U.S. Postal Service: salvageable or doomed?

If we don't get mail today, it'll have been a full week since we last got any mail delivered at all. Now obviously Monday was a postal holiday and we got slammed with a snowstorm that makes things difficult. But even with past storms and inclement weather, I don't remember ever going a full week without mail delivery. Seems like something bigger than just weather delays is going on.

Our mail has been pretty erratic the past couple of weeks, due to a confluence of reasons. There's all the snow, for one. Then there's some serious understaffing, too, more than partly due to covid. The frustration I keep coming across is from customers who just wanted some sort of a heads up, some announcement of what's going on, rather than just days with no mail. I think I saw that post office employees are actually forbidden from making public statements?

I think you're not alone in having messed up mail. Seems to be a bit wayward over here too.

mail is EARNED, not a right!

The frustration I keep coming across is from customers who just wanted some sort of a heads up, some announcement of what's going on, rather than just days with no mail.

Yeah, I think some communication would go a long way. Obviously weather is an issue, but it just feels weird to go days and then nearly a full week without anything at all. More sensitive around here since my wife's main consulting gig still sends her paper checks, so a week without mail does make things a little more nerve wracking.

Package that was mailed 1/15 showed up overnight, meaning it might have been either a) delivered on a late truck, or b) was wrongly delivered to someone else, and they put it in our mailslot late.

In any case, I finally got a chapbook that I ordered before Christmas.

Well it wasn't just me, at least. Someone in our neighborhood group sent out an email asking about mail delivery, and about 15 people have responded so far and it appears that no one in our neighborhood has had mail delivery at all since Friday, the 12th.

maybe someone's eating the mail

I mean, I guess DeJoy ultimately got his way. He's completely crippled it.

Oddly throughout this whole experience I’ve had basically no delayed packages or mail here in Seattle, including receiving a package from my parents outside DC that reached me in a timely fashion whereas the equivalent packages reached my east coast relatives weeks later.

All these past few months I've only had one delayed package of note, so I'll take my good fortune there.

I've only had three packages (two coming to me, one I sent) that were seriously delayed, as in measured in months not weeks, while I'd say everything else was mostly on time or delayed a week or so.

Lately it's been less about specific delays in packages, but hit or miss with delivery in general. Seems like staffing challenges are the bigger problem on our end.

i had a package lost but weirdly it was Amazon's delivery service, where that hadn't happened before

The snow in Chicago has really compounded all this: I’ve put in investigation requests for my sixth package in two weeks. (If only I had checked the forecast before going on a Discogs spree!) As others have mentioned, it wouldn’t be so bad if I had some sort of indication it’s being worked on, because I don’t know if these have any effect, considering how many others must be submitting them. Usually, I get a generic “we’re looking into it message”, then some time in the next week or two a package shows up, then a week or so after that a “how’d we do” survey. No idea if the claims spur delivery or just coincidence. We’ve received no mail for the last three days until yesterday—which was just four pieces of “current resident” junk mail, which seems like a middle finger.

At least I’m not on the South Side, though: US Rep. Bobby Rush, aldermen call for Chicago USPS postmaster to resign after months of ‘abject’ delays

Yeah, the South Side delivery is abysmal, was just reading about that last night. We have an apartment building down the street from us and the building manager said her tenants have been complaining because they haven't gotten mail in almost two weeks now. She's been calling the post office daily, but can't get through to anyone, so she was going to go down there in person to try to get some more information. Still haven't received any mail since last Friday, in our immediate neighborhood anyway.

We've got a local primary election coming up on Tuesday and most people are still waiting for their mail ballots to arrive. It's a mess.

All the Chicago metro discussion here made me realize that, yeah, we haven't received a thing all week. I don't think we were expecting anything but it's exceedingly weird for us to go more than a day or two without getting at least like a ValPak or a mailer from a muffler shop.

I think I'm only hyper aware of it because of a) waiting for a check, and b) having another package marked as "out for delivery" since Wednesday.

The last time I know for sure the mail arrived was Saturday night, because I went down to pick up food delivery at like 9 PM and it struck me as odd that the postdude was in the lobby stuffing boxes that late (they're usually done in the AM on the weekend).

Not 30 seconds after I submitted that last post, I heard our mailbox shut and there was a massive pile in the box, finally.

Maybe your delivery person is on ILX.

Sorry, too busy posting to bother with the post

know the feeling, waiting for several things and coming back to an empty mailbox all week when I should have things arriving. hopingthings haven't disappeared.

worth noting that a book that supposedly shipped mid-December never arrived...and a friend who lives a 15 minute walk away had the same thing happen. So he contacted the seller, who sent him another, and also ordered another one. Eventually, the lost book showed up, and so he had three copies of the same book, which is the only reason I have a copy— he gave me an extra.

No mail yesterday and none today, too, it looks like.

