USPS Packages dropped off in receptacle issues??
 

Have any of you guys ever dropped off packages in one of those "drop boxes" in the post office and NOT received an acceptance scan?? If so, what was the outcome?? Did the packages ever receive a scan?? The reason I am worried, is one of my packages was an SGC submission. The first one I have sent them in 5 years. And this is the first time that my post office DID NOT scan them in!! I am naturally worried. I insured the package, but how does that work if it was never scanned in?

I always try to hand deliver so to get a paper receipt of acceptance. Dropping it in a box, the item may not get scanned for several days or until SGC signs for it. Depends how long ago you shipped before I would get to concerned. If you think its been to long you can do a USPS online search.

It's happened to me several times, most of the time they get scanned at the next place they go threw. Look again in a day or two and you should see them scanned in.

Never put anything of value in a drop box. Takes two minutes to get a scan and receipt...

+1 Agree I always go to the post office for a receipt and a peace of mind

A lot longer than that if the post office is busy. You have to stand in a long line sometimes. And I usually go on my lunch hour.

Of course people come and say "never do that!" :rolleyes: Honestly, I wouldn't worry. I bet it will pop up in a day or two.

It may be that you don’t have the acceptance scan because it’s still sitting in the PO that you dropped it. USPS has gotten worse than normal lately. I am currently waiting on a package that has spent 14 calendar days in USPS possession and it only has to travel a total of 425 miles. The first 7 days of that 14 were spent getting the package acceptance scan…..:mad:

Had the package been taped to the back of a turtle and pointed it the right direction I wonder if the turtle has a legit shot of winning this race.

"The average turtle walks a pace of 3 to 4 mph."

If the turtle walked 8hrs it would cover approximately 32 miles a day. 32 X 14 days = 448 miles in 14 days. :eek:

Used to get a receipt for every item but with covid I didn’t want to wait on long lines so started just dropping in drop box things that weren’t very valuable. In two years haven’t had a single issue. Every single one was scanned and posted.

I am lucky that I work from home and the Post Office is about 2 blocks away. If I go and there is a line, I just go home and try again a little later. But usually I go around 4:00 and usually there is no line.

I never mail anything valuable without hand delivering to the clerk and getting a receipt handed to me.

Bob

Yep, that's why I will always go inside and hand it to them and get a physical scanned in receipt.

It will show up.

What type of cards did you send to SGC?

Just some low grade Jackie Robinson's......and a trimmed Reggie Jackson rookie card.

Quite sadly I am not retired and have a PO that seems to never have any less than an hour wait on a good day. So, drop box every time to avoid missing a meeting after lunch or it's after hours and there is no choice.

Completely understand the dilemma Bobby, lol.

No chance! I'm not walking out of there without a receipt in hand as there is too much incompetence and too many sticky fingers.

never do that

I worked at USPS for almost 25 years. Whether you put a package in the collection box outside (never at night!) or a slot in the wall inside it drops into a HOD which is a white plastic box. It can be covered by letters and if the clerk who empties it takes the time they will usually catch it and scan it. If they're lazy or running short on time it goes on the truck as it is.

If you can give it to your mail carrier they can also scan it accepted and it goes on the same truck. You can put it in the box with the flag up but I have opened a lot of mailboxes like that and they were empty!

Sticky fingers are everywhere Jim. I am trying to hold out hope that it was just a simple "missed scan" and it will eventually get a hit in the receivers city. I have no choice but to hope for that.

I drop most of my outgoing mail in a blue box daily. Approximately once a month an origin scan or two will be missed. Far more often missed are the origin scans on the ebay envelopes, sometimes an entire day's worth have been missed. That results with the first scan appearing going into the recipient's local sort center. Any mailings of value, I schedule a pickup and hand it to the carrier who scans it (or is supposed to) on the spot. I would schedule more pickups, but the local carrier has strongly hinted he does not appreciate too many items to scan.

I apparently upset the driver who picks up the blue boxes in my area. This driver drove 8 miles out of their way to come to my house and tell me I was "over filling" the blue bins and if I kept doing it, it would be escalated???? Hardly do I fill the blue bins! Either way, I cut down what I drop in the blue bins and drop at other mail intakes around my area. Watching the conversation from my doorbell cam footage with this USPS person was priceless.

Sounds like it was a hoot. He went out of his way to get on you for making him work too hard!

Those never get scanned, the scanners don't recognize them. The address readers catch them as they go by, and they estimate them as "delivered" when they hit the final plant. A carrier doesn't even know he's delivering it, it comes sorted in with all the other letters that day.

That's nuts.

I would probably stop by and discuss the legitimacy of this policy with the local postmaster and email a copy of the discussion.

Scan may not have been the proper term to use, however, on most days these ebay mailings show up as "Accepted" via my local sort center. Periodically on other days, I have had none "Accepted" via my local sort center. The explanation I received from my local carrier is that these ebay envelopes are fed through some type of sorting machine that recognizes the ebay barcode.

I understand the estimation of the delivery date process, very often I receive messages from a buyer staining it is shown as delivered but not received. Normally within 2-3 days it does arrive.

