Kudos to USPS: NOT an April Fools post - this is when I found out. I make products that I sell online and ship all over the US by Priority Mail. Most people pay by PayPal, and PayPal...

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

NOT an April Fools post - this is when I found out. I make products that I sell online and ship all over the US by Priority Mail. Most people pay by PayPal, and PayPal feeds their address directly to the mailing label when I go to prepare the box for shipping.

One customer, who had recently moved to a new address, transposed two numbers in his 5-digit street address when updating his PayPal account. (The address he entered did not exist on the street.) Nevertheless, I dutifully printed out the mailing label and shipped the box off to the address provided, in a suburb of Las Vegas. When the customer inquired about the status of the order - PayPal sends the customer an email notice that the mailing label has been created, and Priority Mail is supposed to be a 2-3 day delivery process - I checked the tracking.

It showed the box got to the Las Vegas area in 4 days (not too unusual since postal workers started staying home during the pandemic lockdowns). Then the box bounced around between various mail facilities in the Las Vegas area for 11 days (!) before somebody gave up on the nonexistent address and sent the box back to my PO Box in St. Louis. Tracking showed it as available for pickup in my PO Box 5 days later, 20 days after USPS first picked it up from my mailbox.

The customer and I had been in email contact during the bouncing-around phase, and I had suggested that he visit the delivery PO for his correct address - which the box passed through periodically - to see if they could just grab it and deliver it to the right address. He said he would do this, but apparently didn't get it done before the box was sent back to me. He DID contact someone before the box was shown as back at my local PO, though, who said he would try to get it returned to Las Vegas for delivery.

The box never did show up in my PO Box, despite what the USPS tracking system said. When I managed to get to a clerk at the counter, she said she did remember getting a call a few days earlier from a larger PO in the St. Louis area, asking her to grab a Priority Mail box and send it back to the larger PO. (All the mail to and from my PO passes through this larger PO.) She thought it could have been the one I was looking for, but wasn't sure.

Happy ending - next day, the box was delivered to the customer's correct address in Las Vegas. So apparently the guy out there was able to work through the USPS system and get a package that was about to be returned to the sender (me) turned around and sent back to the original destination, where somebody would manually change the street address on the printed label and deliver it accordingly.

All this to fix a problem for which the Post Office bore absolutely NO blame - it was entirely the fault of the postal customer (me, through my customer.) I am absolutely stunned by this level of effort, especially so in these days when the postal system is still apparently overwhelmed by the volume of traffic. And after all the snarky remarks I've made about poor postal service over the past months, I want to broadcast and celebrate THIS bright ray of sterling public service on the part of the people who made it happen.

Amator21 Loc: California

wrangler5 wrote:

NOT an April Fools post - this is when I found out. I make products that I sell online and ship all over the US by Priority Mail. Most people pay by PayPal, and PayPal feeds their address directly to the mailing label when I go to prepare the box for shipping.

One customer, who had recently moved to a new address, transposed two numbers in his 5-digit street address when updating his PayPal account. (The address he entered did not exist on the street.) Nevertheless, I dutifully printed out the mailing label and shipped the box off to the address provided, in a suburb of Las Vegas. When the customer inquired about the status of the order - PayPal sends the customer an email notice that the mailing label has been created, and Priority Mail is supposed to be a 2-3 day delivery process - I checked the tracking.

It showed the box got to the Las Vegas area in 4 days (not too unusual since postal workers started staying home during the pandemic lockdowns). Then the box bounced around between various mail facilities in the Las Vegas area for 11 days (!) before somebody gave up on the nonexistent address and sent the box back to my PO Box in St. Louis. Tracking showed it as available for pickup in my PO Box 5 days later, 20 days after USPS first picked it up from my mailbox.

The customer and I had been in email contact during the bouncing-around phase, and I had suggested that he visit the delivery PO for his correct address - which the box passed through periodically - to see if they could just grab it and deliver it to the right address. He said he would do this, but apparently didn't get it done before the box was sent back to me. He DID contact someone before the box was shown as back at my local PO, though, who said he would try to get it returned to Las Vegas for delivery.

The box never did show up in my PO Box, despite what the USPS tracking system said. When I managed to get to a clerk at the counter, she said she did remember getting a call a few days earlier from a larger PO in the St. Louis area, asking her to grab a Priority Mail box and send it back to the larger PO. (All the mail to and from my PO passes through this larger PO.) She thought it could have been the one I was looking for, but wasn't sure.

