Post office from hell!!!!

[LoveMyHats2]

Geez, I never thought I would have some major issues with the USPS, as I have always felt there are part of the "America" I love. However, now, I have a war going on with them. A total of 12 items now missing, and presumed stolen by the mail carrier. Recently 2 packages arriving on the same day, (all items that are missing have delivery confirmation on them). The last round of theft happens, the carrier scans both packages delivered, one at 10:43 a.m, the other scanned at 3:03 p.m., and the carrier did not deliver the one scanned at 10:43a.m, only the later one and as we watched the delivery from the front window no large package. So I call the post master, he says he will call back tomorrow and let me know. He does not call back, so I call him. He says he will look into it and call me back again (now going into day two). No call comes back, and I have to go to the VA Hospital, so my Wife calls. The Post Master avoids giving any information to her about if he has even talked to the carrier, refuses to answer any details...and tells her, someone will us back. OH yeah, I forgot, the first time I called he told me, not much they can do anyway, they have a UNION! Unions will protect the carrier.....(how nice)....Day three, no calls back as obviously they are not really wanting to deal with this mess, so we call them again. It is all our fault, he says, should insure items, don't bother me he says, so I take the phone from my Wife, (the Post Master was rude as all..?!?! ) so I ask him what it the deal with this package being stolen and what of the other ones? He says wait a minute and puts someone else on the phone.

This new person says, the mail carrier does not recall that day, does not recall any mail delivery to our home, does not recall the packages and does not recall scanning any of them! Don't call us back, we have a UNION! SO....I have already filed complaints to the Postal Inspectors office and would you not know it, no contact back! From what I understand the local police would not deal with post office issues including theft. So now what? Since when does a UNION allow a mail carrier just steal and the post office to ignore all of this? You know you can't touch a postal worker or you go to prison, but they can just steal from you and are not held accountable? I am sure also now, ALL of my US Mail including utility bills are going to be "tossed" in retaliation as it is not going to be a secret that I verbally gave the post master both barrels for his swearing and being abusive to my Wife on the phone.

Sorry to say, I would love to deal with this all in a lawful legal fashion, but if you don't see me posting here for a while, and this theft issue continues, you can about guess where I will be and why....."News report....man goes "postal" on local post office". Is this all a person can do to resolve anything now? I really dislike even thinking I would have to "go postal" on these crooks.... They have about really pushed me to the point of no return. I would file a civil law suit, but I am already aware it more than likely would not go anywhere in court....the current trend is, the Government is always blameless. Not all the mail theft involves eBay or other on line purchases, some are prescription medication sent to me for my Heart and MS from the VA. I am running out of ideas on how to deal with these crooks! And the UNION that protects them? Hey Union, BITE ME!

I should add to all this, the stress of this mess gave me a real whopper of a heart attack.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You'll be better served by reporting this to the U. S. Postal Inspector Service..

 

[LoveMyHats2]

You'll be better served by reporting this to the U. S. Postal Inspector Service..

As stated, I have already filed complaints to the postal inspectors....and it did zero for me, they do not contact me back, and when I contact them (they give you a complaint number for reference) they pass the phone call from one person to the next.....all they have done is make me waste time on the phone with them, I have no idea what is going on with my complaints, they won't tell me anything other than they have the complaint numbers for my record. If there was any way to have mail without the postal service being involved I would elect to do so without question.

The Post Master here, while insulting my wife, called her a "stupid white "B----", among his other nasty rude attitude. All of this has been included in complaints to the Postal Inspectors.....and so far, I am thinking they would prefer to be left alone and sit and have coffee and donuts and give out the next person's complaint numbers and tell them "here is your complaint number, have a nice day". I have sent an email complaint to the State of Michigan's A.G. and Governor's office, but the police department will stop you in your conversation with them about this issue to say, Postal issues are left to the local Post Master or the main Post Office in Washington D.C., have a nice day. They do not even hear what you have to say.

Maybe I should have opted to be a post man.....I could be rich stealing and not have to worry about following the law? Nah....I would rather be honest.

 

[vitanola]

The Postal Inspectors are efficient, and are not araid of anyone or anything, most particularly the union. My firm had contracts with the USPS for many years, and worked in hundreds of Post Offices in several districts. If the inspectors find evidence of theft, heaven help the postal employee! The union will not protect them. I did notice, in those days, however quite a number of postal managers who would blame the union for their own management failures. Your postmaster may well have a political axe to grind. If he was actually trying to help, and if he was following procedure, he would al
Ready have directed you to the Postal Inspection Service.

Note that all large post offices and mail sorting centers heavily monitored by closed-circuit television, and these buildings also have hidden hallways with observation slots to allw the Postal Inspectors to observe un-detected. These inspection galleries even have exterior entrances so that even the local postmaster himself does not know if or when observation is taking place.

