Mail Carriers

[kmmcrafts]

Long story as short as possible, LOL.. 

About 3 years ago my mail carrier retired, wonderful lady that would stop by just to see if I had any packages even though I never once scheduled for pick-up. I realize she went above and beyond for her job.. She must have liked her job and the people on the route.

New mail carrier started out on a bad note ( not with me but as a whole ). Younger blonde ( no offence to you blondes out there but those blonde jokes she fits perfectly ).. If I had a package that wouldn't fit the mail box she'd leave it on the concrete slab / porch outside the door. If I had letters too she'd put them on the slab and then put the box on top of them.. nice when it's not raining but there is a couple low spots in the slab that have small puddle.. and she'd do that even in the rain. I never complained but many of the neighbors did.. most times I'm here and catch the mail before it got too wet anyway. 

So my mail box used to be about a 1/16 mile down to my neighbors drive where there is 3 boxes all on one stop. I live in a very rural area and the only cars that pass by is neighbors. I used to sometimes fill a garbage sack with packages and hang them on the mail box for pick-up.. New mail carrier complained about it and suggested a larger mail box and left me a brochure of large mail box choices. Over a couple week period I had a couple more orders and did the same while I researched those larger mail boxes and so she refused to take them and just left another note about the larger box. So I did.. I got the largest box available and moved my box away from the others to be right out front where I can always see it from my shop. I think that made her made to have to a new stop, In my defense I've wanted to do that for years... even before the business..  LOL

Last year I happen to have met her at the box as I was taking a package out there and I had about 8 small mailers with ornament in the box already. She was kind of huffin and puffin about having to scan all those packages.. I asked her if she could do the bulk order scan with the handheld tool they use.. old mail carrier said no but they was getting a new one that would so that is why I asked her.. as you can print a bar code for all your packages and they only have to scan it instead of each package. So I left it at that.. 

Yesterday she left a note and some bags and asked me to put my packages in the bags.. Seems weird to me because she needs to "scan " each package at pick-up point for acceptance.. so in my mind she'd have to take them out of the bag to scan them then rebag? 

She is always in a hurry and about 60% of the time she throws mail in the box and takes off to the next box not even shutting the doors on the boxes.. raining, windy etc. doesn't matter..

She should be thankful I don't require / ask for daily pick-up from my shop.. then she'd have to drive up to the shop get out and come in to get my daily packages.. she gets about 40% of my packaged orders.. 60% of the time I take a trip to the counter.. this time of year anyway as there is way to many.. I've read where they can send out a special car for pick-up.. believe it's about a $120 daily fee though.. but I'm not certain of that..  

Sorry for the bit of rant.. now my question is.. How would you go about resolving any issues? 

[preprius]

Put a duplicate set of stickers on the bags.  Or use clear bags that the scanner can go through.

She can bulk scan the bag, grab and go. 

Also my normal guy does not work everyday.  So ask the off day  person for other solutions.  I had to tell the off day lady, that my mail box has a magnet door.  She told me that saves her a lot of time.  My point is I communicated with her.

Each person has there preference.  My normal guy comes up in the house with small boxes. The off day lady will now use magnet door to put small boxes in.

If my garage is open, My normal guy wants to see what im building and chats almost every day. One day he told me of a neighbor around the corner has leather sewing machine that save me 3 days of manual sewing. .  He walks up to me, while he hands me the letters, no boxes, he chats.  My garage is 17 steps away from my garage.  He honks and waves if he is too busy or sees that I am on conference call.

So 3rd smart a** solution make her come to the shop.  Move the mailbox closer to your shop.  

My intent of smart a** answers is to generate new ideas and from others readers also.

 

Me.

Mark Eason

 

 

 

[BadBob]

I would start by calling your local postmaster. A postmaster or postmistress is the head of an individual post office responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office.

I am having a similar issue. My mail carrier retired last year, and I have been having issues ever since. Packages are not being picked up sometimes when they are in the box. Packages not being scanned. Scheduled pickups not happening. I have to leave a note in the box to get the scheduled pickups done. If I don't leave the note, I have about a 50% chance of getting the package picked up. Right now I seem to have random mail carriers.

