USPS, have they changed?

[maple flats]

I used to get mail 6 days a week, lately it saeems to only be 3 days a week. Did I miss a big change, or is it just my local delivery person? It's not a big issue for incoming bills but it does mess up shipments going out. When I have shipments outgoing of syrup I schedule it for the next day, lately it often set there until the second day, and we also get no incoming mail either, not even junk mail. Anyone else notice this or is it just my local delivery driver?

[Andy VT]

Similar here, and I'm in the "city" (big quotes there, but still).
USPS having trouble having enough help, I hear, and maybe other issues.
Andy

[wnybassman]

Your regular carrier could be out on some sort of long term leave, and they are having a hard time finding subs every day. Is your route a personal vehicle route, or a mail truck route? That could come into play if it is a personal vehicle route, getting harder and harder to find subs with those. If you submit a package pick-up, at minimum a supervisor should be coming out to get it. They don't like to be on "the list" if certain actions are not completed for the day.

[buckeye gold]

They have been awful around here. I mailed syrup to a couple people out west and paid for premium 2nd day and it still took a week. They just said it was weather related and no refund would be issued. I know some of the local employees quit because of job harassment here. They have GPS on their vehicle and if you stop too long they call and threaten you. One guy had a bought of diarrhea hit him and stopped to poop along a rural road and they called him and threaten to fire him. Told him to sh!t on his own time. He had enough years and retired. My friend was a carrier and quit, said it was the worse work experience he ever had. No wonder people go "Postal".

[Pdiamond]

I worked in the service industry for over 42 years. Nine times out of ten when we had a package that was not delivered on time the carriers, be it USPS, UPS, FEDEX, or any of the others. Would say it was weather related, and our company would not be reimbursed for the package cost. Mind you I am talking 100's of packages daily. All over the country.

[maple flats]

My route is covered most of the time by a USPS box truck, accasionally it's in a minivan but with the USPS decale on it.

[maple flats]

I worked in the service industry for over 42 years. Nine times out of ten when we had a package that was not delivered on time the carriers, be it USPS, UPS, FEDEX, or any of the others. Would say it was weather related, and our company would not be reimbursed for the package cost. Mind you I am talking 100's of packages daily. All over the country.
I don't by any means ship a lot of packages, except at Christmas time it's generally 1 or 2 pkgs at a time, near Christmas it sometimes might be 5-7 pkgs, but that's rare recently. I used to run an add on one very popular forum, but I stopped that almost a yr ago. Now my orders are either from previous customers or their friends. As I got older I was forced to slow down, being 78 isn't what I thought it was going to be!

[maple flats]

USPS did it again. I again scheduled a pkg pick up for today, I got a confirmation it would be picked up today with our regular mail. The regular mail came, the pkg was in the designated location, the same location used for several years, but the pkg was not picked up. Until 10-12 weeks ago, this was never a problem, now it seems to happen about 30-40% of the time. It's no wonder the USPS is losing money every year, even with rather large price increases.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

Ya, USPS lost about $9.5 billion last year. It's a mess. Seems to be OK here locally at the post office but we will get random days here and there with no mail. Likely when someone is out unplanned I would guess.

[wnybassman]

USPS did it again. I again scheduled a pkg pick up for today, I got a confirmation it would be picked up today with our regular mail. The regular mail came, the pkg was in the designated location, the same location used for several years, but the pkg was not picked up. Until 10-12 weeks ago, this was never a problem, now it seems to happen about 30-40% of the time. It's no wonder the USPS is losing money every year, even with rather large price increases.

I wonder if your office got a new supervisor or OIC, and they are not printing out the request for the carrier? The way the evaluation pay system works in the USPS, the carrier wants everything they can get because that helps their pay scale. My guess is they don't even know about the pick-up.

[maple flats]

It's not the case that the order wasn't printed at least this time, this morning I got an email saying they could not find the package. Now, I've been placing my outgoing shipments on a large stool on the left side of the entry door (for over 6 years) and the mail box is about 8" to the right of that door. Our front porch is only 8' wide and 6' front to back. I just suspect I had a sub who failed to look. In that time while they have missed pickups often, it's the first time they claimed they could not find the box, it was a medium flat rate USPS box with the prepaid label on top and facing right so they could read it (my online store determines which box and charges the customer for the shipping, they pay it as they place the order. I just got 2 more orders a few minutes ago, I'll be requesting a pickup for Thursday (because I need to bring some of the syrup from the sugarhouse tomorrow) and will be putting the 2 packages out Wed nite for Thursday pickup. I'll let you know how it goes.
The way I handled the missed pickup was that I printed a message in large bold print and used a HD clip to hang in on the front of our mailbox. I did that because had I chose to create another PU order it was too late for a pickup today, the email notice came about 6:50 this morning and 2:00 am is the cut off for a pickup order. My note said, Attention, mail carrier, I got notice you couldn't find my outgoing package yesterday. Look to your left, it's on the stool only 5 feet away as have hundreds of shipments for over 6 years, no body else had issues finding the shipment!. It was picked.

