Things we should know about the Post Office

[greyhorsewoman]

1. Do not put eggs in a flat rate box unless you are sending it flat rate with flate rate postage paid!! Why because the receiver then has to pay the postage due, because your post office person is as picky as mine!!!

Flat Rate box MEANS flat rate. You CANNOT use a flat rate priority box for anything OTHER THAN FLAT RATE. Your shipper needs to be educated. The post office has a pretty wide variety of non-flat rate boxes, so there is no excuse. Your post office isn't picky, they are doing their job.

It is my understanding, that USPS mail is not handled all the way by USPS employees. They contract with regular airlines to move a lot of thier mail, so some of the blame in the way your mail is handled goes to every joe out there working in the baggage department. I really don't think purposely mishandling packages marked fragile is the norm. It's more likley that with the volume of mail and the hours the people work, things happen or get overlooked.

You are shipping volatile items (eggs). They are perishable, they are fragile, and even if not broken, can be ruined by rough handling or random x-raying. It's sort of a risk you take shipping eggs with the tons of other general mail delivery. Priority means 'somewhat' expedited over parcel post, no guarantees. If you want better, faster delivery maybe overnight is warranted or try UPS Ground or 2nd day, that gets a lot of packages to their destination overnight (depending on locale).

Maybe I'm more sensitive to post office bashing because we probably get more personal service from our rural post office and carriers than is provided in urban/suburban areas. I understand that. I guess I see them all as real people, doing the best job they can, since I know most of them by their first names. I have a small mailorder business, so I go there 3 or more times a week. They are always pleasant and helpful, letting me know when new things come available, etc. They were very responsible with my chick deliveries this spring, calling me as soon as they arrived and letting me in to pick them up before hours. (My carrier even offered to bring them along with his run, if I couldn't get down there right away, I'm one of his first stops.)​

 

[asher]

Quote:
Most need to have the mail back in by 5. Some with larger routes or on high mail volume days barely make it.

One alternative (maybe a good idea for you) is to put your number on the box to call when they arrive so you can pick them up. Then you won't have to worry about them going through the truck all day.

What time of day did they ship Wednesday? And even so, most only have one truck out through the day so it probably didn't even leave that office until between 3-5pm or so. Then it probably went from the truck to the processing plant closest to that office.



Lisa ~ nope, I haven't done any eggs, yet. No live animals, either. Hoping chicks come in soon! hehe

Maybe I'm more sensitive to post office bashing because we probably get more personal service from our rural post office and carriers than is provided in urban/suburban areas. I understand that. I guess I see them all as real people, doing the best job they can, since I know most of them by their first names.

Thank you I'm sure they appreciate it, too!​

 

[penelope77]

ya know i ordered about forty eggs total and the box that was marked the most, "live eggs, fragile, do not x-ray" was the only one that had a broken egg. i'm ticked cause it was just six and for the first time the person didn't send extra. in all my other orders i got up to six extra and the least was one. i looked at their feedback and other people got extras of what i ordered. somehow that just figures. oh well, i'm not saying they should have sent extra or complaining about them. i just think it's funny that the box labeled the most had the broken one. i have also known people that work for ups and they said they are extra rough on the boxes labeled fragile. talk about taking pride in your work.

oh and my mail carrier is really nice. her boss is picky but my carrier always brings my stuff to the door. if i'm not here she doesn't leave it so it. even made a comment about one of my egg boxes that had been abused(non broke in that one thankfully) and how she wanted me to be sure she wouldn't do that. i like the rural mail carrier cause i never have to leave my house to do anything mail related. she's a mobile post office.

 

[ginasmarans]

See,that's what I don't understand. Why take the extra time to abuse packages. It seems to me like it would be quicker just to let them get loaded as quickly and with as little contact as possible. I have shipped lots of eggs and have received 5 packages. 3 were packaged great and I got good hatches. Two were just put in an egg carton with little protection and I had broken eggs and a poor hatch rate. I blame the shippers more than the P.O., but my boxes arrived in good shape. I've heard horror stories of people getting smashed or badly beaten boxes(a few of the boxes I've sent have arrived like that). It just seems insane to me.

 

[DuckLady]

We have great service here by the regular mail carriers. Personalized service, a smile and hello or a wave as they go by. Always time to stop and take that one last package or mail that I run out to the street with. I am always sending in compliments. Yesterday the mail was about 3 hours late, now thanks to Asher, I know why!

.