Happy ending - next day, the box was delivered to the customer's correct address in Las Vegas. So apparently the guy out there was able to work through the USPS system and get a package that was about to be returned to the sender (me) turned around and sent back to the original destination, where somebody would manually change the street address on the printed label and deliver it accordingly.

All this to fix a problem for which the Post Office bore absolutely NO blame - it was entirely the fault of the postal customer (me, through my customer.) I am absolutely stunned by this level of effort, especially so in these days when the postal system is still apparently overwhelmed by the volume of traffic. And after all the snarky remarks I've made about poor postal service over the past months, I want to broadcast and celebrate THIS bright ray of sterling public service on the part of the people who made it happen.

NOT an April Fools post - this is when I found out... (show quote)

It is good to hear something encouraging about USPostal system. They tend to be the whipping boy most of the time!

Sendai5355 Loc: On the banks of the Pedernales River, Texas

Glad it worked out for you. I mailed two letters three months ago and the addresses haven't received them yet.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

trinhqthuan Loc: gaithersburg

wrangler5 wrote:

NOT an April Fools post - this is when I found out. I make products that I sell online and ship all over the US by Priority Mail. Most people pay by PayPal, and PayPal feeds their address directly to the mailing label when I go to prepare the box for shipping.

One customer, who had recently moved to a new address, transposed two numbers in his 5-digit street address when updating his PayPal account. (The address he entered did not exist on the street.) Nevertheless, I dutifully printed out the mailing label and shipped the box off to the address provided, in a suburb of Las Vegas. When the customer inquired about the status of the order - PayPal sends the customer an email notice that the mailing label has been created, and Priority Mail is supposed to be a 2-3 day delivery process - I checked the tracking.

It showed the box got to the Las Vegas area in 4 days (not too unusual since postal workers started staying home during the pandemic lockdowns). Then the box bounced around between various mail facilities in the Las Vegas area for 11 days (!) before somebody gave up on the nonexistent address and sent the box back to my PO Box in St. Louis. Tracking showed it as available for pickup in my PO Box 5 days later, 20 days after USPS first picked it up from my mailbox.

The customer and I had been in email contact during the bouncing-around phase, and I had suggested that he visit the delivery PO for his correct address - which the box passed through periodically - to see if they could just grab it and deliver it to the right address. He said he would do this, but apparently didn't get it done before the box was sent back to me. He DID contact someone before the box was shown as back at my local PO, though, who said he would try to get it returned to Las Vegas for delivery.

The box never did show up in my PO Box, despite what the USPS tracking system said. When I managed to get to a clerk at the counter, she said she did remember getting a call a few days earlier from a larger PO in the St. Louis area, asking her to grab a Priority Mail box and send it back to the larger PO. (All the mail to and from my PO passes through this larger PO.) She thought it could have been the one I was looking for, but wasn't sure.

Happy ending - next day, the box was delivered to the customer's correct address in Las Vegas. So apparently the guy out there was able to work through the USPS system and get a package that was about to be returned to the sender (me) turned around and sent back to the original destination, where somebody would manually change the street address on the printed label and deliver it accordingly.

All this to fix a problem for which the Post Office bore absolutely NO blame - it was entirely the fault of the postal customer (me, through my customer.) I am absolutely stunned by this level of effort, especially so in these days when the postal system is still apparently overwhelmed by the volume of traffic. And after all the snarky remarks I've made about poor postal service over the past months, I want to broadcast and celebrate THIS bright ray of sterling public service on the part of the people who made it happen.

NOT an April Fools post - this is when I found out... (show quote)

Jimmy T Loc: Virginia

Amator21 wrote:

It is good to hear something encouraging about USPostal system. They tend to be the whipping boy most of the time!

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I recently sent my tax paperwork to my CPA in another state. I put the wrong zip on the label. When I handed it to the postal clerk she checked it in and told me the zip was wrong and gave me the correct zip. Took about 30 seconds to make the correction. When I got home I found that I had indeed written the zip incorrectly, partly due to my aging eyes, small type, and developing cataracts (will be scheduling cataract surgery when the virus thing gets better resolved).

Some people in the USPS do their jobs well.