Now, the Postal Inspection Sevice is a bureaucracy, and its wheels grind slowly. They will not comment on ongoing ivestigations, and so once you've contacted them it soes seem as if you are taling to a stone wall, but they are investigating, I'm sure. Their wheels grind exceeding slow, but exceeding fine.

Are ypu in a large city? Which postal district are you in? We may still have the names of the appropriate person to which to escalate. The treatment that your wife received is, of course, absolutely unacceptable. Even without objective proof, a district manager will come down very hard on a Postamaster who is that rude to a customer. In addition, the Postal union officials are really upset at being the whipping boys for management problems, and will themselves come down hard on a carrier and postmaster .who blame the union for poor service.

PM me with your location, if you wish, and I'll try to find the names fo the folks that you must contact.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

What about trying to get a story on the local news?

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Thank you all for your input. I think the theft is taking place by the carriers. I live in a smaller town now then where we did live. For me I am a very non middle of the road personality type. I dislike being in a position where someone does this sort of theft and am left with having to just "eat crow".

I am aware the wheels are slow, but even the way the policy on filing a complaint, if you call them, to make the complaint, the policy is they call you back in 24 hours. If you write a complaint, they contact you back in 5 days. If this was a pizza order, it would be blackened mold and tossed out by now. Not one time have I been contacted back by anyone connected to this. The last time I called, I was told, "you have your complaint number"? I said yes I do, "then someone will call you right back, have a nice day"....?!?!? So now Monday, again I will call, I may ask the person whom answers the call if I may record it and have them give me permission to record it. Geez, like being in a fiction drama, but there is no Phillip Marlow working for me! lol! Only John Dillinger!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

What about trying to get a story on the local news?

Well no news is very close to here....but I may write to the news station, maybe they would actually do something never know. I fear if I get too much more stressed out, I am the one that would be on the news! LOL!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

The Postal Inspectors are efficient, and are not araid of anyone or anything, most particularly the union. My firm had contracts with the USPS for many years, and worked in hundreds of Post Offices in several districts. If the inspectors find evidence of theft, heaven help the postal employee! The union will not protect them. I did notice, in those days, however quite a number of postal managers who would blame the union for their own management failures. Your postmaster may well have a political axe to grind. If he was actually trying to help, and if he was following procedure, he would al
Ready have directed you to the Postal Inspection Service.

Note that all large post offices and mail sorting centers heavily monitored by closed-circuit television, and these buildings also have hidden hallways with observation slots to allw the Postal Inspectors to observe un-detected. These inspection galleries even have exterior entrances so that even the local postmaster himself does not know if or when observation is taking place.

Now, the Postal Inspection Sevice is a bureaucracy, and its wheels grind slowly. They will not comment on ongoing ivestigations, and so once you've contacted them it soes seem as if you are taling to a stone wall, but they are investigating, I'm sure. Their wheels grind exceeding slow, but exceeding fine.

Are ypu in a large city? Which postal district are you in? We may still have the names of the appropriate person to which to escalate. The treatment that your wife received is, of course, absolutely unacceptable. Even without objective proof, a district manager will come down very hard on a Postamaster who is that rude to a customer. In addition, the Postal union officials are really upset at being the whipping boys for management problems, and will themselves come down hard on a carrier and postmaster .who blame the union for poor service.

PM me with your location, if you wish, and I'll try to find the names fo the folks that you must contact.

Thanks so very much!

 

[randooch]

Wow, what a sad tale, LMH! I hope you get resolution soon. Keep us posted and try not to stress out.

 

[Tango Yankee]

Geez, LMH, that's an amazingly horrible tale! I've always been vehemently supportive of the USPS. They've always delivered my packages safe and sound, whereas UPS, FedEx, and DHL have often been nightmares. I live in a rural area of southern Ohio. One of our carriers won't get out of the car to leave packages because of our dogs, but that's OK with me as the post office lets me ring the bell on their back door before they open to pick up packages. I feel lucky to have them, but I guess that your experience proves that there are bad apples in any business or organization. I hope it all works out for you, and please... don't let it get to you! When dealing with a bureaucracy your best weapons are patience and a pleasant demeanor, even when it hurts. (Trust me, I have to force myself to remember both when dealing with Hughes.net!)

Good luck, and take care.
Tom

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Postmaster General
United States Postal Service
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW
Washington DC 20260-0010

 

[sheeplady]

If you can, I'd get a P.O. Box in the meantime and have your deliveries sent there. That will at least clear up if it's the carrier or someone else in the post office. It's a hassle, but it's less of a hassle than having your stuff stolen.

