The US Mail System problems

[Artful Dodger]

Hi everyone, just had to blow off some steam and get some answers from others as well. I've had a bad few days as of late only to get worse by some of the worst US Postal Service around. That's where this question comes in play https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/206286/ I'm sick of some things they do that can really affect people. I have a transaction somewhere around customs that I shipped out and now today, after a death in the family I get home and check the email only to find that my mortgage payment was never received. I sent it with a signature slip only to find out that it was forwarded to San Juan, Puerto Rico yet the "Bank Envelope" has the address of Oklahoma City, OK in the US. Also the return is the Banks address in OK as well Both things mailed at the same time and at the same PO branch.
So if the Government ever wonders why email and doing things over the internet cuts into the postal system this answers it in full.
Yes, I have to mail my payment in because the bank that takes my payments won't take an electronic payment from my bank or any as I've been told when I called up in the past to set that up. I'm glad I put a tracking/delivery confirmation on this as I never placed this to be forwarded and certainly not out of the US.
So now I need to call up my bank, place a hold on this, have this placed under investigation (the bank will since it went to PR) and I will need to fight to not be charged or have the PO pay the hold on this. Not to mention the other item that was shipped out is somewhere around Customs so when will it get back to me so I can ship that UPS instead.
I just don't see how a person or machine can get San Juan, PR from Oklahoma City, OK or Customs taking so long to get a package back.

Any one else have this happen before with a mortgage check before or something important and you find out on a weekend?

 

[goodnbr]

It is all over

Hi everyone, just had to blow off some steam and get some answers from others as well. I've had a bad few days as of late only to get worse by some of the worst US Postal Service around. That's where this question comes in play https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/206286/ I'm sick of some things they do that can really affect people. I have a transaction somewhere around customs that I shipped out and now today, after a death in the family I get home and check the email only to find that my mortgage payment was never received. I sent it with a signature slip only to find out that it was forwarded to San Juan, Puerto Rico yet the "Bank Envelope" has the address of Oklahoma City, OK in the US. Also the return is the Banks address in OK as well Both things mailed at the same time and at the same PO branch.
So if the Government ever wonders why email and doing things over the internet cuts into the postal system this answers it in full.
Yes, I have to mail my payment in because the bank that takes my payments won't take an electronic payment from my bank or any as I've been told when I called up in the past to set that up. I'm glad I put a tracking/delivery confirmation on this as I never placed this to be forwarded and certainly not out of the US.
So now I need to call up my bank, place a hold on this, have this placed under investigation (the bank will since it went to PR) and I will need to fight to not be charged or have the PO pay the hold on this. Not to mention the other item that was shipped out is somewhere around Customs so when will it get back to me so I can ship that UPS instead.
I just don't see how a person or machine can get San Juan, PR from Oklahoma City, OK or Customs taking so long to get a package back.

Any one else have this happen before with a mortgage check before or something important and you find out on a weekend?

I can vouch for the incompetence of certain USPS facilities. For example, I currently drive 7 miles to the post office to retrieve my mail from a rented PO BOX because my extremely creepy, independent contractor mail carrier, decided to take my mail home with him over the weekend (2 years ago) and I got really pissed about it. I went to the regional office (by phone and email) and received an adequqte response, but then was directed back to local where the postmaster (postbastard) got really nasty with me from the outset. Thus, I got the PO Box and removed my mailbox.

In addition, I have heard numerous people in the area complain, but only to other people, so nothing willl ever happen.

However, while living in Japan, I had the worst experience. A xenophobe there actually peed on one of my letters, I saw him doing it and went outside to kick his butt, but he jumped on his little scooter and took off.

My wife told me they do a lot of strange things there, so it is best to leave them alone.

In Korea, the apartment manager would open other people's mail and check for things he might want, but in a place that corrupt it is to be expected.

From my experience, the cities have the best of a bad system; however, you have to worry about the other thing then, and you know what I mean.

 

[Lyle]

I guess my biggest complaint about the USPS is that no one is accountable for anything that happens. It's such a huge bureaucracy that it's basically impossible to track down the "point of failure" when something screws up.

I've sent letters in the past where I paid for delivery confirmation (or some such service) that was supposed to guarantee that the recipient signed for the package. Didn't happen -- it was just left on their doorstep. I went to gripe about it to my local post office (from whence it was mailed), but you know, they don't have any control over what some mail carrier in another city does and they frankly don't care.

I'm going to have to go talk to the postmaster soon to find out why my mail permit number (for a non-profit that I work with) was reassigned. I've always paid our fees on time and have never been notified of any problems -- but lo and behold, the last time I went to drop off a mailing, I found out that our permit number had been given to someone else. And nobody knows why, and nobody knows who I can ask to find out why.