EdJ0307 Loc: out west someplace

I wish the IRS was as efficient as the PO.
I filed my daughter's tax return electronically but it was rejected by the IRS. Something to do with the previous year's AGI. I tried calling the IRS several times every day for about 10 days but all I got was "call back later", "call back later", "call back later", . . .
Decided to mail the return on March 18 to IRS, Ogden, UT, Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested, instead of electronically filing the return. Here it is April 2, two weeks later, and haven't got the Return Receipt back from the IRS. Besides not answering their phones it looks like their not picking up the mail, either.

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

wrangler5 wrote:

NOT an April Fools post - this is when I found out. I make products that I sell online and ship all over the US by Priority Mail. Most people pay by PayPal, and PayPal feeds their address directly to the mailing label when I go to prepare the box for shipping.

One customer, who had recently moved to a new address, transposed two numbers in his 5-digit street address when updating his PayPal account. (The address he entered did not exist on the street.) Nevertheless, I dutifully printed out the mailing label and shipped the box off to the address provided, in a suburb of Las Vegas. When the customer inquired about the status of the order - PayPal sends the customer an email notice that the mailing label has been created, and Priority Mail is supposed to be a 2-3 day delivery process - I checked the tracking.

It showed the box got to the Las Vegas area in 4 days (not too unusual since postal workers started staying home during the pandemic lockdowns). Then the box bounced around between various mail facilities in the Las Vegas area for 11 days (!) before somebody gave up on the nonexistent address and sent the box back to my PO Box in St. Louis. Tracking showed it as available for pickup in my PO Box 5 days later, 20 days after USPS first picked it up from my mailbox.

The customer and I had been in email contact during the bouncing-around phase, and I had suggested that he visit the delivery PO for his correct address - which the box passed through periodically - to see if they could just grab it and deliver it to the right address. He said he would do this, but apparently didn't get it done before the box was sent back to me. He DID contact someone before the box was shown as back at my local PO, though, who said he would try to get it returned to Las Vegas for delivery.

The box never did show up in my PO Box, despite what the USPS tracking system said. When I managed to get to a clerk at the counter, she said she did remember getting a call a few days earlier from a larger PO in the St. Louis area, asking her to grab a Priority Mail box and send it back to the larger PO. (All the mail to and from my PO passes through this larger PO.) She thought it could have been the one I was looking for, but wasn't sure.

Happy ending - next day, the box was delivered to the customer's correct address in Las Vegas. So apparently the guy out there was able to work through the USPS system and get a package that was about to be returned to the sender (me) turned around and sent back to the original destination, where somebody would manually change the street address on the printed label and deliver it accordingly.

All this to fix a problem for which the Post Office bore absolutely NO blame - it was entirely the fault of the postal customer (me, through my customer.) I am absolutely stunned by this level of effort, especially so in these days when the postal system is still apparently overwhelmed by the volume of traffic. And after all the snarky remarks I've made about poor postal service over the past months, I want to broadcast and celebrate THIS bright ray of sterling public service on the part of the people who made it happen.

NOT an April Fools post - this is when I found out... (show quote)

See

Miracles DO happen⭐

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

wrangler5 wrote:

NOT an April Fools post - this is when I found out. I make products that I sell online and ship all over the US by Priority Mail. Most people pay by PayPal, and PayPal feeds their address directly to the mailing label when I go to prepare the box for shipping.

One customer, who had recently moved to a new address, transposed two numbers in his 5-digit street address when updating his PayPal account. (The address he entered did not exist on the street.) Nevertheless, I dutifully printed out the mailing label and shipped the box off to the address provided, in a suburb of Las Vegas. When the customer inquired about the status of the order - PayPal sends the customer an email notice that the mailing label has been created, and Priority Mail is supposed to be a 2-3 day delivery process - I checked the tracking.

It showed the box got to the Las Vegas area in 4 days (not too unusual since postal workers started staying home during the pandemic lockdowns). Then the box bounced around between various mail facilities in the Las Vegas area for 11 days (!) before somebody gave up on the nonexistent address and sent the box back to my PO Box in St. Louis. Tracking showed it as available for pickup in my PO Box 5 days later, 20 days after USPS first picked it up from my mailbox.

