I'm really PO'ed at the PO (More postal employees making up their own rules)

K6AZ

Since I've been printing my shipping labels online, I've found about 1 in 5-10 of my packages never show as being delivered on the USPS site. Well today someone I know received a package from me, and I have found out why:



This really ticks me off. This is a service I am paying for and not receiving because some numbskull at the PO has once again decided to make up their own rules. This label was on a box, there is no question as to whether this qualified for first class DC. I'm going down to the PO first thing Monday morning and the postmaster is going to get an earful.

Oh, by the way, this package was shipped out of the Richmond VA area on Monday, and finally showed up in the Philadelphia PA area today.

BAJJERFAN

I sometimes hear the postal employees comment when they see a registered package with delivery confirmation about it being unnecessary. When I tell them its an internet generated label they still look like they are dazed. Methinks the USPS needs to do a better job of educating their employees.

100proof1957

eric,

had a problem years ago.

My house was being sand blasted so the mailbox wasnt bolted down,carrier decided he didnt have to leave the mail for 4 days.

His Boss thought otherwise !

K6AZ

<< <i>I sometimes hear the postal employees comment when they see a registered package with delivery confirmation about it being unnecessary. When I tell them its an internet generated label they still look like they are dazed. Methinks the USPS needs to do a better job of educating their employees. >>



Exactly. Sometimes when I go to a post office I don't usually go to, these online shipping labels seem to cause the clerks to become dazed and confused. Here, what obviously happened is some idiot decided this package was not eligible for delivery confirmation.

ElectricEye

I hear ya. It doesn't make sense that the service isn't uniform. Very few ever show as being scanned in and thru the system. They only show up after being received. Some never show at all even after being delivered.

K6AZ

DC is not supposed to show as being sent, only that it was delivered. And on 10-20% of what I send, it never shows as being delivered. I think what you see above is why.

morgannut2

I have never seen a government-like bureaucracy that arbitrarily makes up as many rules as this group. The service is almost customized at each office and it's obnoxious!

BAJJERFAN

so does crossing out the tracking number like that invalidate it or does someone have to manually enter it into the tracking system to do it?

morgannut2

PS- I had my sister drop off a registered package with dealer preprinted address. They told her I had to be handwritten. She told them she had arthritus and was disabled--they were discriminating. They finally took it after writing OVER the label!!

K6AZ

<< <i>so does crossing out the tracking number like that invalidate it or does someone have to manually enter it into the tracking system to do it? >>



It makes it impossible to scan, and I'm sure the carrier isn't going to punch in numbers. On this item, it doesn't show as being delivered and it never will.

nwcs

I've sometimes had registered and delivery confirmation packages left without the slip.

coinfreak499

I sent out a package on monday, payed for two day service, and still hasn't arrived yet!

ColonialCoinUnion

The only course of action really appropriate in this situation would be for you to go 'postal'.

But wait til Tuesday. Monday is a holiday.

ziggy29

I would think things like this would interest PayPal. You've clearly shipped with DC, and their seller protection plan can kick in if you ship to a confirmed address with DC, so this could put them on the hook, I would think, if it doesn't arrive. Unless they're making so much money hand over fist that they don't care if this occasionally happens, anyway...

Barry

<< <i>Methinks the USPS needs to do a better job of educating their employees. >>


You're assuming postal employess are educable.

K6AZ

Funny you should mention the PayPal angle. The one who would be on the hook with PayPal would be me. The person I shipped this to could file a complaint with PayPal, and since it doesn't show as being delivered, I would be out my money.

Gonfunko

I agree with you that it's outrageous for them to have marked out the delivery confirmation label on your package. Not to hijack your thread, but some PO's insist that people fill out customs forms to ship to the U.S. possessions, territories, etc. (Which, for the record, is not necessary). I've run into people complaining about this when having items shipped to Puerto Rico. The PO employees need to learn the rules and regs and maybe take geography again....

K6AZ

I had them try that on me when I sent some coins to Guam. Finally had to get the postmaster out to tell the stupid clerk that Guam is a US possession.

nankraut

I think the Post office is doing an OUTSTANDING job. They are dedicated, motivated employees, who love to provide that little extra to make the customer happy.

