They loose everything and they are all thieves. The first time they stole my expensive holster and mag and this time they lost or stole a copy of a FFL license.  I don't trust them and I try not to use them.

sorry to hear of your situation. i've probably shipped and received a couple hundred packages in addition to regular mail in the last few years and have never had anything lost or stolen. nor have i ever had to file a damage claim.

which reminds me...i need to print an address label.

I know how you feel. My mail man comes between the hours of 16:00-17:00 everyday and its usually a different guy. The two blocks between me get their mail around 0900. WTF[chainsawkill]

I totally agree with you freedom fighter. I have had 3 instances in the last year.

The first thing is that I have had 14 out of approx. 150 letters opened (or as they say, [red]DAMAGED[/red]) before I recieved them. I have had 4 out of the last 50 or so checks to be sent to pay off my bills DAMAGED or lost and have had to rewrite them and send them in late. I have had 3 out of the last 20 boxes sent to me totally trashed. Memphis, TN

The second thing that happened is that a person put a mailbox on our property without asking us. We asked the postmaster repeatidly to stop sending mail to thier mailbox. They will stop sending it for a couple days but then send it on again. I have heard (by my own means) that it is becasue the postmaster is getting paid off. Memphis, TN

Thirdly my mom and grandmother were way out in the country in Buffalo, MO one night and ran into a cow on the road. It fortunately did not kill my mom or grandmother. A person came and pulled it off the road soon after. She asked him if it was his and he said no. She had serious damage to her Lincoln Town Car and looked for the owner of the cow. She later learned the owner was indeed the man who pulled it off the road. She saw him a couple months later working at the little post office in town. She said he had lied and owed her money for fixing her car. He said, "That was a couple of months ago. It has been too long. I don't want to pay now."

There are a couple good, honest, hard-working people working for the post office. I guess allll the other ones have to plead either: stupid, mean, ignorant, unqualified, or just plain thieves.

By the way, they are wanting to raise the price of stamps again due to the fact that I emailed this to you instead of sending out a letter to every member of this site. heheh  

[marines]  

This is totally off topic, but:

In Arizona if you hit a cow, YOU'RE LIABLE FOR ITS VALUE TO THE RANCHER.  And he don't owe you squat for the damage to your vehicle.

Just thought you'd be interested.

I only occasionaly get a letter that has been partialy opened.  Pretty good luck with the USPS.  UPS, on the other hand has sent me countless packages with items missing or the box mangled so they could get their hands in.  Usually from Cabela's or other such outfit.  Friggin theives.

I don't know about anybody else, but about a year and a half ago myself and many other friends had every gun oriented magazine and catalog opened or in mangled condition by the time we received them in the mailbox. This lasted for about 3 months during that summer. You know when you get catalogs  from some places such as Dillon theres a couple round stickers that go from the front cover to the back cover to keep it closed. They were all neatly cut open by the time we got them. What a bunch of bullsh*t.

USPS does indeed suck.  I recently moved and opened up a PO Box, I was told it would take about 10 days for the mail to be redirected from my old address.  Guess what, 25 days later I start to receive mail.  It seems some moron decided to send all of my mail back claiming there was no such PO Box, despite the fact the mail was sent to the proper address and every day from day 10 to day 25 when I asked where my mail was, I was told they weren't sure but everything was ok with my PO Box.  

Then get this, I was also in touch with my old post office who said they received my mail back.  They confirmed the address, put it all in a package, put my phone number on the package, and also wrote a note about what was going on, to make sure I got the mail.  That was 15 days ago and I still don't have that package.  The worst part is part of that package includes my unemployment check.

Is it any wonder they are always trying to raise the postage rates.  They have a bunch of clueless idiots running the place who couldn't find their way out of a paper bag.

I haven't had the best experiences with them either. A few years back I thought they were getting better and making an effort at customer service. Stupid!

