USPS Praise - Hold Orders + Tracking

[Ken Dryden]

Recently I purchased over $500 of LPs + CDs from a vendor whom I've dealt with for years. As fate would have it, informed delivery let me know that the packages were due to arrive on a day when I would be away for hours, meaning that they would sit in the hot sun on our porch and possibly be stolen. When informed delivery wouldn't allow me the option to have them held at the local post office, I visited it yesterday and they told me to have my mail held for two days.

I was shocked when they were listed as out for delivery this morning on informed delivery, so I took a quick trip to the post office to see if they were held. The clerk was very helpful and spent 10-15 minutes tracking them down. It turns out that "out for delivery" is an automatic default in their system. But it wasn't our regular route driver, but a sub, who was unaware that there was a hold order on all of our mail. Both packages were located and given to me before he left to begin his day.

Consider adding insurance to any package that is valued over $50, though you must decide whether you want to absorb the cost or pass it on. Even if you use media mail, insurance seems to speed up the delivery time to no more than 5-7 days, unlike regular media mail, which can bounce around for weeks before reaching its destination. My record is 42 days to travel two states from me.

A third option for sellers would be to require a signature for large orders, so they aren't left in poor weather conditions for hours. 

While the failed hold order was a disappointment, I have strong praise for the staff at our local post office. They actually had three clerks at the window both times I visited and the lady who helped me treated me like I was a valuable customer. 

So here's a cheer for the USPS working hard to solve an issue.

[JSngry]

Any organization is only going to be as good - or as bad - as the people working it. My experience with in-office postal workers has always been goodor better, and fortunately the same with all but a handful of drivers over the 30+ years we've lived in this house.

Management is one thing, I wonder what the end game is for this regime of UPS management, but the frontline workers I interact with have always been friendly, professional, and conscientious. They want to help you!

Glad to see them getting some love here!

[Ken Dryden]

One of the things that puzzles me is that another local post office with an even higher volume of mail and walk in customers rarely has more than 1 or 2 staff manning the windows. Their building was damaged in the 2020 tornadoes, yet the USPS didn't expand the building (n empty building next door could have been acquired and demolished) or move this location to a larger property that could better accomodate its mail and customer volume. Maybe the local congressman is unaware of the issue.

[JSngry]

Write your congressman, isn't that what they told us back in the day?

[Brad]

59 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Write your congressman, isn't that what they told us back in the day?

Was that the day back in the 1840s?

[JSngry]

Oh, I was hearing it as late as the late 20th Century.

I actually phoned one of mine fairly recently. Staff answered the phone, listened thoroughly, thanked me for my call, etc. What happened after that, I don't know, but some (most?) of these folks like to have an ear to the ground, even if it's vicarious.

[Dan Gould]

Congressmen get money to operate local offices and do "constituent service" including fixing SS problems and a lot of other things.  There was a time that measuring constituent service and vote share was a popular poli-sci research topic. No idea if it still is as that was about 5 or 6 careers ago.

And of course, getting a new PO built was a big part of "bringing home the bacon".

Edited April 27, 2022 by Dan Gould