Long WWYD Advice Should I Be Upset?

[disneygirlatheart]

This is long so bear with me. Just looking for advice and wondering if I have a right to be so upset. Back up to the beginning, I have been without a job for a while now and for the last 5 years or so been a major seller on Ebay. We live in a very rural area 6 miles from the post office and town. Anyway, I have always had carrier pickup scheduled daily when I have packages going out and have never had any problems up until a few months ago. We have a long driveway that is gravel. Anyway fast forward to a few months ago. We received a new postal carrier for our route. At first we were getting notes about getting a new mail box a bigger one. We have a standard one. It does not matter what size box, most of my packages are 12x12x8 and would not go in the biggest box we could buy, if we had the money to buy one. I leave all my pickups in my garage for them to get and they in turn leave my packages in there. That keeps them out of the weather and from theives if there was any out here., Well, we would get a note everyday, we just ignored it at first. Well next the letters were coming about our own vehicles parked in our driveway. She would write, do not park these vehicles in the way of the driveway, because it is hard for me to turn around. That is the only place to park and there is ample room to turn around. You coul turn around a hige truck. Ups and Fedex delivers here and they do not have any trouble at all. My ds drives a low to the ground sports car, he is still living at home to save up for college, the other car is a mid size car. Anyway we make it up our driveway fine, so does our company a few times a week. She started leaving notes on our driveway next, it had to be fixed grated etc. Granted it is a little rough but we drive up and down it everyday no troubles, nor do our company have troubles when they come up the drive. She drives a 4 wheel drive jeep, I know she has no troubles making it up. The last straw was when she tore up one piece of our mail instead of driving up to the house she folded a cardboard box and crammed in in the box. One day she had so much crammed in there we almost tore up the box getting it out. That box could have been something important, breakable, etc. Anyway we went to the supervisor at the post office. He said no more notes and he would take care of her. They know me by name I spend upwards of 500.00 a week shipping out packages with them. They did not want to lose my business so he stated. Everything was fine for a month, fast forward to a week ago. The supervisor called from post office and said they would not deliver nor pick up anything else until our driveway was fixed. He said we could leave it at a neighbors to be picked up. We did one day and she got out complaning at the neighbor that she was not getting out of the car because of their dog, granted I do not blame her there. I would not either, so I can not do that anymore. Plus the neighbors do not want to mess with my stuff, I do not blame them, We are not the only people having trouble either. There have been lots of other complaints. Why did our old carrier never have problems? She does not want to drive up and get them from our house is what it boils down too. Ebay helps us be able to eat since I am without a job and pay some small bills otherwise we would be on the street right now. That is my job where picking up the mail is hers. My dh asked to be called by the head postmaster from 1 hour away, we have not received the call yet. I do not know if the supervisor relayed the message or not. When she picked up those packages at the neighbors, she left one for me and carried 4 back to the post office so we would have to come get them.She does little stuff like that all the time because she is mad we went to her superviser. On top of being unemployed, I recently had surgery, then an accident and have been on recovery since then. My dh and ds both work midnights. We can not get to the post office and deliver or pick up everyday. That is a long way to go every single day when they come right to out house and we do not have the extra gas money to go to town daily. What should we do? My customers are depending on me to ship their stuff, and if I get a bad rating on Ebay I will be finished selling through no fault of my own. I have had to put them off the last few days because she will not pick up. We do not have the money for anymore gravel for the driveway and because it is winter it is frozen and in the best shape it has been in in a long time. Pleae no bashign from the carriers, I know you have a hard job. One of my friends is a carrier and she tells me how her days delivering are. Is this postal carrier just being a pain or am I wrong for being so upset? We do everything we can to help her out and she just keeps finding something else to complain about. Any and all advice. Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[Mickey Fliers]

I would love to help...but I need paragraphs.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Just my opinion:
If the supervisor has looked at the house and drive and fees it does not meet what is needed to pick up and deliver from teh garage I thin you have to deal with that. You probably jsut got really lucky with a carrier who was willing to go above and beyond what is required to do the job.

