I am a mail carrier, and though I am not an expert, I would like to clear up a few things. Every postal carrier should have a scanner on him or her at all times now. We scan not only packages and accountable mail, but collection cans, and at various times during the route so that management can track our progress. Any carrier who scans the packages before they deliver them is being either lazy or is afraid they will forget to do it when they are on the road. As for stealing, it does go on much the same as in any company. A carrier who steals a delivery confirmation package is just plain stupid. Hundreds of packages come in every day that don't need to be scanned and can not be tracked and would be a much better target. If the carrier is not stupid, then my guess would be that it got misdelivered and the person kept it. In my town we have an apartment complex with 8 buildings, all with the same address. So when something comes in without an apartment number, it generally goes back. The post office wants everything to be able to run through sorting machines, so my local office stresses having the correct and complete address. The post office did in fact lose a lot of money again last year. Some from email, some from anthrax, and some from rising costs. We have over 200,000 trucks on the road every day, if gas goes up 1 cent a gallon, it hurts us. We also added 100,000 never deliveries across the U.S. last year, so that means more man hour. Finally, the post office is a union job, and you can not fire the terrible workers until they start shooting people. You also can't reward the good workers, so anyone who has a high work ethic, eventually just gives up trying. A guy doing the best work will always get paid the same as the guy doing the worst. Same raises for all, and no bonuses, save for Christmas tips from customers. Hopefully that helps a little. My vote will be that it was a stupid mailman who screwed up the shipment.

RonG617: Since you mentioined tips, my I ask what $ amount is considered a good tip for a residential customer like myself to give my carrier?

I do so every Christmas but never know if I'm being generous or cheap or am just right on the money (so ti speak). I'd appreciate your feedback.

Thanks.

TIPS!!!! You have to be kidding, right?

You know, I think some of the problems some of us have is with the stores.

I too ordered some DVDs, and none showed up. I asked the companys. They said they'd reship them. I never got them. I asked again, they said they'd reship them. I never got them.

Never have lost any other DVDs.

Which company did you lost the DVDs from?

In the last month ive had 2 problems with dvd delivery by USPS and its because our normal mail man was on vacation, and we had some mail lady i had never seen before.

First a small soft enveloped package came that was open and the dvd missing. The store i ordered from was nice enough to send another copy, but i did contact the post office and tell them what happened.

Then 3 days later a nice lady comes to our door and says the mail lady delivered a package of ours to her the day before and gave it to me. The lady lived 6 blocks the other way. Thats some mistake.

Not to mention this mail lady kept mixing up the normal mail. We kept getting stuff from next door and they got ours. Our mail man is back now and when i told him what happened he couldnt believe he goes away for 2 weeks and all hell breaks loose

capt

Two months ago I had 2 postal delivery workers for my place. The main guy comes Mon-Fri. The ladie came on Sat. My appartment manager cought the ladie opening on of my Netflix deliverys. I called Netflix and went to the Post Office and spoke to a Super. I haven't seen her since.

My normal Mon-Fri guy is the best Postal Worker I have ever met. He always brings my stuff to my door cause he knows I'm home when he comes. He always shows up between 12-12:30 and takes his break here in the complex. He picks up all of my Priority shippments I have. He'll be getting a very good tip this holiday

Looks like the end of the line here. Still waiting for the sup to call me back so I decided to call myself. This time more questions than answers. Something to the effect of "maybe it was the temporary postman was on" and "maybe your name wasn't on the box so the carrier did not know" and "maybe it is at your appartment complex front desK."

Got to the point where I just ask what happened to the package and she basically said she did not know and the carrier does not know. They do not have a clue if it was sent back or not and explained that the vendors often use "media mail and that could take weeks to months." She went further to say that "thousands of packages are delivered and it is hard to keep track and remember each and every one." I said according the the tracking yesterday we know who delivered that day (it was the regular carrier) and that it was delivered then undeliverable within a minute later on 9/10 at 1:40PM. She said I would just have to check with the vendor and see if they have tracking of the package and/or insurance. Wow....

oops, wrong thread

Yes ernestrp tips! :) Believe it or not, the average mailman remembers every single person that tips him or her, and what they give. My office we assign people letter grades. A listers are above $20, with pluses added for the really high amounts. $15 is B, $10 or booze is a C, $5 or cookies is D and F is nothing. F minus is someone who gets a ton of packages and mail and doesn't tip or even wish you a good holiday. The mailman always does extra for the good tippers, and takes extra good care of the packages. It is not supposed to be that way, but it is. Like I said earlier, we do not get performance bonuses, and the good workers have to watch the bad workers get help and not do their own work every day, and yet still collect the same paycheck. It is a no satisfaction job, so people that treat the mailman well will usually always get better service, and the ones that don't usually have their parcels thrown around a bit roughly before they make it to the house. I tip my own mail person, and she rings my bell for packages and even brings my paper up to the door. The same for my garbagemen who throw all of my non-tipping neighbors garbage cans out in the middle of the street, while they walk mine around to the side of my house. It costs me very little, and I get the service I want.

