USPS, Yet Again. Am I Paying Taxes For This?
Well, I ordered contacts because I was running low, and well… I need to see. My glasses are scratched and I’m getting sick of them anyways. So, I ordered some Acuvue Oasys for Astimagtism contacts, which, if I had to review them would get 5 stars! I look at my VisionDirect.com account and see that my contacts
were delivered! Exciting! Except…dun dun DUN!
Sure enough, the USPS was the carrier. I’ve been checking my door every day because they were late in arriving, and when I checked today, June 16th, the DELIVERY CONFIRMATION number was available and it stated that my contacts had been delivered yesterday…except dun dun DUN! They had not.
So, like any disgruntled “customer” of USPS, I looked on their website for a phone number to call. I had to call my local branch, who didn’t even understand that when I gave him a “DELIVERY CONFIRMATION” number, it meant my packaged was supposed to have been “delivered.”
I told him I had not received my package, that the USPS website said it was delivered, and he replied with “Are you sure it was delivered?” Oh goodness. “No, that’s
the problem, it WASN’T delivered. It SAYS it was delivered (I was speaking slowly this time) but I did not receive my package.” The gentleman sounded almost exactly like Cleveland Brown from Family Guy, that it was hard to take him seriously.
In any case, once the guy figured out that what I wanted was my package, He told me that I should call back tomorrow at 8 AM… as if I have nothing better to do than track down my own mail. So frustrating. My package was coming from less than 2 hours away!
I wish there was a way you could choose not to have USPS deliver a package when ordering online. Â United States Postal Service is so unreliable!
Thanks United States Postal Service, yet again.
Oh god, you haven’t had bad postal service until you try China’s postal service. They’re possibly even worse.
Oh! I know a bad experience I had. I need to get my passport renewed, and I’m a minor so it says I need to have both parents. There was an option, however, that if one parent wasn’t available you could write a letter explaining the absence or get a notarized (spelling?) document. So my mother wrote the letter, and we went to the post office. We get there and that lady is like, “you need to get this notarized” and my mom’s like “it says here you don’t NEED to get it notarized” and the lady’s like “well, you do” and my mom’s like “but it says ON THIS PAPER, which YOU give out, that it doesn’t NEED to be notarized” and the lady’s like “well it DOES” and my mom’s like “Can I speak to your superior?” and the lady’s like “he’ll say the same thing”.
And she was so rude! And my mom usually gets on famously with everyone!
p.s. Sorry about the really bad writing skills, I’m just really upset.
p.p.s. Nice tags. ;D
Mia,
I feel your pain. EVERY order I make from places like amazon.com that ship via USPS are a PITA to track. I get a tracking number from amazon.com for the order and the USPS website has no record of it for a few days. When it finally shows up on the USPS website, you can not get any information on the status of the package. Yet if you go to amazon.com and check the tracking info, you get all the details from the USPS tracking. Why does this information not show on the USPS site?
My last order from amazon.com was 2 blu-ray movies. Shipped via USPS from a warehouse in Santa Fe Springs. Amazon.com’s page showed that it had arrived at my local PO, and then nothing more. When the info finally showed up on the USPS website, it stated the same thing “Arrived at PO.” I live 4 blocks from the PO. I waited a few days and did not receive it. I called the local PO and did not get to speak to anyone so I drove over on a Saturday. I gave them my tracking number and all the info. They said that I was correct that they show it had arrived at their office. They asked for my phone number for a supervisor to contact me after he spoke with the carrier who was still out on his route. I never received a call. I contacted amazon.com and they were extremely nice, and shipped out another package that arrived 4 days later.
BTW, the USPS is has not been funded by tax money since 1982. “The United States Postal Service is a self-supporting government institution and an essential partner for American businesses. The Postal Service operates on funds it collects from mailers for postage-not on taxpayer dollars. In fact, the last year the Postal Service received a public service appropriation was FY 1982.”
As a letter carrier, it is certainly embarrassing when situations like this occur. The USPS tracking system is a wreck. In fact, I have submitted suggestions and cited the FedEx and UPS website tracking. Obviously, the USPS doesn’t see success when it’s put in front of them.
I read stories like yours frequently concerning parcels that are scanned delivered and are not on the doorstep or in the mailbox. The letter carriers manual specifically states that parcels that do not specifically say “Carrier Release” are to be notified with a PS form 3849 (notice left) and returned to the office for customer pick up. I personally do not leave parcels unless I have written permission from the customer. I’m not sure what type of mailbox you have but I’ve delivered for 1800contact before and they fit in a normal streetside mailbox, not a doorstep.
My suggestion to you is to get to know your letter carrier if possible. Management in the USPS (especially local supervisors) are poorly trained in customer service and really aren’t problem solvers. I would not advise you to call the office if you have a delivery problem unless your carrier can’t solve your issue. Your carrier should bend over backwards to help you out.
Mia,
I think you should just go into UPS and have at it with a baseball bat.
Move to Canada! While Canada Post isn’t perfect, they’ve embraced the whole online thing and made it pretty painless. It’s not too expensive, either. And on top of good postal service, you could enjoy universal healthcare!
Couple years ago, when the Wii was really popular, I bought whole punch of them and ebayed them. Not knowing how crappy USPS tracking system was, I shipped my first batch with them.
Everyday I would get emails from angry buyers saying that the tracking number i gave them were invalid. I also had one guy was in your situation. It said delivered but he didn’t have it. With Christmas looming, everyone was so tense. All the packages finally got where it needed to go but man was that a headache.
Ever since the first batch, it’s been UPS!
You’re right and you can say the same for UPS as well. craziness!
Oh wow…where are you located? I’m in New York City, and I thought it was just a New York laziness kind of thing since I know people in other parts of the country who get their packages delivered just fine. I *HATE* the USPS. They practically never deliver any packages to me, unless they fit inside the tiny mailbox for my apartment. I wrote about this nonsense two years ago…
http://www.wistfulwriter.com/2007/09/usps-finally-pays-attention/
That’s why I love my UPS guy. He’s reliable. He always rings the doorbell, never just plops down expensive, highly resellable and very popular electronics (like a Sony Playstation 3) out in the front of my apartment so that anybody can just waltz right in and steal it (FedEx Ground does that).
I say UPS all the way! FedEx Express is tolerable sometimes =T
I wish we had a more reliable mail service! Thanks for writing in, Avery!
Oh no! Matthew, that’s a bummer!