You asked for advice: mine is to state on ebay taht you mail out on two certain days of the week and the ndeive to the PO yourself to mail boxes on those two adys. It seems a lot cheaper and easier than what you are doing now. (you could even have your son "eaarn his keep" by doing this in his sports car)

 

[Planogirl]

Why not use UPS only? Do they pick up?

 

[dis-happy]

Can you just get a UPS account and have them do the pick up/drop offs instead?

 

[Ceila]

This is long so bear with me. Just looking for advice and wondering if I have a right to be so upset. Back up to the beginning, I have been without a job for a while now and for the last 5 years or so been a major seller on Ebay. We live in a very rural area 6 miles from the post office and town. Anyway, I have always had carrier pickup scheduled daily when I have packages going out and have never had any problems up until a few months ago. We have a long driveway that is gravel. Anyway fast forward to a few months ago. We received a new postal carrier for our route. At first we were getting notes about getting a new mail box a bigger one. We have a standard one. It does not matter what size box, most of my packages are 12x12x8 and would not go in the biggest box we could buy, if we had the money to buy one. I leave all my pickups in my garage for them to get and they in turn leave my packages in there. That keeps them out of the weather and from theives if there was any out here., Well, we would get a note everyday, we just ignored it at first. Well next the letters were coming about our own vehicles parked in our driveway. She would write, do not park these vehicles in the way of the driveway, because it is hard for me to turn around. That is the only place to park and there is ample room to turn around. You coul turn around a hige truck. Ups and Fedex delivers here and they do not have any trouble at all. My ds drives a low to the ground sports car, he is still living at home to save up for college, the other car is a mid size car. Anyway we make it up our driveway fine, so does our company a few times a week. She started leaving notes on our driveway next, it had to be fixed grated etc. Granted it is a little rough but we drive up and down it everyday no troubles, nor do our company have troubles when they come up the drive. She drives a 4 wheel drive jeep, I know she has no troubles making it up. The last straw was when she tore up one piece of our mail instead of driving up to the house she folded a cardboard box and crammed in in the box. One day she had so much crammed in there we almost tore up the box getting it out. That box could have been something important, breakable, etc. Anyway we went to the supervisor at the post office. He said no more notes and he would take care of her. They know me by name I spend upwards of 500.00 a week shipping out packages with them. They did not want to lose my business so he stated. Everything was fine for a month, fast forward to a week ago. The supervisor called from post office and said they would not deliver nor pick up anything else until our driveway was fixed. He said we could leave it at a neighbors to be picked up. We did one day and she got out complaning at the neighbor that she was not getting out of the car because of their dog, granted I do not blame her there. I would not either, so I can not do that anymore. Plus the neighbors do not want to mess with my stuff, I do not blame them, We are not the only people having trouble either. There have been lots of other complaints. Why did our old carrier never have problems? She does not want to drive up and get them from our house is what it boils down too. Ebay helps us be able to eat since I am without a job and pay some small bills otherwise we would be on the street right now. That is my job where picking up the mail is hers. My dh asked to be called by the head postmaster from 1 hour away, we have not received the call yet. I do not know if the supervisor relayed the message or not. When she picked up those packages at the neighbors, she left one for me and carried 4 back to the post office so we would have to come get them.She does little stuff like that all the time because she is mad we went to her superviser. On top of being unemployed, I recently had surgery, then an accident and have been on recovery since then. My dh and ds both work midnights. We can not get to the post office and deliver or pick up everyday. That is a long way to go every single day when they come right to out house and we do not have the extra gas money to go to town daily. What should we do? My customers are depending on me to ship their stuff, and if I get a bad rating on Ebay I will be finished selling through no fault of my own. I have had to put them off the last few days because she will not pick up. We do not have the money for anymore gravel for the driveway and because it is winter it is frozen and in the best shape it has been in in a long time. Pleae no bashign from the carriers, I know you have a hard job. One of my friends is a carrier and she tells me how her days delivering are. Is this postal carrier just being a pain or am I wrong for being so upset? We do everything we can to help her out and she just keeps finding something else to complain about. Any and all advice. Thanks for letting me vent.

