Argh! My mail carrier does this too.

Don't forget to get a video. An embarrassing video is often the fastest way to get results, particularly if you submit it to a local news station.

@FreemanB: now THAT would be perfect! no denying it when you can see her doing it, but now it comes down to timing...

That is just crazy.
Well first I would wait to see if it happens again. Chances are that even thought your post office didnt seem to care, they still talked to [redacted]

I agree with Meg though, get together with your neighbors and get a petition started.

I wish you all the luck in the world but you are asking the government and the post office in particular to care about something besides themselves. I just don't see this getting resolved properly.

One day I was working in the garage and the mail guy came to drop off our mail. He walks up, puts the mail in the box, then pulls a package out of his bag. He drops it onto the brick porch from at least 3' up. He walks off and I get my package. Luckily it wasn't anything breakable but...how hard is it to place it on the porch.

We've got a new mailman now and he's good about packages.

Since the item was damaged in shipment, you could sue them for the value, especially if you manage to get video taped proof this is standard behavior.

@fjordtjie: Maybe the OP could start making some small online purchases and lay in wait... ;)

The problem with Postal Workers is that they're federal employees. As such, it practically takes an act of Congress to get them fired!

Freeman's idea is a good one. If you can get this on your local news, that will probably take care of it.

Mail carriers hate vicious dogs. Just leave one tied up at the bottom of the stairs that will scare them and they will leave the packages by the door.

The local news station would probably be willing to set up hidden cameras for it, too. Maybe even a wearable one so the carrier's belligerence to you can also be caught on tape.

@FreemanB: That's Exactly what I would do.

If she comes around the same time every day I would take a video of her doing this using your phone or better yet a digital camera (of which almost all have decent video recording). Post it to YouTube and include the link in your correspondence with the Post Office and Inspector General.

Oh, and share it with us too, got to see that!

Here's what you do... Have your sister send you another package with something fragile, add insurance to the package (doesn't cost much). When the package is expected to arrive, have video cameras set up to record what happens to the package.

If the item is damaged, you file an insurance claim and include the video tape. Even if the package isn't damaged you send the video to the local post master, Inspector General, local news and YouTube.

What is it with these postal workers that think they can get away with something like this(which unfortunately seems to be the case most times)? Where I live we have community mailboxes. For whatever reason(s), our carrier would drive right up onto the grass area in front of the boxes, thereby ruining the grass. After repeated offenses, it eventually got to the point that the area in front of some boxes would be substantially flooded during a heavy storm. Several of us complained to the local office but of course the driver denied it.

Aside from that, we've had issues where the carrier decided to place a package, letter etc that didn't fit in the recipient's box in the package compartment but leave the door wide open instead of placing the key instead of the recipient's box like they are supposed to! In this age of rampant identity theft, that's totally unacceptable.

The real kicker was a broken door on one of the package boxes. It took them 18 months at least and countless complaints before they finally fixed it. While nice, the other package door is still left wide open instead of being locked by the carrier.

It's a real shame that we don't have choices aside from the USPS for regular mail. If we did, the competition would / could lead to some semblance of improvement with service.

Unfortunately this sort of treatment of packages isn't all that uncommon. I spent a few winters working as a drivers assistant for UPS (20-some-odd years ago now) and you'd see packages getting tossed around, crushed, etc. fairly regularly. UPS would hire a lot of temporary assistants to deal with the Christmas flood of packages. When I'd meet my driver in the morning the truck would be stuffed to the gills with packages, sometimes to the point of needing to kick one or two of them just to get the door closed. And sometimes in the middle of the day we'd meet up with another truck to transfer more packages between the two. If you think the packages were gently passed between the two trucks you should have your head checked. Just back the two trucks together and start tossing stuff between them.

Not only a hidden video, but make some shipments to yourself of somewhat fragile items. Ship them insured.

When you submit a damage claim AND video of the handling AND it costs the post office money, then you will possibly get some actual action.

Postal workers do get reasigned to different routes when there are problems and continuing complaints. Perhaps if others in your building won't speak up, other people in your area or neighborhood business will share in your dissatisfaction.

I'm going to agree with the "call the local news" comment. Government agencies HATE being on the local news for this type of stuff. I can imagine it would be twice as bad for them in an industry competing with an increasing amount of private outfits (UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc).