The subs are in a hurry, I guess, because they are covering days off and stuff for more than one regular carrier, is that right?

We had one sub who was always in such a rush that after he delivered on our street, a lot of the neighbors would gather out in the road and exchange mail.

Another time I was expecting a fragile package. I figured as usual he would just leave a "pick up slip" in the mailbox without seeing if anyone was home even though it was not insured or needing signed for. So I saw him go by and checked the mailbox and he had crammed a flat rate box in the mailbox so hard the mailbox post was leaning backwards and I had to rip the box apart to get my *broken* items out. I waited for his return trip up our dead end road and as he drove by, he saw me and didn't stop. I hollered "HEY, STOP!!" and he did and started to back up, but when he saw what I had in my hands, he threw it in to forward and shot off up the street. Needless to say I was on the phone to his carrier supervisor. I requested no mail delivery on my regular carrier's days off, including vacations! The supervisor apologized profusely and guaranteed that particular sub would not be on that route anymore. I guess mine was not the first complaint.

So to the letter carriers working here.....I sent out 23 packages with carrier pick up yesterday. When I ordered the carrier pick up on Thursday evening for Saturday pick up, I only had 3 packages, but noted in the comments that there may be more. (Boy, was there!) When my carrier got there, he mentioned that they get extra time allotment to finish the route based on the number of packages scheduled to be picked up, not the actual amount of packages. What is the best way to make sure the package times are properly credited? I figured that since I caused him to lose time credit, I helped carry all those BYC mugs out to his truck.

 

[Buster]

I have always found my eggs either hanging in a bag on my mailbox or on my front step depending on the size of the box. I haven't had bad experiences with egg shipping yet due to to quality of packaging that the shippers have sent. I related the former experiences because they are fiascoes I saw with my own eyes. I am glad they haven't chosen to play kick ball with any of my egg packages yet.

 

[asher]

Quote:
Not neccesarily. Saturdays can be pretty busy days, though. I've only had the very rare slow Saturday. But a lot of the Saturdays deliverers (not all, but a lot) are subs, some of which are new and just trying to get even close to the time that the regular makes. hehe Some have earlier office hours that they have to be back by, too so will try to go faster. (Ours is 5pm every day.) In general, we can only sub one route a day, though unless there's an emergency and someone needs help on their route.

Man, I'm sorry to hear about that sub. That's horrible! If he was new and messing up mail that much and then did that, YIPES! I'm wondering if he's still there. He wouldn't be at our office any more!

As long as there is somewhere to put a package, if it will not safely fit in the mail box or attached to it (on a non-busy, non-bad area road and the weather is 100% no rain and the package is not marked fragile), I will bring it to the persons porch or what have you. I can only think of one time that I didn't do that and it was only because I couldn't find their house!

(Another reason aside from 911 that having your house number very clearly marked at the end of a long driveway AND at your house, is a good idea. If you want your package or certified, etc. a new sub will *not* know where it goes if the place is not clearly marked by number.)

 

[jkcove08]

WHen I write on my boxes I ALWAYS put PLEASE handle with care along with a smiley face.
Things going north to south move faster then south to north and things moving west to east move faster then east to west. And sometimes they get lost for a day or so and you just have to accept that. All in all I am very happy with our PO system. They do a wonderful job in my area. If the eggs can make it to Iowa they are in for a pretty good ride the rest of the way. My tiny PO is sooo wonderful too. They care so much. I think this has to do with the simple fact that we are in the country and my PO people have chickens and farms. They understand the need for care. THANK YOU TO ALL PO PEOPLE WHO CARE!!!!! Jenn

 

[KellyGwen]

I've never ordered eggs... But I've had chicks shipped to me... I wanted to chime in here because I love my PO. My post mistress even came out to the house a few weeks ago to see the chickens! (She was there when they arrived at the PO about 8 weeks ago - 14 out of 25 were DOA

). Anyway, she is great and always asks us how the chicks are

 

[farmgirlie1031]

My rural carrier is nice to my eggs. Now I am sure (and know) they aren't handeled that nice all the way to her and then me. My main problem was yesterday when I was mailing a fragile package and the guy told me I could not ship eggs. I finally convinced him it was legal to ship eggs but he told me it wasn't his fault if they break and then purposely dropped the package to the ground! Uh!!! No, not everyone that works for the PO is like that but he really made me mad. This was a large city post office in Iowa City because our rural office was closed for the day. I've found those at my own post office actually care and ask how many chicks hatch