Someone from the Post Office Opened My Mail and Stole from Me
 

Today I was set to recieve two rented DVD's from Blockbuster. I noticed that both envelopes were in a plastic sleeve with a letter inscribed on it from the post office stating that they were sorry that the envelopes got damaged during shipping and they hoped that it didn't cause an inconvience. Well it did, because I took the envelopes out of the plastic and I saw the the envelopes were ripped open and the DVD's were removed, both sleeves were still there.

It was clearly tampered with. Someone from the Post Office (most likely) decided to steal these DVD's. I can not think of another explanation than that.

I called Blockbuster and they helped out by saying that they'll just send out the DVD's again.

But I'm furious. If I thought that this would be a one time thing I wouldn't mind so much but its very possible that this could happen again. If it does, I wouldn't be surprised if Blockbuster cancels my subscription (I wouldn't blame them either). It may be futile but I think I'm going to head to the Post Office and make sure they know whats going on.

I've read these DVD mailers cannot go through the Post Office's automatic sorting machine and require a manual sort (The article also stated the post office plans on charging Netflix/Blockbuster extra because of it---expect a mailer change at some point!). It wouldn't surprise me if there's some postal worker somewhere that takes advantage of that little detail.

Maybe the post office should start searching employees for guns on the way in and DVDs on the way out. ;)

Sounds like they just stole from Blockbuster but I understand your frustration. I've used both NetFlix and Blockbuster and have never had this happen.

Find out who it is and give them a copy of the MPAA's "you wouldn't steal a car..." warning.

I bet they never steal your shit ever again after you do that.

If you feel, they have "stolen" from you, then you would file a police report.

Or they could have just been damaged and/or lost in transit. It happens.

Sure it happens. But it just happens to happen to both DVD's on the same day? With almost identical tears? With just the DVD missing and the sleeve still being there? I just started using Blockbuster but used Netflix a few years ago before that and this never happened, nor has it happened to anyone else that I know that uses Blockbuster/Netflix. I like to believe that it was just damaged in transit but its too coincidental for that to be the case.

I just got back from the post office and even the guy agreed that the envelopes had been tampered with. I didn't even bother trying to find out who did it since it could have been anyone while it was in transit. All I wanted to do was try to do whatever I could to make sure it doesn't happen again and all I got from the postmaster (or whoever the main guy at the post office is) is a "sorry, we'll try to make sure it doesn't happen again". To be fair there isn't much else he could do, but I'm still pretty pissed.

It is futile because you have no idea what post office. You have no idea what happened BEFORE it even got the post office.

I can understand you being upset, but you don't even have enough information to know who to be upset with.

If the envelop was ripped up then someone tried to send it through the mail sort machine and they got torn to shred and the dvd's possibly smashed. Netflix/Blockbuster/Gamefly stuff has to be manually sorted. It is not the mailer that makes it impossible to machine sort, it is the dvd itself. Letter sized mail runs through machines that bend the letters around a number of turns. Anything not flexible either stops the machine or gets torn up. That is why you should never send anything fragile in a letter sized envelop. Even if you write on it "Fragile, Do Not Bend" the machine doesn't read that only the address. Send photos and fragile stuff in bigger envelops since they are still hand sorted.

Again? Really?

Yeah, good luck with that, chief.

The person said someone stole from him. Was he there did he witness someone do it. if he did not see someone do this, he cannot say "stolen"

Where's the logic in this? If you came home and your window was broken and all your furniture was gone, would you not report a theft simply because you didn't see it happen? Would you sit down in your nice, empty living room and tell yourself "I guess it wasn't really stealing since there were no witnesses?"

Come on.

Hey, how do you know that your furniture didn't get up and walk out on its own power and break the window on its way out because it was so frustrated at being sat on all the time?

You should file a missing furnitures report!

But how long before police determine that your furniture didn't just runaway? :shrug: Of course if it was new and light-colored I can see Nancy Grace devoting an entire hour on CNN with this "Urgent Breaking News" on your furniture's abduction. ;)

Let me clarify how the envelope looked when I received it: Blockbuster and Netflix use similar packaging. The bottom non-perforated side of the envelope was slit open, as if someone took a letter opener to it. There was no disc, just the sleeve. Both envelopes had identical tears.

I got my next shipment from Blockbuster without a hitch. I'm still peeved since apparently something like this can happen at any time.

:lol:

While the discs were in fact stolen from Netflix, it could affect his account.

Yes. It's human nature - the usps hires humans, there will always be a few bad apples. If you want a guarantee that your shipment won't be tampered with, it needs to be sent as registered mail - which makes the postmaster at each transiting facility directly responsible for the package. They basically hand-track it, check it in when it arrives and check it out when ships out of the facility.

That sounds like someone at the processing plant stole it. In the local office it is really hard to do something like that, but in those huge plants it is easy to get lost for a little while and steal stuff. I don't know about other states, but here in NJ, the processing plants are full of the worst, scummiest workers I have ever seen. Last time I had to go to one to pick something up for my local office I thought I was going to get mugged walking down a hall.

If you really think someone at the USPS stole the DVDs, contact these guys: http://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/co...complaint.aspx. I think they take this kind of thing pretty seriously.

Yes, definitely contact the Postal Inspectors. Those are the correct people to involve. Doesn't matter whether it was an employee at USPS or someone else who stole it. Tampering with mail is a federal offense, and these are the guys who investigate it.

It happens all the time, but they need information from people like you to aid their investigation.

http://www.local6.com/news/13612024/...p=irresistible
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drm...371593,00.html
http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2006/0..._worker_g.html

I don't know what the rules are here regarding swearing, so please do pardon me if I'm breaking them, but you, sir, are a fucking idiot.

Thanks for the links Todd B. and Letterman. I filed a complaint. I'm assuming if someone is stealing DVD's through Netflix/Blockbuster they are doing this on a regular basis. So I hope if this happened to anyone else they filed a complaint too. Maybe it will lead to someone checking out the appropriate Post Offices.

You can go ahead and swear but there is a forum rule that says you can not personally attack another member. Calling him a "fucking idiot" breaks that rule. If you said something like "Your idea is fucking idiotic" would fly since you are not technically attacking the poster, just his idea. You should also follow it up with why you think his post is fucking idiotic.

For the record, I agree that his post about an item being stolen makes absolutely no sense. Living Dead said exactly what I was thinking.

File for mail fraud, or get another disc from blockbuster/