Be aware that there may be repercussions for your actions. You might want to start using a different post office to send out mail- particularly critical mail like checks, depending upon who is doing the stealing. I know of one case where a group of people filed a complaint against a post master and this person held up mail for weeks of people she thought were involved (both mail coming in and mail going out). This resulted in a lot of late fees, etc. on bills. Or, if you don't want to use a different post office, at least use a blue box rather than the mail slot in the post office itself. And never rely on mail leaving your mailbox and getting someplace, particularly if it's the carrier.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

If you can, I'd get a P.O. Box in the meantime and have your deliveries sent there. That will at least clear up if it's the carrier or someone else in the post office. It's a hassle, but it's less of a hassle than having your stuff stolen.

Be aware that there may be repercussions for your actions. You might want to start using a different post office to send out mail- particularly critical mail like checks, depending upon who is doing the stealing. I know of one case where a group of people filed a complaint against a post master and this person held up mail for weeks of people she thought were involved (both mail coming in and mail going out). This resulted in a lot of late fees, etc. on bills. Or, if you don't want to use a different post office, at least use a blue box rather than the mail slot in the post office itself. And never rely on mail leaving your mailbox and getting someplace, particularly if it's the carrier.

Thank you, yes, we are already aware of what the postmaster or carriers can do regarding the mail being messed with more....but right now, I have to think of law, law enforcement and civil law. I am going to the police department and explain to them firmly to take a police report, and to not just tell me the postal office deals with postal crime. I have written to the Governor's office and the AG, and I filed another (maybe worthless) complaint to the postal inspectors office. This week I am placing an advertisement in the local paper asking anyone in this city of they have had any mail theft or loss to contact an email address. I will hope to gather up more complaints for the postal police to hear about, and also going to send that information to the AG and Governor's office.

It has been a long time since I have done any legal work, but, I can file a complaint, theft by conversion in court and add a violation of my civil rights and maybe gain something rewarding out of it.....(sigh).

I normally use the post office in Marshall and not Albion, as they are nicer, and have a larger window area to help customers out. Can you imagine the postmaster when I was talking to him refused to even give me his name? I found it out from a source online.....lol! Lawrence H. White is his name. "Larry the Cable guy"...lol! Geez, I am so worn from all this.....but to settle my nerves I had a shot, (just one....really....lol) of some not too fancy Scotch, some Lauders.....no ice, no soda...just in the glass and down the hatch! weeeee haaaw....just like a sip of NyQuil only poured through an old dirty sock! (eww...)....lol!

 

[stevew443]

A few years ago one of the pipe makers on a pipe forum I read had the same problem with packages being stolen. His solution was to set up a small web cam which monitored the area where the thefts were taking place and in no time he had enough evidence to show that the carrier was stealing the packages. As I recall, he was successful in his prosecution of the carrier.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

A few years ago one of the pipe makers on a pipe forum I read had the same problem with packages being stolen. His solution was to set up a small web cam which monitored the area where the thefts were taking place and in no time he had enough evidence to show that the carrier was stealing the packages. As I recall, he was successful in his prosecution of the carrier.

That is a good idea, however we do actually see the carrier walk to the mailbox near the front door, and from what we can tell, the theft takes place along the route before the carrier gets here or maybe after they come to deliver the mail.

There are a few Attorney(s) here in Michigan that have contacted me regarding this ordeal, but so far they do not view my "thinking" on what to do legally as far as a lawsuit. I more or less find that the entire way a Union is going to give protection to a postal worker (when their supervisor/postmaster wants to discipline or fire them) the they will do nothing against the worker until they have a number of verified complaints. The postmaster here in this city seems to be so evasive about what his workers do, I would not for a minute doubt that there are no records of things even being done, no reports, etc.

Several friends that we have living here have experienced theft and missing mail. They went through the same run around from the postmaster but did not take any other action. I feel if I can place an advertisement in the local papers, seeking anyone that has a similar problem to contact me, that a long list of "customer complaints" can be directed to any agency or government office that may have anything at all with legal investigations, you know, the state police, postal inspectors, governors office, AG's office, congressmans office, senators. And maybe a civil lawsuit in the court system. I am all for seeing the unions removed from Postal Workers being able to hide behind them. The State of Michigan has been financially ruined in part by the Unions overall. Prices of goods and manufactured items due to over paid union employees (some that play cards all day long) just does not sit too well with many in the government now, they recently passed a "rights to work" bill, making it so no one is going to be forced to join a union.

 

[sheeplady]

Thank you, yes, we are already aware of what the postmaster or carriers can do regarding the mail being messed with more....but right now, I have to think of law, law enforcement and civil law. I am going to the police department and explain to them firmly to take a police report, and to not just tell me the postal office deals with postal crime. I have written to the Governor's office and the AG, and I filed another (maybe worthless) complaint to the postal inspectors office. This week I am placing an advertisement in the local paper asking anyone in this city of they have had any mail theft or loss to contact an email address. I will hope to gather up more complaints for the postal police to hear about, and also going to send that information to the AG and Governor's office.

