So here’s why we need a complete overhaul of government–not just the people, not just the party, but a brand new direction because we’re headed to hell in a handbasket.
Why’s the U.S. Postal Service going the way of the dinosaur? Because of this:
For a package sent via mail to Washington D.C., Tuesday, December 11th, a check on the Track Your Package site gives me this:
Delivery status information is not available for your item via this web site.
Another package sent same day, same post office (and the folks there are great–it’s not them) to Spain:
Status: Acceptance
Your item was accepted at 9:37 AM on December 11, 2007 in BURLINGTON, CT 06013. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.
In the other direction, a package mailed out to me PRIORITY MAIL from Seattle, WA on Thursday, December 13th, gets this:
There is no record of this item.
I love the "Information, if available, is updated every evening." I count five evenings since they accepted the package with no change in status. I strongly suspect that they don’t have a crew working the computers after the whistle blows at 4:30 p.m. They may have lots of people working, but they’re busy scanning packages for bombs or holding up boxes wrapped in other than brown kraft paper.
I’ve tracked packages through UPS, Fedex, DHL, to name a few and it gives me a good idea where the stuff is and where it’s headed and when I can expect it. Most of the time, by the time the USPS site has any information available online, the package has already been delivered. And here’s where they’re failing miserably: They don’t get the technology. If you can’t keep up with it, don’t offer it.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
This is very true.
I have just started with the postal service and in my office when someone we receive packages to deliver to our customers we have a scanner that you use to update the information for the public. First, they scan as arrived at unit then attempted or if you are putting it in a locker for the customer to pick up with a key left for them in their box then scan as delivered. Now if the label on your parcel on top of the barcode reads e or evs then we scan as e/evs arrival at unit then arrived at unit then delivered if leaving it in parcel locker or mail box. If it’s to be signed for then that is totally different. It will then be pretty much the same but not scanned as delivered until it’s signed for and the signature is scanned. We do all this in the morning when we receive it off the truck. Before I open and then after closing,the scanner transmits all the information to be updated. I hope this was a little more helpful! If no record was found I would first guess that something was no properly done as far as who sent the package out or maybe it was lost in the mail. I don’t know why the information wasn’t updated that is messed up. I’d be mad too! I don’t know what may have happened in your situation I’d have to have a little more info. on the packages such as if they were sent to be signed for, were they sent with like delivery or signature confirmation….If so the confirmation paper that was put on the parcel should have been scanned when paying for the shipping and saved into the system at that post office and if it was correctly done then maybe this is why there is no information. I would also be upset if that was incorrectly done because you pay extra and rely on the postal service to get this task complete.
Also, I agree on this going the way of the dino. You wouldn’t believe how they just throw you in to start working and don’t hardly teach you anything about how to send parcels and letters and etc. I have had it rough teaching myself how to do my job and not having been familiar with the different ways to send items it can be very hard to learn. I think the postal service should teach the employees how the office runs totally before leaving them alone after a day or two to figure it out for themselves when mail is very, very important to have sent correctly. If we can’t rely on the postal service to do this correctly then what???? I have seen some crazy things while having this job that are hard to believe they can actually get away with doing but that’s are government for you.
Thank you, Crystal, for your concern and the information you offer here. I guess since they’re all Christmas gifts I’ll find out shortly if they’ve been received.
I don’t mean to single out the Post Office as incompetent; Lord knows the DMV has been the leader in that department for years.