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I'm beginning to dislike the USPS.


ksdaddy

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(Walks up to counter with a flat rate priority mail box)

 

Anything liquid, fragile, perishable or potentially hazardous?

 

No. (And what difference would it ake if I said it was fragile? You'd stamp it fragile? That's going to matter?)

 

Would you like it to go Express Mail?

 

No. That's why it's in a priority mail box.

 

Priority mail is two to three days, no guarantee. Would you like delivery confirmation so you know when it is delivered?

 

No. I would have affixed a delivery confimation label to the box if so.

 

Would you like insurance gainst loss or damage?

 

See previous response.

 

Any stamps today?

 

No, I would have asked.

 

Would you like to apply for a passport?

 

Same answer I give every day, no.

 

Okay, I can see all these question if someone had never shipped anything in their life, but I'm at the post office every day. I live in a town of about 8000 people and the same people wait on me at the post office. They know me, they know I know how to ship and what services I do or do not want, yet every day, the same thing. I was by one clerk, in a hushed tone, that they are required to "read the script" with every customer regardless. How freakin' stupid.

 

And they're beginning to treat people guilty until proven innocent. I mailed a book by media mail the other day. The box was about 10x12 and about an inch thick. It was solid, nothing shaking, and strongly resembled a BOOK in cardboard. The girl picked it up, hefted it, dropped it back on the counter so she could judge the thump it made, squinted at me, and with a little smirk asked, "What cha got here, a book?"

 

Yeah. A freakin' book. I'm not about the cheat the USPS by shipping something media mail if it's not media. How about you invoke your rights to open and inspect a package? I'd pay double just to see the stupid look on your face

when you see I told the truth about it being a freakin' BOOK. Call the Postmaster out from her office too. I want to see you justify your inquisition while the Boss is standing there.

 

My father was a mail carrier for 28 years and he despised it. He retired in '82. If he were alive today he'd probably go postal from the OTHER side of the counter.

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I moved over from Scotland to Canada in september and i get reall peed off with the mail carriers here. Canada post in our town (Which is tiny) are very helpful but as soon as you try using ups or purolator etc etc its all a pain in the *** especially when we have a box number. Even worse is when you try and order stuff from the U.S suddenly postage/shipping is horrendously expensive, customs are assholes and its just not worth the grief.

Dont get me wrong the postal service back in the UK is not perfect and theres so many parcel shippers but it tends to run reasonably smooth with less hassle. Unless like i did you live in northern Scotland, suddenly the postage etc is almost doubled!!! thieving gypo's!!!

So yeah, i understand your annoyance and sympathise. I just wish that shipping companies and mail carriers could work better together and give a decent service at a fair price.

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With all due respect, I think this is what we get for living in today's world. The report on Scotland and Canada kinda confirms it. Friends in Oz tend to say the same sorts of things.

 

Ah, for the 1950s.

 

m

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...My father was a mail carrier for 28 years and he despised it.....

 

Now you know why he despised it.

 

We've been mailing a lot of FOP boxes via USPS.

 

We've found that different offices have different protocols by which they abide. Some will take your word for it that what is on the paperwork is in the box' date=' weigh it, charge it, stamp it and toss it in the cart. Some offices want to paw through the packed items.

 

It used to be you could list, Candy, clothes, assorted bric-a-brac. Now you have to list what kind of candy, how many, what kind of clothes ... 3 snickers bars, 10 Necco wafers, Cheetos, 2 polo shirts, 3 children's shorts, 6 pairs tidy whities..... and an approx value and wt.

 

The protocol used can even differ from clerk to clerk in the same office. In one office your word is your bond. In the same office, however, one particularly 'battle axy' clerkess actually required my wife to move to the self-serve scales, un-pack the box, and weigh each item and enter that weight on the appropriate line of the manifest. Then... when she had it all weighed, and reboxed the clerk put it on HER scales. "Hmm....' says she in an accusatory tone, " you're 3 ozs over.. [thumbup[blink] "It's the box," replied my wife. [thumbup] This clerkess has been particularly nosy since day one and has gotten steadily more abusive of her self determined power.

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