US Postal Service nightmare

I'm shipping a Large Flat Rate box of HDDs to PartTimeScrapper. Got them ready yesterday, USPS Flat Rate was best as 32 discs weigh 41 pounds and fit neatly in the box. Created label and paid postage by PayPal online. Hit "PRINT" and got "UNKNOWN ERROR" message -- three times. Everything else prints out, including notices from USPS and PayPal regarding the transaction. Took the package and printouts to local post office today. Nothing he can do, so he calls his supervisor. Postmaster says he thinks the problem is my printer since the notices printed out. I say I think the problem isn't my printer for that reason - everything else printed out. USPS website is down, so I go home and wait for him to call when it's back up. He calls, but still nothing he can do. The online postage needs to print out but now there is no way to get it to print. Without that, there's nothing to stick on the package to show the postage has been paid. Everyone - the local Postmaster and his Supervisor - agree that postage has been paid online but without the printout... I purchase postage at the post office to get the box on its way to PartTimeScrapper, which is $1.50 more than it was online. Come back home and call USPS CUSTOMER SERVICE about a refund of the online postage and get told I'll have to file a claim with PayPal.



Can you imagine a business being run like that? And people wonder why I hated being a USPS Letter Carrier. You get the same ignorant attitude as an employee.

Originally Posted by Bear

how do you know paypal ain't partly to blame ?
have you checked the account you billed it to, to see how many hits it's taken there ?
Good luck with it Mick

Yes, there was one charge to the PayPal account to USPS for the amount of the postage. USPS online site acknowledged that it had been paid. I only have one PayPal account.

On mine if I've had a problem there is usually a link for a reprint of the label, and there is a place/link for filing for a refund due to damaged labels.
Click the link "more actions". This is from the reprint page;

You have already printed one or more labels for this sale. Reprint or Void an existing label from the Order details page

Usually this will take care of it. Yes the uptown cannot verify what or how much you have printed/not printed out.

I had recent nitemares with the USPS as well. A med. flat rate box shipped insured (which includes tracking) "4-5 days" expected delivery. 21 days later it arrived at its final destination and the tracking info STILL showed it had not left my mailing facility.
Talking to anyone at the post office was just exactly like talking to any other gubbiment agency... nobody could tell me a **** thing about

I've had similar troubles with USPS in that it seems any time something goes wrong, no one seems to be able to do a thing about it.

I do, however, think it's pretty funny or at least ironic that the package that you were trying to ship ship was going to the mailman himself :P

[QUOTE=JohnM;...I do, however, think it's pretty funny or at least ironic that the package that you were trying to ship ship was going to the mailman himself :P[/QUOTE]

That IS funny. Hadn't even thought of that all day. Still too mad.

I had that problem once so I bought another label on line that printed fine then I voided the other but it took about a week to get credit.

They are operating like they are the only game in town for packages. And they suck at it. I just had a HUGE problem with my local with a refusal to issue a refund, even though they did NOT do what I paid them to do. Period.

Last Christmas I sent a package back home to Illinois Priority mail. Supposed to be 2 to 3 days. It took 7 days and Christmas was missed along with the family members that were there and had stuff in the box that left that day. They do NOT give a rat's behind period. They are a failed business model that is owned by the tax payers and is costing us all money every day as they continue to lose business.

I just got me a FedEx account and they are cheaper. Period.

Priority mail is no guarantee on time of delivery. Every single delivery time period from USPS is an estimate. The only guarantee they have is EXPRESS MAIL. You need to know what your paying for.

Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

Priority mail is no guarantee on time of delivery. Every single delivery time period from USPS is an estimate. The only guarantee they have is EXPRESS MAIL. You need to know what your paying for.

Oh I understand that, but 2 to 3 days turning into 7 days even in their busy season is unacceptable to me and should be unacceptable in any business model. Which is why I am now using FedEx for my packages as often as I can.

Originally Posted by bigburtchino

My problem with USPS - THEY DON'T GIVE A RAT'S A$$

On the flip side of your story, your letter carrier was out on her route until after 8PM. Since they all have to show up at a given time in the morning, and are paid NOT BY THE HOUR, but based on a complex formula using the number of stops they make and the amount of mail at those stops during their annual audit, which is timed to coincide with THE slowest mail period of the year..... sounds more like dedication than laziness to me. We have no way of knowing what issues might've happened that caused her to be so late, so without that a complaint against her isn't warranted. Sounds like the supervisor might be the issue.

Being a mail man myself I know all to well how messed up it is. Your mail person probable got there late because of the holiday is one reason. What people dont realize about the mail on a holiday is this. The plant never closes. So if you have a holiday on a monday when you show up to work on tuesday you now have saturday sunday and mondays mail to deliver in one day. Now top that with the fact the most post offices are so understaffed from the stupid hiring freeze the post office had in affect for the past 3 years or so. So you now have 3 days worth of plant mail to do in one day. Day after a holiday is always a 12 hour day for me. Post office is like any other job you have people who care and people who could care less. If you want to complain ever about the post office you call and ask for the post master. If they dont answer your concerns you call your local congressman. Want to know why the PO is loosing money? Just try and guess how much overtime they are paying out on a yearly basis.