Needed by Nov. 13!!! Do you have a USPS shipping story?

[KYTinpusher]

We just got a survey in the mail today from the USPS. They want to cut the hours of our local PO to 4hrs/weekday or close it down completely and use a contractor to provide services. IMO it is not the small local POs that are the problem - it is the large sort centers and contractors they already use. From the letter this sounds like it is going to be the trend across the country as the PO tries to cut costs.

USPS is holding a meeting at our city hall on Nov. 13 to talk about this POST Plan as they are calling it. So, I have this wild, grassroots, Save-the-Local-PO (or perhaps Fix-Our-Broken-Postal-Service) idea. I would love it if you all could write up your experiences with sending packages through the PO. Specifically how helpful your local PO is (this probably pertains to the small town POs most) and how frustrating the tracking system and delays at the large sort centers are (printing out the tracking info from their site would help if you can do it). Also letters and pictures about smashed packages. Please send them all to me before Nov. 13 and I will present them all to the Review Coordinator at the meeting. I am also toying with contacting my local and state representatives and the media to see if they would like to be at that meeting to get a copy of "what is wrong with our postal system". I really would like to hit them with both barrels at this meeting!

Please include your name and address (or at least city and state) on the letters.

I would love to flood them with boxes of letters. What do you think - can you guys help me out with this?

Please send to:

Walli Johnson
PO Box 129
Sparta, KY 41086



It would also be helpful if you put a link to this thread in your signature line for the next month to spread the word!

Thank you in advance for your help!

ETA: About the tone of the letters - I am not really looking for a let's-bash-the-PO tone. The postal system is broken in some places and I think they are trying to fix things that aren't broken. So I want to be able to show them where it is broken, and where it's not, so they can concentrate on the right areas. I'm not saying you have to be nicey-nicey, but please try to be constructive. Thank you for your time.

 

[cjwaldon]

I don't have a problem if they want to close an extra day a week. For all I care, they should close our local PO. They are so nonresponsive I won't use them. I drive an extra 7 miles to go to the next PO who are helpful. As far as closing non-productive branches or an extra day a week, let them IF that improves their services elsewhere, like timeliness and damage control. But I do think you have hit it it on the nose, it's the sorting centers, the employees who don't have to deal with the public, that are the problem.

Story 1 - We ordered day old chicks from a well known hatchery in Iowa. We're in Missouri. The chicks were shipped on a Friday. We paced and continually called the local PO Saturday looking for our chicks. The local PO where the chics were shipped to (not my local PO) closes at noon on Saturday. At 11:40 the local PO calls us to inform us that the chicks have been located at a distribution center 70 miles away, which also closes at noon. We drive in haste and arrive to collect our chicks at 2:00, ringing the bell for 15 minutes until they finally let us in. They knew we were coming, We found another box of chicks for somebody else that was doomed, so we took their chicks and hand delivered them for the PO Saturday afternoon.

Story 2 - We ordered more day old chicks from the same hatchery. Again, chicks were shipped on a Friday(?!). Again we paced and called looking for our chicks. Again, they were finally located at a different distribution center, in the opposite direction as before, about 30 miles away. Again we arrive late afternoon. We get there and there is someone else who drove two hours to get their misdirected chicks. I wanted to know why our chicks were not delivered. The postal employee said that all packages that arrive overnight or in the morning get sorted and will not be redistributed until that evening to arrive at local POs the following morning, except for weekends and holidays. i.e., my chicks arrived at the distribution center Saturday morning, got sorted to be redistributed Saturday night but since local POs are closed on Sundays, the chicks would not be redistributed until Sunday night for Monday delivery. Express mail. I was floored.

 

[mstricer]

There are some nice folks in our local PO, and one really nasty, unfriendly guy, that is not helpful at all. I wish they would go down to 4 days a week, and stop sending me junk mail every second day. If they would stop sending the junk at such a cheap mailing price it would save them money. As for the sorts, you have to have them, that is our the mail gets to the local PO. Altogether, STOP SENDING JUNK MAIL THAT JUST ENDS UP I'M OUR TRASH.

 

[halo]

Only way you can save your post office is if you can figure out how to fund the health care and retirement package they now have in place.

 

[DMRippy]

Only way you can save your post office is if you can figure out how to fund the health care and retirement package they now have in place.

They are the only government agency that has to fund it themselves. All others use tax payer money to fund retirement. That would be on fix. Customer service would be another.... they have a guarantee of a job no matter.... how about they fire the rude, insensitive clerks. Like one person said they drive out of the way to use a nicer post office... I will too if time permits. The Main Post Office here has the WORST clerks.... you are interrupting their day to mail something kind of attitude, same at another big post office here. There are far too many post offices here in Nashville and I would not mind them closing HALF. I know there are 3 post offices withing 3 miles of each other downtown REALLY? we need that many???

Another thing.... I use that kiosk as much as I can. Maybe they could put one of those in at your local post office and it could still be picked up at night and go in the mail just the same, that should save some money.


Sorry, I don't think this thread is going the direction you wanted.... they NEED to revamp, I don't like that the small towns are what they are going after... but it get every ones attention.

 

[galanie]

It's not the post office that sends the junk mail. It's companies that pay them to do so. Once paid to deliver mail, they MUST do so.

Anyway, they did a thing here years ago where independent contractors were delivering certain magazines. It was a nightmare. They did an awful job and many uninformed customers blamed the post office for it, when it wasn't the mailman that did that. Left them out by the street, dropped in puddles during rain, misdelivered, no forwarding service, I could go on and on.

Tell them about that. Don't allow them to close the PO there and give it to "independent contractors."

 

[crossingover]

My first and only shipment came four days late and two dead chicks. The others are doing well thank goodness.

 

[galanie]

Oh and so far as shipping stories, One Christmas I ordered all my gifts online. The ones that shipped USPS got to me in a timely fashion. The ones that came UPS... well I had ordered some one week, some the next, and every package came late, and on the same day. Luckily it was still before Christmas since I'd ordered in October.

Last week I ordered some kitchen type stuff from three different companies in one day. Each, thank goodness, had the option to send USPS Priority mail. My orders were processed on Monday and I got all three on Thursday.

The one time I ordered chicks, they came on time.

 

[dainerra]

I have plenty of USPS stories but none of them are good. I'm just happy that most days my mail actually ends up in my own mailbox instead of at the neighbors. We still see each other several times a week to exchange mail and ask if anyone has seen a package that was supposedly delivered 3 days ago but who knows to what address.

 

[WinklerFarms]

Wish I could help but my experience has been very pleasant with our local po, but it is a small town post office. We are seeing change here though. We have had the same postmaster for many years and she has been incredibley helpful and nice for me sending eggs. She has recently been forced to retire and they hired a clerk. Luckily I know the clerk and she Is very nice as well.

Also I have ordered hundreds of chicks through the mail and only had a few dead.

Eggs are another story... I have had eggs get to me from the west coast in two days, same for the east coast. But I ordered some rather expensive eggs came from Missouri and it took 4 days for the, to get here.