First, please use paragraphs next time. That was difficult to read through.

Second, I would go to the post office web site and look up the regulations for receiving and sending mail. What your former letter carrier did really has no bearing on this. If the post office is correct and you need to make changes in order to receive your packages, then you will need to do so or make other shipping arrangements. If they are asking you to do something that is not specified in post office regulations, you should look into filing a complaint.

 

[allison443]

Am I understanding correctly:

Your mailbox is at the end of your driveway at the road?

You frequently send and receive packages that do not fit in the mailbox that you currently have.

Your prior carrier would pick up and drop off packages in your garage, by driving up the driveway to your house.

You now have a new carrier who doesn't want to do this.

She says you should get a mailbox at the roadway that is large enough to accomodate the packages you are sending out, and if you want her to drive up your driveway then your driveway needs to be empty and paved, not rough gravel.

Are there rules about mail delivery as far as whether they are supposed to leave things in your mailbox as opposed to entering your garage? Was the prior carrier doing this as a favor to you, and now the new carrier wants to go by the rules?

I will say I never heard of a mail carrier entering into someone's home or garage to pick up and drop off packages....

Have you checked if using UPS would be a viable option?

 

[Mermaid02]

They have those really big mailboxes you could get.

I do sympathize though- we had one mail lady who was a pain. She complained about our dog barking at her and said she wouldn't deliver anymore, um the dog is in THE HOUSE. Then she complained that there were bees in the hydrangea bush.... yes, stay out of our 100 year old hydrangea bushes. We had to go to her boss and he sided with us on both issues.

 

[dis-happy]

I will say I never heard of a mail carrier entering into someone's home or garage to pick up and drop off packages....

In my neighborhood the letter carriers bring packages up to the house. But it's not a super long driveway either, which sounds like what the OP has.

I believe the carrier doesn't like the extra time it takes to go all the way up, get out, turn around, etc. And though there is room to turn around by the OP's account, it might make the carrier nervous. My friend who works for the post office is always really paranoid about having an accident in a work vehicle---apparently it counts you quite a bit and can you fired.

That said, what if you get a rubbermaid bench with a lid that opens to place by your mailbox. Then packages can be left and picked up without a lot of fuss and everyone is happy.

Otherwise, get a UPS or FedEx account.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

I have had a similar experience with mail carriers. There is nothing wrong with our driveway. It is paved, but long. We had a great mail carrier who always came to the door with packages.

Then we got a new carrier. She was so rude. She would pull in the driveway, and lay on the horn until I went out to her car to get the package. She would NEVER get out of her car for any reason. (We don't have a dog or anything.) Half the time, I wasn't fast enough for her, and by the time I got out there she was already 1/2 way up our long driveway. She would leave a note in the mailbox that we weren't home. She would also shove too large packages in the mailbox, or she would hang them in a plastic bag from the flag which was bent from the weight. She also left our neighbors mail in our box at least once per week.

I never did complain about her. I worried that would just make things worse, but after about a year we got a new carrier. He is great. He brings everything right to the door. He is always friendly. We have had him for about 3 years, and I hope he never leaves!

 

[allison443]

In my neighborhood the letter carriers bring packages up to the house. But it's not a super long driveway either, which sounds like what the OP has.

I believe the carrier doesn't like the extra time it takes to go all the way up, get out, turn around, etc. And though there is room to turn around by the OP's account, it might make the carrier nervous. My friend who works for the post office is always really paranoid about having an accident in a work vehicle---apparently it counts you quite a bit and can you fired.

