Everyday Canvas

USPS, What is Wrong with You?

Prompt:
How happy are you with your delivery services and post office? Are they on time or do they make mistakes? What would you do if you were delivered a large and heavy box of something that neither had your name or your address on it?

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Years ago, when our USPS mail was delivered between 1:30 to 2:00 PM sharp with no problems whatsoever, I used to leave gifts for the mail carrier in the mailbox. One day, she rang the doorbell to thank me and, lo and behold, we made friends. After that, almost each time she brought the mail, she'd bring it to the door and, although I did ask her in several times, we chatted for a while standing up because she couldn't leave the mail-car alone on the street. From her I learned that the mail vehicle like an open jeep was called LLV, short for The Grumman Long Life Vehicle. Unfortunately about four years ago, my favorite mail carrier retired right after Covid had become the issue.

As an aside, I don't know why and how all the rotten everything in my life started with the beginning of Covid, but they did. Coincidence maybe? Tell it to the people who are receiving any service that used to be so good and that has gone sooo bad!

After my favorite mail carrier retired, our mail service has been hit or miss. My mailbox is away from the house, and nowadays, the mail comes at any odd hour. This means I have to walk to the mailbox and back several times a day, on my bad leg. Then, some days, I get other people's mail, also.

Other people's mail, if they are my next-door neighbors, I take it to them myself. Or else, I put them back in the mailbox and lift the flag. The mail carrier, I hope, takes those to their owners, which makes me worry if I am missing any important mail, myself that was misdelivered to someone else.

As to package delivery services, Amazon is very good, but once in a while Amazon uses other carriers. Now, to be fair, UPS and FedEx are great, too. Yet, once in a while, they send something with USPS. Then, it is certainly trouble. Especially with the big boxes. Fair enough, all carriers bring the boxes to the door of the house and they don't leave them by the mailbox, including USPS.

Yet, during the last few months, I kept getting other people's boxes from USPS. Since I didn't want the boxes to get wet or stolen, I took them to the owners myself. This past Friday, again, USPS left a big box addressed to someone else on another street with a different name. The only thing common between my and the box's address was the house number. I'm now guessing that USPS is now hiring carriers who are illiterate and who only know how to read numbers. The box was sent by Amazon. I really hope Amazon would be so nice not to use USPS again. I can't leave such large-box deliveries by the mailbox which is away from the house for they could be rained on or stolen. Then what if the box was very heavy and large for me to even lift it?

So, Sunday morning, I took that box to its rightful owner several streets away. Luckily enough, the box was large but not heavy. What if it was too large to fit into my car or for me to lift it, what would I do! I couldn't find a number to call Amazon for it and neither any place on the Amazon's site to write about it. I guess I'd have to call the local USPS and try to hold myself from saying something nasty. Very Unfortunately! But I didn't, fearing some nasty USPS repercussions and results.