It has been a long time since I have done any legal work, but, I can file a complaint, theft by conversion in court and add a violation of my civil rights and maybe gain something rewarding out of it.....(sigh).

I normally use the post office in Marshall and not Albion, as they are nicer, and have a larger window area to help customers out. Can you imagine the postmaster when I was talking to him refused to even give me his name? I found it out from a source online.....lol! Lawrence H. White is his name. "Larry the Cable guy"...lol! Geez, I am so worn from all this.....but to settle my nerves I had a shot, (just one....really....lol) of some not too fancy Scotch, some Lauders.....no ice, no soda...just in the glass and down the hatch! weeeee haaaw....just like a sip of NyQuil only poured through an old dirty sock! (eww...)....lol!

I'm really kind of upset to hear that this has happened to someone else too. The post office in my hometown was exactly the same way, and I always hoped it was just them. One would think with the amount of money these individuals get paid in the U.S. (with federal benefits) they could act professional, but barring that, at least not act like children. In the case of my hometown post office, the post master was found to be stealing the mail, withholding the mail, etc. and all they did was make her retire early... so that we can pay for her years of stealing and she can sit home on her butt with free health insurance and cost of living adjustments to her retirement.

Someone else recommended contacting the news, I think at this point it would be a good idea. I don't know if you live in a one-party consent state, but if you do, I'd start recording your phone calls to this place if you haven't already. I think going to the police is necessary too.

It's a federal crime to mess with the mail unless you're a crooked postal worker apparently.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Here in California some years ago a group was gathering signatures to put a proposed ballot measure on the ballot. The thing was that they weren't receiving many of the petitions which were apparently "lost in the mail." It appeared that there were people who happened to work in the post office who disagreed with this proposed ballot measure which was controversial at the time and were throwing the petitions away. Finally, the group instructed the volunteers not to include the organization's name on the mailing address when sending in the petitions and the problem was solved.

 

[ThemThereEyes]

Wow, just wow! I am sorry that this is happening.
I agree with the others, definitely go to the news people with your story.
I do wonder if the post master is involved as was the one in Sheep Lady's situation. It immediately aroused my suspicion as he wouldn't give you his name and only the run around.
I do hope this gets resolved. Please take a breather. I understand it is beyond frustrating, but they are not worth you risking your health.
Best wishes,
Joanne.

 

[BladeOfAnduril]

I'm really sorry to hear of your troubles and the abuse your poor wife had to endure. Unfortunately I can't say that the situation surprises me. Of the shipments I've received over the years whenever I have had an issue, it's been with USPS. Packages not arriving when they are supposed to, tracking information rarely updated or incorrect... I despise dealing with them. I'm now quite willing to pay double on the shipping to have an item sent UPS. I do hope you find some remedy to your troubles.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

A Miracle happened today...and from the least expected place I contacted about this entire mess.

You see last Thursday evening, I wrote a very detailed letter to the Governor's office. You can tell I am not shy about writing a long post, so imagine a long letter from me! LOL! OH YES, bless all of you for your concern and suggestions..........

SO....I get a response from the Governor's office, his secretary wrote and told me that as I am a Veteran and have served my Country, that issues like this one hit home hard for everyone in my position in life. She promised me per the Governor, that he would take the time out to actually make the call to have this issue cleared up. Today, I get an email, from the same secretary around 9:45 a.m, (I was not on my computer looking at my inbox at yahoo....) but I am informed that I should have someone at my home today and to let them know if not? I am thinking what is that? They going to send some special agent from the Capital here? A SWAT team maybe? Someone from the Attorney Generals office? Nope. It was the "number two" person working at the local post office....and they said they are more than sorry for the things that have taken place, they were instructed to grab the carrier that is in question and tell him to find the last package missing and bring it to my home.....so the carrier was out in the car staying there....and I have my box....it had been opened and re taped closed, but the item inside was not used, everything in order there. SO...I was so shocked I about was in a daze, speechless.....then I get a phone call. It was from the Governor of Michigan. Really. I was in tears...so was my Wife. He said it was an honor for his office to help out a veteran. He asked me if there was anything else he could help us with to not hesitate to call him. And that he was in contact with the VA and requesting to them if there was anything medication wise missing to be sure I would have that.

I am still just sitting in my room at my work desk. Not much is going to happen now to top that. Things do happen good and that was what we have only wanted. I have no idea what will take place at the Post Office now, but I think I will not have many problems again. My Wife is going to purchase a nice thank you card and send it out.

As overwhelming as this was all for me, geez, I could only eat one burrito for dinner.