Funny USPS stories

[NashvilleStage]

"The check is in the mail."

 

It's the oldest line in the book, right? Well, I ordered some ammo from a vendor in Texas & promptly mailed a check to pay for it. After a week, the order hadn't shipped, and the check hadn't cleared my bank. I emailed the company & confirmed that they had not received it yet. Fearing that the envelope had met its demise somewhere en route, I offered to pay via credit card instead. The vendor was gracious, and agreed to wait a bit more. It finally arrived today, 13 days after it was postmarked.

 

While neither of us could figure out what caused the delay, it brought up a similar funny story from a few years ago: One time I opened my PO Box to find an envelope with the title to my motorcycle inside. This was odd, because I hadn't done anything with the paperwork on my motorcycle in quite some time. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the postmark was over a *year* old.

The envelope was intact & in good condition, and there were no markings or notices to indicate that it had been mis-processed. The best part was that it had only traveled from downtown Nashville to a suburb; a whopping 10 miles. The worst part was that I had completely forgotten about receiving the title after I had registered it over a year ago!  :doh:

 

Time to share. Anyone else have a funny story of "Adventures in Mailing"?  :popcorn:
 

[GlockSpock]

I shipped (20 I think) PMAG's to a member on here. I generally add tracking numbers to my iOS app "Deliveries" and just make sure they all get delivered. Probably a week or so later I get a message from that person just asking the status of his PMAG's. Told him that I didn't know but would check. My iOS app told me that it had been delivered! He hadn't seen them though, and I took his word for it since he has good feedback on here. I figured that either they had been stolen off his porch or stolen by the USPS person. I called the Post Office in Brentwood, spoke with the Postmaster over a few days, and eventually discovered that a driver had "scanned it as delivered but meant to scan it as attempted delivery". Accidents happen, but I was very concerned that one of us was going to be out of some money. In the end it worked out. The Postmaster was very helpful, but it did cause me to rethink some things.

 

You know who you are!

Edited March 3, 2014 by CZ9MM

[Spots]

Around Christmas time in 2012 I had 2 big knife orders from customers here. One had paid via check and one via money order. Both got shipped out within a day or so of each other. I've never seen either one of those articles of mail and last I heard they hadn't either. I now ship everything tracked and request that everything mailed to me be the tracked also.

Tapatalk ate my spelling

[Lumber_Jack]

I ordered a package, containing a T-shirt and a couple morale patches.  The USPS doesn't leave packages at the door in my condo complex, they have a large package box, and leave the key in your mailbox.  The packaged checked as delivered, but no sign.  I took 3 trips to the post office as well as talked to the mail carrier, never did find that package.  The curiosity kills me some days wondering where that went, who if anyone, stole it, or where it got lost

[TNMTBik3r]

I ordered some brass from a guy, shipping out of Florida. He shipped in a flat rate box with 1 day priority mail. Shipped on Friday morning, expected delivery was Saturday. Nothing Saturday, I wasn't in a rush so thought it would show up Monday. Monday morning the tracking showed the box had processed and left Nashville. 

Tuesday the box was scanned back through Orlando! I contacted the seller, he tried to find out what happened but the Post Office had no idea, they said the box was marked to go back to Nashville and verified my address. Box was shipped back to Nashville, processed, and back to Orlando a second time. This went on for several days, box was processed through Orlando and Nashville 3 times and it took almost 2 weeks for a 1 day package to arrive..

[Spiffy]

This is why I mailed my application the Carolina Cup Priority Mail this morning. 1st come 1st serve is the game and I wanted to make sure my "usual" 2 to 3 day letter got there in 2 or 3 days!

