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What fail...

I ordered "Gaunts Ghosts: The Founding" via Amazon on February 18, the book still didn't arrived and it was well over a month.

This morning I called post office, the phone for them is: 3535-193.
I called and they just told me to call 3535-181.
I called that number and they called 3535-195.
I called that number and they told me to call 3535-180.

And after I finally reached the person who is assigned to foreign shipments she told me that there is no way to find it because they are not filling those kind of packages at all - "they are like postcards, we are not filling them in any books". In other words - there is no way I can know if the package is lost or no, and this is already the second time this is happening...

And people here are asking me why I don't buy everything via internet...
Because our post office put up a troll face and when my shipment is not arriving they just ask: "Problem?"

At least the people working in Amazon are fair, not only they asked for proof of my package not arriving they also pay me 8 dollars for shipping charges.

My post office sucks awful.

It's right across the street, so so they won't deliver to my house. I have to pay for a PO Box instead, which is essentially an additional tax to get mail because I live close.

Their hours are insane. On weekdays, they open at 10, mail's out by 11, and they're closed by 1. On saturday, they're open from 11:30am to 1:00. Why even open up for an hour and a half? Atop that, they have some automated door locking system so you can't even access the lobby to get your mail. I work nights, so sometimes it takes me days before I can actually catch them when they're open to get a package.

Finally, and this isn't specific to this post office - the lady that works there is terrible. I get someone else's mail a minimum of twice a week, so presumably the same happens with my mail. That would explain why mail from the next town over (literally, a 3 minute drive) sometimes takes a week to show up. My wife was a postal employee for many years and finds this especially infuriating since says they don't leave the plant unless mail of that type is turned around the same night - it's obviously sitting at the local PO unsorted somewhere for days at a time. Which I guess I could understand if we lived in some gigantic metropolis, but my entire town is a gas station and a bar. There are only about 70 boxes, FFS.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
I also want to note that despite my complaints, I consider the USPS to be a triumph of technology, generally. I have a lot of issues with my local one but on the whole they do an incredibly amazing job that is unmatched in the rest of the world, as far as cost vs volume goes - mailing a letter from one end of the country to the other, many thousands of miles away, for less than 50 cents and having it arrive reliably within 3 days is a testament to human ingenuity.

I get post for the next town over - we both have a "station st".

I'm sure the nice lady whos mail I keep getting is really happy about this.
I got some post for her, threw it back in the post box.
2 days later, I got it back again.

My parents have a knock and run postie. I've seen him filling the 'sorry you weren't in card' while he was walking up the drive. Then he posted it through the letter box and walked off. He didn't even knock on the door (parcel was too big for the letterbox).

He didn't like me as I managed to catch up to him - I think he was just a little embarrassed. What with me giving him his card back while I was there.

I put great effort into never ever shipping anything via USPS-leters or packages.

One of my good friends has worked for thr USPS for....six years now I believe, and that whole system is one big cluster feth. The only reason he's still there is because it pays so well (for now).

Yeah, my wife was often miserable while working there - they have a pretty lousy corporate culture.

Post-office here is fine.
If I need to pick something up I can walk in with the thingymajig they pop through the letterbox, show them some kind of ID and bob's your uncle, fanny's your aunt I have my parcel.

 Ouze wrote:
Yeah, my wife was often miserable while working there - they have a pretty lousy corporate culture.

Everyone feths over everyone else. That's basically what it boils down to. And he can't even go to the union steward, because he causes just as much problems as everyone else. Luckily, I've never had any problems with my local office delivering anything.

Ouze , I'd love to hear the reason they don't deliver to you, I'm sure it will be entirely logical :/

Personally my little tinpot suburban PO is awesome. They are helpful and I'm sure they deliver mail to the shops next door. The delivery guy says hi if you happen to be close to the letterbox when he delivers. I don't live in the country but it sure does feel that way sometimes, though obviously not the same sort of town you live in .

Our local post office is actually pretty reliable. Unfortunately they keep insane hours 10-4:30 (closed on weekends). The hours are problematic, but my main problem is with the staff. This post office is the hub for an entire sub-division of a city and there only ever seems to be a single employee working (the other two will literally stand around in the background looking bored) even when the line is snaking out of the door and into the street. It's really quite frustrating.
However, aside from that little issue, they generally do a passable job.

A neighbor worked for them as well. Good relative pay, but sucky sucky management according to her.

Now I haven't been in a PO in years and I don't know. I just know I didn't get a lot of important stuff that was sent via USPS - tax and legal stuff not just packages. INstead I get reams and reams of subsidized price junk mail.

