Postal Disservice Yet Again

I placed an order for a few of a very useful AR15 type magazine accessory from Buds Guns.

It's the Thermold AR15 Magazine Loader.  For $6.00 its about the best tool you can buy to quickly load your magazines.  Used by the Canadian Forces, no less.

You can use Canadian or US stripper clips in it, or just pile loose rounds in by hand and push down on the rounds to load them en masse, no stripper clip required.

In short, it works great and is highly recommended if you have an AR15 or firearm that takes AR15 magazines.  Their FAL loader and M1A loader work similarly well.

Now Buds offers excellent service.  The Post Office, not so much.

The order was placed on May 20 and shipped by Buds on May 20.  Like I said, excellent service.

The package arrived in Pontiac two days later on May 22.   It's been sitting somewhere in the Pontiac Post Office ever since, with the last update being dated May 28 stating delivery will arrive later than expected.

Tell me something I don't know.

Since May 28 no further updates, and no package.

Update June 23:  It finally arrived in the mailbox sometime last night.  Mailed out May 20 and it spent a month sitting somewhere in the Pontiac Post Office before being delivered.

Mail Delivery Blues - Now They're Just Making Stuff Up

So I was expecting a package in the mail yesterday.  The tracking info stated it would be delivered.  The rest of the mail was delivered, but the package was not.  Tracking though still said it would be delivered yesterday.  Nope, not so much.

Funnily enough, the tracking reports an exception that they were unable to deliver it:
 

Seriously now, you managed to get the rest of the mail delivered to the same location as always, but now have "No Access to Delivery Location".  What, did the house and mailbox shift into another dimension temporarily between delivering the rest of the mail and the package?

This is just straight up lying. 

Probably being done to get out of refunding the postage for priority mail not being delivered on time.  Instead of just admitting it was delayed or they could not get around to delivering it, they now claim they can't access the location which is nonsense.

On the upside, they will allegedly try and deliver to the same location today they could not access tomorrow, so there's that.

Sheesh.

Update: Mirabile dictu, the package is delivered. They managed to find the mailbox today, right where they left it yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. 

The Continuing Tale of How The Post Office Sucks

The package mailed out to me on November 28 that I wrote about on December 8? 

Yep it is still not delivered.

But there has been progress since, of a sort.

After sitting in Detroit since November 30, on December 9 it was moved from Detroit to Detroit.  Seriously.

Yes, the tracking states it went from the Detroit MI Distribution Center to the Detroit MI Network Distribution Center.  Where it then sat for a few more days.

Then December 11 it finally left Detroit and arrived in Pontiac.

It was getting closer.

But a good thing I didn't get too excited though.

This is because on December 13 it was updated that it had left Pontiac and had gone to the:

Detroit MI Network Distribution Center. 

You can't make this up.

Dammit Post Office, this is getting a tad ridiculous.

This package has now spent more time in Detroit than anywhere else in its existence and has spent more time going to and from Detroit than any other part of its journey.

Today's First World Problems

Problem Numero Uno:  Ordered a part for a project I'm working on.  It's the last part needed, after waiting for many other parts that were out of stock.  Ordered from Amazon.  It was promptly shipped on Nov 28 by the seller via USPS.  

Tracking shows it arrived in Detroit, apparently even traveled out here for a day (which disappeared off the tracking which was curious), and since November 30 it shows it has been sitting in the Detroit Distribution center ever since and hasn't moved even as it states it was supposed to be delivered first December 3 and then December 4.  

Seems Detroit doesn't understand the concept of distribution.

Message on tracking for the package reads:

Your package will arrive later than expected, but is still on its way. It is currently in transit to the next facility.

That "transit" is taking a helluva long time. I could've walked there and back by now if not a couple times.  Grr. It may almost be time to order the part again and see if it gets delivered.  Would like it here before the snow falls again so I can test the project out once complete.

Sadly their tracking system lacks an "Any Day Now" button,

Did I mention I'm really hating the Post Office? Especially when I have to go drop off mail there when they fail to pick it up at the office, or when they send important stuff from the courts weeks after the stuff was mailed and keep doing that.

Problem Numero The Second:   Went to start the clothes dryer, pressed start,  as one does, it seemed to hum to life for a moment, and went dead.  

Completely dead.  Not a light on to be seen. Nailed to its perch dead.

Now I have wet clothes hanging out to dry and a dead dryer.  Circuit breaker was good and the dryer did give off a little click sound when unplugged and  plugged in again, but did not come to life.  It may perhaps be a dead thermal fuse, so I will get the part and will try to replace that myself first and we'll see if that works.

In the grand scheme of things these aren't anything but annoying fixable problems.  Just annoyed at how things are supposed to reliably work and yet do not.

The Post Office Around Here Is A Massive Ball Of Suck and Fail

Postal service is often though of as an oxymoron at the best of times.

These days, it is worse.

Example 1:  On October 14, I sent a garnishment for a client to Chase's garnishment department in Columbus Ohio via certified mail.

