Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe testified this morning before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, giving senators the bad news that the Postal Service will only have enough cash on hand next month to cover around five days worth of expenses. [More]
USPS
Greeting Card Industry Wants To Save USPS From Itself, More Rate Hikes
By 9.6.13
The greeting card industry has a vested interest in the survival of the United States Postal Service. We might use a private first-class mail delivery service to send cards if the USPS cut back on service or disappeared, but probably wouldn’t. That’s why they, along with the magazine and catalog industries, say that another rate hike isn’t the solution. [More]
Someone Please Send Man That Check He’s Expecting So He Stops Chasing Mail Carriers
By 8.23.13
The difference between a dog running after the mail carrier and a human hounding the same worker is that we, as a species, have the power of higher reasoning. A dog isn’t going after a mail carrier because he or she didn’t bring an expected piece of mail as dogs operate on instinct and also because dogs don’t usually get mail. The point is: It’s not your mail carrier’s fault if that check hasn’t arrived yet, so use the human power of logic and chill out. [More]
“Return To Sender” Less Likely If USPS Lets Customers Ship Booze Through The Mail
By 8.2.13
Sex sells, or so they say, but because that’s a bit trickier to ship through the mail, the United States Postal Service is instead looking to turn to booze as a moneymaker. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said he’s hoping to start delivering alcoholic beverages through the mail as a way to raise up to $50 million a year for the struggling USPS. [More]
Are These The Final Days Of Door-To-Door USPS Deliveries?
By 7.23.13
Inscribed above the entry to the James Farley Post Office in Manhattan are the famous words, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” But you’ll notice that this unofficial postal carrier creed doesn’t specify that your mail will actually be brought to your door. [More]
Forget The NSA’s Hi-Tech Snooping, The USPS Has Been Scanning Our Mail For Years
By 7.3.13
Many people are upset — and with good reason — with the National Security Administration’s concerted and secretive efforts to obtain wireless and Internet data about a wide range of users, but what many people don’t know is that the U.S. Postal Service has been scanning the outside of every piece of mail it processes and making that information available to law enforcement without a warrant. [More]
USPS Gets Express Mail Package To Post Office At 11:45, Says ‘Good Enough’
By 6.18.13
U.S. Postal Service Express Mail carries a guarantee: your package will arrive by noon the next day after it’s accepted at the post office, depending on what time you hand it over to a clerk in person. Okay. The problem, as Consumerist readers have learned, comes in when your package arrives late and you actually try to cash in this guarantee. [More]
eBay Seller Out $1,300 And Laptop Because USPS Insists Blank Box Is Actually A Signature
By 6.13.13
A woman in California recently sold a laptop computer of hers on eBay for $1,300, but it never arrived at the buyer’s house. The seller had paid the U.S. Postal Service for insurance and delivery confirmation on the package, so she should be able to get her money back and see who signed for the package. Not quite. [More]
When UPS Teams Up With USPS, Your Package Magically Travels To 29 States And Back-And-Forth Through Time
By 6.6.13
Consumerist Reader Jocelyn went online today to check on the shipping status of her Shutterfly order, only to find that UPS and the U.S. Postal Service had managed to fold space and time, somehow sending her package to 78 different locations in 29 states (and Washington, D.C.), all while going back and forth through time. [More]
US Postal Service Ships Cover, Forgets My Magazine
By 6.3.13
Thom’s copy of The Economist got separated from its cover. That’s very sad. We have to give the Post Office an A+ for effort, though: they made sure he received evidence that there was ann Economist that week. They delivered the least useful part of the magazine, because that’s the part that had his address printed on it. [More]
USPS Grants Saturday Mail Delivery A Stay Of Execution After All
By 4.10.13
Break out the high fives and order the cake — the United States Postal Service says it won’t be killing off Saturday mail delivery. At least, it’s not going to do that anytime soon. The agency had threatened to stop the service out of budgetary concerns, the main concern being that it doesn’t have much cash. [More]
Is The USPS More Likely To Lose Boxes Emblazoned With The Word ‘Atheist’?
By 3.27.13
Here’s something odd. Would you think that packages would get lost more or less often according to the brand on the box or the words on their packaging? That shouldn’t be the case. A German company that sells handmade, minimalist shoes, did a cool branding thing and uses tape with the company’s name printed on it to seal their shipping boxes. That company’s name? “Atheist.” They noticed that a lot of packages sent to the United States were significantly delayed, and wondered why that was. So they conducted an experiment. That experiment proved that if you want a package to get lost, brand it with the word “ATHEIST.” [More]
Apparently My Mailman Doesn’t Feel The Slot Marked “Letters” Works For Delivering Mail
By 3.20.13
Kristin has lived in her L.A. apartment for five years, but as long as she’s lived there she’s never been confronted with the kind of sassiness she’s just been confronted with on the part of the United States Postal Service. She tells Consumerist her apartment is part of a four-plex with no locked lobby, and her door has a clearly marked, obviously quite old mail slot marked “letters.” What could possibly go in there? [More]
UPS SurePost Gets Package To My Door Four Days Late, Smushed
By 3.12.13
“There’s a reason the USPS is going bankrupt, and it’s because of their shoddy customer service,” read a subject line in our tips mailbox. Jeremy’s package, shipped UPS, got handed off to the U.S. Postal Service, and at some point things went very wrong. UPS SurePost is that company’s answer to FedEx SmartPost: a service that uses the private companies’ systems to get packages from the sender to sort of near their destinations, then depends on the U.S. Postal Service to travel the last leg to your doorstep. [More]
Netflix: Actually, We Mailed Reader Three Different DVDs, And They All Broke
By 3.5.13
Last week, we published the story of Michael, who ordered a documentary from Netflix and wasn’t able to get a non-broken copy. The two relevant parties, Netflix and the band that was the subject of the documentary, saw our post and reached out to Michael through Consumerist. [More]
Former Postal Workers Plead Guilty To Stealing $3.5 Million In Refund And Benefit Checks
March 1, 2013
Just in case you needed another reason to switch to direct-deposit, a pair of former postal workers have pleaded guilty to swiping more than $3.5 million in tax refund and benefit checks while employed at a USPS distribution center in Atlanta. (via AJC.com) [More]
USPS Hasn’t Paid Insurance Claim After 14 Months, Says “Investigations Take Time”
By 2.27.13
It can take months or years of investigation to bring a criminal matter to trial, and complicated insurance matters can often drag on for extended periods of time without resolution. But does the U.S. Postal Service really need more than a year to pay a $30 insurance claim? [More]
U.S. Postal Service Promises Express Mail Money-Back Guarantee, Won’t Give It To Me
By 2.22.13
The U.S. Postal service guarantees delivery on Express Mail packages, but what does that guarantee really mean? Danny sent an Express Mail package that he claims was well within the rules: he ordered the postage through PayPal, but handed it to a clerk at the post office before the deadline. The problem is that since he bought the postage online, his local post office is resisting giving the refund. [More]
