I realize there are other threads in the past few months about this, but it has gotten worse.

In the past month:

• I have at least three documented incidents of mail sent from across town to my PO Box where the letters have disappeared.
• In other cases, mail is postmarked over a week ago before it appears, when cross-town mail used to come in one day.
• A package my wife was tracking made it to Bryan and then sat there for five days before it was delivered.
• My kids summer camp packets were mailed from the camp on June 26. One arrived Thursday the 2nd, the other arrived yesterday, Wednesday the 8th. (Four days after camp started.)

I realize the mail is going to Houston now, but it should not take a week to come back. I have spoken with some local postal employees who not only acknowledge the problem, but say they don't even mail their OWN bills anymore - they pay everything online. In fact there are other stories that I will not relate here, but suffice to day - it's bad and getting worse.

So just so you know - if you are sending something that you actually want to get there, find another way than the U.S. Mail.

Yep, I hate USPS. I'd pay an extra fee if Amazon prime would never use them to ship my packages.

Ironically, Prime packages always seem to arrive on time. I guess they know if the screw up the two day delivery, Amazon will not be happy.

I love my carrier. She is contract and goes above and beyond to service me from the point she gets the mail to delivery and pick up. Issues for this route are within USPS and their subs. When our regular was gone for two days the first being Friday the sub did not even stop at our box. The next day I heard the vehicle pull up and busted the sub putting a pick up ticket in my box without trying to deliver. She was really POd, had difficulty finding the certified mail and made me sign both docs. It should have been delivered the day prior when she did not stop.

Like I said, I love my regular carrier. Our neighborhood is fortunate to have her and our stellar UPS driver.

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I love my carrier. She is contract and goes above and beyond...

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Our contract carrier skips days, leaves the mailbox open in the rain, will hang onto packages a day or two after they show "delivered." The neighborhood has complained but USPS doesn't care.

Actually going to the post office is the worst. The amount of disregard for even trying to act like the workers care is staggering. I've never worked a job where so few F***s could be given and I used to work for the government! On the other side of the coin, it does look like a solid "don't care" retirement job.

Our mail system is really pretty cool if you stop and think about it. (Although that doesn't help much if you are waiting on a package).
FedEx and UPS combined process 25 million packages a day. That's a lot! The US Postal Service processes 554 million pieces of mail a day. That is even more than a lot! Those figures are from 2012 and I haven't looked to see if they are sourced the same, but there is a lot of shipping going on for sure.

One advantage that the shipping companies have is that they only deliver to an address when they have a package in hand. But your friendly (or not) carrier drives or walks down your street six days a week in case you have something to pick up. One could argue this is inefficient or one could argue this is a blessing to the homebound.

I think I recall reading once that the shipping companies and places like Amazon contract with the USPS because the USPS has the infrastructure needed to get the packages delivered on time. ( there is some debate about whether the USPS is charging these companies enough, but the details of their contract are privileged). If the USPS folded our shipping costs would rise. Good for some businesses, but it might be a rough adjustment period. While a lot of correspondence can be handled electronically, there are some things that still must be sent through the post, and suddenly, getting that vital bit of mail to Sun Valley, Idaho or some tiny town in Michigan or rural Texas might be tricky...and expensive. While that is in alignment with a small government perspective, it would certainly be the end of a long and colorful history in America.

What is really amazing is despite the stories here, how often these entities get it right when there are so many places for it to go wrong. At least when your fast food order is messed up, you can take it back to the restaurant. It can be a lot more difficult to do with mail that has sometimes traveled around the globe before landing on your front porch.

Sorry for rambling...

Edit-spelling.

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Our mail system is really pretty cool if you stop and think about it. (Although that doesn't help much if you are waiting on a package).
FedEx and UPS combined process 25 million packages a day. That's a lot! The US Postal Service processes 554 million pieces of mail a day. That is even more than a lot! Those figures are from 2012 and I haven't looked to see if they are sourced the same, but there is a lot of shipping going on for sure.

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I don't have any issues but I might check my mail once every 2 weeks. If I order something it's usually fedex or UPS.

I guess I am lucky that my day does not revolve around when and if the mail is delivered

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It does not directly receive taxpayer dollars 'with the exception of subsidies for costs associated with disabled and overseas voters.'

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WASHINGTON The U.S. Postal Service ended the June 30, 2014, quarter with a net loss of

$2.0 billion, compared to a net loss of $740 million for the same period last year. The Postal Service has recorded a loss in 21 of the last 23 quarters, the excepted quarters being the two in which Congress rescheduled the Retiree Health Benefits prefunding payments.

So if they don't get taxpayer dollars, where do they make up the loss every quarter?

My mailbox contains 95% SPAM. It is far worse than my email.

It is interesting to see that SPAM is illegal when it does not fund the government.

They could probably run a lot more smoothly if they eliminated junk mail. My carrier at my apartment laughs because I take it out of the box, go through it to see if there's anything important, then toss it right there in the trash can that's provided for this reason . He doesn't like it any more than we do.

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I placed an order on a Friday that was supposed to arrive on Sunday, and it was checked as delivered to my address on Sunday according to Amazon tracking...but wasn't delivered until Monday.

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That's when you give amazon a call, and let them know. If you pay for prime, they almost go overboard with customer service in a good way. In the past, when items don't show up when they said they would (or at all), they would either give me amazon credit, or ship it again overnight.

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It does not directly receive taxpayer dollars 'with the exception of subsidies for costs associated with disabled and overseas voters.'

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WASHINGTON The U.S. Postal Service ended the June 30, 2014, quarter with a net loss of

$2.0 billion, compared to a net loss of $740 million for the same period last year. The Postal Service has recorded a loss in 21 of the last 23 quarters, the excepted quarters being the two in which Congress rescheduled the Retiree Health Benefits prefunding payments.

So if they don't get taxpayer dollars, where do they make up the loss every quarter?

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sounds like the USPS needs to sell 2 more iced teas per hour