ebay/delivery confirmation ?

[Clutch-Hitter]

Alright, just before the carrier went by, two Waste Mgt trucks entered the neighborhood. Our two cans sit alongside the road, arranged accordingly so that their machine could pick them up. Well, they got one of my cans and left the other full. I walked out, looked up and down my street and noticed there was literally trash all over the roadway. The trucks contained a driver and a passenger for some reason, arms slung out the windows, laid back, seems not necessary since they never, ever abandon the seat cushions. One truck was following the other for some reason. Come to find out, they didn't empty our second can because it's not a waste mgmt can. I was told, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

One day a few years ago, I had a box sitting next to my can, and our town just switched to Waste Mgmt. They didn't get it, put it out again and they didn't get it. The third time I put it out I was home when they came by, and when they didn't get it, I got the box and walked down the street to where they were. I told the guy that I was putting the box in the garbage truck. He told me not to because it would clutter up his truck. No kidding. I threw the box in there.

What happened to the garbage men?

[Clutch-Hitter]

My in-laws said they did not order something through the mail and not receive it.

[jimq]

I work as a rural carrier and after reading your posts I don't think the answers you're getting make any sense.

If it was shipped USPS it should not arrive on a pallet dropped off by either UPS or FedEx. How we get our parcels from those companies and how we scan them has nothing to do with your parcel. (I'm assuming it was shipped USPS because you checked tracking information with USPS).

The parcel being scanned delivered early is a red flag. Some sloppy or careless carriers will scan all parcels as delivered when they're putting them in order before loading the truck. On a normal day I'm loading at 9-930 am. We're not supposed to scan that way but some of the terrible ones do. Your Postmaster should be able to tell from a scan report.

I don't know if I could remember every parcel I ever delivered, but if it doesn't fit in the mailbox then I have to find a safe place to keep it out of the weather, away from curious eyes, and then I fill out a 3849 form to tell you where to find it. After doing that I'm pretty good at remembering where I put a parcel.

It might be different in my district, but where I work there are no extra scans involved if a parcel goes to the wrong route and is handed off. If I get a parcel for a different OFFICE, the clerk scans it as MISSENT and it goes to the correct office. If I get a parcel for R1, I hand it to Kathy and she delivers it. There's no scan. If it's accountable mail (certified, insured, etc) I hand it to the clerk, and the clerk hands it to Kathy. Again no scan.

The carrier pointing to the house across the street is trying to make you feel not alone, and also to deflect responsibilty from herself. Maybe it's the garbage guys. Might be kids who are off school right now.

Postmasters don't have trouble getting information. I doubt if your Postmaster has heard that there is a problem. It might be time to call the PM directly. You could also file a complaint http://faq.usps.com/eCustomer/iq/usp...nquiryType#top and the Postmaster or a Supervisor will have to respond.

Sorry for the long-winded post, I hate to see bad service from USPS. All we have to offer is service and so many forget that.

[Clutch-Hitter]

Thank you for taking the time to write that. My wife was at the PO when I talked to the lady on the phone, so I asked her when she got home, and it was the postmaster I spoke to. She obviously knew something was amiss. I didn't care at all about this until I started getting those responses. A hard, honest worker can say, looks like it went in the wrong box and the person hasn't returned it, etc. They answered from all kinds of angles, and the mail carrier never mentioned Fed Ex.

Everything she said formed into this: it was placed in the wrong route/sector, and when that person realized it didn't correspond to his or her route, it was given to our carrier. Prior to giving it to our carrier, it was scanned as delivered (I'm assuming) and subsequently placed in our box (she would have forced that in the box based on my experience). Someone came along and took it after that.

I know it sounds unbelievable when I say that I know it didn't get placed in my box because I know someone didn't take it from my box. We have a two street neighborhood, and I'm surrounded by family and retired people who are home all day, including my wife. My wife is at our dining room table with our kids everyday when the carrier passes and has a great view. Also, everyone here is aware of my occupation and would not attempt such because they would be caught, not that anybody here would to start with.

Sorry about the Waste Mgmt post, but it was applicable in a way, insomuch as the hard work element is missing. I did not intend to insinuate they may have took something from my box, heck, that would require them getting out of the truck. Not possible. It was a very odd thing though, to see all that trash on the ground along the side of the street. One of our retired female neighbors who live just down the road in the cul-de-sac was out picking up the trash while the garbage truck was next to her spilling it out. I liked it when there was a driver and two men on the back jumping off, snatching the cans, and moving to the next. They always waved and said hello if we were in the yard. It was personal. I've always found it significant that the garbage man element was missing, at least from where I live.

Thank you for your hard work.

[buymycards]

Jim,
You are wrong about the UPS/Fed EX parcels. We track these parcels the same way that we track the our USPS parcels. They all go through our tracking system. If Fed Ex drops off an eVS Smart Post package you will scan it delivered the same way that you scan a USPS parcel and our tracking system will show the Fed Ex parcel as arrived at unit and delivered.

For all of you that haven't fallen asleep, here is the way we "partner" with Fed Ex and UPS. A customer will ship a parcel with UPS, and UPS will deliver that parcel to a delivery Post Office, because UPS doesn't want to fool around with residential deliveries. The Post Office then delivers the package. UPS takes a cut and the Post Office get $1.50 to $2.50 per package.

Rick

[jimq]

Hi Rick,

I meant that there shouldn't be a way for his package to get scanned wrong because of FedEx or UPS packages getting scanned.

I know we scan them as arrived and attempted/delivered. I'm in a very small office and sometimes if my PM is busy with a line at the window I'll grab her scanner, make sure they're all there, scan as arrived, and split them to the routes (all 3 of them). Takes me a couple minutes and gets the UPS guy back to his route. He doesn't block our mailboxes. We don't have FedEx dropoffs at my office.



Back to the problem at hand -


There's really 2 ways this could have happened -

clerk gives the parcel to the wrong route
wrong carrier forgets they're handing it to a co-worker and scans it as delivered
carrier delivers it properly and forgets to correctly scan it as delivered
somebody steals the parcel out of the mailbox

(or)
poor carrier scans parcels as delivered while ordering them for delivery
poor carrier misdelivers parcel


When/if you call the postmaster again, ask her to check the 4240 form to see what time the carrier left to service the route. That will tell her and you if the carrier scanned it delivered before she left the office. That won't get your parcel back for you but it might help with future parcels.


I hate poor carriers. We have one and it's embarrassing.

[autograf]

Until the USPS does intermediate scanning on delivery confirmation instead of just beginning and ending scanning, it isn't that great of a tool. And always remember it's just confirmation that it did get delivered. If it didn't, then spending that money did nothing for you. No insurance attached. The USPS is light years ahead of where they were but, like all carriers, have issues. You can't pick up and deliver billions of pieces of mail or packages and have everything run perfect......not when humans are involved. Always insure something if it's high value or you can't afford to lose it......

[Batter67up]

The problem you have here is that delivery confirmation is worthless for lost or missing items. You need signature confirmation or insurance for the post office to take any action. I hope the card does show up! In the case of a fraudelt seller, they could send you a flyer and have delivery confirmation on it and you have no proof of what was delivered. This type of thing happens at Christmas time with people selling limited availability items that people pay a premium for such as zhu zhu pets last year for kids. I always recommend signature confirmation at a minimum for sellers.