I hate the USPS.

zef204

I packed and printed shipping labels with postage paid for all my packages on Saturday night. My fiancee went to drop them off today and the woman behind the counter told her that they can't accept them because it was dated 2 days ago.

Has anyone heard of this nonsense? Not to mention, I printed the postage Saturday after the PO was closed and yesterday was a Sunday. Therefor today was the first chance I could send them.

Elemenopeo

Yes, I've heard that sort of story before, but apparently some P.O.s are more lenient about it than others. I sometimes mail things a day after the date on the postage (usually a Sunday date mailed on Monday), but have never had a problem. Maybe it's because I drop it in a mailbox rather than hand it to someone. The folks at the processing center may figure it would be just as easy to send it on through than to send it back to me for something that trivial.

Stone193

Zef

I remember when I was a gofer for a factory, I handled all their metered mail and they were really strict about it being in the same day as printed.

Sorry to hear about it - I sure hope you're not gonna go all "postal" on us!



PS: I'm thinkin' hate's a strong word...probably more like contempt?

zef204

No,

I'm going to go back when I get off of work and simply put them in the box on the counter for postage paid mail. I have done this before without issue and am fairly certain I can do it again.

ctsoxfan

I use Stamps.com, and if you are printing a label after 5pm, it automatically switches you to the next "mail day". Of course, if you printed the labels before 5pm, it assumes you are going to use them that day. I have dropped packages after 5pm in the mail drop with labels from that day, and never once had an issue. If you bring them to the counter, they are usually going to stop you.

Sometimes, it seems like my usually friendly PO hates the fact that I "bypass them" and use online postage. Not sure why this is, but I could never stand there with 25 bubble mailers while they individually weighed and stickered each one.

zef204

<< <i>I use Stamps.com, and if you are printing a label after 5pm, it automatically switches you to the next "mail day". Of course, if you printed the labels before 5pm, it assumes you are going to use them that day. I have dropped packages after 5pm in the mail drop with labels from that day, and never once had an issue. If you bring them to the counter, they are usually going to stop you.

Sometimes, it seems like my usually friendly PO hates the fact that I "bypass them" and use online postage. Not sure why this is, but I could never stand there with 25 bubble mailers while they individually weighed and stickered each one. >>

I agree. THey seem surly when you "bypass them" and they seem annoyed if you walk up with 25 bubble mailers. Oh well.

Stone193

<< <i>I use Stamps.com, and if you are printing a label after 5pm, it automatically switches you to the next "mail day". Of course, if you printed the labels before 5pm, it assumes you are going to use them that day. I have dropped packages after 5pm in the mail drop with labels from that day, and never once had an issue. If you bring them to the counter, they are usually going to stop you.

Sometimes, it seems like my usually friendly PO hates the fact that I "bypass them" and use online postage. Not sure why this is, but I could never stand there with 25 bubble mailers while they individually weighed and stickered each one. >>


ct

These guys are civil servants - they don't like anything that could reduce their working force or if anyone comes up with a plan to make them work "smarter." That's just life I guess.

mike

jimq112

<< <i>
Sometimes, it seems like my usually friendly PO hates the fact that I "bypass them" and use online postage. >>



It's because the revenue doesn't go thru that station. They budget clerk hours based on the volume and dollar amount of counter revenue. The more clerk hours, the more hours the clerks get to work. My wife is a clerk and we live 25 miles from her station. She works in an affluent area, and they're getting a lot of online postage. They lost clerk hours, and now she starts at 5am, working till 9am, 3 hour break and back to work at noon till 4 or 5pm. She used to work 7am to 5pm, got a 1 hour lunch, and made more money.

Anyway if enough people use online postage or click-n-ship then the revenue for that station goes down enough and they need less clerks. The clerks are the ones who are frowning at you.

DaBigHurt

I just dump the postage paid mail into the drop off bins and avoid the clerks altogether. I've dropped off mail dated 3-4 days "late" and never had a problem.

EagleEyeKid

Anyway if enough people use online postage or click-n-ship then the revenue for that station goes down enough and they need less clerks. The clerks are the ones who are frowning at you.

So does that mean they can treat my package like crap if they feel like it?

tkd7

Sounds like in this case the clerks are just enforcing the rules. It stinks for customer service though, but who knows, they could have just gotten chewed out by their boss over the same thing.

Stone193

Another interesting thing...

If you are deep in the city - the stations have official US mail people - of the civil servant type.

But, if you live in the suburb area of the city - like I live in the north area - tho I am in the city - the station is a "contract" and the employees work for the contractor rather than the US Post Office - same with the people who deliver the mail to my office.

Who makes up this stuff?

mike

itzagoner

just pitchin' in my personal experience....before i started selling on eBay, i would get frustrated over having to wait in long lines at my local P.O., especially cuz it's always so crowded....my community is flooded with online dealers all converging at the opening bell with their bubble mailers, tubes, etc....since i became one of those people, i've gained a huge amount of respect for the USPS....yeah they have their trips & occasional falls, but i stopped using UPS cuz of my dependency on the better service....the Customer Service clerks at my P.O. are friends that i look forward to seeing once or twice a week, and some of the banter is unforgetable....i've never used online postage and i wouldn't trade my current relationships for that....there is still something to be said for personal contact in the age of automation and i would feel bad about taking away from their livelyhood

grote15

Nice post, itzagoner. The USPS does a fantastic job IMO. It's human nature to complain about the post office, and they do have their faults, but they are still the most secure (and cheapest) way to send packges, though Stamps.com makes it so much easier to ship.

