Neither Snow, Nor Rain, Nor Heat....

I'm sure, you've heard that before, the US Postal Service Creed.

However, the Creed does not mention Cold, which apparently stops deliveries dead, even when its no longer -5F out and its now a balmy 19 degrees and sunny - practically t-shirt weather in Michigan.

Verily, the creed doth some more aspirational and not a code but more like guidelines.

I had a package ordered a couple weeks ago, properly and promptly shipped by the vendor in Texas on January 17,  the same day as it was ordered even which is great service, and it was supposed to be delivered January 20.

It arrived on January 20 at the Pontiac, Michigan Regional Facility and has not moved an inch since.  Tracking gives a deceptive message that it is "In Transit to next facility. Arriving Late."

No kidding USPS. No kidding it is arriving late, as the transit to next facility seems to be done by snails at best.  There have been no updates as to the whereabouts of the package since January 24, so I;m beginning to doubt the veracity of the statement that it is "in transit" - unless that means put in a postal worker's pocket and taken in transit to their home.

Update: Finally arrived after sitting at the Pontiac "Distribution" Center office for 9 flipping days.  Sheesh.

Really Post Office? WTAF?

More Post Office disservice.

Part of any lawsuit is ensuring good service on the Defendants.  Kinda important - very important actually as they deserve notice and should be properly served. 

I send a process server out on a serve on a guy who has defaulted on his business contract with the seller of the business - Guy is keeping the business but not paying for it.  This can get people upset, and justifiably so.

So the fellow will not answer the door, and the process server tries 4 different times and at the business location where he's told he's not in, all 4 times there as well.

So I want to do a motion for alternate service by posting it on his door and at the business and mailing it to both locations.

But to do that, I need a Postal Verification form done by his local post office.

I send one out on April 28, nice and early with lots of time to spare on the summons.

No response back from the Post Office.  Weird as typically mail to the postmaster does get processed and returned pretty quickly.

I send another one out on June 7.  Same no response.

Court refuses to issue an alternate service order without it, I tried.  Court refuses to issue alternate service stating they must have the postal form back even as I relate how I've tried twice and gotten no luck and then the Court show causes me (to appear the first week of July) to explain why I haven't served them yet.  Yippee.  Little Catch-22 there that I'm highly enjoying.

So I go in person to the Post Office yesterday bringing my third address verification form for the same person.

After much back and forth, they check and say they don't have the prior ones and they must have been sent out.  Remember this for later.

I note I never received them, and they agree to take my third attempt and tell me to come back today at 3 for it to be done as they first offered to mail it back when done but I noted they hadn't been successful the last two times. All righty then.

I come back and they have lost the form I gave them yesterday.  No kidding.

I indicate I'm not thrilled by this outcome and the postal worker goes to the back and then comes out, mirabile dictu, with the June 7 form stamped completed June 10, and even better, stapled to the form is my postage-paid return envelope I had submitted with it.  

Instead of mailing it back, they stapled it together and just had it sit there.

So much for it not being in the back yesterday.  Unbelievable.

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.

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.

A First-Class Slap On The Wrist

A mere slap on the wrist delivered, unlike all the mail this postal employee stole.

The Detroit News: Postal worker linked to stolen mail will pay $1,500

After stealing at least 2,000 pieces of mail, postal worker Sharon Berrien will have to pay a $1,500 fine (payable in $50 a month increments),do 40 hours of community service and the criminal charges will be dropped.

Less than a dollar fine per piece of mail converted including the gift cards etc that were inside them and after she admitted she kept $1,000-$1,500 of the contents like gift cards, etc.

In other words, she's not even being punished for her crime, merely told to repay what she estimated she stole and go forth and steal no more. What an effective way to deter future postal employee thefts and to punish a wrongdoer.

An outrageous first-class slap on the wrist indeed.

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.

While Nothing Stops The Mail, It May Become Lost And Delivery May Be A Lot Slow At Times

While some things get better with age, its best not to be kept waiting for 60 years.

The Detroit News: Letter from boot camp in 1953 returned to sender

An ex-soldier living in southwestern Michigan says the U.S. Postal Service has returned a letter he wrote to his wife from boot camp 60 years ago.

A 60-year delivery time is nothing to sneeze at. He could have walked to deliver the letter and walked back to boot camp hundreds of times at that rate.

Then-Pvt. Bob Rodgers says he'd just arrived for basic training at Fort Campbell, Ky., when the power went out, prompting him to write to his wife Jean.

. . .

On March 7, New Carslisle, Ind., Postmaster Connie Tomaszewski hand-delivered the letter to the 79-year-old Rodgers. She tells the South Bend Tribune she did so the same day it arrived at her office.

Postal authorities say they don't know what happened to the letter in between.

Unfortunately the delivery was much too late for its intended recipient:

Jean Rodgers died of cancer eight years ago.

While the Post Office may even be 90% effective, that remaining 10% is a ton of lost mail.

That the letter survived floating around the mail system for that long is rather impressive.

Unsurprisingly, the Post Office doesn't release statistics regarding the amount of lost mail, and the 60 year arrival time for this letter just played hell with their delivery speed statistics.