That is a very bad idea. I hang out with several postal workers. It is almost impossible for them to get fired and they really don't give a damn about your mail. They can also "accidently" lose an important to you piece of mail for a few days.

My favorite was when a friend went and complained to the postmaster about a friend of mine that delivered their mail. So my friend delivered a notice in their mailbox that they could no longer deliver their mail untill they cleaned ALL the snow and ice off their sidewalk.LOL

I would do this, BUT, several folks who work in the area under this local postmaster told me flat out, he doesn't care and would likely laugh at my concern. These folks mention that there is apparently no accountability for certain people's behavior, while there is with others. I am guessing that is why the blue bin person felt they could behave this way, they feel that their lazy behavior will be defended by this PM. Some of these folks are 20+ year employees and feel morale has never been lower under this PM .

I could go above this PM and complain, but that will likely result in more of my outgoing mail becoming accidently "misrouted" on a more regular basis.

You typed faster than me Ben. Yep, sounds like some of these folks are on the same page.....complain about them and the service gets worse.

It has officially been over 24 hours with no movement.....at what point should I just chalk these up as being lost?

LOL you are freaking out after 24 hours. Calm the F down. If after 2 weeks you have nothing then maybe start to worry. Seriously Bobby with all the cards you sell you should know this.:confused:

Tough shit. Lazy POS.

Tell this guy to escalate all he wants (whatever that means) and ask him to point to any rule or law that prevents you from sending as much mail as you pay to send. Offer to escalate it yourself! Record video of any future in-person exchanges you have with this worker. Report him as high up the chain of command as you can and take your future mailings to a nearby town if you're worried about anything in that regard. It might not do any good, but it's better than doing nothing.

I'd love to meet this &#*@$. I hate this type of USPS employee so much. Finding a decent one is a treasure.

I must have had incredible luck then, before I have never had this happen before.

schedule a free pick up and your carrier will scan when he picks up.

Agreed.....a good postal worker is awesome. I have outlasted a bunch of them at my local post office. I am not so sure about the new crew that is in there now. I don't even know there names, and I used to know all of the old members names.

The Postmaster's boss is usually the POOM. Most POOMs are worthless but they are usually not too happy with anyone turning away revenue. Not a lot of things you can do to get fired at USPS but that driver is looking to work at Walmart. There is no such rule. Most offices would have the driver make a 2nd trip if they had to (with pay).

IMO, just a lazy employee who was being overworked due to having to bring two bins instead of one to empty out the blue box I dropped my mail in. Here is the first video from the visit I received regarding dropping too much mail....

https://youtu.be/GFWtp_Jftzs

I don't think I will post the rest of the videos, as the conversation quickly goes downhill as I asked a few too many questions about the concern. I struggled to understand how filling a blue box a third full was "stuffing it".
After 10+ years of dropping in the same blue box, this visit admittedly caught me off guard.

Long story short, my regular carrier agreed to scan my packages after seeing the videos to help me out. I help him out by spreading the thinner packages around to the cluster boxes in my neighborhood and drop not more than 1/8th of a bin into the closest blue box. In other words, to keep the peace and not tick off anyone else (someone who could purposely lose my packages) I spread the 40-50 packages a day out amongst 4-5 drop locations/carriers. Wouldn't want to overwork any one specific employee.

TWO MINUTES?!?! To drop it off with a real human at the post office?! That's pretty funny. I don't think I've ever been to the Post Office for a scan and it take less than 10 minutes...but usually more like 20-30. For whatever reason, there are six lanes at my local PO, but I rarely see more than two employees working at a time, and lately only one.

I'm sure it will be fine, Bobby. I agree, though, I like the peace of mind of having a human scan my package. Unfortunately, sometimes life makes that difficult.

In my town most of the blue boxes have been modified so that it is impossible to post anything > 1/4 inch thick. Puffies or small flat rate boxes do not fit. :-(

Go to the USPS site and schedule a pickup. Put the package in your mailbox before the mail carrier gets there. They scan the package when it is picked up. You will get an email letting you know it has been picked up. Done.

Wouldn't it be simpler to drop everything off at one Post Office?

Not simpler at all. The closest PO is about a 25-30 min drive one way due to traffic. The closest blue box is a 15 minute bike ride one way, which is my preference anyway. The cluster boxes I also drop packages in are all along the same bike path I take to get to the closest blue box. To break it down time wise, going to the closet blue box versus the closest PO saves about 125 hours a year (based on saving 30 minutes a day). Since I already ride 30 min a day to keep in shape, no point not to use my daily ride to drop off some mail.

In regard to having the USPS PU from the mailbox, due to having a cluster box, that doesn't work at all.

For me, dropping it all (minus high $ stuff) in a blue box was really the simplest thing.

When you put things that way, they make perfect sense.

Thanks for all the advice everyone. The items FINALLY got a scan, last night, around midnight from MY local zip code. It is like someone turned the switch on.

Glad it showed up quickly for you.:)

Always very nerve wracking when something goes AWOL, even if for a short period.

I have actually had packages go missing. PSA lost an entire order of mine. I guess when you do something long enough, you will see it all.