Tracking shows it went from my location to Pontiac, then to Columbus, then back to Pontiac and was then went to Shreveport, Louisiana and was apparently picked up by someone on November 17 in Monroe, Louisiana.

What? How does that work exactly?

Example 2:  Client in the Flint area sends via priority mail on October 10 some important documents for his case.  Should be delivered October 11. As you might guess, it is not.

Weeks pass and the postal service can't say where it is or what happened to it.   Client not happy that some sensitive stuff is missing and may be in the wrong hands.

Well, it arrived yesterday, looking like it had been run over by a truck multiple times - a month and 13 days late, and it still does not exist when you try and track it with the tracking number on the label.

Combine that with days where no mail is received or massively late and it gets even better.

 It's always fun to get a month after the mailing date a notice that a hearing is scheduled and it arrives on the morning of the hearing - or even worse a day after the hearing date which leads to lots of problems as you might imagine.  That took some work to fix.

According to one postal employee I've spoken to, the Pontiac and Detroit Post offices are badly short-staffed, lots of people out claiming they were exposed to Covid, so they don't come in to work, and the level of incompetence is getting even higher than it normally is as a standard.

Sheesh.  The courts need to start sending these notices via email, because the mail is sure as heck not getting through.

If You Ever Need To Reaffirm Your Misanthropy . . . .

Go get in line at the Post Office.

The scene: All of two posties working, a line of about 10 people.

I need to mail a large full envelope to opposing counsel making sure the date of mailing is stamped on it to ensure proper proof of service so I can't just guess and throw a bunch of forever first class stamps on and shove it in a mailbox.

Shouldn't take too long right?

Heh, this is the Post Service we're talking about, and some really slow and dumb postal customers.

Postal employee #1 heads to the back for some reason, leaving Postal Employee 2 alone.

So first person in lone comes up and not just mailing a package trying to decide the best way to ship it, and of course she wants to discuss all the possible options and costs, with the line getting ever longer.

She leaves and customer #2 comes up and she doesn't just want to mail a letter. No she wants to buy some very specific stamps. Not just some holiday ones but some 3 cent Walt Whitman stamps that she saw for sale onlinr.

Yep, she saw them for sale online. So why the heck didn't she buy them online?

Well she insists that Postal Employee #2 go check to see if they have them, and Postal Employee #2 instead of saying go buy them online she goes into the back to look for them.

A few minutes later Postal Employee #2 comes back and states they don't have them and customer #2 get, into a long conversation about stamps and commemorative stamps, not caring that the line is getting longer. Finally she gets her stuff purchased and leaves. Next time buy the stamps online, and save yourself and everyone in line trying to actually mail stuff some time.

So customer #3 comes up, an old biddy that's very nice I'm sure, but after listening to customer #2, she's now all excited about commemorative stamps and she wants to look at all the stamps they have in case there's interesting ones for her to buy.

Postal Employee #1 is still not back at the counter.

Sheesh.

Yep, my fondness for humanity was certainly coming to a middle by the time I finally got to the counter.

The Pony Express Would Have Been Faster

On January 6, I sent a demand letter via certified mail for a client to a company in Petaluma, California.

It still has not been delivered and the tracking information tells a rather pathetic tale:

First, it took a day to get from the Post Office here to the Post office in Pontiac, a distance of 4 miles.

Then it took 8 days to go from Pontiac to Detroit, a distance of about 30 miles (or 3.75 miles per day), where it sat for a day.

Then it took 4 days to get to San Francisco, where it sat in the post office for another 7 days.

Then it took 8 days to get to the post office in West Sacramento California, a distance of about 86 miles or 10.75 miles per day, which is a bit of a head-scratcher as Petaluma is actually closer to San Francisco than it is to West Sacramento.

Now it is still in West Sacramento's post office, where it has now sat for 4 days through today.

I'm beginning to think had-delivery would have been quicker at this rate.

The message on the tracking is rather bitterly ironic:

The package is delayed and will not be delivered by the expected delivery date. An updated delivery date will be provided when available. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

Yes, I'd say its rather delayed and then some.

Will it ever be delivered? Where will it end up next? These questions and more may be answered soon, perhaps, maybe.

Postal Service Does It Again

So I sent a priority mail letter on September 20 with tracking from West Bloomfield MI To Waterford MI, mainly so I had proof of delivery but also for, you know, priority mail speed. Note you can drive the distance from the start and end points in about 45 minutes or so, in traffic.

The mail route instead looked like this:

Yes, the envelope went from West Bloomfield, south to Allen Park, MI, then even farther south to LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, back up to Allen Park and finally up north to Waterford arriving there finally today after noon.

An infirm person on crutches could have walked it over faster.

Sheesh.

You know how the Post Office Guarranties Reliable Delivery of 99% of the mail?

Looks like they found the other 1%

Warren postal carrier charged with stealing mail

The slogan “neither snow, nor rain,” apparently didn’t apply to a U.S. postal letter carrier found with 20,000 pieces of undelivered mail in his home.

Now I like to get mail as much, if not more than the next guy, thanks to Netflix and Amazon. But hoarding 20,000 pieces of mail? Yipes.