 

[floriflee]

I do all my banking online with my bank. However, they don't send the payments electronically to the company, but rather mail them out about a week before they're due. I had one payment sent for my credit card about six months back that got misdirected to another credit card agency. I think it was in the same city, but still.... I noticed the problem about a week after the bill was due and filed a report with the CC company. About two and a half weeks later the payment was returned to the bank, and they immediately notified me of what had happened. Luckily, my bank worked with me to ensure that I didn't get charged for a late fee by my credit card company (I love my bank!). It was a close call, but still annoying that the payment got misdirected like that.

On another occasion several years earlier I ordered an out-of-print CD from a company in Germany (my first mistake). It cost me about $35 + shipping to get, but it was one that I had been trying to find for months. Finally, after about two weeks I got the package in the mail, but the box was open on one side and the CD was not in it (just the packing slip). You better believe I was upset. I filed a report with USPS, but nothing ever came of it. I ultimately had to dispute the purchase through my CC company to get reimbursed. I never did get the CD after that.

 

[rdowns]

I received 2 USPS Priority Mail boxes Saturday. I asked the mailman if signatures were required (said they were on the boxes) and he replied, yeah but it's too much of a hassle. He handed me the boxes, turned and left.

 

[Black&Tan]

I guess my biggest complaint about the USPS is that no is accountable for anything that happens. It's such a huge bureaucracy that it's basically impossible to track down the "point of failure" when something screws up.

Agreed! I have ranted on this before, and I'll attempt to moderate it this time. The USPS is not liable for lost mail. Let me say this again in case you missed it,

The USPS is NOT liable for lost mail.

Their job is to deliver the mail, yet they fail to do so. And it's okay! It actually says so in the postal regulations. If you or I tried to do this at our own jobs, we'd get fired immediately. I sent two separate parcels to my parents in Tennessee, and they never arrived. One was a book which I bought in England for my father, who at that time, was dying from cancer. It never made it there. I will never trust the USPS with anything of importance again.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Update, just got back from the PO and it was just received at 9:45am at the bank Not bad since it was mailed on May 8th. Anyway the PO manager sent a letter via fax to the bank stating it was their fault and if any late fees were applied they would take care of it. Well they did make the PO pay the late fee (probably because they said they would) but it will not go on my credit against me, which was put in writing as well.
The other package I now have to call customs about and talk to them at this point, guess it was 1 for 1 today
Not to start any ot matters here but thanks Mr. Bush for wasting money in stupid places and not in areas such as the PO where the money could be well spent to get very fast results, okay end rant.

Black&Tan
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lyle
I guess my biggest complaint about the USPS is that no is accountable for anything that happens. It's such a huge bureaucracy that it's basically impossible to track down the "point of failure" when something screws up.

Agreed! I have ranted on this before, and I'll attempt to moderate it this time. The USPS is not liable for lost mail. Let me say this again in case you missed it,

The USPS is NOT liable for lost mail.

Their job is to deliver the mail, yet they fail to do so. And it's okay! It actually says so in the postal regulations. If you or I tried to do this at our own jobs, we'd get fired immediately. I sent two separate parcels to my parents in Tennessee, and they never arrived. One was a book which I bought in England for my father, who at that time, was dying from cancer. It never made it there. I will never trust the USPS with anything of importance again.

Yeah, that is so wrong, I've had items that said it was delivered only to find out that the Mailman scanned it on a Saturday, knowing he had Monday off and left it for the next person on Monday to give it to me. In this case he did end up getting a week off but come to find out from the other carrier that wants this route, he was allowed to use his vacation time, nice discipline system there where one still gets paid for time off.

I feel bad for anyone that has had/does have mail issues since we all depend on it in one form or another.

 

[iGary]

This is why I switched to online banking. Sorry for your trouble, buddy.

 

[d_and_n5000]

I don't like the USPS much at all. For example, we got a new postmaster a couple of years ago. My family doesn't like him, because we have a PO Box. However, when people don't know that and try to send mail to our house, he just sends it right back to them. He won't just do the simple thing and walk 20 feet to our box and slip the mail in, he has to be a pain and send it back to the sender. Therefore, if anyone asks for our address, we have to give our house address and our postal address, in case they send us something. We don't want it getting sent back to them. It's not as if it's that difficult. On another note, we get my grandparents stuff all of the time. They have a completely different box number, but we get their stuff anyway. One time, we actually got some mail sent to a woman in Kansas. How did we get it? She had the same box number, 500 miles away.

