I'm sure many of you know the anticipation of watching your coin purchase travel through the tracking updates, and finally seeing "delivered." I went through this last week. Expected delivery on Saturday. Saturday comes, and I get the magical "delivered to PO Box." I couldn't get there right away but by 5pm I was free, drove down there, opened the PO Box, and... empty! It was a GC package so I know it would fit in the box, and there was no pickup slip either. Just an empty box. Expletive expletive expletive. The counter was closed by then of course, closed Sunday, and Monday I was busy all day with visitors. This morning I finally got back to the post office. My PO box was still empty. At the counter I pull up the delivery notification on my phone and ask what happened to this package? They start poking around among the piles. I say - it's a small package. It should fit in my box. The woman goes in the back and emerges with the package. As I suspected, they put it in the wrong PO box. If mine was 352, they put it in 342. The woman, who is the "boss", mildly berates the other guy who I guess does the box distributing. "You have to be more careful." I'm like, damn right you have to be more careful! $300 package and they put it in the wrong box. I was very lucky the other box owner hadn't gotten their mail for a few days. This post office is constantly giving me the wrong mail in my regular box, so this is not an anomaly. I switched all my coin deliveries to the PO box specifically so nobody can steal them out of my mailbox! If these people can't manage to put it in the right box then I have to worry about that too. All's well that ends well, I guess, but what a clown show the USPS has become. Rant off.
To add insult to injury, they just increased PO Box rental rates AGAIN! Only in government can incompetence thrive without losing market share. They think we owe it to them. What we owe them is a swift kick in the arse.
With the continuous Posts concerning USPS, FEDEX, UPS, etc., I would suggest taking a look at Cabrella. Maybe it would solve personal coin shipment concerns and anxiety.
Seems like that only applies if I'm shipping coins out, not receiving them. I don't have control over how a seller ships and insures their coins. I was lucky nobody checked the other PO box and decided to keep the coin. USPS I'm sure would just argue that the coin was delivered to my box. This particular post office has now achieved a new level of incompetence. Their previous high bar was delivering someone else's jury summons to my mailbox. Imagine if I had thrown that in the trash. The other person would be subject to prosecution for not responding.
I filed an official complaint with the IL State Attorney General's office regarding the Click N Ship Automated Verification System, which has so far flagged 6 or 7 of my packages as having incorrect labels (every one of which has been overturned in my favor, because the system is garbage.) Every time it flags one of my labels incorrectly, I cannot purchase labels online unless I pay the erroneous charge (can't move it out of your cart to continue to do business while it's being disputed.) They have never once provided any proof that I did anything wrong - just a charge that shows up in your cart. Latest charge is sitting there, and I'm having to pay full rates in person (costing me time and money) while the dispute takes up to 15 business days to resolve. In my opinion, these are documented damages I am incurring due to a faulty program, and I will be sure to add these to my official complaint.
. I assumed the buyer has control over the shipping selection, for example, an interface with eBay, or GC, etc. Oh well, back to Pony Express.
no issues in getting my mail from the USPS maybe somewhat slow but things get to where they are going that is all that matters to me
I'm not so sure about that. They can lose market share to UPS and FedEx. But there are plenty of horror stories from those shippers as well, not to mention Amazon, cellular companies, grocery stores...
I get where you're coming from, but my intent was a generalization, applicable to monopolistic dominance, as in delivery of mailpieces (do not think of parcels).
summarizing your points: no accountability and infinite (but unjustified) job security leads to things going to crap.
I’m surprised to hear them words from you, @CoinCorgi, not that I disagree . . . I find it all a bit depressing. Therefore, how about a bit of levity? . . . Hmm? What does it take to stop a corgi dead in its tracks? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A speed bump! .
Are there any private mailbox options in your area? I use a local mailbox business and they do a great job, with the added benefit of being able to accept not just USPS packages but also UPS, Fedex, etc. The prices are pretty competitive with USPS PO box prices as well.
My local post office is horrible, got a few of my packages screwed up too then they wouldn't take responsibility.
There are a couple UPS Store locations in a nearby city, but they're over 10 miles from me. The post office for my physical address, and where my PO box is located, serves a large mountain area and is small and cluttered with piles of packages. The "boss" woman has probably been there 20 years or more, and always seems scatterbrained. There is another post office about 2 miles away that seems to have their act together, so I'll probably move my PO box there next time it renews. It's probably a good idea to switch all my bills and other important mail there as well, because they're constantly delivering the wrong mail to the physical mailboxes. For god's sake, that's Job One. (I ranted again)
See above. That is my intention. There's another one not that much farther than my "home" post office.
The mail still goes through the post office before being stuffed into a sack for the PMB. Two sets of hands to screw things up.
