USPS - Damaged Mail

Lori of Brooklyln, NY October 23, 2009

The majority of the time my mail is delivered crumpled, bent, and freyed. Occasionally I receive mail that corresponds with my small business (business cards, postcards etc.)which is received crumpled. I am unable to use my advertisements due to the condition it is received in.

Wendy of washington, DC October 6, 2009

My son received a package from his grandmother ..homemade cookies. The package arrived with a whole chewed in it and taped over by the post office..the contents had been chewed.. There was a sticker on it that said it had been received "unsealed"...which is ludicrous. This is the second time that we've received a package chewed by some animal prior to making it to our address.

I called the post office and the employees were their usual RUDE selves..could care less and accept no responsibility. IT's no wonder the post office is losing money and transitioning to 5 days a week.

We'll use FED EX or UPS exclusively from now on..eventually all of those incompetent workers will be out of jobs as they deserve to be because this kind of service will make using the post office a thing of the past....just the principal of the thing and beyond annoying how the us post office has handled it. I work in DC so am considering pursuing it with the committee that has jurisdiction over the us post office...just as an example of what is wrong with this government run organization.

Jessica of Hamilton, IL September 23, 2009

I bought a jacket off of ebay...I was so excited to recieve it, I used to have one just like it when I was younger, and I had actually won the auction, which I hardly ever do. It took a lot longer to receive the jacket than other packages that I had received in the past and when I finally got the box, there was a note inside from the atlanta usps apologizing for the inconvenience of having a damaged package. There was no jacket inside, only 5 rotten looking placemats that I did not buy. Someone inside the usps warehouse lifted my jacket. How else does a heavy jacket get out of a taped box? On top of that, try getting ahold of someone to take care of your mistake...no one at usps in atlanta has even SEEN my jacket...it just disappeared like a ghost. How does that happen? The seller? yeah, he could scam 65 bucks, but why would he?

Charlotte of Chesterfield, MI September 17, 2009

On 8/26/09 I walked my neice's birthday present into the above office to mail.Please note that in the past I have only mailed returns or business stuff. This was my neice's present so my daughter and I wrapped it in a shirt box and decorated it so when Tracy got it she woould be real excited(they just moved to MN). I was asked if I wanted to insure it. I told the girl I only wanted to claim 25 for the gift card it had in it. That day it arrived in MN my sister in law called me to say they got the package but the card was missing from the sleeve that held the gift card. She verbalized she was real surprized that the clerk at the desk let this package be mailed this way(decorated and such/advertising the birthday). On 9/1 I printed the form found on-line to file a claim for the gift card. When you read the fine print you only get 15 max for a gift card no matter how much.

#1 why didn't the woman at the desk reject the package and have me wrap it properly to ensure safe delivery?Isn't that her job? #2 again,she heard me say I had the gift card for 25 why didn't she inform me of the limited amount and make me pay more money for I would not get if there was a problem.(I know I cannot blame anyone particular who might have taken it, but my gut was it was her.)

I filled out the form and took it to the same office as I had mailed it after work that day 9/1 5:15 or so. I explained to the clerk at the desk that I would like to file the claim. She had no idea what I was talking about. She got the "supervisor" who said that they don't take those forms at that office(not indicated on USPO website) and I had to take it to the Mt Clemens office. I told her I can't take it all the way there. She was quite rude and indicated she'll "mail it" but it's gonna take that much longer,etc. She started talking to the other clerk(the one that initially excepted my package) like I was stupid or something and the post office never looses anything(one week after that man was accused of having never delivered mail and left it in his car and house and such).

She never apologized for the loss.Only that she's gonna mail my form just like I should be dong. She didn't act much like a supervisor. It didn't give me much confidence in the postal service. She also gave me the impression that my claim went in the circular file(trash). When I called today on my claim the women on the phone said it has been three weeks and sometimes takes up to 4 weeks. I have a feeling that it was not handled but a government employee as it should have. As I have found out everything about my incident has been handled.

