That is hilarious. The bigger city I was using as a reference was St.Louis. I lived in North County and surrounding area for years, moved out of state and now reside about an hour N/NW of downtown. I have had good experience at a majority of the PO’s in the county, the one in what is now Maryland Heights was awful, don’t think I ever used one actually in the city. I did have a friend of mine that was a carrier in the north city area years and years ago that did that exact same thing. This was before everyone could jump online and track their packages. When he decided he wanted to go home for the day or get the whole day off, he would pick up his route, drop it off at his house and worry about it the next day. Only a small fraction of people would actually call looking for their mail so, he could get away with it back then.
Small world. Nice to see another Missourian on here.
Tracking used to be an add on fee like 3 years ago, then it changed and was included with any parcels you sent first class, I think priority mail always came with tracking. I’ve never seen one of these kiosks, but it does sound like it’s stepping up from first class mail option to priority mail(notice the $50 insurance that’s included) rather then asking additional $ for tracking which is included already.
Yep, as far as I am concerned; it is always better to talk to a living person. At least to get the absolute lowest price for the size package you are shipping & the ‘shipping features’ you want.
I do not live in a really tiny town & we have 3 or 4 PO’s pretty close by, but I have only run across only one truly rude postal clerk in about 50 years…. and even he was helpful in helping me choose my options to get the cheapest price. He was also at a PO in the largest city in the state…. maybe that is why he was rude. . Or maybe he was just having a bad day??
Anyway… I personally avoid those ‘Pack & Mail’ shops & if I ever saw a Kiosk I would avoid it.
Personally…. I want a live person. To me it makes for a more harmonious outcome. :+1:
I do all my post office business at the main hub location for Ohio (I ship atleast 5 packages a week), they have one of those kiosks and (I’m not making this up) a dedicated employee sitting in the lobby trying to direct people away from the counter and to the kiosk. The reason: the kiosk doesn’t offer first class services, only priority and up. If they can avoide people going to the counter they get to make an extra 100% on postage…
I have nothing against the USPS. They just adopt different policies in different states for different reasons for safety and to maximize profits. Everyone’s experience with the USPS is different.
USPS is quasi creation of both governmental rules and corporate rules. They are now a corporation and that is why for good or bad everyone’s experience using their services are a bit more flexible. Since most people use USPS to ship flashlights/Headlamps/Led’s on this forum talking about their operations seems to me justified.
USPS visited my front door today and delivered something a bit blue.
The blues look like they have different hues to me. Both are Victorinox Climbers. Honoring the U.S.A, UK, France. Most but not all of the worlds different countries use these three colors in the their flags of state.
Now at the next 4th of July festivities I can open beverages, boxes of fireworks, and even packages of new flashlights in style.
I’ve lived in three different states, not all right next to each other, and USPS services were exactly the same in all of them. What are you referring to?
I could not ship Lithium Ion batteries form my local post offices in Michigan when stated in their policies I could. For whatever reason someone living in California still could. When I use the postal Kiosk at the USPS not all of my shipping options are offered. I shipped a 5oz envelope for $1.60. Other members of this forum mailed similar weight and size items for more than double. Sometimes when at the post office you get to interact with a nice knowledgeable clerk and other times you get a clerk that just does not care. The world is not a perfect place to live in. People are not perfect. And of course flashlights are never perfect. Ever ever.
I think part of the confusion about postal services is that when policy changes are made they might not be implemented at all post offices at the same time. You get to ride the wave of change at different times and places.
Of the logical possibilities, I think it’s more likely that the policies are the same everywhere, but since each postal worker’s competence level varies from “grossly incompetent” at the low end to “an old dog that can’t learn new tricks” at the high end, the issue is that the average employee simply doesn’t know their own rules, and the ones that do might choose to do things their own way for no reason. No offense to any postal workers here….
. Or maybe he was just having a bad day??
