USPS = U.S. PROCRASTINATION/PILFERING SERVICE

Warning - use the Post Office at your own risk - even with insurance and tracking numbers.

Packages may or may not be delivered and may or may not be reimbursed if insured. The process for insurance claims is almost as bad as health insurance! The form is lengthy and confusing. One is required to provide proof of the value of the item either in the form of a purchase receipt or an appraisal! That's fine if the item has just been newly purchased, and the shipper still has the receipt. If the item was purchased at a sale price, that's what you'll get back - IF you get anything. If the item is no longer available and is not easily appraised (i.e., the teapot my sister sent me), then TOUGH! No proof of value - no $.

Sour grapes, you say? Well, let's see. Not really. I have been able to document no fewer than four packages with tracking numbers that were SCANNED AT THE LOCAL POST OFFICE FOR DELIVERY that never arrived. They are still showing as "ready for pick-up." Numerous calls to the PO branch, Customer Service (that's a joke), and even complaints filed with the Postal Inspectors (whose job it is to inspect the e-mail and then assign it a case number and forget about it) have yielded the same response - "We can't find it." Try searching the pockets and back-packs of a few of your employees.

When our local mail carriers are on vacation, good luck! The routes are covered by anyone who has finished his/her route for the day and wants to pick up some overtime. Mail is often delivered to the wrong address (it is hard to match house numbers with the address on the envelope!) or simply taken back to the Post Office for someone else to deliver another day! Our regular mail carrier knows the route (he lives in the neighborhood), knows us all by name, and knows how to get mail to us. Our mail is in our hands by 10:00 AM!!!

The solution: USE UPS OR FED-EX!