[UB29]

Dave, The USPS getting worse, is just another example of service gone to hell in this country. I ship via USPS often; but have given up asking for pickups. I hand carry all prepaid shipments down to my local PO, and plop them on their counter. That gives me at least a reasonable feeling that my package will at least get into their system.
Sad we have to put up with this crap...........but emblematic of service, or lack thereof, in our daily lives.

Bill

[wnybassman]

Well, that is unfortunate. My guess is the "not being able to find it" excuse was just that, an excuse for not picking it up because they probably need to put down something if the action was not completed. "Weather delay" is another generic excuse. If you were on my route I'd be happy to pick up your boxes. I have a few fairly regular pick-ups, including an author sending books out all the time and a motorcycle shop that sends out parts almost daily.

[DrTimPerkins]

Not package related, but when we moved from VT to MI in June 2023, we didn't receive ANY mail for 3 months. We did all the paperwork. Each end blamed the other end, then said the procedures changed during that time. Some mail we knew about (my retirement package info from UVM) NEVER got delivered and disappeared into the ether. Some mail ended up going back to our original address 6 months later and was thankfully put in an envelope and sent to us by the new owner. Some got held by the P.O. at each end because they had no "confirmation" of the change (because we never got it). They just kept saying "wait...it'll show up eventually." We kept getting mail for the previous owner of our new house for 6 months even though they had changed the address repeatedly. Fortunately, we do most things electronically and do even less by U.S. mail now. Just a bunch of absolutely crazy BS.

Of course, UPS at Proctor wasn't any better. They'd hold packages all week (claiming "Attempted delivery. Business closed") and only deliver on Fridays (often after-hours, leaving packages in the snow by the gate)...even for stuff that was supposed to be 1-day or 2-day shipping. Or would drop off our packages at a neighbor's house. Didn't matter how much we'd call them to complain. Never got better in the 25+ yrs I was there.

FedEx was the only shipper that was reliable.

[maple flats]

Another test for tomorrow, I have 3 packages going out, pick up is scheduled, I'll let you know how it goes. As I said before, this has only been a problem for about 5 months, maybe 6. Before that a few years ago when there was a sub on he didn't pick up packages. I I'm shipping over 30 lbs in one package or the total of more than one, generally a different ruck picks up even though I arrange for the free pick up along with the regular mail delivery.

[wnybassman]

Another test for tomorrow, I have 3 packages going out, pick up is scheduled, I'll let you know how it goes. As I said before, this has only been a problem for about 5 months, maybe 6. Before that a few years ago when there was a sub on he didn't pick up packages. I I'm shipping over 30 lbs in one package or the total of more than one, generally a different ruck picks up even though I arrange for the free pick up along with the regular mail delivery.

Anxiously awaiting the outcome. lol

[maple flats]

This is getting old, again today, I had a confirmation the shipment would be picked up, but it wasn't. In the past USPS has sent an email saying they couldn't find the package, no such email this time, just no pickup.
I'll describe my porch, it's 10' x 5' with concrete steps a part of that measurement. Straight ahead as they go up the 3 steps, first is a 36" x 6' wide concrete platform, then 2 more normal steps of 12" x 6' wide, concrete steps. straight ahead is the entry door, 10" right of the door, is the mailbox, 2' left of the door is a stool of 16" deep by 28" wide. The packages have been placed on that stool for 7 yrs now, before that for over 5 years prior there was a smaller stool, and packages were placed on there.
For all of those 12 yrs, I never had a problem, pickup order, confirmation and the packages were taken. Now I've had notices 3 times that they couldn't find the package, and now 2 times, no pickup and no message, in about the last 10 weeks.
These shipments are being shipped from my home, because it's along a long section of homes, one after another and the lots are from 50' wide for a few, up to maybe 150' wide if that and no homes ae set back more than 30-75' off the road. In this area, the mailman (or woman) parks along the route, takes the mail for a block or 2, covering a maximum of 8-10 homes on one side and back the other about the same number of homes. I'm at the bottom of a rather long hill, and going uphill for about 15 more homes the spacing is similar, after that many yards tend to be wider, more like 100-200' wide.
I now wonder what requesting a pickup does, it doesn't seem to mean the shipment will be picked up.

[maple flats]

New approach, I printed a sign that attaches to the mailbox saying " Please take package on the stool left of the door"
The print is large and in BOLD print. Let's see if that helps! If it doesn't help, I'll file a formal complaint with the local postmaster, if that fails I'll file a formal complaint with the postmaster general if I have to.

[maple flats]

Finally, the sign worked, the shipments were picked up.
I bmy email inbox this morning I got the message, for yesterday, saying pick up attempted, no package found. I googled to see how many postal workers have been let go, it seems about 10,000 over 31,000 post offices, due to retirements who were not replaced, that's one on average for every 3 post offices. My guess at this point is that those who took over were never trained, just given a route. I fail to see how a stack of official P.O. flate rate boxes 5' to the left of the mail box keep being "not found". The only reason I don't place the shipments under the mail box is because that end of the porch is open to the weather and rain or snow gets everything wet on that end, whereas the area to the left isall protected. A roof over all, then it butts up against the attached garage wall. But alas, the sign worked. That's about 4 or 5 times I've put a sign out, the first referred to the message a shipment was not found, on that sign I said I'd been placing shipments there with no problems for years, then each subsequent sign became progressively more basic.