They have cut back the hours they are open, as well as the times they pickup at mailboxes (by about 1/2 hour for every one of the past several years). Rarely have priority mail cardboard boxes available. Changed their phone number from the one they've had for the past thirty years (at least and is in the book) without having ameritech list the new number! And changed their regulations allowing the letter carriers to walk across your lawn so they can get done faster. And of course they chew up my mail (especially gun magazines) and lose things.

It's also been about two years and I still don't have a permanent mailman. The first guy had a stroke, and they kept temporary people on his route for a year thinking he might get better (!). Then finally we got a new guy and then he got sick, so back to temporary help or other carriers when they finish their route. Which means I don't get my mail til like 6 PM and there is no evidence that anything will change soon. [:(]

Almost forgot... a couple weeks back I mailed a time sensitive package priority mail w/ delivery confirmation... and they sent it back to me! Their computer showed it also as being properly delivered! When I took it back in they didn't want to believe that such a thing was possible...

My house is a perminate postal delivery test site. Seriously!

We get delivery tests constantly. Basicly it is an envelope with a letter and a self-addressed stamped envelope inside. We just have to write down the day that we recieved the letter and put the outside envelope in the self-addressed stamped envelope.

I can not count the number of times that the the envelopes have been mutliated, NOT post marked, 3 weeks PAST the post mark, etc. The funny part is that until recently, anyone with a half a brain could look at the envelope and see that this is a test envelope. Always with peel and stick lables, same return address.

Several times we get a test envelope without the return envelope inside... WTF?!?!? Then we have to go down to the post office, ask to speak to the post master (we avoid the clerks) and find the proper address to return to. The only person that will admit that they know about these tests are my regular mail carrier, and the local post master

Only recently, they are finally getting smart. No more printed lables, hand written finally.

So what do I get out of this, you ask? A good laugh from time to time and free stamps. Once a year they send us a book of stamps for our trouble [;)] Oh, and a phone call thanking us for helping.

I am waiting for them to move us up to the package tests... heheheh That will be fun!!

My Bushmaster catalog (Requested 5 weeks ago) has yet to arrive. Hmm..

Well, not quite all of us...[img]http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/biggrin2.gif[/img]

Ah, the joys of Mail Processing, Tour 3, Pay Location 313, Automated Mail Processing-Sectional Center/MPO Atlanta.  4000 "happy" people in a 5 acre building, aka "The Black Hole".  Where the motto is: "Hire a new nationality today!"    

Be happy you get anything at all.  Acceptable damage rate for machines with a throughput of 30,000 letters per hour is 1%.  Do the math.

Consider also the fact EEOC has to sign off on any hiring or promotion that takes place.  I will leave that to your imagination.  Think of the smell of unwashed bodies, and hairy legs in panty hose...[IMG]http://www.duhspot.com/users/smiley/s/otn/other/icon2.gif[/IMG]

18 of my coworkers have been arrested and fired for stealing stuff.  This despite constant "stings" being run by the Postal Inspectors to catch thieves.  Credit cards and money in Birthday/Christmas cards seem to be favorite.  They watch us from behind one way mirrors, and the stealing STILL goes on.

Ahhh, I love my Government job!

[img]http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/biggrin2.gif[/img]

I used to have a mail carrier who deliberately mutilated every gun magazine or law enforcement professional pubication or catalog that came to my house. If I happened to be patrolling near my neighborhood when the mail went out, this pleasant S.O.B. would always glare at me (guess they knew the patrol car from my driveway). They got transferred, and it stopped.

For a while there (about 2 years!), virtually every magazine I received in the mail was mangled. Now there is less mangling, so I guess their sorting equipment is working a little better.

In all the years I've sent mail, I can only recall one incidence where they lost something, and that was a car payment I sent to the bank. It came back to me torn and mangled about a month after I sent it with a little note stating "please forgive the inconvenience".

I mailed a bill, and it came back about 2 weeks later.  The right lower 1/3 of the envelope and its contents were torn off.

It came back stamped "INSUFFICENT ADDRESS".

