more USPS urghhs

Discussion in 'Whatever' started by lurker, Oct 17, 2012.

  1. lurker

    lurker S7 Royalty

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    so apparently the post office now has to hand enter all of the addresses (to/from) etc for ALL INTERNATIONAL packages including intl. first class.

    the online service doesn't allow you to use anything but Priority mail which is 2 to 3 times more expensive.
    and they have no means of electronically accepting these pacakages otherwise.

    so it took like 20 minutes to mail 2 packages, as the guy single finger keyboarded everything.

    this is going to hinder me mailing any packages at lunchtime, and will probably have to wait til saturdays to make these drops.

    what a mess.
     
  2. Lixx

    Lixx Mr. Grumpy™

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    Wow the post office is such a joke. I know people hate me saying this but I will again- privatize that B*TCH. I mean what kind of business operates at such a loss (as they do) and continues to downgrade their service- annoying whatever customers they have left? ;) Oh yeah a government agency.
     
  3. animator

    animator Mr. Freshly Smacked Ass Staff Member

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    Wow, they are doing this again. About 4-6 months ago usps tried doing this and it failed miserably. The lines for the post office were almost double they're regular amount just because of 1-2 packages being sent international. I hope this goes away like it did the 1st time. It only lasted about a week and then went back to the original process.
     
  4. scud80

    scud80 Addicted

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    you can always use fedex or ups and pay a bazillion dollars. frankly i'm always amazed that i can pay somebody so little and they'll carry something halfway around the world for me. i'd have to think hard about whether i'd want to carry something down the street for what they charge to send fight-figure-sized boxes.
     
  5. ---NT---

    ---NT--- Prototype

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    Agreed. Long live USPS!
     
  6. Rich

    Rich Die-Cast

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    Get out their doing this for first class now !!!

    For the little green tag slips ??

    This sucks. And it must be universal that all employes have both bad sight and no keyboard skills, plus keep as little man power on so that the office fills up why they struggle to get anything done.

    I literally had to help out last time by reaching over turning the screen typing everything myself as the counter woman thanked me for the help. I dont even work there and did more work than she did. I cant say I blame her as she isnt skilled at this and just thrown into this situation. Most of the employes as old, or new and just don't give a fuck.

    Its looking more and more like EMS only for international. Which sucks for anyone outside the US of which there are a lot.

    I really like USPS, but that ship is in flames and definitely going down fast. With it being so deep in debt and getting worse, multiplied with an amazingly unskilled work force its only a matter of time now before its a wrap.

    And I wont even bother on the weekends, of which also are on their way out. They will cut Saturday services soon mark my words. Weekend workers are the worst.
     
  7. damaged Bryan

    damaged Bryan Comment King

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    I use shippingeasy which allows you to send first class from on-line. I stopped using USPS online for shipping a LOOONNNNGGG time ago.
    Yeah, sending international from the post office is the worst. At my location they use both hands to type, but they have foot long fingernails.
     
  8. hellopike

    hellopike S7 Royalty

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    I just got back from my post office, I mailed 10 small bubble mailers (my kinnikuthulhu's and finger puppets), each one ran me 2.80, and 1 international going to Canada, When half way through its suddenly $35! I told her something was wrong and she looks over the postage, and spots one for $10.50... And does a return. A line starts to form, and I tell her there's still something wrong, the total is something like $46 (I looked away while filling out my green customs form) but she says "No its right, I don't even know what the postage is" and I figure let me pay, then look over the receipt while I let the people behind me go because the place closes @ 4:30 and it's past 4:15. I spot 2 more where the postage was $10.50! I had to fill out paperwork for services not rendered and got $21 back, the actual postage for those two was $5.60. It turned what should have been a 10 minute visit into a 30 minute plus clusterfuck. How can a person ring up ten items @ roughly 2.80 a piece and not see something is wrong when the final total is $40+?

    ridiculous. I love the Post Office normally, and I don't know what we are going to do when they go away, but damn guys. simple math.
     
  9. nefasth

    nefasth Mini Boss

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    Thank you for doing this Phil, Chad and all the other boardies who take the time to ship internationally. Sincerely. I understand doing so can suck.
    Mailing from here is not so bad but then again, it's so damn expensive :x
     
  10. Purple Bat

    Purple Bat Addicted

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    My dad has worked for the USPS since about 1990, so I know a bit about this stuff second-hand. The situation has definitely been pretty critical since the turn of the century.

