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Wow... Delivery service, in general, sucks. UPS is the best, with USPS a close second... Until they decided they could increase revenue by increasing delivery times (?). Fed ex can bite me. They have some sort of error in their addressing software that auto corrects my address to a house about 3 blocks away. Often, when I have something coming FedEx, I need to call the shipper and tell them to check and change it. Almost never works.

Most recently, I ordered something from Amazon, through a third party seller. Got my notice that it was shipping and as per the usual, they were shipping to the wrong address. I contacted Amazon, made contact with the seller, told them they could send a new one to the correct address, or just call FedEx and correct the issue. They did neither, and processed a refund.

Guess what showed up yesterday?
 
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Mike_H said:
Wow... Delivery service, in general, sucks. UPS is the best, with USPS a close second... Until they decided they could increase revenue by increasing delivery times (?). Fed ex can bite me. They have some sort of error in their addressing software that auto corrects my address to a house about 3 blocks away. Often, when I have something coming FedEx, I need to call the shipper and tell them to check and change it. Almost never works.

Most recently, I ordered something from Amazon, through a third party seller. Got my notice that it was shipping and as per the usual, they were shipping to the wrong address. I contacted Amazon, made contact with the seller, told them they could send a new one to the correct address, or just call FedEx and correct the issue. They did neither, and processed a refund.

Guess what showed up yesterday?
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Free stuff?
 
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Pour a drink, this is long.

I had my first porch pirate experience about a month ago, two bags of whole bean coffee ordered from Walmart and ‘delivered’ by FedEx were nowhere to be found. I contacted them & they removed the charge immediately of course, but it got me to thinking about the direction we’re going in a broader sense.

I started hearing the term ‘gig economy’ some time ago, didn’t really know (or care) what it meant, actually thought it was something to do with tech. Then I looked it up. Anyway, I’ve noticed what I’m sure everyone else has noticed over the past years, which grew exponentially during the covid era, an ever steadily increasing inundation of gig workers all over the place, and in particular, driving through my neighborhood delivering everything from lawnmowers to cheeseburgers to tubes of toothpaste & everything in between. A Toyota Corolla whizzes by with someone staring at their gps inside, it pulls in your neighbor’s driveway & out pops someone carrying a box or bag, they run up to the door & hang in on the handle & they’re gone just as fast…

From the beginning of time until very recently the only cars I’d see in my neighborhood were my neighbors, the mailman & maybe a UPS truck once a day, and occasionally a visitor or contractor working on someone’s house.

Now? These unknown cars often with out-of-state tags are circling seemingly 24/7.

I walk a few miles daily, first walk is very early, anywhere from 4am to 6am, and I sometimes see these cars during those hours making deliveries. It’s a bit unnerving, having this going on. I have zero against the gig worker him/herself, people out there working hard, probably many of them second jobs that can be accomplished between hours of their other jobs/school/kids/family situations. In fact I have nothing but respect for them because unlike so many of their contemporaries they’re actually out there hustling & making their own money rather than awaiting handouts from the comfort & safety of their couches as they cry like babies about how evil America makes it impossible for them to succeed. That’s a different discussion.

The problem is the door of opportunity this new-age economy has opened up for the scumbag thieves that can now blend right in. Time was when you saw that strange car on your street it stood out, you might pay attention to it, that reality was something of a deterrent & I think it made things more difficult for lowlifes. Now? It all looks ‘normal’ because we’re seeing it every day. When that Toyota drives by & someone jumps out I don’t pay enough attention to have any idea whether he is delivering or stealing something.

Thefts are on the rise everywhere, I don’t see any end in sight.

Where is it going? Perhaps we’ll come full circle and go back to the store to buy things once again rather than taking the chance of having our shit thieved, I don’t know. Perhaps we’ll all have to install giant iron lock boxes next to our mailboxes for deliveries? How much longer will merchants be able to eat these losses? How many people will turn into thieves themselves by claiming their delivery was not received when in fact it was? I see nothing but a bigger and bigger mess ahead for all of us.
 