[LI0NSFAN]

We were having a lot of stuff come up "missing" for about 6mo. I finally called the Postmaster and he told me there was nothing they could do because it was probably being stolen from our mail box. So I knew that my son was suppose to get a card in the mail, tracking number said it was out for delivery it was bad enough that  we had family put tracking numbers on EVERYTHING. I decided that I would work in the front yard until the mail came. when they pulled up I took the mail directly from them. No card, went inside and checked the tracking number, it said delivered. I called the Postmater again, he said he would look into it. The next day I came home and someone had knocked my trash cans over. I was picking them up as a neighbor came over and told me that the delevery driver backed over them three times and drove off with one still attached. So I went down this time with the neighbor and told the postmaster what happend. He went out to the parking lot and found the driver and the truck he was in. The guy denied it in front of all of us. then we looked at the back bumper and part of my can was still attached. THe greatest part is that the busted handle peice still had part of my address on it. We got a new driver the next day and have not had an issue since. 2 weeks later 4 trash cans and a check for $500 was brought to my house by the postmaster, the diver admitted to everything and told them about how much he stole and it came out to about $500 per house on his route.

[Monkeyman2500]

Holy cow, horror stories. I ship almost nothing through post office, and now I'm very glad I know my postman well.

[sigmtnman]

I had a buddy mail me a check for a mountain bike I sold him.  After a couple of weeks, with no check he sent another one.  About a year later the original showed up with "found in equipment" written on the envelope.

[UncleJak]

This isn't very funny, but when I received my PhD I decided to have it mailed to my house. An envelope clearly marked "do not bend or fold" was bent and forced into my mailbox. Sent barefoot from the hills of Tennessee

[TMF]

One of my presents I had mailed to my parents via USPS (using Amazon) this past Christmas got FUBAR'd by the worthless mouthbreathers at USPS.  My parents live in a rural area where this postal delivery stooge rarely goes to because my parents have most everything shipped to a separate PO Box in town, so with the exception of deliveries they don't get mail at their physical address.

 

Well this idiot claims that he left a notice of attempted delivery at my parents' place (which he didn't, but it wouldn't matter because when that happens they at least hold it at the post office for pick up) but the same day he turned around and marked it as "undeliverable as addressed" and the gift I bought for my parents was returned to Amazon.  So after calling that post office and

learning what lazy, sorry excuses for tit-sucking worthless Americans that postal employees were, I contacted Amazon.  Not only did they get another package out (before the previous package was returned to them) but they put a 1-day shipping on it (for free) so that it would get there before Christmas.  Amazon is an awesome company to deal with.  The USPS is worthless as tits on a bull because they are plagued with apathetic, lazy drones who don't have concern for being fired.

 

Oh, and I had another package sent to them FedEx and somehow that made it great.  Goes to show how a private company operates better than government any day of the week.

 

Sorry if I offended any postal workers with this one, but the only other place I've seen so many people take so little pride in what they do and care even less about the inconvenience of others is at the DMV.

[TrickyNicky]

FedEx. FTW.

[Guest sL1k]

[quote name="Spots" post="1119586" timestamp="1393879635"]Around Christmas time in 2012 I had 2 big knife orders from customers here. One had paid via check and one via money order. Both got shipped out within a day or so of each other. I've never seen either one of those articles of mail and last I heard they hadn't either. I now ship everything tracked and request that everything mailed to me be the tracked also. Tapatalk ate my spelling[/quote] I still haven't heard anything.

[runco]

I have bought a many of things, and I have sent a many of things through the USPS, I have no stories.  I guess the law of it will happen is certainly going to catch up to me.  So I must be at high risk since it has not happened to me.

[Sidinman]

Not funny, and I'm still waitng. Sent a postal m/o to FLA. the 20th of Feb. for a GB purchase, as of Sat. still no payment. Checked e-mail yesterday afternoon still no update, hopefully it gets there today. I am pretty pissed as you could imagine. I could've hand delivered it and been back by now. I'm hating government services more and more all the time.

[Mike.357]

I am sure I have had something or other lost by the USPS at one time or another but nothing stands out.

 

what does stand out are two instances of excellent service.

 

About fifteen years ago I mailed a package to Chicago from Boca Raton.  Just regular mail,  it arrived the next day.