I like the bag idea, but it would likely disappear before I could walk back to the house. There is lots of traffic on my street.

[Roberta Moreton]

I just take my stuff to the Post Office.  I trust no one.  I take it, I know it was sent.

[BadBob]

5 minutes ago, preprius said:

If my garage is open, My normal guy wants to see what im building and chats almost every day. One day he told me of a neighbor around the corner has leather sewing machine that save me 3 days of manual sewing. .  He walks up to me, while he hands me the letters, no boxes, he chats.  My garage is 17 steps away from my garage.  He honks and waves if he is too busy or sees that I am on conference call.

Sounds a lot like my retired mail carrier. People in the neighborhood liked him a lot. Once, he told me that he was running late because one neighbor had made lunch for him.

[BadBob]

2 minutes ago, Roberta Moreton said:

I just take my stuff to the Post Office.  I trust no one.  I take it, I know it was sent.

I did that for a long time because I passed two post offices on my way home from work. After I retired from my day job, I stopped going to the post office. It takes at least an hour or longer if the lines are long. It's expensive. My post office is near me, and I figure it costs me $5 to take a package to the post office.

 

[kmmcrafts]

49 minutes ago, preprius said:

Put a duplicate set of stickers on the bags.  Or use clear bags that the scanner can go through.

She can bulk scan the bag, grab and go. 

Also my normal guy does not work everyday.  So ask the off day  person for other solutions.  I had to tell the off day lady, that my mail box has a magnet door.  She told me that saves her a lot of time.  My point is I communicated with her.

Each person has there preference.  My normal guy comes up in the house with small boxes. The off day lady will now use magnet door to put small boxes in.

If my garage is open, My normal guy wants to see what im building and chats almost every day. One day he told me of a neighbor around the corner has leather sewing machine that save me 3 days of manual sewing. .  He walks up to me, while he hands me the letters, no boxes, he chats.  My garage is 17 steps away from my garage.  He honks and waves if he is too busy or sees that I am on conference call.

So 3rd smart a** solution make her come to the shop.  Move the mailbox closer to your shop.  

My intent of smart a** answers is to generate new ideas and from others readers also.

 

Me.

Mark Eason

 

 

 

Yeah, I also have another mail lady.. I think they rotate routes because on days that the normal lady isn't in my area I've seen her out in another location.. so I do think they rotate sometimes. I've never had any issues with the other carriers.. 

I have met her out there several times asking if there are things I can do to help ease up / make her job easier.. she doesn't seem to be talkative or want to.. maybe she doesn't have any idea what would make things easier.. I don't know. She does cut any conversation short and sort of has a snarky response / comments etc.. and in my mind she hates her job and just tries to get through the day as quick and easy as she can.. not friendly at all.. while I don't expect them to come have a cup of coffee and sit and chat but.. she just acts as though she hates everyone doesn't want to be delivering mail etc. etc. I know they're busy this time of year and so am I.. and many other people.. 

I've often thought about leaving a $50 tip and a thank you note for all the extra work I put her through.. but to me she seems like the kind of person that would complain about it only being a $50 tip, give her $100.. she'd still complain about it.. acts as though she shouldn't have to work at all to be paid.. LOL.. I might try it anyway but she just doesn't seem to be a happy, friendly person.. that wants to work, LOL 

[kmmcrafts]

7 hours ago, BadBob said:

I would start by calling your local postmaster. A postmaster or postmistress is the head of an individual post office responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office.

I am having a similar issue. My mail carrier retired last year, and I have been having issues ever since. Packages are not being picked up sometimes when they are in the box. Packages not being scanned. Scheduled pickups not happening. I have to leave a note in the box to get the scheduled pickups done. If I don't leave the note, I have about a 50% chance of getting the package picked up. Right now I seem to have random mail carriers.

I like the bag idea, but it would likely disappear before I could walk back to the house. There is lots of traffic on my street.