VintageJeff

Yeah fantastic job my ass. They don't stock their own priority mail boxes, are unhelpful, and get pissed if you bring more than a few boxes to them at a time. The worst run government agency by far.

A761506

I skip the clerks as much as possible in favor of on-line postage or the self-serve stations in the post office. Clerks have been nothing short of a pain in the butt nearly every time I have gone to them. Either my package is too thin for delivery confirmation, or I taped the outside of a flat-rate mailing envelope (which is against the rules), or some other ridiculous thing that I always avoid by just doing the label through usps.com or the self-serve and then drop it in the box.

If I ever need to ship something registered, I usually get a look of scorn, as they know they are going to have to do a little extra paper work and actually walk the package back to the lock-up.

grote15

You can very easily order all kinds of priority mail boxes directly from the post office (at no charge) with free shipping so why even bother to go pick them up at the post office in the first place? Does UPS provide free boxes of various sizes at no cost? And with on-line postage these days you don't have to even go to the window if it aggravates you (you can even purchase insurance on line, too).

And no, I don't work or have any family members who work for the PO, but give credit where credit's due

Stone193

<< <i>I skip the clerks as much as possible in favor of on-line postage or the self-serve stations in the post office. Clerks have been nothing short of a pain in the butt nearly every time I have gone to them. Either my package is too thin for delivery confirmation, or I taped the outside of a flat-rate mailing envelope (which is against the rules), or some other ridiculous thing that I always avoid by just doing the label through usps.com or the self-serve and then drop it in the box.

If I ever need to ship something registered, I usually get a look of scorn, as they know they are going to have to do a little extra paper work and actually walk the package back to the lock-up. >>


Josh

I don't do that much mail, but the full service real PO near my house was very helpful.

My box didn't have the right tape on it - he retaped it, and properly marked it so that it could go to PSA registered.

I think this is one area where everyone has had different experiences.

The people at my PO are always friendly, happy and helpful.

Or could it be they're just tryin to help out an old man?

Rambler

I work at the post office, When a business applies for a postage meter they have to agree to certain rules and regulations to use a meter. You must have todays date on your mailpiece. The reason being if you mailed something with a three day old meter date and it got delivered in two days it would look like to the recipient that it was in the mail for 5 days. If your a business with metered letters with the wrong date your supposed to meter it again on the back of the mailpiece with the postage set at zero and the right date. If your a business and you mail self addressed metered envelopes then you are supposed to leave the date blank. Also metered mail is not to be dropped off in a collection box, it passes over the counter or is picked up by your carrier. Metered mail thats dropped off in a collection box is supposed to be returned to the sender and you can lose your meter for that. Thats what you agree to when you apply for a postage meter.
I'm not to familiar with purchasing postage on line like your referring to. Does it give you an option to not put a date on your mailpiece ? Thats the big stink of the whole deal. The post office strives for timely delivery. They are always pulling random pieces of mail checking how efficient delivery is from point A to point B and if you mail pieces four or five days after you've metered them then it screws up the system.
I'm sure people at tax time would love to meter their tax return on April 15th and not mail it till July, wouldn't that be nice ?

Elemenopeo

<< <i>Also metered mail is not to be dropped off in a collection box, it passes over the counter or is picked up by your carrier. Metered mail thats dropped off in a collection box is supposed to be returned to the sender and you can lose your meter for that. >>



No disrespect intended, but I doubt that. Outside the post office nearest me, there are two collection boxes -- one marked for "stamped mail", the other marked for "metered mail". If dropping metered mail in a collection box is not allowed, why would they have a collection box clearly marked for metered mail only?

grote15

On-line postage sounds a lot more flexible than the old "metered mail" method of shipping. You certainly do not have to hand your package to a clerk or carrier, that's how they promote the on-line method of shipping because it saves you time and the hassle of doing things the old-fashioned way. As a couple of posters have already mentioned, there is a window of time during which you are supposed to drop off your package after printing the label, but I've never had an issue if it's a day or so late. I guess it all depends on the clerk at the window, some people are sticklers and some not so much. I think the clerk that turned away zef's fiancee was just in a foul mood, because that's the exception rather than the rule. After all, some packages take way longer than they should to arrive in the first place, that's a fact, so the bust chops on something like that is just petty, IMO. Bottom line though is that the PO is very efficient at delivering packages and I guess it just depends if the people at the window at your local PO are with the times in this day and age of on-line shipping.

VintageJeff

I realize you can order the boxes and i did but they have maximum order sizes and it took forever to get here. Now i'm left holding the bag trying to get cards out to people who paid for them and im the one who looks like an ass.

VintageJeff

Not to mention the fact that I ordered 25 of one size of box and 10 of another. They sent me the 25 but have never sent the other 10 and that order was made 7/17/06

grote15

Sorry to hear that Jeff. I've never had a problem ordering priority mail boxes from the USPS. Sometimes I order 100 at a time of various sizes and they deliver them all at no charge within a few days. Guess I'm lucky.