That said, what if you get a rubbermaid bench with a lid that opens to place by your mailbox. Then packages can be left and picked up without a lot of fuss and everyone is happy.

Otherwise, get a UPS or FedEx account.

In my town, our mailboxes are attached to the house, right next to the front door. So the mail carrier definitely brings all my mail, including packages, right to my door.

But that's different than going inside someone's garage, kwim?

 

[lovesmurfs]

This is long so bear with me. Just looking for advice and wondering if I have a right to be so upset.

Back up to the beginning, I have been without a job for a while now and for the last 5 years or so been a major seller on Ebay. We live in a very rural area 6 miles from the post office and town.

Anyway, I have always had carrier pickup scheduled daily when I have packages going out and have never had any problems up until a few months ago. We have a long driveway that is gravel.

Anyway fast forward to a few months ago. We received a new postal carrier for our route. At first we were getting notes about getting a new mail box a bigger one. We have a standard one. It does not matter what size box, most of my packages are 12x12x8 and would not go in the biggest box we could buy, if we had the money to buy one. I leave all my pickups in my garage for them to get and they in turn leave my packages in there. That keeps them out of the weather and from theives if there was any out here.,

Well, we would get a note everyday, we just ignored it at first. Well next the letters were coming about our own vehicles parked in our driveway. She would write, do not park these vehicles in the way of the driveway, because it is hard for me to turn around. That is the only place to park and there is ample room to turn around. You coul turn around a hige truck. Ups and Fedex delivers here and they do not have any trouble at all. My ds drives a low to the ground sports car, he is still living at home to save up for college, the other car is a mid size car. Anyway we make it up our driveway fine, so does our company a few times a week. She started leaving notes on our driveway next, it had to be fixed grated etc. Granted it is a little rough but we drive up and down it everyday no troubles, nor do our company have troubles when they come up the drive. She drives a 4 wheel drive jeep, I know she has no troubles making it up.

The last straw was when she tore up one piece of our mail instead of driving up to the house she folded a cardboard box and crammed in in the box. One day she had so much crammed in there we almost tore up the box getting it out. That box could have been something important, breakable, etc.

Anyway we went to the supervisor at the post office. He said no more notes and he would take care of her. They know me by name I spend upwards of 500.00 a week shipping out packages with them. They did not want to lose my business so he stated. Everything was fine for a month, fast forward to a week ago. The supervisor called from post office and said they would not deliver nor pick up anything else until our driveway was fixed.

He said we could leave it at a neighbors to be picked up. We did one day and she got out complaning at the neighbor that she was not getting out of the car because of their dog, granted I do not blame her there. I would not either, so I can not do that anymore. Plus the neighbors do not want to mess with my stuff, I do not blame them,

We are not the only people having trouble either. There have been lots of other complaints. Why did our old carrier never have problems? She does not want to drive up and get them from our house is what it boils down too. Ebay helps us be able to eat since I am without a job and pay some small bills otherwise we would be on the street right now. That is my job where picking up the mail is hers.

My dh asked to be called by the head postmaster from 1 hour away, we have not received the call yet. I do not know if the supervisor relayed the message or not. When she picked up those packages at the neighbors, she left one for me and carried 4 back to the post office so we would have to come get them.She does little stuff like that all the time because she is mad we went to her superviser. On top of being unemployed, I recently had surgery, then an accident and have been on recovery since then. My dh and ds both work midnights. We can not get to the post office and deliver or pick up everyday. That is a long way to go every single day when they come right to out house and we do not have the extra gas money to go to town daily.

What should we do? My customers are depending on me to ship their stuff, and if I get a bad rating on Ebay I will be finished selling through no fault of my own. I have had to put them off the last few days because she will not pick up. We do not have the money for anymore gravel for the driveway and because it is winter it is frozen and in the best shape it has been in in a long time. Pleae no bashign from the carriers, I know you have a hard job. One of my friends is a carrier and she tells me how her days delivering are.

