h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Why does it take 5 day's for a letter to cross town and 4 days for it to cross the country? Why do I continually get someone else's mail (not same name, not same address). And who created Junk mail (opps probably another question).

Given the sheer volume of mail the postal system deals with on a daily basis, I think they're very "ept" indeed.
Of course, I'm speaking of the US postal system here, but I find that letters I send across town usually arrive the next day, and a letter to my Dad in Florida (I live in New York) takes about three days. My many orders from Amazon.com take about that time, too.
For any US readers, I can suggest learning the 4-digit extension of your zip code and anyone you regularly send mail to. Also, print the recipient's name and address in black ink and in all capital letters. You should see an improvement. Sorry, foreign readers, you're on your own.

Though I'm not from Canada, I did live there briefly and I think it's appropriate to say that their postal system is the most horrid on the planet. Honestly. When they're not on strike, at least the mail *moves* a bit... but I'm convinced that you could strap your correspondence to the shell of a snail and it would surely reach its destination quicker than entrusting it to the care(lessness) of a Canadian postal person.

Sorry for being so brutal. I lived in Canada for 6 weeks, and a letter that was sent from the US during the first week of my stay didn't reach me until the VERY LAST DAY that I spent there. It took just a little over five weeks for that envelope to wiggle its way through the postal sludge and reach me. In five weeks, one could row a kayak across the Pacific. It's simply inexcusable.

Ahhhhh... I feel much, much better now.

Okay, I'll admit that some of the people that work within the postal system are "ept". Not only that but extremely honust. Once I mailed a check to start a money market account for my daughter. It was not exactly small. It arrived back at my house 2 weeks after I'd posted it. It arrived without an envelope, or the letter, or the application I'd sent with it. God, or the Force or what ever supreme deity watchs over me, did very well that day and placed my daughter's college education in a honust person's hands. What happened from the time I posted that letter to the time (2 weeks later) it found it's way back, is beyond me. However, it was in the postal system when the check lost it's envelope and the letter's that it was stapled to.

And ever watch postal worker's toss packages marked fragile around? Again, not all of them are like that, but I've had glass ware, packed in lots of protective packing, arrive looking more like a complicated puzzle, not glass ware.

Ah, I feel better too.

Funny you should mention that... I had sold an extremely fragile wooden box (hand painted in Japan; the wood felt something like balsa... very fragile) on eBay. It sold for US$45, so I was quite pleased. I boxed it up very carefully (using styrofoam "peanuts" and lots of newspaper), labelled all six sides "FRAGILE," and brought it to the post office for shipping. When I handed it to the postal clerk, he commented with child-like delight as to how light the package was, as he weighed it. He looked as though he had an IQ of about 3. He took it off of the scale and literally *threw* it on to the counter behind him, where it collided with other boxes (presumably also thrown there). I was mortified. I knew that my packaging efforts were very good, and that the likelihood of any damage was slim, but it made the most awful sound on impact, that I had to muster up the nerve to tell the postal clerk that the item inside was extremely fragile and that I'd like to check the contents now before shipping. He agreed in a stupid "did I do something wrong?" kind of way, and let me open the box. I'm glad I did, because the buyer didn't request any insurance and the contents were quite bashed up. So... I had to refund the buyer's money and we were both rather upset over the whole thing. All because some goofy idiot postal person couldn't read.

When I was little I wanted to work for the post office, because I thought it would be an extremely cool job. Now, I still want to work for them... but only so that I might be able to do the job correctly, and perhaps show others how it should be done in the process.

For a very brief period of time I used to work for a european state-owned postal company sorting packages (parcels? whatever...) and let me tell you, some of the stuff I saw there makes me shiver to this very day;

Imagine a 35 kg (75 pound) computer monitor dropped on top of a very small package marked 'fragile'.
From the height of just over a meter (3-4 feet).
On a daily basis stuff went flat.
Like they'd been driven over with a steamroller.

The sad reason for this is that the environment for the workers is so bad that the choice stands between throwing stuff around or mess up your back seriously

Yes, I guess the whole back pain issue can be quite serious. Perhaps the world needs two postal systems: one for light, breakable things; the other for heavy, sturdy things. I think that would do nicely until someone tried to ship a heavy breakable thing.

Yep,
especially since monitors tend to be heavy, breaking AND breakable... you should hear the sound a monitor makes when it comes bouncing down a very steep conveyor belt.
Personally I've taken to delivering stuff by hand.
It's safer that way.