Can we say PATHETIC!!!! Give me a break! Haven't you heard of DO YOUR DAMN JOB!!! What do you guys make an hour? Isn't it like $16 or $17 bucks an hour, you have good benifits and have holidays off. Then you complain about not getting a tip! This is exactly why USPS employees have such a bad rap, which is deserving with employees like you. My tip is mailing a piece of mail, so you have a job at the end of the day! Maybe it's me, but take some pride in having a job and do it regardless if someone kicks you down some $. Thank god we have UPS!

Wow, your pretty angry dvde, maybe you should take the postal test. If you read my post, I believe that I state the way things are. I do not condone the actions, and I did not say I treat anyone differantly based on what they tip. I simply told what I know from my job, and from my own experience from my garbage men. Personally, I enjoy my job. I carry candy for the neighborhood kids, and dog and cat treats for my animal friends on the route. I make a decent living, but being appreciated for all the things I do above and beyond my job is nice. I always tip people, and it has kept a waiter from spitting in my food, or a valet from scratching my car. Please reread my post and see that I am simply answering a person's question and calm down a bit.

I'm actually not angry, maybe a little bitter, but not angry. I maybe a little bitter considering I have the worst mailman in history. I don't get my mail until like 5:30 or 6:00pm (which is crap!) and if I mail something using my mailbox, it doesn't make the truck until the next day (this is disturbing considering I dont live in the sticks). Didn't mean to point fingers, but when your bitter about your mail needs, then it's easy. It actually sounds to me that you would be a cool mailman, but I don't have you and have to put up with mine. If I had a mailman that actually did what you claim to, I wouldn't think twice about doing something for him at X-mas time. Unfortionately I don't, so I won't.

RonG617,

So, do you have like a chart to assign grades so before you deliver the mail you can check it first? I have a post office box that cost 90.00 a year for my business and they screw my mail up every now and then in really stupid ways. Should one just stick some cash in there and hope for the best? Or should I go up to the window and tell the cashier I would like to pay a bribe so my mail gets to me? My home mailman is okay. He suggested I get a big mailbox for packages a couple of years ago so I did. Now he does not have to throw them 15 yards like he used to.

I'm sorry to hear that the mail service has been so poor for you. The differance between one person and another can be light years. The way the job is set up, an average mailman has to be the type of person who takes pride in the job they do because as I have said there are no incentive bonuses, and no raises for those who do a good job. It also has a lot to do with management. Some offices have great ones who crack down on the bad employees, while other offices have ones who don't care at all. In the end though, they are powerless since they really can't fire the worst of the worst. The postal system really needs to be fixed. We lose money because of mismanagement and very poor attitudes with a lot of our employees. The employees in the privately owned delivery companies make 25% more than a postal carrier, and they are profitable. The differance is that they are held to higher standards, and can be fired. Technology and management techniques are also light years ahead of us.
dvde--thanks for the reply. I'm sorry for the crap service you receive, and I agree that you should not tip. I wish I had an answer to help you. You probably have a bitter incompetant mailperson that should be, and would be fired in any other company.
ernestrp--I don't have a chart. I personally don't treat anyone differant. I'm happy enough with having a job and making a decent living. Though living 20 minutes from New York City, my postal salary is actually well below the regional salary average.
I was being honest though when I said that many of the workers do treat people differantly. Here is a prime example...you live at 9 Hobby Lane, some of your mail sometimes comes in as 6 or 8, if you are a non-tipper or just nasty to the mailperson, that mail is going to be sent back as no such number or unknown, which is the regulation, but really the mailperson should just give it to you at your address. I can name a half dozen ways the carrier can do extra or less for you all within regulations. It's not right, but that is the mentality of many. I also don't have any answers for you for better service. The supervisor should be holding the carrier to a certain standard, but yours is obviously not. Maybe we will one day privatize and get people in to fix the whole mess. Good luck guys, not all of us are bad.

I usually find that the ones that go door to door delivering are much nicer and in a better mood than the d***heads that have been sitting on their butt and working behind the counter at a post office. I guess being behind the counter all day handling mail will have people in a foul mood but I hate it when its taken out on the customer. No problems at all with the door to door man. He was pretty cool.

Reading all of this stuff about postal workers reminds of an episode of Seinfeld where he was talking to Newman the postal worker.

(loosely quoted from memory)

Jerry: Shouldn't you be at work?

Newman: It's raining outside.

Jerry: So, what about the creedo....through rain, sleet, snow.....

Newman: I was never one for creedos.