    For the longest time I tried to get on with them as an employee too, but there has been a so-called "hiring freeze" on almost continually for the last 15 years!

    That means the employee pool hasn't had any major new infusions for that long, plus their woefully outdated IT infrastructure, plus shitty employees getting traded back and forth because of silly union protection (and I'm a member of the Industrial Workers of the World... :roll: ) then add in the underfunding issues and the fact that they need Congressional permission to do any kind of restructuring practically and you get a giant [expletive deleted] fucking mess!

    I feel for you guys who ship regularly in large numbers. I was about to ask a clerk the other day if being rude was part of his job description, because he was a dick to the two people ahead of me in line.

    In short; I concur! :lol:
     
  11. hellopike

    hellopike S7 Royalty

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    haha, yours was the easiest of the bunch. :D
     
  12. SaintOfSpinners

    SaintOfSpinners Side Dealer

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    I sent two packages to Canada. Both had printed labels plus I handed in the customs forms. the Postal employee put the wrong labels on the wrong boxes. One went to the wrong address and I had to pay for second shipping to get that correction done. the other didnt pass customs and has been returned to Los Angeles. Now that box has been bouncing back and forth between three different sorting facilities for over two weeks. I can't find anyone to contact and I am told to file paperwork to retrieve it would cost me $40.

    I am very tempted to make a formal complaint against the postal employee for his ineptitude.
     
  13. JORDAN23

    JORDAN23 Post Pimp

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    Shipping things internationally is a logistical nightmare for the carrier so for what it's worth I appreciate that we have this service despite the fact that it is a clusterfuck at times. Like someone mentioned earlier, it's a very low price for what they do and for every bad transaction I'm sure there are 20 good ones. OK...maybe 10.
     
  14. FLTodd

    FLTodd Toy Prince

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    I've been running into the same issue lately. Mailed roughly 25 letter sized envelopes to International addresses this past week. I had to attach customs forms to them even though they were letter sized envelopes because they contained embroidered patches rather than just paper. Anyway... the guy just pulled the forms off each one and said he'd enter them later because he said "No way I'm keying all of these in right now" and then proceeded to give me hard time because I brought so many to mail at once.

    The post office is one of the few if not the only place that gets upset when you bring them business.
     
  15. lurker

    lurker S7 Royalty

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    Yeah, I get the eye rolls all the time when I bring in like 20 boxes.

    Typically I have good experience with the PO, have never lost a shipment. Just really annoyed by this hand entering.
     
  16. g_money

    g_money Addicted

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    I went this morning to send out all the nycc stuff I got and to my surprise there was no line at all. 6 boxes shipped, only 1 international. All paperwork filled out correctly, I even put the delivery confirmations on, and it still took 40 minutes. This post office probably sends out 75% of their stuff international due to the area and they still can't figure it out. I usually drive the next town over as my old po is awesome. It's crazy how two miles apart and it's one extreme to the other. And less people work at the good one!
     
  17. hellopike

    hellopike S7 Royalty

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    So this one's a little understandable with the hurricane, but still...

    First, the setup.
    I live in an apartment, so I have my packages and important mail delivered to my parents home address about 3 miles away. Both addresses are serviced by the same post office.

    So my junk mail got delivered at about 10am this morning, but nothing was delivered to my parents home today because (I'll assume) of the hurricane. I drove down in the slight wind and driving drizzle at 2 to wait for the mail to arrive and the package that delivery confirmation says is "Out for Delivery Oct. 29 2012, 9:38am"

    What the hell mail carrier?! I wanted to finish and assemble my mixed parts Sludge Demon! Argh you suck!
     
  18. brobles

    brobles S7 Royalty

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    dont know if it's been mentioned before but I went to drop off a few packages and talked to the person helping me out in regards to this hand entering data. He said there was this software you had to download to be able print labels at home without having to resort to priority mailing. He told me to call paypal customer service to direct you to the page or look for it on the usps website. if what he's telling me is true then this should save many of us plenty of time (and money) when shipping internationally. anyone heard of this before?
     

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