Plus they'll probably use their own hidden cameras so that's a cost you can skip :D

My girlfriend had a problem once with a carrier leaving her college text book package on the curb and it rained. We were only able to get someone's attention by being super persistent and not leaving them alone until they fixed the problem. Our carrier was nice though and it was an honest mistake...a $125 mistake but she paid for the package out of her own pocket.

I would call and hound that post office, get names, get numbers keep going up the ladder. After I had called repeatedly they just got irritated of talking to me so I started coming in until they finally did something. It took a week and a couple dozen calls but it got the job done. Also call the 1800 number and make a complaint. That seemed to light a fire under them. If they refuse you can simply take them to small claims court they are a business and can be sued.

Usually when sending an item worth over $100, people get insurance. For a grand total of $9.40, the iPod could have been sent priority mail with insurance covering up to $300. It's been my experience that unless your package is insured, the USPS won't do dick to help you out.

Funny this comes up now, just the other day I was waiting for a FedEx package and when I thought I heard the truck, I came to the door and peeked out the peephole only to see my package fly in with a "thud." It was a digital camera too...thank god it works.

In the city in which I live, there is one "main" post office, and several other "branch" post offices for the other zip codes in the city. Complaining to someone at the "branch" office for your zip code has no effect, but complaining the "main" post office tends to get things done.

Don't know if this necessarily applies to everywhere, but I can see this being the sort of thing that might be a pattern.

Just use pepper spray next time. Guaranteed she wont throw them up the stairs again. Be sure to video tape it with your cell phone and post it to youtube for all the other terrible mail carriers.

I like how our mail used to arrive in the morning but since we have some new guy I can put a bill in my mail box after I get off of work and it will still get picked up that same day.

You're not alone with the crazy mail carrier. Ours, in the past six months has:

1) Sat in front of our house honking the horn for several minutes at a time so we can COME OUT TO HER to get the package from the truck, instead of getting out of the truck and taking it to our door

2) Smashed a box in order to make it fit in my mailbox...I had to squash the box even further to get it back out of the mailbox.

3) "delivered" a package by setting it on the crossbar that holds both my neighbors and my mailbox (which is across the street from my house...so the box was just out by the street all day, in plain sight.

4) Left a "Sorry we missed you" slip instead of trying to deliver a package when I was home, WAITING FOR THE PACKAGE. I saw the truck stop at our box, then just drive off...when I got the mail it was the orange "missed delivery" slip, and I know she didn't even try to deliver it.

5) When #4 happened, I IMMEDIATELY called it into the post office and spoke with a "supervisor" who happened to be the same person answering phones. I told them that I indeed WAS home and they never tried to deliver the package, and asked them to send the mail carrier back, as I could still see her truck down the road. I was told that it's "Policy" that they are not allowed to send a truck back after it has already passed an address. I call BS on that one.

6) We get people's mail from the same address # but different street name about 5-6 times a year. When we took it to the post office and told them about it, they said WE WOULD HAVE TO PAY POSTAGE to get the parcel delivered to the right person.

Gotta love the USPS!

My advice is to call your local Post Office and inquire how to file a complaint with the U.S. Postal Inspectors. These people are responsible for investigating complaints like this.

The following is taken from the Postal Inspectors' website at [postalinspectors.uspis.gov]

Mail or Mailbox Destruction (18 USC 1705)
The Postal Inspection Service is committed to ensuring the safety of the nation's mail by securing letter boxes or other receptacles for U.S. Mail. To this end, Postal Inspectors aggressively pursue individuals who willfully or maliciously injure or destroy such receptacles.

Call the USPIS and let them deal with the mail carrier and the supervisor who don't seem to care that a federal crime is being committed.

holly crap I dated a girl named [redacted] and she was a FREAK she loved [redacted] and when I would [redacted]her in the [redacted]!! man those were fun times I wonder if it the same [redacted]???

;)

I forgot #7 - Our carrier also has left elongated packages sticking out of our mailbox with the door flipped all the way open.

I had success by contacting my Congresswoman's local (not the one in DC) office. Each office has someone dedicated to running interference with Federal entities. The Congresswoman's aide called the local post office and within days the problem was solved. She then called about three months later to check if things were still okay. And someone from the post office called regularly to check on progress.

Worth a try.

Didn't have time to read all the comments....

Call and speak to a Postal Inspector.
They are the law enforcement division of the USPS, screw dealing with managers and so on. The inspectors are like having the wrath of god come down on you if you are a mail person.