 

And last year my 90 year old alzheimer's Dad mailed a birthday card to me.   I wish I still had the envelope to post a pic of it.  It was addressed to Mr. Mike ( no last name at all) my address only had part of the street name,  my town was there but no zip code.    Some how it found its way into my mailbox.   There had to be several postal employees who went above and beyond to get it to me.  He did have a return addy sticker so the easy way out for a handler would have been to return it. But no, somehow it made it from Cincinnati to my house.  All I could figure was someone at the Corryton PO figured out the street name and my letter carrier must have recognized a Cincy return address from previous mail Dad had sent me and knew it was mine.   The old man died back in September, it is the last piece of mail he will send me.  Wish I had the envelope but I still have the card.

 

The USPS gets a thumbs up from me.

[hipower]

It doesn't hurt to know your mail carrier either. My wife made  a point of getting to know our carrier. She's a very nice lady and sometimes brings mail to the door when the weather is bad.

 

Unlike the weekend relief waste of skin who bypassed the drive and drove thru my yard to get to the box one day. I had to chase this idiot down and have a short conversation with him.

[Sidinman]

Nice story Mike, its amazing sometimes how things happen.

Yeah I know mail carrier prety good, like High Power said the weekly carriers are pretty good but some of those weekend jokers are less than desireable.

 

Oh well on a different note, got an e-mail a little while ago saying my payment finally arrived, and that my new to me toy will be shipped promply. Yeeeha UPS is picking it up, hopefully be here by the weekend. A new lead spitter, will post some pics when it arrives.

[10-Ring]

My dad retired from the USPS in 2008 after carrying mail for 26 years, no doubt there are some bad seeds out there, but not all of them are.  Rural carriers are probably the worst of the bunch because they are contracted labor that gets no benefits or retirement.  These guys are just your run of the mill $10 per hour employees that we deal with everywhere else.  Even though I come from a postal family I still have a horror story...

 

Last summer I bought a new camera from Amazon, this was a professional level camera valued around $5,000.  I was waiting on a check and didn't have the funds at hand to make the purchase, dear old dad spotted me the money until I received a check for a job that I had done, so he just paid for it through his Amazon account to make things easier and the next week I sent him the check that I owed him.  A couple of days later dad calls me and says "Why did you send me a piece of notebook paper?"  Well, the envelope made it, the piece of paper that I wrapped the check up in made it, the check did not.  So I get that issue taken care of but in the meantime I get the camera.  I had to go out so I put a 8 1/2x11" piece of printer paper on the door that read in large print "USPS, please leave package next door at 555."  I then went next door t 555 to tell them to ask him to accept and sign for the package for me.  His driveway is a few hundred yards from mine, as we are standing in the street talking the mail carrier comes and brings his mail, I then ask if she has a package for me and she tells me that she had knocked on the door and didn't get an answer.  I asked her if she had seen the large note on the front door and she said she had not.  All lies, since I had watched her blast past my house without so much as slowing down.  

 

And while I'm on my soapbox...  My mail carrier also drives a very unsafe speed down my road, really pisses me off since everyone on this road has small children, and being a dead end the kids play in and around the road a lot.  I've also seen my carrier driving through the edge of my yard, which leaves ruts, really makes me mad.  

[TerryW]

Deleted

Edited March 6, 2014 by TerryW

[ncldwell]

I grew up with a mailbox on the front of the house next to the front door.  Our mailman walked his route and was great people.  He was a Vietnam Vet and I can't count how many times we visited for a few minutes on the porch trading stories.  He was at our door like clockwork everyday at 2pm.  Never a piece of mail missing in all the time he delivered for us.  He finally retired for the "good life" and was dead less than two years later.

[mike_f]

For my job I have shipped all kinds of stuff all over North America.  Using all of the major carriers (USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc.) and several trucking companies for larger freight.  I have horror stories about all of them.  Also, my current Post Office is wonderful and I've never had even the smallest of problems from them.

 

But since this is a funny USPS stories thread..........