Is this postal carrier just being a pain or am I wrong for being so upset? We do everything we can to help her out and she just keeps finding something else to complain about. Any and all advice. Thanks for letting me vent.

Thought the paragraphs would help. If it was me, I'd go ahead and start budgeting for a new mailbox. It'll ensure you have the parcels picked up and delivered as you need. You also don't want to have any trouble with the Post Office regarding operating a business from a residence...

 

[Mickeypooh99]

In my neighborhood the letter carriers bring packages up to the house. But it's not a super long driveway either, which sounds like what the OP has.

I believe the carrier doesn't like the extra time it takes to go all the way up, get out, turn around, etc. And though there is room to turn around by the OP's account, it might make the carrier nervous. My friend who works for the post office is always really paranoid about having an accident in a work vehicle---apparently it counts you quite a bit and can you fired.

That said, what if you get a rubbermaid bench with a lid that opens to place by your mailbox. Then packages can be left and picked up without a lot of fuss and everyone is happy.

Otherwise, get a UPS or FedEx account.

I don't know where OP lives, but in our rural area mail carriers drive their own cars not a work vehicle.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

This is long so bear with me. Just looking for advice and wondering if I have a right to be so upset.

Back up to the beginning, I have been without a job for a while now and for the last 5 years or so been a major seller on Ebay.

We live in a very rural area 6 miles from the post office and town. Anyway, I have always had carrier pickup scheduled daily when I have packages going out and have never had any problems up until a few months ago.

We have a long driveway that is gravel. Anyway fast forward to a few months ago. We received a new postal carrier for our route. At first we were getting notes about getting a new mail box a bigger one. We have a standard one. It does not matter what size box, most of my packages are 12x12x8 and would not go in the biggest box we could buy, if we had the money to buy one.

I leave all my pickups in my garage for them to get and they in turn leave my packages in there. That keeps them out of the weather and from thieves if there was any out here.

Well, we would get a note everyday, we just ignored it at first. Well next the letters were coming about our own vehicles parked in our driveway. She would write, do not park these vehicles in the way of the driveway, because it is hard for me to turn around.

That is the only place to park and there is ample room to turn around. You could turn around a huge truck. UPS and FedEx delivers here and they do not have any trouble at all.

My ds drives a low to the ground sports car, he is still living at home to save up for college, the other car is a mid size car. Anyway we make it up our driveway fine, so does our company a few times a week.

She started leaving notes on our driveway next, it had to be fixed graded etc. Granted it is a little rough but we drive up and down it everyday no troubles, nor do our company have troubles when they come up the drive.

She drives a 4 wheel drive jeep, I know she has no troubles making it up. The last straw was when she tore up one piece of our mail instead of driving up to the house she folded a cardboard box and crammed in in the box.

One day she had so much crammed in there we almost tore up the box getting it out. That box could have been something important, breakable, etc. Anyway we went to the supervisor at the post office. He said no more notes and he would take care of her.

They know me by name I spend upwards of 500.00 a week shipping out packages with them. They did not want to lose my business so he stated. Everything was fine for a month, fast forward to a week ago.

The supervisor called from post office and said they would not deliver nor pick up anything else until our driveway was fixed. He said we could leave it at a neighbors to be picked up.

We did one day and she got out complainng at the neighbor that she was not getting out of the car because of their dog, granted I do not blame her there. I would not either, so I can not do that anymore. Plus the neighbors do not want to mess with my stuff, I do not blame them.

We are not the only people having trouble either. There have been lots of other complaints. Why did our old carrier never have problems? She does not want to drive up and get them from our house is what it boils down too.

Ebay helps us be able to eat since I am without a job and pay some small bills otherwise we would be on the street right now. That is my job where picking up the mail is hers.

My dh asked to be called by the head postmaster from 1 hour away, we have not received the call yet. I do not know if the supervisor relayed the message or not. When she picked up those packages at the neighbors, she left one for me and carried 4 back to the post office so we would have to come get them.

