Post office rant

[Utah Bob #35998]

 I’m fine with the service I get from our tiny local Cahone post office. Friendly, knowledgeable clerk there. There is no home delivery where I am so all mail goes to the PO Box, which is free. FedEx and UPS don’t accept P.O. Box addresses. That’s no problem. I get 3-5 deliveries from them weekly. For Anything that’s being shipped freight carrier I use the street address (even though that’s sometimes a problem since the county changed the street addresses a few years ago and many companies’ computer systems don’t recognize the new addresses)

 

Anyway, for several months the postmistress in the main post office in Dove Creek has been sending out notes that All us mail letters and packages must have the P.O. Box number or they will be returned to sender. Many companies systems will reject a P.O. Box number. The lady has suggested several ways to get around it. But they don’t work all the time. 

So checking my tracking numbers this morning I see a package I was expecting was Returned To Sender. I checked my order and even though I had include the Box number apparently the sender had left it off. Now, bear in mind at our tiny post office the clerk has pretty much memorized the box numbers of the locals. And if not it probably takes all of 15 seconds to look it up on the list. And in the past it has never been a problem. But she can’t look it up if it never makes it here because the Queen at the main post office says, “No box number, no soup for you” Send it back!
But regulations are regulations!! 
AAAAARRRRFGGGGH!!

 

Rant off. I’ll go see if anything else actually made it to the box today. 

[Sixgun Sheridan]

Their job is to deliver the mail. Not be little emperors and waste time and shipping costs sending packages back over a formality. If I were you I'd find out who the regional postmaster is and report this dumbassery.

[Rip Snorter]

I have the same situation - solved, most of the time  One line of my address -  248 Dover Road Box 39.  physical plus the Post office Box.  I do have to check shipping data, sometimes vendors will truncate the address.  

[Utah Bob #35998]

13 minutes ago, Rip Snorter said:

I have the same situation - solved, most of the time  One line of my address -  248 Dover Road Box 39.  physical plus the Post office Box.  I do have to check shipping data, sometimes vendors will truncate the address.  

Yeah. Sometimes that works. Sometimes not. 

[Utah Bob #35998]

35 minutes ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

Their job is to deliver the mail. Not be little emperors and waste time and shipping costs sending packages back over a formality. If I were you I'd find out who the regional postmaster is and report this dumbassery.

Wouldn’t work. She even included a copy of the USPS regulations in one of her notes. is going to tell her to bend regulations.

[Rip Snorter]

Our Post office will let me get away with it.  I have also used a four line address with Street on one line and Post Office Box 39 below it.  I make a point of staying on cheerful good terms with our Post Office Employee. 

[Utah Bob #35998]

1 minute ago, Rip Snorter said:

Our Post office will let me get away with it.  I have also used a four line address with Street on one line and Post Office Box 39 below it.  I make a point of staying on cheerful good terms with our Post Office Employee. 

Used to be the same here. Not since the reins changed hands in the main post office. 

[Eyesa Horg]

I live in West Fairlee, the mail address is Fairlee. If it's addressed to West Fairlee the PO will send it back. Missed a wedding invitation once due to it taking over a month to return the invite to the sender. 

[Rip Snorter]

We're pretty rural, and the PO is minute.  Like you we get a free box, but at least here in Montana, you can surrender your PO Box and put up a mail box at the end of your driveway.  Many do that, if they don't care to go to the Post Office, some even have a secured lock box at the base of the mail box post for packages.  That might be a Post Office Policy.

[Muleshoe Bill SASS #67022]

Since next to every letter, flat (magazines or large flat envelopes), parcels, newspapers (rolled or flat) now go through computerized scanners that read the addresses and sort to delivery routes this has become a huge problem. The Postal Service being a major top heavy rule and regulation driven machine with no room for accommodation or improvising is making this into not just a problem, but a major service (or lack of) issue.  The simple solution would be all such mail be kicked out of the computerized line and dealt with by hand. With the reduced number of clerk and mail handler employees in mail processing centers things would take longer, but at least they would get there.

[Utah Bob #35998]

7 minutes ago, Muleshoe Bill SASS #67022 said:

Since next to every letter, flat (magazines or large flat envelopes), parcels, newspapers (rolled or flat) now go through computerized scanners that read the addresses and sort to delivery routes this has become a huge problem. The Postal Service being a major top heavy rule and regulation driven machine with no room for accommodation or improvising is making this into not just a problem, but a major service (or lack of) issue.  The simple solution would be all such mail be kicked out of the computerized line and dealt with by hand. With the reduced number of clerk and mail handler employees in mail processing centers things would take longer, but at least they would get there.

The mail makes it to Dove Creek.. 8 miles from our post office. Every morning at 10 am the truck leaves Dove Creek and is in Cahone in about 5 minutes. There are less than 100 people in Cahone. Assuming on any given day maybe 60-75 will get mail, and maybe 3-5 may not have the PO Box numbers, I fail to see a real problem other than an overly officious person with a little authority. 

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

I have been getting parcels from internet shopping addressed to:

              Dexxxs Rupxxxxt

             wallabyjack300557@gmail.com

              Moorland

               N.S.W.

               Australia

               2443

 

'Tis a good thing that we are a small community and that both Postmistresses are personal friends

Normally we will get a notification in our mailbox that there's a parcel for us, but the address does not include an actual postal address so no notification.

Sometimes we will get a text message or an e-mail alert, ........... or just ring up and ask  

[Three Foot Johnson]

I have old letters around here somewhere addressed to my grandfather as, "[Name], white house east of Helena, Montana".

[Texas Joker]

Is it still possible ta have an item delivered to yourself AT the post office c/o postmaster?

[Howlin Mad Murdock SASS #4037]

I have the same issue, not USPS delivery to the house. 

 

I used to put PO Box XXX, or just Box XXX as the second line after the street address, worked well for years, the clerks there made sure we got the packages.

 

A few years ago things changed, bunch of new clerks, packages with street address and PO Box number started to get sent back.

 

Came up with an idea, put in a change of address form forwarding my street address mail to my PO Box, now I get everything.

 

Minor problem, forwarding is only good for a year, so, every year I do it again, so far so good for three years.

[Muleshoe Bill SASS #67022]

6 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

The mail makes it to Dove Creek.. 8 miles from our post office. Every morning at 10 am the truck leaves Dove Creek and is in Cahone in about 5 minutes. There are less than 100 people in Cahone. Assuming on any given day maybe 60-75 will get mail, and maybe 3-5 may not have the PO Box numbers, I fail to see a real problem other than an overly officious person with a little authority. 

"overly officious person with a little authority "-  that my friend is the exact definition of postal management.  They have their own little fiefdom and no one above them will question them as long as they officious ones claim to adhere exactly to the USPS POM (Postal Operation Manual) understand  this - the old Post Office and the newer Postal Service manuals were written not to produce a better company, but to produce better authoritative autocrats without any managerial skills. (my qualifications - 35 years working for those people (USPS) after several years of managerial training in retail and manufacturing)