I hereby apply to enter the above statement in the annual National Liar's Contest. I will be a slam-dunk winner!

ziggy29

<< <i>Funny you should mention the PayPal angle. The one who would be on the hook with PayPal would be me. The person I shipped this to could file a complaint with PayPal, and since it doesn't show as being delivered, I would be out my money. >>

Ah, that makes sense; I hadn't thought it completely through. If it was never in their system as having DC when shipped, if it was lost the USPS could say you didn't use DC and you'd be screwed. Well, that really sucks.

BigD5

Packages shipped first class mail have to be a minimum of 3/4" thick to allow for the DC on first class mail. Priority Mail doesn't carry that requirement, but I know that's the case with first class mail.

That could be the reason why some of the packages are being X'd out.

I had to start folding my safeTmailers at the ends around the coin to "puff out" the packaging so that it would meet the thickness requirement. This wasn't simply heresay either. They showed me the typed out requirements as they were listed to the employees because I thought they were joking.

I like all the Postal employees at my PO, and don't really have a bad thing to say about any of them.

airplanenut

Eric,

If it makes you feel any better, I once forgot to put postage on two packages with those labels... both were shipped without postage due... and scanned as delivered

K6AZ

I'm tempted to send items under $300 by FedEx. This is getting ridiculous, and the worst part is if it doesn't show as delivered online, you're wide open to a PayPal chargeback.

BigE

Don't mess with Post Office employees, if you do there will be a national effort to gun down numismatists---------BigE

K6AZ

Well, here's an interesting twist. I just puched up the DC number and it is showing delivered! I still don't get why the barcode was crossed out.

BAJJERFAN

Maybe that particular route man marks packages like that for a reason. You shud have the recipient find out why.

BigD5

Maybe they cross it out after it's dlvd, so it can't be reused?

lordmarcovan

<< <i>Since I've been printing my shipping labels online, I've found about 1 in 5-10 of my packages never show as being delivered on the USPS site. Well today someone I know received a package from me, and I have found out why:



This really ticks me off... >>



Yeah, it ticks me off, too, when there's supposed to be a picture and all I see is the dreaded Red-X-Of-Death.




(But I can sympathize, having gone 'round-n-round more than once with postal cretins who wanted to make up their own rules.)

K6AZ

<< <i>

<< <i>Since I've been printing my shipping labels online, I've found about 1 in 5-10 of my packages never show as being delivered on the USPS site. Well today someone I know received a package from me, and I have found out why:



This really ticks me off... >>



Yeah, it ticks me off, too, when there's supposed to be a picture and all I see is the dreaded Red-X-Of-Death.




(But I can sympathize, having gone 'round-n-round more than once with postal cretins who wanted to make up their own rules.) >>

indianabyron

I think ive got it figured out eric. The crossing out of the bar code is in a way making sure its canceled. I got a package last week and before the mailman handed it to me he did the same thing on the bar code. Well I asked a friend who works at the post office about the scanning and updating the system to show its delivered and about the scribbling on the bar code. He said when the mail person comes in that the reader (scanner) isnt always downloaded into the system right away. And its not beyond the relms of possability that the scanner went out with another mail person. the reason for the writing on the bar code is to keep from being used again. Seams to make sense to me.


Byron

lordmarcovan

Ah, yes. Pic's workin' now.

That's weird.

ms70

When the free online Delivery Confirmation first started, the employees at my local PO actually resented that I was getting something for
free. It came to a head when one of them decided to get into an arguement with me and insisted that they've been wrongfully NOT
charging me for it and that I had to pay for it whether I printed the label online or not. From now on I had to pay - Period.

I got a number from the USPS website to complain and was re-directed to a regional office. I talked to a gentleman who told me I was
right and that they had no right to deny me the free online Delivery Confirmation.

Well..... The next time I went to the PO which was just a few days later, EVERYONE knew me by name and one employee who I never saw
before knew who I was and politely explained how they "didn't know" about this new online thing.

That one phone call really shook things up big time.

dorancoins

While there are honest, decent people who work for the USPS. But, there are those who, as I put it, are fat, lazy, overpaid, underworked - who think that because they're a government employee that they can do whatever they want to average joe citizens like us. I think of them every time I file my taxes - and also other government employees who have the same mentality. There are a lot of decent, honest, hard working people who work for the government in either the local, state, and federal level, but as with the PO, there are those who are depriving several villages out there of idiots.

K6AZ - In light of what has happened to you, I would go beyond the postmaster - I would get the guy above him, and tell him what happened and watch your postmaster get grilled and the pee-on who gave you trouble in the first place!