She does little stuff like that all the time because she is mad we went to her superviser.

On top of being unemployed, I recently had surgery, then an accident and have been on recovery since then. My dh and ds both work midnights. We can not get to the post office and deliver or pick up everyday.

That is a long way to go every single day when they come right to out house and we do not have the extra gas money to go to town daily. What should we do?

My customers are depending on me to ship their stuff, and if I get a bad rating on Ebay I will be finished selling through no fault of my own.

I have had to put them off the last few days because she will not pick up.

We do not have the money for anymore gravel for the driveway and because it is winter it is frozen and in the best shape it has been in in a long time. Pleae no bashing from the carriers, I know you have a hard job. One of my friends is a carrier and she tells me how her days delivering are. Is this postal carrier just being a pain or am I wrong for being so upset? We do everything we can to help her out and she just keeps finding something else to complain about. Any and all advice. Thanks for letting me vent.

(I tried to fix your post so it was easier to read.)

Well, what are the rules of the Post Office? I have never heard of a postal worker going into someone's garage to get packages.

Is your garage open? Not sure how the postal person is getting into your garage? Not sure if that is even legal?

I know I would not want to do that as a postal carrier. She could be accused of stealing from you. Not a risk I would be willing to take.

You need to look up the postal rules and then if you do not like them you need to go into town and get your packages.

If you don't like that solution you need to fix your driveway.

If you cannot do that you need to go with someone else.

In other words, YOU need to come up with a workable solution for yourself in order to save your business.

I say pick up at the post office daily until you get your driveway fixed. You do not want to lose your business.

 

[dis-happy]

In my town, our mailboxes are attached to the house, right next to the front door. So the mail carrier definitely brings all my mail, including packages, right to my door.

But that's different than going inside someone's garage, kwim?

I kind of assumed the garage door was open and the packages were placed right inside the door and out of any weather. I've had UPS deliver to my garage door before (we have a side entry garage).


One time I was in my kitchen with friends and the next thing I knew a FedEx guy was opening the door of my sunroom porch which is attached to the back of the house. Hope he learned his lesson when I screamed! He never even rang the front doorbell. Very strange.

 

[Darcy03231]

I'd go with a UPS or FedEx account. I do ebay and ship everything either UPS or FedEx Ground. I've found not only is it less expensive than the post office, the packages are treated better, for the most part insurance is included and the people are much nicer!

I'd then send you postmaster a nice note telling him that you won't be using the post office to ship anymore as they don't meet your shipping needs.

 

[java]

Our mailperson won't pick up boxes. We have to go the post office- and it's about 8 miles away.

If you can just get a larger mailbox and solve the problem that's the route I would take.

We just bought a new mailbox at Home Depot (we got the regular one for $14- the large one was around $50-- seems like a small price to pay to avoid the conflict)

 

[princesshannahsmom]

I would love to help...but I need paragraphs.

Nothing more. Just WOW.

 

[dis-happy]

Can you even leave large packages in a mailbox for pick-up anymore? I thought that was one of the 9/11 changes---packages over a certain size had to be handed over to a carrier or counter person directly......

A new mailbox might not even solve the problem.

 

[undertheradar]

Since the USPS is so busy "trying" to keep customers, I would contact the Postmaster General. I would expect to receive the specific regulation pertaining to driveways and the requirement that they be paved. We used to live on a cul-de-sac and the mail carrier would leave us notes in our box that cars parked near the box prohibited her from delivering our mail(only her note would be in the box). I phoned our local delivery office and was informed that USPS vehicles are not required to back up, thus each carrier followed different procedures. Since cars parked by my mailbox belonged to other residences, I could not control the parking. After several complaints and sending contact to the Postmaster General, it was determined that USPS vehicles could indeed use reverse and our mail would be delivered to our box. While our carrier was not happy, we did not have further problems.

I would complain much higher up the chain of command.