If you have read my past posts on this miserable mail service we have, you know the type of disservice we get. It actually has been getting worse. Let me tell you how:
1. I wrote a complaint to the U. S. Postmaster Generals Office of the Inspector General. After several weeks I received an e-mail telling me that it's not their job to follow up on mail handling problems. They are only interested in fraud, abuse, waste, etc. Waste? And what is this about ensuring efficiency and integrity? Good God,this must have been written by the same politico that wrote stuff for the Fast and Furious program and the IRS and NSA abuse programs. Amazing that they turn a blind eye to this and then wonder why they are going bankrupt. What the hell do they think these employees are doing when they don't handle the mail properly? But no, they can't bother dealing with small shippers or clients so screw us. Here's the gist of their response:
"The primary responsibility of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General is to prevent, detect, and report fraud, waste, and misconduct; and to conduct independent audits and investigations of Postal Service programs and operations to ensure their efficiency and integrity.
The issues raised in your correspondence do not fall within the jurisdiction of this office. These matters do appear to be within the jurisdiction of the office listed below. Therefore, we are forwarding your complaint to them for their review and direct response to you.
For further information, please contact:
United States Postal Service
Consumer & Industry Contact Office
2. The above refer us to the local USPS Consumer Affairs office in our area who sends us a wonderful...form letter telling us to use the web site or 1-800 number. Yes, the one with terminal hold or the one that doesn't get you any useful information. Oh and the web site that will get you an e-mail from your local post office with some bull crap saying they are doing all they can to deliver for you.
3. I call the Consumer Affairs office and they try and bullshit you so it appears they actually are doing something and tell you to call the local post office, which doesn't have a phone number. Finally, after 20 minutes or so, the idiot at the consumer affairs office promises to escalate the case "upstairs" to an Area Manager who will call me within two working days. It's now been over a week and no contact. So much for case escalation. Must be to the circular file. Incidentally, the "hard working" Consumer Affairs Office for the San Diego District is only open from 9AM to 3PM 5 days a week. That's just 30 hours those poor people must work their fingers to the bone. Poor postal workers hard at work for the consumers. Right. You have to move off your ass to move the mail or move the dead wood, neither of which seems to be a likelihood. Will I ever hear from the Area Manager? I really doubt it. Chatter has it that he doesn't want to be bothered with complaints, wants consumers to call the worthless 1-800 line or use the USPS web site too. More customer disservice. And they wonder why they lose money?
4. Mail does not get scanned when it's outgoing. We have packages that leave Carlsbad 92011 and never get scanned until they reach an East Coast destination. Lately, we have had mail for other people placed in our mail box and packages for other people placed in a hold box and the key left in our mail box. We hand delivered the box to the right person. A high value parcel was left 4 blocks away at another address in front of a gate for at least a day before a neighbor noticed it and asked the resident if she knew it was there. The elderly person never opens that gate, and luckily the sprinklers did not come on or the contents would have been ruined. Is the freaking mail person dyslexic or what?
5. The local post office takes no accountability for their screw-ups. The supervisors say they will talk to the carriers or will fix the issues but the issues simply continue. And when packages are not scanned at the post office after being sorted there, how is that the carriers fault? It's an epidemic of slovenly labor that is perpetuated by a postal labor system that allows dead wood employees to remain on the job for years long after their efficiency should have been rated incompetent. Just go to the post office on a busy day and watch a clerk suddenly close his or her window and walk away because it's their break time, no matter how long the line is, thus prolonging your wait time. It happens all the time. Because that's how the system works. Snails pace, unlikely to be fired or disciplined and screw the customers. That's unless you are one of the few route carriers that actually work their butts off and deliver the mail and provide great customer service. We know one or two and they are few and far between.
6. Carrier Pickup is a hit and miss proposition. When the carrier doesn't get the pickup order from the post office, of course they do not know to pick up your waiting packages. So later in the day you have to call the post office and ask why your priority mail was not picked up. This is a case where one blames the other. The post office makes it seem like the carrier is the idiot who forgot to pick up your package when in reality, the supervisor or whoever handles the pickup notices at the post office never gives the carrier the pickup notice, so how would the carrier know to pick up the package? We have actually had the carrier come the next day with the notice to show us she never received the notice until a day late. WE are considering changing to FedEx and UPS if this continues. Just not worth the hassle as you never know if your packages will be picked up or not. And you have to laugh at their $20 pickup charge outside your normal pickup hours. They don't guarantee they will pickup at any special time for that $20...maybe not at all. Read the fine print and then DO NOT USE IT!
7. Wait...you just needed the Spiderman boxes? How about delivering the freaking mail, eejits and forget the stupid boxes. You aren't Super Heroes by a long shot. Your performance is more like Super Zeros.....00000000000..absolutely nothing to brag about at all.
I'll be laughing with every package that I ship by FedEx because it's another ten or twenty bucks that the USPS won't get in their coffers. Multiply me by thousands and then tens of thousands, they will soon be bankrupt. And I'll be telling my Congressman and Senator just exactly why not to support these eejits in the future.