My mail delivery has been a disaster lately. In the past 6 weeks, I've had two Netflix dvds, my car payment bill, a letter from my mom, four magazines and three packages (all with tracking info) disappear completely without a trace. Another Netflix package was dropped off by my neighbor after it was stuffed in her box.

Plus, I keep getting my neighbors' mail stuffed in my box instead of my own. And I had to spend an hour on the phone fighting with barnesandnoble.com because a shipment of books never arrived. This week, the postman stuffed so much mail into my box that the lock jammed, and it took four days (and four phone calls) for the post office to clear up the problem. My door is seven feet from where the mailboxes are, but the postman apparently is not allowed to bring the mail to my door if it doesn't fit in the box. When I asked her about this, I was told that if there isn't enough space, she has been instructed to hang onto it until such a time arises that it will fit in the box.
I'm seriously considering a post office box.

JawsAddict--if your mail has just recently gotten bad, there is a good chance your regular mailman has retired, or gone out with an injury. You may either have a rotating cast of people doing it, or a casual worker if the post office was short staffed. A casual is someone off the streets, who has not taken the postal test and is not given benefits. They are people who get paid to work a short stint when the post office is needy. In my office, these people are absolutely terrible, get no training, and really don't care since they are not making the post office a career. Your mail person should be walking the 7 feet and placing all packages by your door. The only reasons acceptable are dangerous conditions...such as a loose dog, or if the area is a high risk--meaning that a package out in the open is likely to be stolen. A P.O Box is a good idea, just remember to change your address with everyone. After a year of forwarding, the post office will start sending back the mail addressed to your house. Also keep in mind that bulk mail gets thrown out and not forwarded. Bulk is your catalogues. If someone ships you a package bulk rate, it will be forwarded to your p.o box, but it will be a postage due if they go by the regulations. My office just hands things over to the p.o box section. We don't throw things away or send them back, but that is not the regulation way.

I encourage people to get a PO Box as well. I haven't had any problems with mine.

As for the mail being marked "Delivered" for one minute, then "Undeliverable" the next, that most likely happened to me once. One weekend, our mailman knocked on the door with a certified letter. He then started to scan it in with a little hand-held scaner...until I asked him if it was for the former residents (they apparently never put in a forwarding address) because if it was, then we weren't going to accept it. He then stopped scanning whatever barcode he had been scanning & started scanning some other barcode. This might have caused some confusion with the tracking program back at the office.

So wait a second - I work during the day. I've never actually SEEN the mailman - as far as I know it could be the DVD Fairy that brings my boatload of packages. So, what - do I tape 20 bucks to the mailbox before I leave in the morning and hope that the local crack heads don't steal it first? And then if I don't, then Mr Postal might bust up my stuff because I get a lot of packages?

No insult on you man, but that's just ridiculous.

I always worry about them losing my stuff...I ordered a kenwood receiver from 800.com back in the day...the USPS lost it somehow...fortunately 800 sent me another one UPS.

My family and myself have always "tiped" our mailman in one way or another. A couple times throughout the year we would either give them food or their favorite bottle of liquor/wine. And at the holidays we always give them an envelope with some cash. I think that RonG has a good point that a little goodwill goes a long way. Think about why you tip people in the first place, you don't tip a waitress because you are required to (you could stif them and the restaurant couldn't do anything), you tip because you want/recieve better service. Your postal carrier is no different, if you want them to go out of their way for you, then you need to pony up with some cash/gifts/etc. I give my garbage men gatorade all the time in the summer and they always take care of my cans while my neighbors blow around the subdivision.

Bottom line is this....nothing in this world is free and people like feeling important. Cough up a couple bucks this year, you won't regret it.... :)

No, I dont want them to go out of their way for me. I want my packages delivered intact and undamaged, as reasonably on time as possible and to not lose my stuff. Thats all - I dont expect hugs and kisses or mints on my pillow - I want good service. I want them to do their jobs, and that's all.

Then I should get tipped for my software testing job. I mean, you want your X-Box game without any bugs in it, right? And how about the airline captain - I mean shouldnt he get a few extra bucks for showing up sober and not crashing? Oh - and since Alex Rodriguez is such an outstanding shortstop, I'm sure that he wouldnt mind me giving him a bit more on top of my ticket price.

It's called doing your freakin' job, people.

(Sorry if that sounds bitter - but I've had a string of packages go missing as of late, and the only help I've gotten is "Tough break kid, next time buy insurance!" Perhaps I'd be more open to the idea of a tip if they didnt leave me holding the bag like this.)

Cheddarmuff,

But you are forgetting waiter/waitress usually make below the minimum wage to start with. While a postal worker gets paid fairly well per hour. I wonder, who tips the postal workers that sort mail? The MAILMAN, I guess? Are you saying all garbage men want is free GATORADE? I would think they might prefer cash or beer/liquor/wine.