 

[atszyman]

...My family doesn't like him, because we have a PO Box. However, when people don't know that and try to send mail to our house, he just sends it right back to them. He won't just do the simple thing and walk 20 feet to our box and slip the mail in, he has to be a pain and send it back to the sender...

I would argue that this is exactly what the Post Office is supposed to do. It is not their job to cross reference addresses to P.O. Boxes in order to get the mail to the proper recipients. It is the sender's/receiver's responsibility to have/provide the correct address.

What happens when you get an actual mailbox and no longer use the P.O. Box and your mail starts going to someone else because the mailman recognizes the address and just shoves it into the P.O. Box? If the address is wrong/undeliverable the Post Office's line of response should be to check if a mail forwarding form in on file for that address, if not back to the sender it goes, anything else would cause more harm than good, at least IMO.

 

[floriflee]

I generally agree with that--it's not their responsibility to figure out the different addresses and maybe the mailman doesn't know who is actually at your house so he can't assume that just because a few letters have come to your address using the same name that you still live there. (sorry for the run-on sentence) Heck, we still get mail for old tennants that lived in our apartment and we've been here over a year.

Personally, I know our mailman will put mail in our correct mailbox even though it may be addressed to our old apartment (a different bldg in the complex) and doesn't have a forwarding sticker on it. Technically, he doesn't have to do that, and I wouldn't be too upset if he didn't do that, but it's nice that he does.

 

[iTwitch]

I for one love the USPS, they deliver all this wonderful stuff for me to enjoy.

Although, I can't remember the last time I sent anything va USPS. Online banking all the way or alternative delivery services.

 

[Timepass]

Yeah I had problem with mail getting lost. Big thing recently is my SS replacement card got lost in the mail. I know for a fact that it was all sent out with my brothers he got his I didnt get mine. I been meaning to go order another one just the motivation to go get it order and sit for 2 hours waiting is just bothering me and I dont want to.

But beside that they been pretty good. I learn way to by pass the indepented deleivery people the big one being the campus mailing system at colleges. That is dont send it basicly postage because that all goes to the main mail sorting at the campus which is not part of the USPS and goes from there to intercampus mail. But if you send the stuff UPS, fedex or Priority Mail it goes straight to the dorm office and that misses that reduces the times it changes hand to like 7 down to 2 and the dorm offices are general a lot better about it.

That being said Priority mail is general a safer bet when sending anything imporant because it goes though a diffence system than normal letters and it changes hands fewer times. I did that for the 3 speeding tickets I got last year (had a 2 week string of just very bad luck) that stuff is just a lot safer than basic postage.

Over all if you think about the raw volume of mail the postage service handles and then how little is lost they do really pretty well.

 

[Artful Dodger]

This is why I switched to online banking. Sorry for your trouble, buddy.

Yeah, I did this until this company bought my mortgage, last year at this time. I do this with all my other bills and it's so simple not to mention easy to do it in my pj's The way they do it is only if you have an account with them can you pay online, I can't use my bank to issue a check and mail it to them as they won't except it (I did this the first month that they bought it and it was sent back). To make a long story short it's a small mid-west bank that you can't pay: by phone, by bank issued check (your bank sends a check for you), online bank to bank.
The only way to use "online" banking is setup an account with them so you can have it taken out of "their/your" account to pay the mortgage or last the stupid coupon book/mail it in with a check or bank money order.
The last time I checked it was 2006 but this bank must not think so and does things half-assed to say the least.
So with that said I'm looking to re-finance with someone else as a few banks in my area will hold the loan until the end and not sell it. I did make a few mistakes as this is my first mortgage and never thought about this stuff with the payment issue before but I won't ever forget it either.

Timepass
That being said Priority mail is general a safer bet when sending anything imporant because it goes though a diffence system than normal letters and it changes hands fewer times. I did that for the 3 speeding tickets I got last year (had a 2 week string of just very bad luck) that stuff is just a lot safer than basic postage.

I did send it via priority with DC and it still went to Puerto Rico first then Oklahoma City.

 

[d_and_n5000]

I would argue that this is exactly what the Post Office is supposed to do. It is not their job to cross reference addresses to P.O. Boxes in order to get the mail to the proper recipients. It is the sender's/receiver's responsibility to have/provide the correct address.

What happens when you get an actual mailbox and no longer use the P.O. Box and your mail starts going to someone else because the mailman recognizes the address and just shoves it into the P.O. Box? If the address is wrong/undeliverable the Post Office's line of response should be to check if a mail forwarding form in on file for that address, if not back to the sender it goes, anything else would cause more harm than good, at least IMO.

Comparing your point and my point, your point does make more sense for all involved. It isn't their job, but it is a convenience for those rare occurences...

 

[yg17]

Whats wrong with getting stuff sent to your home?