Not 30 seconds after I submitted that last post, I heard our mailbox shut and there was a massive pile in the box, finally.

We haven’t received mail in three days, until yesterday. Despite all the packages Informed Delivery tells me should be here, all they delivered was four pieces of “current resident” junk mail, which is masterful as a middle-finger gesture. (We had similar but less severe issues back in May, which usually was resolved by the postal carrier dumping two weeks' worth of packages for the entire building into the lobby at once.)

Today we received six pieces of mail ... one of ours and five for our neighbor. So close, yet so far.

We're back to getting mail every 2-3 days, still not every day, but this is an improvement. Although four of the seven pieces in today's mail were for a neighbor so...

my oldest German LP that was still in transit showed up on Saturday, 4 months and 4 days after it was mailed, in perfect condition. I guess this means I'll get the November package next month.

i sent the original copy of my birth certificate to the UK by USPS priority mail express.

cost me $70.

took 3.5 weeks to get from LA to Atlanta at an average speed of just over 3 miles per hour. no tracking during that time.

it then took 13 hours to get to heathrow, and another 7 hours to get to durham.

gahhh that makes me nervous just reading it

Isn't there a guarantee with Priority Mail Express? I've actually received refunds before due to similar issues, caek.

i keep having the hilarious and completely-dissonant-with-this-thread experience of packages arriving really soon after i've ordered them

i ordered a drum throne that was supposed to be here this saturday. arrived two days ago

same. sent another book to CA on a thursday, it arrived the following monday. have been getting mail delivered once or twice a week for months now though.

I have spent the past week watching a package bounce between a succession of FL postal facilities for some reason (nb, I am in IL). Will report back if it ever achieves a velocity sufficient to escape the state.

Oh right, this one. I think it spent another day floating around FL and then was somehow made its way to me the following day. Yeah, I don't get it either.

was

i keep having the hilarious and completely-dissonant-with-this-thread experience of packages arriving really soon after i've ordered them

Yeah, I get (and can send) mail really fast, too - I think it's just a NY metro area thing.

My sympathies to you guys - I had a bad stretch of delayed packages and mail in the summer and between Nov-Dec, but otherwise mostly normal

Yeah, I get (and can send) mail really fast, too - I think it's just a NY metro area thing.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, February 24, 2021 8:48 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i figured this was the case with like deliveries from chewy and lush but i was really surprised my drum throne arrived like the day after i ordered it lol

I think our mailman just doesn't show up some days... it's pretty rare that we get service on Mondays, for example.

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of the rounds they feel like completing on the days of their choosing.

Isn't there a guarantee with Priority Mail Express? I've actually received refunds before due to similar issues, caek.

there is but i'm assuming the fact that it was snowing the last couple of days of my letter's nearly month long odyssey across the US means they're off the hook

"The national transportation network has been severely disrupted by the multiple winter weather events across the country. The situation has affected USPS transportation and processing capabilities. Therefore, according to the Domestic Mail Manual Section 604.9.5.5 Priority Mail Express money-back guarantee is suspended nationwide as of Friday, February 19, 2021 through Thursday, February 25, 2021."

https://postalpro.usps.com/node/9316

DeJoy isn't done wreaking havoc yet, moved to his long term plan to actively destroy the USPS:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/23/politics/louis-dejoy-postal-service-changes-ten-year-plan/index.html

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy proposes to:
-- slow delivery times for first-class mail
-- hike postage rates
-- reduce hours for post offices
-- close sorting centers and post offices.

He is not seeking to save the postal service, he is destroying it.https://t.co/0KaBEcPXfv

— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) March 24, 2021

Renationalize the post office

Months ago (mid-January) I received a delivery that was comically damaged and broken, like bent and snapped in half and wrapped together in USPS "damaged" tape. I thought, well, that's a bummer, but I guess I understand how it got damaged in transit. I processed the return from some company in Florida, repackaged and wrapped up the item in its damaged state, affixed the provided UPS label and drop it off at UPS, who look at it, laugh, and tell me they can't guarantee it will arrive in one piece. (I told them it didn't matter, since the reason I was returning it was that it had arrived at my house in two pieces already!). Eventually got my refund and that was that.

Yesterday I get an unsolicited letter from the USPS, dated March 17, referencing a claim I didn't make for the order back on January 21 telling me to bring my damaged item (which I no longer have) to a post office for inspection. Weird.

silby otm

DeJoy wants to 'run it like a business' when it's not and has never been a business. It's called the Postal Service, asshole.

Anyway, there is no reason to believe Biden wants him there, so if it is within Biden's power to remove him I'm sure that's what's going to happen as soon as it can happen.

It's not really his call, only the Board can remove DeJoy. Biden has appointed new people to fill vacated seats on the Board, but afaik the confirmation keeps being delayed.

Exactly. And as soon as they are confirmed, DeJoy is out.