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Westtown Willy said:
Where is it going? Perhaps we’ll come full circle and go back to the store to buy things once again rather than taking the chance of having our shit thieved, I don’t know. Perhaps we’ll all have to install giant iron lock boxes next to our mailboxes for deliveries? How much longer will merchants be able to eat these losses? How many people will turn into thieves themselves by claiming their delivery was not received when in fact it was? I see nothing but a bigger and bigger mess ahead for all of us.
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I posted on here about our theft of a big brake kit. We covered it and got another out to the customer with only a day delay at most. Now everything that is put out to be picked up is behind a gate that you can't see through. Aside from that, if our stuff is out of sight from the street, the chance of pilferage is next to zero.

I'm on a few local FB pages and the number one topic of discussion is stolen USPS mail. The thieves know when important items are delivered and run down a long row of mail boxes and help themselves. The conversation is the same every time. They want to Postmaster to stop the thefts because it is a Federal crime. They want cameras put up to watch the boxes. They want the boxes moved out of the rows to in front of their homes. (rural delivery)

My answer before it finally dawned on me that it was a complete waste of time was to get a reasonably secure mailbox. When we first moved here, the row of boxes up the street got hit and all the discarded mail that the thieves didn't want was just tossed on the ground. The next day I had a secure locking steel mail box ordered and set a post for it. We have not had a single item of USPS letter and small package mail stolen. My questions for the bitchy bits of the group were always the same. Do you lock up your house, your garage, your bike in public, your car or any other thing that is important to you? If you lock that up, why is your mail any different? Get a secure locking mail box. The push back on that suggestion was astounding. The logic is basic and simple, not sure why they ignore it other than they want to bitch and someone else has to fix it for them.

UPS now has package theft of the porch pirate variety protection for us. I've not delved into the nuts and bolts of it much but it shows up from my rep once a week or so in my email.
 
mrblaine said:
I posted on here about our theft of a big brake kit. We covered it and got another out to the customer with only a day delay at most. Now everything that is put out to be picked up is behind a gate that you can't see through. Aside from that, if our stuff is out of sight from the street, the chance of pilferage is next to zero.

I'm on a few local FB pages and the number one topic of discussion is stolen USPS mail. The thieves know when important items are delivered and run down a long row of mail boxes and help themselves. The conversation is the same every time. They want to Postmaster to stop the thefts because it is a Federal crime. They want cameras put up to watch the boxes. They want the boxes moved out of the rows to in front of their homes. (rural delivery)

My answer before it finally dawned on me that it was a complete waste of time was to get a reasonably secure mailbox. When we first moved here, the row of boxes up the street got hit and all the discarded mail that the thieves didn't want was just tossed on the ground. The next day I had a secure locking steel mail box ordered and set a post for it. We have not had a single item of USPS letter and small package mail stolen. My questions for the bitchy bits of the group were always the same. Do you lock up your house, your garage, your bike in public, your car or any other thing that is important to you? If you lock that up, why is your mail any different? Get a secure locking mail box. The push back on that suggestion was astounding. The logic is basic and simple, not sure why they ignore it other than they want to bitch and someone else has to fix it for them.

UPS now has package theft of the porch pirate variety protection for us. I've not delved into the nuts and bolts of it much but it shows up from my rep once a week or so in my email.
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USPS has considered doing this in a LOT of rural delivery areas where there are rows of boxes, but the feedback from the majority of consumers was not in favor of that as a solution because the USPS will not cover the cost.

I have 2 patrons that have actual lock boxes (not mail boxes) that I use from November 1st through May 31st because I don't deliver out the road that goes to their primary addresses between those dates. So they have to cover the 20 mile round trip to get their mail in the winter months.

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reddvltj said:
USPS has considered doing this in a LOT of rural delivery areas where there are rows of boxes, but the feedback from the majority of consumers was not in favor of that as a solution because the USPS will not cover the cost.

I have 2 patrons that have actual lock boxes (not mail boxes) that I use from November 1st through May 31st because I don't deliver out the road that goes to their primary addresses between those dates. So they have to cover the 20 mile round trip to get their mail in the winter months.

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Where I am, we have had those boxes for 30+ years. They started with one set, then expanded to three as people subdivided their acreage. USPS paid for them and installed them. There was a crash that took one of them out a few years ago, we had to go to the post office for a few days, but USPS replaced them.
 
