The new USPS system ('new' as of about 2 years ago) has all sorts of issues. It's great that ALL packages now have tracking and greater levels of tracking, something that was sorely needed, but packages are frequently getting sent off destination. Many times, a package will either go to the wrong side of the country before making it to the correct state, or they will make it to the destination state, COME BACK to the origin state, and then be sent back again to where they're supposed to go. This happens a lot and you won't notice it unless you watch the tracking history. I'm currently dealing with a package that make it to the UK, came back to Phoenix, and before it could be returned to me, was sent back out to the UK. It's now coming back to the states once again. Customer is elated, I can assure you.
I recently had a package come from Alabama to Georgia.. You know, neighboring states.. It was shipped on a Tuesday, arrived on Thursday as signature delivery (even though it wasn't supposed to be) and I went to the local post office on that saturday to pick it up.
Now, you have to know a little about my post office.. Hours are 830-430 M-F and 9-3 on saturday..
I get there around 9am, there's already a line of about 20 people waiting.
Doors open promptly at 9:20.
There's one person working the counter.
The first person doesn't speak english very well, so the counter worker proceeds to speak english at the customer even LOUDER.
After about 5 minutes, she asks the customer to step aside so that someone else who speaks spanish might help them. BTW, that someone else is supposed to be from the line of people.
I've been there maybe 30 minutes at this point. Another worker comes out and sees the line and turns right around and walks away.
45 minutes.
Another worker walks out, sees the line. Most of us are holding the pink pickup slips. The lady says "all of you here to pick up packages, please form a line over here" and points to the other end of the counter. We all walk over and get back in line, perhaps 10-12 people.
The lady walks away.
60 minutes.
The same lady walks back through and looks at us in line. "What are you standing over here for?" She asks us. Holding in all my rage, I speak up "Because you said for anyone who's here to pick up a package to stand here". She looks confused, as if she truly did not remember.
She walks away again.
One hour, fifteen minutes.
She walks back in. Sees the line again. I'm waiting for her to say something. She huffs and walks over and angrily asks everyone give her their pickup slips. We oblige and she walks off.
One hour, thirty minutes. Yep, I've been there for 1:30.
She comes back pushing a cart with a bunch of packages. She starts calling out names angrily as if we're doing something wrong. She hands out all the packages and I'm still standing there, without package.
She starts to walk away, looks up, and in a huffy way asks "what? do you need something". I said "yes, my package".
She says "I've given out all the packages", which was clearly not true.. To which I replied "well, I'm still here waiting for my package". Her response? "Well you must not have given me your pickup slip then"..
I held back my anger once again and asked her to go look through the slips again. I can see she's contemplating telling me no, but I think she can see I'm seething.
1:45 in the post office at this point.
She comes back and starts flipping through the slips, asking me my name 4 or 5 times while doing so. She finally finds my slip. She says nothing, just walks away.
2 HOURS IN THE POST OFFICE. Mind you, there are still people from the end of the original opening line still standing in line..
She walks back in.
"It's not here".
Me: "what? Where did it go?"
Her: "back to the sender"
Me: "..... Why?"
Her: "because you didn't pick it up"
Me: "What? It was attempted delivery on thursday.. You know, two days ago"
Her: "We only send things back that have been here for two weeks. You should have picked it up earlier"
Me: "No, it was only sent tuesday of this last week, to be delivered on thursday, and two days later I'm here to pick it up."
Her: "If we sent it back, it's because it's been here too long."
Me: "would you please check the date on the slip and the shipping date on the tracking?"
Her: "Why?"
Me: "to show you that it's only been here TWO DAYS!"
Her: Types into the terminal, her eyes kind of widen as I know she's seeing the dates.. "well, uh, we sent it back. You'll need to have the sender send it back.."
Me: "So am I getting charged for the postage again to have the sender send it back?"
Her: "sir, postage is required to mail anything"
Me: "Let me ask again.. Since the post office messed this up and sent this back, why should I have to pay for shipping this back? Can't you just reroute it before it gets delivered back to the sender?"
Her: "sir, postage is required to mail anything. We cannot stop a piece of mail once it's been sent."
Me: "So I have to pay postage again even though it's the USPS's fault this was sent back?"
Her: "YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN HOME TO RECEIVE THE PACKAGE AND THIS WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED"
Me: "Can I speak to your postmaster about this?"
Her: *Flips badge over to reveal she's the postmaster*..
Me: "I'd like to file a complaint"
Her: "I don't accept complaints. You'll need to contact USPS using their phone number."
Clearly I can see where this is going.. So I leave before I start throwing things. I go home and call the USPS number, of course it's only M-F 9-4.. I call back on monday, can't really find a way to lodge a complaint in the phone menus, so I end up trying a few different options, and each one told me...
"The only way to file a complaint is to speak to the postmaster of the location you had an issue with".
Already, this has cost me way more in time than the 5$ postage it took to have the sender resend the package. I emailed them, they swore up and down they didn't have it sent signature delivery either.
This is an ongoing thing with my post office. They've done this for about 1/3 of all my packages. They either lose them in the office, or they send them back prematurely. It's so common at this location that I wonder if it's some kind of ding on their evaluations to have undelivered packages sitting around, so much like fast-food drive-thrus have you "pull up to wait" so they only have to count the time you sit at the window, but not the time you sit away from the window, they probably send the packages back to get them off the books.
I don't know, but this is the same Government entity that loses 20 Billion a year while UPS/FEDEX/DHL/ETC all make profits and never lose my packages. Hell, when the USPS was delivering for Amazon, half my packages were "customer requested change in delivery date" or "Customer premise not accessible" whenever they didn't feel like delivering that day. Turns out that they were putting these things in the delivery instructions so that they didn't have to deliver to a "guaranteed" timeframe and it was seen in the reports as the customer's fault, not USPS's fault. Ever since Amazon started delivering their own packages I've never once had a problem getting my packages.
I'm not sure why anyone is surprised though. Every single government entity ends up BROKE and losing money due to the mismanagement and complete apathy of the employees/management who see no reason to do more than the minimum. Government employees are generally paid about 30% higher for similar jobs, and since government is a monopoly in it's own way, there's very little incentive for anyone to fix anything about it.
And these are the same folks that citizens want to handle our healthcare too? The VA has outright killed a few people I've known through their similar apathy and slow actions.
The only good government is less government.