Marie of Venice, FL September 15, 2009

On September 15, 2009, I mailed two items at the Automated Postal Center in the Venice Ave.,Fl Post Office. When I put them in the drop box they crashed to the floor, so loud that two different individuals in the post office exclaimed "What was that???" etc. It sounded like the packages hit solid concrete. I left a little worried that the two items, although packaged with bubble wrap, foam etc.fell so hard that they may have broken. After I left I kept thinking about them arriving at their destination in unusable condition. I went back to the Post Office and asked to speak to someone.

After waiting for quite a while for "Mercy" to end a phone conversation and come and wait on me, I told her what had happened. I told her it sounded like the packages fell right onto concrete. She said "Well they did! Our floors are concrete!" I was informed that I had to fill out two forms of information for them to give me back my items to check and see if they were alright. I filled out the forms which took a considerable amount of time and then waited quite awhile for someone to come and help me. After waiting still more for them to recover the packages from the drop box, I was informed that if I didn't mail them "as is" I would forfeit my postage. [Almost 19.00 for the two of them] I told her I needed to check them and see if they were alright. "Well, you didn't buy insurance!" Mercy claimed and also "You didn't package them well!"[Although I did, it was rude for her to say and impossible for her to know how I packaged them anyway!]

I was completely disgusted. I asked her what was to prevent them [the Post Office] to put some foam or bubble wrap or something on the concrete floor at the bottom of the drop box so the packages wouldn't hit the floor with such impact. "Well we send them down the chute that way" was all she could reply. I pointed out to her that sending something down a chute at an angle was quite different than dropping something straight down onto concrete! I ended up mailing the packages "as is" rather than to forfeit what I had already paid.

Needless to say I left without any feeling of customer service, rude and indifferent behaviour on the part of the postal employee and anger that, just because you don't insure your packages [ or even if you did!] you cannot be reassured that any care at all is being taken to preserve your possessions and those of the recipients.

Tim of Boulder, CO August 21, 2009

I had antenna shipped from GA in a stout cardboard tube. It arrived without most of the contents and the end of the tube damaged and open. After negotiating USPS's inane phone tree for 15 min, I finally was able to talk to a live person who told me to go to my PO and file a claim form. After a 15 min drive and 15 min wait in line, I am told that that particular office doesn't do claims and to go downtown. I am worried that the claims office will be closed and I think to call ahead, but there is no way to get a post office branch number to find out any information (go ahead and try it if you don't believe this is true).

So I drive another 20 min, pay to park to to the claims desk only to find that person that deals with claims is still at lunch at 1:50pm. Then I am told that because the package was not insured the only thing I can do is to pay to ship the remainder of the package to MN and maybe in a month or so, if they find the missing items, they will send them to me. If they don't find them, they will not respond in anyway.

So it looks like I paid 20 to have the antenna shipped to me, paid to park, wasted over an hour of time and now they want me to give them another 11 to ship the tube to some warehouse in MN in the hopes that maybe some USPS employee will take time away from his extended lunch break to actuall look through a mountain of stuff, find my particular item and send it to me?

Right. I am going to insist on UPS or Fedex for all future shipments and suggest you do the same. Huge waste of time. Mental distress that any company can have such total disregard for their customers time and parcels. 150 lost.

Jennifer of Wayne, MI August 13, 2009

Ordered a perishable product online from Traverse City Michigan. The product was to be shipped from Traverse City to Wayne Michigan. Product was shipped on 08/10/09 and is still not here. USPS misshipped it to Ann Arbor and is advising me that it will now take 2 more days to arrive. Ann Arbor is 30 minutes from my home, why is it going to take 2 days to ship 30 minutes away? I have been advised by the USPS that too bad-it will get here when it gets here. They dont guarentee when it will arrive and thats what I get for shipping economically. So why are my tax dollars still paying them? This is not the first problem i've had with the postal service and they do not even make an effort to resolve complaints. what can I do? What can be done to ensure that the USPS either gets shut down completely (they dont care about our mail and half of us dont even get our mail anyways)or they start accepting responsibilty and working with paying customers to resolve their mistakes? I dont think anyone should have to pay for this service and I want to know what I can do about it.