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randy328 said:
Where I am, we have had those boxes for 30+ years. They started with one set, then expanded to three as people subdivided their acreage. USPS paid for them and installed them. Had a crash take one of them out a few years ago, had to go to the post office for a few days, but USPS replaced them.
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Interesting, that's not what they told the people on one of the contract routes here... There in might be the distinction too, Are you on a Highway Contract Route, or a USPS regular route.
 
randy328 said:
Where I am, we have had those boxes for 30+ years. They started with one set, then expanded to three as people subdivided their acreage. USPS paid for them and installed them. There was a crash that took one of them out a few years ago, we had to go to the post office for a few days, but USPS replaced them.
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In any newish suburb of Denver these are just par for the course. They’re also common on the hard to reach routes (like at the bottom of a neighborhood set up the foothills).
 
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randy328 said:
I'm on a regular route, that's probably why we got it.
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Could very well be. It's hard enough being this remote just to keep post offices open, hence the reason there are so many contract routes instead of regular routes... Gotta admit I'd love to make USPS employee wages and have their benefits for the route I do, not to mention have them provide my equipment. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
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rasband said:
In any newish suburb of Denver these are just par for the course. They’re also common on the hard to reach routes (like at the bottom of a neighborhood set up the foothills).
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They're becoming much more prevalent in new construction areas all over the US, it's much more efficient to have the carrier drive to one spot and just fill boxes... Less possibility of vehicular incidents, less possibility of animal interaction incidents, and a small fraction of the time since you don't have to stop at multiple boxes. (I have one stop that has 5 boxes together (the one with the 2 lock boxes incidentally) and I can stuff all the boxes easily within the 1 minute USPS allots for each mail box from inside my truck.)
 
While we're on the subject of USPS boxes, whatever happened to the large blue dropboxes that used to be everywhere?
 
reddvltj said:
They're becoming much more prevalent in new construction areas all over the US, it's much more efficient to have the carrier drive to one spot and just fill boxes... Less possibility of vehicular incidents, less possibility of animal interaction incidents, and a small fraction of the time since you don't have to stop at multiple boxes. (I have one stop that has 5 boxes together (the one with the 2 lock boxes incidentally) and I can stuff all the boxes easily within the 1 minute USPS allots for each mail box from inside my truck.)
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It’s certainly a big gain for efficiency. I sometimes get jealous of my siblings that live downtown and get to have conversations and know the person that delivers their Mail. But I also work at home, so I’m always looking for ways to be social.
 
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Zorba said:
While we're on the subject of USPS boxes, whatever happened to the large blue dropboxes that used to be everywhere?
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There's still one by pretty much every post office in this part of Idaho (Central and Eastern). I can't speak for other places because generally when I leave my little slice of paradise I'm going out on a fire in another state.
 
reddvltj said:
There's still one by pretty much every post office in this part of Idaho (Central and Eastern). I can't speak for other places because generally when I leave my little slice of paradise I'm going out on a fire in another state.
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Yea - they're at the post offices - but nowhere else. There used to be one on just about every street corner. The residential area I lived in in the 1980s had two of them, then they suddenly were taken out and never re-appeared and I don't see them elsewhere either...
 
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Zorba said:
While we're on the subject of USPS boxes, whatever happened to the large blue dropboxes that used to be everywhere?
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I’d bet the decrease correlates to the increase in junk mail. I get my mail once a week anymore and maybe get 1/20 pieces that matter to me. For the once in a long while I need to mail anything (only recent thing was my ballot) I can run the 10 minutes to the one near me.

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Package that was "apparently left in a safe place" according to delivery driver when we complained so sent them the CCTV footage for an apology
 

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reddvltj said:
Along with being out of context your comment makes no sense.

FedEx decided to not renew their contract with Amazon regardless of how many packages they shipped because Amazon didn't want to agree to FedEx's deal.

My point was it doesn't matter how many items you ship, you don't always get things your way. If you want things delivered a certain way and the shipper does not offer those assurances your best option is to play nice with the local delivery driver or service.
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Boeing tried that shit by low balling and taking lowest bidder, now we have 787’s that have about half of their service life and a 737 max that just wasn’t safe, but hey, the ceo got a golden parachute 🪂
 
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