there shut down at 4:00 pm (16:00) so it was closed by the time I found the note.

UPS automatically attempted delivery on the following day, so the package would still be on the truck for the redelivery attempt when I called, and "could not be retrieved."

Regardless of when I contacted them, or how, the driver would attempt delivery the next day, and if noone was there would automatically place the package on a truck back to Kansas City to return it to sender. Even if the message was received, the original driver could not retrieve the package to hold it at the local UPS warehouse.

UPS REFUSED to provide a local phone number. I made several attempts at going directly to the local warehouse, but of course the "office" there closed before trucks out making deliveries for the day returned, so even by being there the package could not be retrieved.

One computer made three trips "back to Kansas City" before I managed to pick it up myself at the local warehouse. Two others were sent back to Idaho and had to be re-shipped. The original shipper agreed to mark them "hold for pickup" only after they got the bill for re-sending them. For both of those, UPS informed me that "holding for pickup" was not authorized, and that I was a "bad boy" for having stuff shipped that way.

For one smaller item, I just went to the local warehouse and refused to leave the office until the driver came back in. (They weren't happy, and threatened to call the cop shop, but I got the package.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 01 Jan 10 - 05:50 AM

I am still waiting for a package from my Aunt sent on 19 December Priority Mail from US to UK. It was quite a heavy box full of my university papers. She said it cost $26 something to send.

Guess I better ask her to track it.

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: kendall
Date: 01 Jan 10 - 08:28 AM

In the future I will simply take my business elsewhere. The PO will never grab me again like that.
I went to the UPS copy store and they were closed! Finally, out of desperation, I went to my bank and they faxed it for free.

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: jacqui.c
Date: 01 Jan 10 - 09:07 AM

I think that we will talking to the Post Office about getting our money back. the letter was a day late, anyway, in getting to Dan's door and, for $17.50 I'm sure that they could have got it from Maine to Philly overnight. We also have both Dan and Geeta to confirm that they were in the house when this guy is supposed to have called and I don't mind making one hell of a stink when people like this actually behave dishonestly.

We were lucky that our local bank are so good and sent the fax. As a result of this delivery man's dishonesty we spent about an hour of our time trying to sort out the problem, with Kendall having to tour the area to try and find a fax machine. This was what we paid out that money to avoid.

Subject: RE: BS: Over night mailing notice
From: olddude
Date: 01 Jan 10 - 02:28 PM

When I ship something glass or fragile, I insure it but I never never let them mark it as fragile. Every time I do that it is like a notice to carrier, throw against wall, jump on it, and drive over it with a truck.... I learn my lesson a long time ago ... now it is just a package well packed and always seems to get there in one piece vs 1 out of 3 marked fragile