Complaint Review: United States Postal Service

at my post office in northern illinois we had a rural carrier signing for parcels and certified letters. he is not allowed to do this. he did it so he wrongly. We are not allowed to sign for anyones accountable mail. he was not arrested but almost lost his job. again it is against postal regulations for a carrier to sign for accountable mail. in rare cases where a letter is on file from the customer it is allowed. again as i stated, on rare occasions. i have done this one time for a customer that had deformed hands and couldnt sign. i signed my name.

The post office gets a the bum rap for mailings that are done perfectly. In this case, I'll inject immediately, it appears USPS blew it. The postal service is archaic and technology has left them in the dust. To compare USPS 'tracking' to other carriers is an insult to UPS and FedEx. USPS could see times changing with the internet, but disregarded it as they felt they had a monopoly on the industry. USPS is not a government organization. It is a privately owned corporation, just like UPS anf FedEx, that could have been managed better. That, however, is not the point here.

It's bizarre that the postal employees actually admitted a criminal act of forging signatures. Our mailman often preprints the information on the signature card, but never signs it. That obviously would defeat the whole purpose of a signature. The real problem lies in delivery confirmation and sinatures in that there is no proof of where it was delivered. The mailing can be delivered to the wrong address, a signature is scribbled on the card, and then USPS says it was delivered just fine. Yup....just fine, to the wrong address. But it got a signature! Still, it's not always the USPS fault. The common old school address on the package could have be written incorrectly (mistakes happen to the best of us) and it was delivered there.

I ordered an item through Ebay. After an extended period of time I contacted the seller as my purchase never arrived. The seller, with an attitude, replied with an ALL CAPS email stating that he has Delivery Confirmation that I had received it. Two days later, the manager of another business up the street from me hand delivered my package. It had been incorrectly delivered to them...they had signed for it. Delivery confirmed! Wonderful 'tracking' too, huh?

And I hate to be a pessimist, but there is noting you will be able to do for compensation. I've seen this USPS process attempted and failed many, many times. You can't sue a corporation like USPS for reasons that become obvious if you attempt to pursue it. It's frustrating, but another cliche' applies here. You got what you paid for.

And I've heard the comment, "Even if I don't pay insurance, the company should pay whatever the value is if it's lost. They should just do there job right or pay". That though is pure ignorance. If that were the case, a company would be expected to ship hundreds or even thousands of dollars for as low as what, a buck or two? That protocol is obviously impossible. Either the per piece rate would have to dramatically increase, or insurance needs to be optional per mailing to maintain low cost. Why can't a carrier just learn to do there job right? Because nothing in life is perfect, is it. Why can't all companies that manufacture electronics just do their job better? Then no one would need to bother with those warranty plans, right? Or, to stretch the analogy, why doesn't everyone just become purely honest and respectful of others. Just imagine all the money we would save on goods and services when no lock, key, theft deterent system, and law enforcement costs are eliminated.

Next time, pay for your insurance next time while understanding proper requirements to have any claim approved, or just drop it.

   If you don't insure the package, they are not going to pay for the contents.   I understand your anger at this alleged forgery, but what you are asking is for insurance coverage on an uninsured package.   That won't happen at UPS or Fedex either.  

   Assuming that the manager of your local post office is not going to go on record saying that he/she knows about and allows postal workers to forge signatures,  this will go nowhere in court.  Even if you could get him/her to admit to that, you'd then have to prove that the items were actually stolen.  Then you get to prove it was the postal worker.   It's really an uphill battle.    It's much easier just to insure packages that are valuable. 

Look in your phone book for the number of the Postal Inspector's office. They are federal agents, and believe me, they will get to the bottom of this for you.