Bullockist wrote:
Ouze , I'd love to hear the reason they don't deliver to you, I'm sure it will be entirely logical :/ (

They don't deliver to residences within X radius of the building. In this case, I live too close, so I have to pay for a PO box.

My post office would send items out that I had tracking numbers for, saying they were out for delivery. They didn't arrive, I called, told to wait a day-I wasn't allowed to go pick them up from the office. I've had multiple paychecks and financial aid checks from college lost by the post office, and it took a couple weeks to get them replaced due to post office incompetence-not so good when you're a dirt-poor college kid. And finally, I watched the postman throw my Keeper of Secrets 10 feet from the front of the walk onto my porch-box was marked fragile, and he threw it onto the porch. I called the post office and complained that I witnessed him do it, found out the jackass got fired shortly after. Others had complained too, and he was a temp, so I feel not at all badly.

Bottom line, most of the time they do what they're supposed to and they do it correctly. But I've had 6 occasions where they've seriously screwed up or caused me great annoyance.

 Ouze wrote:

Bullockist wrote:
Ouze , I'd love to hear the reason they don't deliver to you, I'm sure it will be entirely logical :/ (

They don't deliver to residences within X radius of the building. In this case, I live too close, so I have to pay for a PO box.

What if you don't? Does that mean they don't deliver at all? Man I'd love to opt into that.

 Ouze wrote:

Bullockist wrote:
Ouze , I'd love to hear the reason they don't deliver to you, I'm sure it will be entirely logical :/ (

They don't deliver to residences within X radius of the building. In this case, I live too close, so I have to pay for a PO box.

Wow , that exceeded my expectations. I assume they don't airdrop the mail past the X radius and then deliver it by bike/car/foot because that's the only reason i can think to bypass the places close to the PO. I'll never complain about Australia post again.

 Frazzled wrote:
What if you don't? Does that mean they don't deliver at all? Man I'd love to opt into that.

It means you have to use general delivery, which is terrifically broken in modern American society.

Sorry, thats new to me, what is general delivery?

My post office is fantastic . Just sayin!

 Frazzled wrote:
Sorry, thats new to me, what is general delivery?

It means you have no address. It just goes to the front desk, and you have to go ask for it - they hold it for 30 days and then I imagine return to sender. Not only is that awful difficult with the reduced hours, very few official places will allow you to have stuff sent general delivery.

When I lived in NY, the USPS was terrific, never a problem. I imagine if I lived just a mile in either direction, it would be substantially better as well.

My post office is pretty unreliable. Things disappear for weeks, and then finally show up, mysteriously.

Contrast that with every single package I've sent or received by UPS or FedEx making it to me, no hassle.

I always get the UPS option if it's available, even if I have to pay extra.

 daedalus wrote:
My post office is pretty unreliable. Things disappear for weeks, and then finally show up, mysteriously.

Contrast that with every single package I've sent or received by UPS or FedEx making it to me, no hassle.

I always get the UPS option if it's available, even if I have to pay extra.

Same. I don't have problems with the physical post office, but I have had multiple things never delivered or received.

LOL... I see that I am not the only one who have problem with PO from time to time.

Ours is not generally bad, it is one of the few institutions that actually work as they should. The problem is that they are careless about their job.
First time they lost me a package, second time they ruined it because some idiot threw everything away in the pit full of water and now the package is missing again.
And yeah, if they ruined you something and it is their mistake ( happened to me once ) - you don't get refund at all. By law they are not obliged to pay...

 daedalus wrote:
My post office is pretty unreliable. Things disappear for weeks, and then finally show up, mysteriously.

Contrast that with every single package I've sent or received by UPS or FedEx making it to me, no hassle.

I always get the UPS option if it's available, even if I have to pay extra.

UPS lost my Storm Trooper costume for 6 months. Anecdotal evidence requires me to hate them for the rest of my life.

See you didn't get the memo:
USPS - Galactic Empire
UPS-Rebel Alliance.

Its no wonder your storm trooper costume was "lost."

I had to run around the local bars in a Batman costume instead.

Our local post office is pretty good. Havnt really had any problems from them.

 kronk wrote:
I had to run around the local bars in a Batman costume instead.

so, being in texas, did people take pot-shots at you, assuming thats really you

Man that looks uncomforable on the old tackle. (batman dude) OP: never had an issue with the PO service here in AU, never so lucky OS though.

Don't have a problem with my local PO or the contracted parcel service person.

They know where to leave parcels if I'm not home.
They know to get a signature if it was asked for.
They know to leave a card that I take to the PO and sign and show ID to claim the package.