The bag idea worked well for me for years.. until this new lady started complaining.. and the new bigger box is awesome.. It can hold a 12 x 12 x 6 box with room for a couple mailers.. I mostly use mailers 6 x 9 size and can fit around 14 in the mail box.. and I do that quite often this time of year.. If I have more than can fit in the box I make a run to the P/O and don't put anything in the mail box.. Mondays as an example.. weekends are busy with sales and also mail don't go on Sunday.. my mail lady usually goes in the morning so I have most of the day Saturday and all day Sunday's orders that have to go on Monday.. 

When I used to put things in a bag she complained about the bags being scented.. My wife buys scented garbage bags I guess.. They wasn't for her to keep, LOL.. The old mail person would take the items from the bag and stuff the bag back in the mailbox, LOL  As I said.. I'm not sure I could do anything right for this newer mail lady.. 

I think I'm going to have to do a mailing of etsy items every other day and print a scan sheet.. I just don't think two days worth will even fit in the mailbox.. then other days I'll mail amazon orders.. I'm not quite sure how to or even if the scan sheets can be done on Amazon.. I have to keep them separated someway if I do scan sheets.. I don't understand why she would want me to bag my mailers before stuffing them in the mail box.. Other than she's going to not scan them and just grab the bag and go..  The post  office is 11 mile or 22 mile round trip.. takes about an hour of the day to make the run as the distance plus it's a small town and small P/O.. Two parking spots unless I feel like walking a half block.. Sometimes I have two - three big bins full of packages to carry so even if they aren't busy I still have to make 3 trips to the car.. Really irks me when a person get's out of their car ( young person.. Handycap I could understand ) getting out of the car in the closest spot with only a letter to take into the P/O.. while I'm carrying 3 big bins a half block, LOL 

I don't know what's entailed in getting a FedEx or UPS to do pick-ups.. but I might check into it.. customer might have to pay more for shipping but somethings going to have to change.. I'll first try to work things out with the P/O but I don't have a good feeling of what the outcome will be.. 

[dgman]

I don’t know how to solve your problem, but I always make a nice gift for my mail carrier for the holidays. I certainly don’t send out as many packages as you do but my carrier always takes care of me!

[kmmcrafts]

2 hours ago, dgman said:

I don’t know how to solve your problem, but I always make a nice gift for my mail carrier for the holidays. I certainly don’t send out as many packages as you do but my carrier always takes care of me!

Yeah I always make an ornament for them each holiday season.. It's not much but it's something to show them that I acknowledge their work etc. Maybe ornaments aren't their thing.. some people don't celebrate the holidays.. as I've said.. I'm not sure I could make or do anything that she'd appreciate, LOL.. She's been doing this for longer than I originally thought.. I think it's been 4-5 years now.. and only the last couple years she has kinda gotten this way.. and getting worst as more time goes.. Maybe its the volume of sales that has picked up for me year over year and she's getting burnt out on her job etc..   

[dgman]

55 minutes ago, kmmcrafts said:

Yeah I always make an ornament for them each holiday season.. It's not much but it's something to show them that I acknowledge their work etc. Maybe ornaments aren't their thing.. some people don't celebrate the holidays.. as I've said.. I'm not sure I could make or do anything that she'd appreciate, LOL.. She's been doing this for longer than I originally thought.. I think it's been 4-5 years now.. and only the last couple years she has kinda gotten this way.. and getting worst as more time goes.. Maybe its the volume of sales that has picked up for me year over year and she's getting burnt out on her job etc..   

so maybe something a little nicer than just an ornament. A mail carrier clock or plaque. A $40 value gift that you made especially for her might change her attitude!

[munzieb]

Over the years I have had some great mail people. After a few years, they rotate to a new route so I make them a Sue Mey, scrowlsawartist.com plaque of a mail truck with their name on it. Wife painted it.  The rural mail carriers have an association and one of my carriers asked if I could make one for their annual meeting and auction it off for a charity. It brought in $200!!! Not sure if it will fix your problem but it may be worth a try.