The customer and I had been in email contact during the bouncing-around phase, and I had suggested that he visit the delivery PO for his correct address - which the box passed through periodically - to see if they could just grab it and deliver it to the right address. He said he would do this, but apparently didn't get it done before the box was sent back to me. He DID contact someone before the box was shown as back at my local PO, though, who said he would try to get it returned to Las Vegas for delivery.

The box never did show up in my PO Box, despite what the USPS tracking system said. When I managed to get to a clerk at the counter, she said she did remember getting a call a few days earlier from a larger PO in the St. Louis area, asking her to grab a Priority Mail box and send it back to the larger PO. (All the mail to and from my PO passes through this larger PO.) She thought it could have been the one I was looking for, but wasn't sure.

Happy ending - next day, the box was delivered to the customer's correct address in Las Vegas. So apparently the guy out there was able to work through the USPS system and get a package that was about to be returned to the sender (me) turned around and sent back to the original destination, where somebody would manually change the street address on the printed label and deliver it accordingly.

All this to fix a problem for which the Post Office bore absolutely NO blame - it was entirely the fault of the postal customer (me, through my customer.) I am absolutely stunned by this level of effort, especially so in these days when the postal system is still apparently overwhelmed by the volume of traffic. And after all the snarky remarks I've made about poor postal service over the past months, I want to broadcast and celebrate THIS bright ray of sterling public service on the part of the people who made it happen.

NOT an April Fools post - this is when I found out... (show quote)

So good to know someone has had positive results with the USPS. My story is a bit different, but it is about the transferring of a package from UPS to USPS. Twice small packages, originally shipped via UPS, have been reported as delivered to USPS for final delivery, but USPS claims no record of it. Then after four or five days of nothing, local USPS still has no available information, the package is delivered at about the same time that I get an email that the package is out for delivery.

anotherview Loc: California

"Neither snow nor rain . . . ."

wrangler5 wrote:

NOT an April Fools post - this is when I found out. I make products that I sell online and ship all over the US by Priority Mail. Most people pay by PayPal, and PayPal feeds their address directly to the mailing label when I go to prepare the box for shipping.

One customer, who had recently moved to a new address, transposed two numbers in his 5-digit street address when updating his PayPal account. (The address he entered did not exist on the street.) Nevertheless, I dutifully printed out the mailing label and shipped the box off to the address provided, in a suburb of Las Vegas. When the customer inquired about the status of the order - PayPal sends the customer an email notice that the mailing label has been created, and Priority Mail is supposed to be a 2-3 day delivery process - I checked the tracking.

It showed the box got to the Las Vegas area in 4 days (not too unusual since postal workers started staying home during the pandemic lockdowns). Then the box bounced around between various mail facilities in the Las Vegas area for 11 days (!) before somebody gave up on the nonexistent address and sent the box back to my PO Box in St. Louis. Tracking showed it as available for pickup in my PO Box 5 days later, 20 days after USPS first picked it up from my mailbox.

The customer and I had been in email contact during the bouncing-around phase, and I had suggested that he visit the delivery PO for his correct address - which the box passed through periodically - to see if they could just grab it and deliver it to the right address. He said he would do this, but apparently didn't get it done before the box was sent back to me. He DID contact someone before the box was shown as back at my local PO, though, who said he would try to get it returned to Las Vegas for delivery.

The box never did show up in my PO Box, despite what the USPS tracking system said. When I managed to get to a clerk at the counter, she said she did remember getting a call a few days earlier from a larger PO in the St. Louis area, asking her to grab a Priority Mail box and send it back to the larger PO. (All the mail to and from my PO passes through this larger PO.) She thought it could have been the one I was looking for, but wasn't sure.

Happy ending - next day, the box was delivered to the customer's correct address in Las Vegas. So apparently the guy out there was able to work through the USPS system and get a package that was about to be returned to the sender (me) turned around and sent back to the original destination, where somebody would manually change the street address on the printed label and deliver it accordingly.

All this to fix a problem for which the Post Office bore absolutely NO blame - it was entirely the fault of the postal customer (me, through my customer.) I am absolutely stunned by this level of effort, especially so in these days when the postal system is still apparently overwhelmed by the volume of traffic. And after all the snarky remarks I've made about poor postal service over the past months, I want to broadcast and celebrate THIS bright ray of sterling public service on the part of the people who made it happen.

NOT an April Fools post - this is when I found out... (show quote)