WTF! Like I mailed it like that?  I took it to the local Postmaster and he had a laughing fit.  He said, "What do you expect, have you seen the kind of people we hire?"  Apologized and gave me a book of stamps for my trouble.

In order to reduce the possibility of loss, damage, or theft, always double box EVERYTHING that you send, and if at all possible, have anyone who's shipping to you double box the merchandise as well.

Double envelopes (as in a manila envelope over a standard one) that are well taped and thoroughly sealed, with a stiff piece of cardboard in them, help too.    If you're sending a check through the mail, you should do this EVERY time.  And NEVER send cash, under any circumstances.

CJ

Try working for them.  The bums get paid for less work, the union loves them and management won't touch them.

The last two regular carriers I've had have been great.  For awhile, there was nobody assigned to the route and that sucked.  My mail was lost or got delivered to the wrong address.  

One time I found somebodies mortgage payment stuck in some of my junk mail.  They are lucky I found it, because I usually throw it away without looking.  If a crook got it, they would have been out some $$$.  

About 15 years ago, my company had a computer contract with the post office.  I used to go to an office at least once a week.  I could never work there, and I understand why they go postal.  Feel lucky that any mail arrives at all.

I received a package today which is representative of the service I get.

On Monday I ordered some dummy rounds from Precision Gun Specialties in Michigan that were shipped priority mail.  They came today and the mailman, as usual put the package at my door and rang the bell.

We get excellent service generally speaking.  Sure sometimes things get mangled but with automated handling it's to be expected.

Maybe Cabela's should start selling rattlesnakes!  [}:D]

A few weeks back, the pizza delivery person ran over our mailbox.  They admitted it and paid for it out of pocket.  No problem, right?

Wrong.  Mail delivery stops, which is understandale.  So when I went to the post office to pick up my mail they TELL me to put up a new mailbox within a week because it is inconvenient for THEM to bring my mail back to the post office after the delivery route.

Let me get this straight. "[blue]Going postal[/blue]" is the phrase they use for when a postal worker, for some insane reason I don't know of, decides 18 bucks an hour to sit on his butt and do next to nothing all day but launder through our packages looking to steal our money and then he gets mad about his job and goes on a mad frenzy. Right?

When we get fed up with all this crap happening to our mail and WE want to get back at the postal workers, what cute nickname or phrase do we get?
[stick]

"Gettin Postal"...?

I used to complain about the USPS too, until I actually lived in a few other countries.  Our system is vastly superior to any of the others I experienced.  Its kind of like everything else: we have it better here than anywhere else on earth, but that does not stop us from bitching about it. [;)]

The USPS "lost" a 1957 Martin D-27 I was sending to the Martin Factory in PA for repairs last summer.
Luckily, I insured it, but it took me 3 1/2 months to get the $5800.00 value, and, I had to prove it was worth that, even though I insured it for 6K. (Bule Book of guitars saved the day!)
NEVER speak loudly in your PO about what you are shipping and insuring an item for!
The USPS is not very good at checking the backgrounds of their employees because it may constitute a law suit for "discrimination".
I doubt it ever made it past the front desk in Scottsdale, and some SOB slug most likely still has my dad's guitar. I cannot replace the personal value ever, and I hope this thief burns in the lower part of the universe...still makes me mad.

I probably use the postal service more than average person, I mail out a few thousand packages a year, mostly priority mail. I can count the number of serious problems with packages I've sent in the last year on one hand, and they were all simply deliveries that took far too long (all after Sept 11, for example a priority mail package that took from Dec 3rd to Dec 23rd to reach it's destination). I've had far more problems with UPS!

There are some real morons and bad employees, for sure. Most of them unfortunately seem to be in management. My mail carrier is honest and reliable, and goes out of his way to help me out. The unions are a big part of the problem with USPS most of the time, but they do sometimes help protect the honest employees (like this guy) from their absolutely worthless supervisors!

As far as my local delivery guys go, Fedex, USPS and UPS are all top notch. Fedex guy could be a little more personable but 15 miles from NYC most people arent!

That's okay, I have it.