I had a mail person steal a lawn ornament from my house a few years ago. Talking to managers did jack. One phone call to an Postal Inspector, I had a check in my hand and the mail person fired within a month.

My favorite personal mail experience: I subscribe to Star (yes, I know, guilty pleasure) and once it came four days later than usual...

...with the crossword puzzle filled in.

One word: YouTube

They do have a complaint ticket that you can fill out and drop into the mail slot. Generate a paper trail starting with the ticket and work upwards, keeping a journal as you go.

An act of congress may not be enough to remove a federal employee from office, they tried that with my husband a few years back, we just laughed at them and he stayed in his position until he retired. Collects full benefits too!

C ya! Hillary C.

Write the inspector general.

@matt314159: We have a separate package deliverer and mail carrier. Our package deliverer did something like your #4 once.

My husband works at home, and sits at a computer about 15 feet from the front door. Someone knocked on the door, he stood up, walked across the room and opened the door to find a slip saying "sorry we missed you! Your package will be available for pick up at the post office tomorrow" and he could see the package deliverer driving away. So, she basically knocked on the door to leave us a note instead of waiting for someone to answer the door. If I had known about it before he went to pick up the package, I would have asked the post office to reimburse the amount spent on shipping, since they didn't even try to deliver it to our house.

@JN2: Not totally inaccurate. The local rural route carrier here was fired for plowing over a mailbox while delivering mail drunk. the Union forced USPS to givehim his job back.

federal government, nuff said.

good luck.

@wordsmithy: I think this would solve the minor problem (the mail carrier) but not the larger one- lazy, inept, unsupervised government employees. There are a lot of good ones out there- responsible people who give a damn. But they are overshadowed by the incompetent. DMV, post office, police. Services we depend on, yet are filled by the lowest member of society.

@matt314159:

Our old carrier pulled #4 on a continual basis and would even do it when we were out in the driveway and she could see us. I never complained to the post office, but we got a new carrier who doesn't do that but does #2 on occasion. I don't think you can ever win with the post office, but #4 is more annoying to me than #2, so I'm currently ahead (until they change our mailperson)

Although our current mail carrier is good, I had one stuff a book with an attached CD into our mailbox. He/she had to bend the book, thereby snapping the CD in half.

I was ripped off by an eBay "seller," having paid by postal money order. The postal inspectors were no help -- they never responded to my criminal complaint.

When living in Temecula, California, the mail carrier refused to comply with our official mail forwarding request. I complained to someone at the post office and was obliquely threatened with arrest for threatening a federal employee (the mail carrier). Thanks for nothing Temecula Post Office!

@JN2: Funniest thing I have read this week!

@katylostherart: YES!

Don't use USPS. Use a private company who has to compete to earn their profits and to stay around.

Just as a point of interest, I have a friend who is a Chicago area mail-carrier. She is getting her first raise in 8 years this Fall. It will amount to about $25.00 a week.

If our government can't even provide cost of living increases, is it a wonder why some of its employees are surly and unmotivated to do a good job?

That being said, this doesn't excuse this carrier's performance or the lack of responsivness to the OP's complaints.

A possible workaround: get the landlord to install postal boxes for all tenants on the ground floor of the building, eliminating the letter carrier's clear issues with having the climb stairs.

May not be feasible, but worth a try.

Wish UPS/DHL/FedEx had reasonable pricing for simple letter delivery. Or a new competitor would join the market. I think some healthy comeptition in this arena would go a long way.

@matt314159:

For #6, you should be able to put first-class mail not addressed to you back in the box with the flag up. It may help to put a note in indicating that it was delivered to you by mistake.

I love forwarding the USPS threads to my mother (a postmaster) and listening to her bitch about crappy employees. She's had good luck with her mail carriers, but it did take her almost a year to be able to fire a clerk who was stealing money orders. Go government!

I would absolutely contact the local news. The OP mentioned Raleigh (where I happen to live), and the local ABC affiliate has a rather good Troubleshooter segment. Email troubleshooter@abc11mail.com or call 919-688-4357 to get in touch with them.

Despite the fact that the USPS is quasi private, it's actually still a government bureaucracy where it's nearly impossible to fire employees, not matter how egregious their behavior may be.

Complaining simply will not work, I would find out her name and address and sue her personally in small claims court for the price of the iPod.