Dear eBay Queen,

I’ve been having some issues with the United States Post Office, well, maybe it’s not the WHOLE United States Post Office, it might just be my local one. I take my packages into the local office almost every day. Sometimes I have 2 packages and sometimes I have 15 packages.  I wait in line, hand over my packages and they are scanned in by the person behind the counter. I smile, thank them and leave.  Yesterday I was in there and the new person at the counter.  She really upset me.  I handed over my packages and she weighed each one, DID NOT SCAN them and gave one back to me because it was 1/8 of an ounce off.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  I asked her if that 1/8 of an ounce was going to change the price and she said: “Why else would I be giving it back to you?”  I then asked her if she was going to scan the packages as accepted.  She told me no, and then said “NEXT”. 

By the time I got home, I was shaking. This makes me so angry.  Why would she not scan them? I decided to call the post office and I asked to speak to the post master.  The person that I spoke with told me that she was not the post master, but the supervisor in charge, AND she was the person that helped me. I could hear her gloating through the phone!  I asked to speak to her supervisor and she said; “It will not help.”  I hung up the phone, and cried. I have no idea what to do.  After I composed myself I called my neighbor, she told me to call the next town over’s post office.  I called and asked them what the policy was on scanning packages that already had postage on them.  They told me they were supposed to scan them right there at the counter, she then told me something that made my heart stop.

• If I put first class light envelopes with tracking into the mailbox out front or the drive up out back, they do not get scanned at my post office.  They may be scanned at the sort facility.
•  USPS first class shipping standards changed as of 1/1/15 and it is now 7-10 business days to deliver! All of my hand made goodies are sent first class!

What if my packages don’t get sent?  What if they are sent, but NEVER scanned?  What if this mean woman just let’s my packages sit for awhile to teach me a lesson?

CCT

Dear CCT:

Do we have the same post office, because I’ve had similar experiences with my own local office. When I have an issue like yours, and I have on several occasions, I simply call the USPS consumer complaint line 1-800-275-8777. If I feel there is employee misconduct, I contact the USPS Inspector General’s hot line, M-F 11:00am – 3:00pm EST 1-888-877-7644. Make sure that you ask them what the postal standards are for accepting packages over the counter and scanning.  I have had the same issues with my own post office weighing each package

I have heard the same thing about the shipping standards for first class mail going from 1-3 days to 7-10 days. There is a lot of talk about it on the USPS union site.  When I look at the USPS own website for their standards of service for first class mail it states 1-3 days deliver time still. https://www.usps.com/ship/first-class-mail.htm I’m not going to borrow trouble until they change the standards on their own website.

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