 

The USPS was a client of mine for engineering services about 10 years ago or so.  They had a very specific way that everything had to be done, specified down to the smallest detail.  One of these things was that all correspondence, including all of our engineering reports, had to be sent by USPS.  Fair enough.  Another thing that was very specific and inflexible was our schedule for submitting the reports - we "X" days after receiving our authorization to proceed for our reports to be delivered.

 

You can see where this is going..... We did our thing, sent off our reports via USPS Express Mail (the guaranteed delivery service they offer) addressed to USPS Headquarters.  The due date came and our reports didn't arrive.  Heated phone call from our USPS contact about how we didn't fulfill the terms of our contract. Not going to get any further work (was a multi year, multi facility contract).

 

So I gave them the tracking info and they tried to track the package down.  The reports disappeared en route.  Just gone.  Tracked into one facility, never tracked out.  They supposedly searched the facility high and low, the package had just disappeared.  Never was found.

[hipower]

For my job I have shipped all kinds of stuff all over North America.  Using all of the major carriers (USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc.) and several trucking companies for larger freight.  I have horror stories about all of them.  Also, my current Post Office is wonderful and I've never had even the smallest of problems from them.

 

But since this is a funny USPS stories thread..........

 

The USPS was a client of mine for engineering services about 10 years ago or so.  They had a very specific way that everything had to be done, specified down to the smallest detail.  One of these things was that all correspondence, including all of our engineering reports, had to be sent by USPS.  Fair enough.  Another thing that was very specific and inflexible was our schedule for submitting the reports - we "X" days after receiving our authorization to proceed for our reports to be delivered.

 

You can see where this is going..... We did our thing, sent off our reports via USPS Express Mail (the guaranteed delivery service they offer) addressed to USPS Headquarters.  The due date came and our reports didn't arrive.  Heated phone call from our USPS contact about how we didn't fulfill the terms of our contract. Not going to get any further work (was a multi year, multi facility contract).

 

So I gave them the tracking info and they tried to track the package down.  The reports disappeared en route.  Just gone.  Tracked into one facility, never tracked out.  They supposedly searched the facility high and low, the package had just disappeared.  Never was found.

 

Did they back off and give you the benefit of the doubt to get more work from them?

[mike_f]

Did they back off and give you the benefit of the doubt to get more work from them?

 

 

After they couldn't sort out the whereabouts of the first batch of reports, they couldn't stay mad at us over it. We sent them a duplicate batch of reports which arrived a couple of days after our official deadline.

 

In retrospect, the nicest thing they could have done was to NOT award us any more assignments.  The way the fee structure was set up we broke even on the various assignments, if we were lucky and everything went nearly perfectly (that didn't always happen though). Not the USPS's fault, it was the fault of the knuckleheads from our  company that negotiated the contract.

[Steelharp]

One of my presents I had mailed to my parents via USPS (using Amazon) this past Christmas got FUBAR'd by the worthless mouthbreathers at USPS.  My parents live in a rural area where this postal delivery stooge rarely goes to because my parents have most everything shipped to a separate PO Box in town, so with the exception of deliveries they don't get mail at their physical address.

 

Well this idiot claims that he left a notice of attempted delivery at my parents' place (which he didn't, but it wouldn't matter because when that happens they at least hold it at the post office for pick up) but the same day he turned around and marked it as "undeliverable as addressed" and the gift I bought for my parents was returned to Amazon.  So after calling that post office and

learning what lazy, sorry excuses for tit-sucking worthless Americans that postal employees were, I contacted Amazon.  Not only did they get another package out (before the previous package was returned to them) but they put a 1-day shipping on it (for free) so that it would get there before Christmas.  Amazon is an awesome company to deal with.  The USPS is worthless as tits on a bull because they are plagued with apathetic, lazy drones who don't have concern for being fired.

 

Oh, and I had another package sent to them FedEx and somehow that made it great.  Goes to show how a private company operates better than government any day of the week.

 

Sorry if I offended any postal workers with this one, but the only other place I've seen so many people take so little pride in what they do and care even less about the inconvenience of others is at the DMV.

My understanding is almost 100% of USPS are former military. I was told don't even bother to apply unless you are.