My husband and I buy and sell stuff on Ebay, and do a lot of online shopping. We unfortunately live in the worst possible place for that. We live in a small town (about 10 minutes from downtown but our town has less then 300 people) which has a very small post office. When we first moved here, we had a MAJOR issue with the post office. Every time something was delivered, the mail carrier left the item AT OUR MAILBOX which is on the street. We had packages damaged, taken etc. He would not get out of his car and walk the 25ish feet from the mailbox to the house. We called numerous times and complained and he finally started bringing things to the door.
They started doing the carrier pickup thing. For people who don't know what it is, you can get online & pay for/print postage, and set up a request for a carrier to come to your door and take your package and send it out. Seems VERY convenient right?
Two months ago, we were selling some items and lost a few of the printed postage sheets. Once they are paid/printed, you have to repay to print again, and if you print through paypal/ebay, you can't lose them because the seller won't be able to track their purchase.
We found the printed sheets, and set up a carrier pickup for the following day. I should add, we found the sheets a few days later. So when the pickup was done, we had items dated from about 5 days before the pickup. That evening I get a call from the postmaster that says that they will refuse pickup if the date is anything before the scheduled date. I brought up that not only does their website not say that, but I have never heard that before, AND that I do not have a printer at home, so if my husband prints something at work for postage, I cannot send it out til the next day. She said next day is fine but anything other then that is not.
Fast forward to today. Set up a carrier pickup for an envelope and a large package for a friend. I set them out this morning, and went about my day. Items were never picked up. Checked the mail, and found a notice saying pickup was denied due to the date on the items. I check the dates. My husband had printed the envelopes postage on 8-17 but told me he printed it on 8-23 (he knew i would yell at him because I was mad the lady yelled at me for it a couple months ago!) and the large package had a postage date of 8-23-10...which was MONDAY/YESTERDAY. The envelope was not covering the date on the box, it was very clear on the postage.
So I am mad....I am sick of the post office, and my carrier. He could have left the envelope, fine, I would run it to a mail drop. But to not take a package that had a postage date of yesterday, when I was told that it was okay to have the prevoius days date, is just rude/lazy/ i dont even know...
I wrote a little letter to the carrier and postmaster (who apparently has my phone number saved, as she called about thepackage even though i did not leave my number on the carrier pickup...kinda weird) that expresses my displeasure with them not taking this package and listing the date as the reason when I followed the rules for the large package as she herself explained them. I asked that if the rules changed, could I see them in writing as I had never seen a policy about dates, and to refuse this one for being put out the day after postage was printed is ridiculous.
I planned on scheduling a carrier pickup tomorrow, and leaving the note in the mailbox for the mailman and seeing if they pick it up. If not, I was planning on reporting the carrier/postmaster to someone higher up, as I don't think it was right of them.
Should I leave the note or just take the darn thing to a different post office tomorrow? I am mad and wrote the note while mad....it is not rude or anything, just states that I followed all rules on the package, and understand them not taking the envelope but do not understand reasoning behind the package being left. I am just worried that my mail will start getting messed up or something if I make them mad. It is a very small post office, and the postmaster is completely "up in our business" as one time when I called to complain she commented on the amount of packages we send out and recieve...so it isn't like big post offices where they don't know what people send/recieve, she seems to know what we do mail wise!
So sorry for the long post, I needed to get it out. Any advice would be appreciated!
They started doing the carrier pickup thing. For people who don't know what it is, you can get online & pay for/print postage, and set up a request for a carrier to come to your door and take your package and send it out. Seems VERY convenient right?
Two months ago, we were selling some items and lost a few of the printed postage sheets. Once they are paid/printed, you have to repay to print again, and if you print through paypal/ebay, you can't lose them because the seller won't be able to track their purchase.
We found the printed sheets, and set up a carrier pickup for the following day. I should add, we found the sheets a few days later. So when the pickup was done, we had items dated from about 5 days before the pickup. That evening I get a call from the postmaster that says that they will refuse pickup if the date is anything before the scheduled date. I brought up that not only does their website not say that, but I have never heard that before, AND that I do not have a printer at home, so if my husband prints something at work for postage, I cannot send it out til the next day. She said next day is fine but anything other then that is not.
Fast forward to today. Set up a carrier pickup for an envelope and a large package for a friend. I set them out this morning, and went about my day. Items were never picked up. Checked the mail, and found a notice saying pickup was denied due to the date on the items. I check the dates. My husband had printed the envelopes postage on 8-17 but told me he printed it on 8-23 (he knew i would yell at him because I was mad the lady yelled at me for it a couple months ago!) and the large package had a postage date of 8-23-10...which was MONDAY/YESTERDAY. The envelope was not covering the date on the box, it was very clear on the postage.
So I am mad....I am sick of the post office, and my carrier. He could have left the envelope, fine, I would run it to a mail drop. But to not take a package that had a postage date of yesterday, when I was told that it was okay to have the prevoius days date, is just rude/lazy/ i dont even know...
I wrote a little letter to the carrier and postmaster (who apparently has my phone number saved, as she called about thepackage even though i did not leave my number on the carrier pickup...kinda weird) that expresses my displeasure with them not taking this package and listing the date as the reason when I followed the rules for the large package as she herself explained them. I asked that if the rules changed, could I see them in writing as I had never seen a policy about dates, and to refuse this one for being put out the day after postage was printed is ridiculous.
I planned on scheduling a carrier pickup tomorrow, and leaving the note in the mailbox for the mailman and seeing if they pick it up. If not, I was planning on reporting the carrier/postmaster to someone higher up, as I don't think it was right of them.
Should I leave the note or just take the darn thing to a different post office tomorrow? I am mad and wrote the note while mad....it is not rude or anything, just states that I followed all rules on the package, and understand them not taking the envelope but do not understand reasoning behind the package being left. I am just worried that my mail will start getting messed up or something if I make them mad. It is a very small post office, and the postmaster is completely "up in our business" as one time when I called to complain she commented on the amount of packages we send out and recieve...so it isn't like big post offices where they don't know what people send/recieve, she seems to know what we do mail wise!
So sorry for the long post, I needed to get it out. Any advice would be appreciated!