Anna of Union, KY August 7, 2009

I have recently earned a doctorate degree. My diploma was mailed from the university via USPS. A large carboard envelope clearly marked "DIPLOMA DO NOT BEND" was shoved into a mail box 1/2 the envelop's size. Our front door is not 15 steps away from the mail box. The diploma was bent and creased - unsuitable for framing - clearly damaged. I am whole-heartedly disappointed in such poor service.

Kenneth of Smithville, NJ August 5, 2009

I had an insured package sent to Florida on 1/2/09. This was a vanity that was being returned to the seller. It arrived damaged. My local post office told me that an insurance claim had to be filed with the damaged item. It was taken to the Palmetto Lakes Post Office from the receiver's warehouse sometime around the end of January, beginning of February.

After months of not hear anything regarding the claim I contacted the main processing of the post office for insurance claims. They had no record of the claim and said I had to contract the office where the claim was filed. I contacted the seller for the name of the post office. They had to contact their warehouse.

By the time they got back to me it was early May. I spoke with someone there who took all my information and promised to call me back. When they did not I faxed a letter and the insurance information on 5/27/2009. Still no response. I called again and was told Al was in charge of insurance claims so I faxed the information again. After this I began taking notes of my contact with the office: 6/12 Spoke with LeAnne who said it was being processed and would call me on 6/15 6/15 - no call 6/24 Spoke with Francine who said she had someone working on it. 6/29 - Spoke with LeAnne who said she was processing it 7/15 - Spoke with LeAnne who said a letter is on the way. 7/27? - Spoke with the main processing center who said the claim has yet to be filed. 7/29 9:50AM Spoke with Francine who said LeAnne started work at 10 and she would have her call me as soon as she got in. 7/29 3:30PM I called LeAnne. She said my claim was not submitted yet because she did not have approval yet and was waiting for a call back. Also that I could not get the full price back because it was only slightly damaged.

When I relayed my story to the main processing center they suggested I contact Consumer Affairs. Hope you can help. I have wasted a lot of time trying to resolve this issue. I no longer have the 605 that I paid for the item (though it was only insured for 500). I no longer have the vanity - even though it's damaged. And I no longer have any patience! Please help. June 4, 2009 Attention: Al – insurance claims Since I have not heard anything yet I am resending this (originally sent May 27, 2009): Palmetto Lakes Post Office 5375 NW 159th St. Hialeah, Fl 33014 Re: Insurance Claim #: VH 444 175 960 US To Whom It May Concern: I had a package mailed on 1/2/09 that was received damaged. My post office said a claim could not be filed without bringing the object into the post office and that the recipient needed to file the claim. I was told that the item was brought to your post office sometime near the end of January and that I was named as the payment assignee. After months without receiving any information, I spoke with the main processing center for claims and they said that they have no record of the claim and that I had to contact the post office where the claim was filed. I called your post office 2 weeks ago and someone took my information including my phone number and said they would get back to me. I have yet to hear anything. I’m faxing the information that I have on the claim and I'd like to know the status of it. Please contact me with the status or if you need any other information. Sincerely, Kenneth Blahut blahut262@hotmail.com 609 404-3151

jessica of Oakland, CA August 5, 2009

I sent an item with tracking and insurance. The item arrived at the destination but is damaged. I cannot have items become damaged in transit as it causes me to have to refund the money that the customer paid for the product. When this happens, I loose a sale and often get bad feedback on the systems that I use to sell product. This stops sales. Also, I loose the profit for the package that I've sent via USPS.

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