You don't mention what you did or said to the postal clerk about the box. I'm sure I wouldn't have remained anything close to civil. And he (postal clerk) would have been refunding the buyer. I don't think a sore back would have made much of an excuse there. I've received fragile items recently (computer parts I think, don't honustly remember, but that is most likely) where the bubble wrap was actually blown up around the item. The bubble wrap was litteraly stuck to the wrap around the item. Hard to sort out but I couldn't see any way (short of a monitor landing on it) that it could have suffered any damage in shipping. But it's kind of sad to think that companies are having to think of inventive new ways to ship things, which cost a lot to ship, to protect them from damages that the postal system won't cover.
Did that last part make sense? It's late.

Here in Britain we have a company called Parcel Force, which is owned and run by the British Post Office. Parcel Force handles packages that are too bulky for normal postal delivery, or which might require special handling, or which the customer wants delivered next day. The company has become widely known as 'Parcel Farce'. Here's some examples of why:

* Parcels lost in transit. When asked about these parcels, Parcel Force often denies all knowledge, even when the sender provides proof that the parcel was being handled by them.
* Parcels opened in transit and the goods damaged or some items removed. This happened to a friend of mine. The original parcel went missing, the company that sent the goods sent another, then the original one turned up opened with some items missing.
* Difficulty getting parcels delivered if you're not there when they first try to make delivery. I've found that Parcel Force generally deliver to my area at around 11:30 on a weekday, at which time I'm at work. They will deliver at weekends and, in theory, they will deliver to another nominated address. But they won't deliver to another address if that address is outside your county. My in-laws live about 4 miles away from us, but they live in Warwickshire and we live in Worcestershire. Worcestershire Parcel Force won't deliver to my in-laws - they say the parcel would have to be sent to the Warwickshire branch!
In addition, they once tried to deliver a parcel when I was out. It took 6 phone calls and I took 3 days off work before they actually delivered the darned thing! Reasons for the delay included 'The van was full' and 'The driver forgot to pick it up'.
* Goods damaged in transit. I am the proud owner of an Orkney chair (a white oak armchair with an oat straw back). When I was planning to buy one I visited a couple of men who make them. Both said that they had to send the chairs by courier (at a cost of at least £50) because they had had chairs destroyed (I'm not kidding) by Parcel Force. These chairs aren't flimsy, they are craftsman made and very strong. How Parcel Force manages to wreck them I do not know!

In Britain we have a consumer affairs programme called Watchdog which has done investigations into Parcel Force on more than one occasion. They also found that goods would be damaged in transit and, in some cases, no attempt was made to deliver the item. When asked about the damaged goods, the response on one occasion was 'You shouldn't be sending breakable stuff like that. It might injure our staff if the pieces penetrate the wrapping.' This was from a member of Parcel Force management. The idea that the staff should handle packages carefully never seemed to occur to him.

I also know of one company in England that has stopped using Parcel Force, presumably because it had too many complaints from customers about lost or damaged packages.

Although I've had comparatively few problems with the British Post Office itself (letters are usually delivered promptly, especially if sent first class), I understand that they, too, have a reputation for throwing parcels around. In some cases, staff have been seen running across the top of mail sacks, regardless of what might be in them!

Sorry this is so long, but I do feel better now!

Wow... Our alternate parcel system UPS (don't recall what that stands for United Parcel something) is actually quite good. They have delivered my PC's, which I order, in quite good condition, not a scratch or dent. How does the Parcel Force expect you to send breakable goods? Here in the states the postal system won't take any large packages, we have to send them UPS, but as I mentioned you usually don't have to worry. But then again, they are independant from the postal system.

Independent courier services are usually good - they have to be or they'd go out of business. I used to work with a guy who swore by (not at) DHL (don't know what it stands for). Apparently, parcels aren't addressed and there's no indication of contents. Everything is done by bar-code which contains address details etc. The bar-code is read each time a parcel gets to a DHL depot, and addressing information is only given for the last leg of the journey. This means that DHL can keep track of a parcel throughout its journey, and can pin-point where it was last seen if it goes missing. Because no one knows what is in each parcel, there's less chance of it getting stolen. UPS probably works the same way.

At least we don't have the same problem as Mrs Marjorie Witts of Harford Court, Sketty, Swansea. A postcard sent in 1922 was delivered in June 1986 (64 years late). She had moved from the address 50 years earlier.

9
(the inflation is causing devaluation)

I think many problems with Parcel Force have to be laid squarely at the door of management.
I once had a minor problem with a delivery, and could not get through to the local PF office to complain, so I wrote a letter of complaint to the local office, mainly about my being unable to contact them by phone despite numerous attempts. After I hadn't received a reply, I wrote another letter, beginning
'Further to my letter of 2 weeks ago, which you have yet to answer, there are a couple of additional minor points...'
I then went on to cover a couple of side-issues I hadn't bothered to mention in the original letter. One of these points could, on first reading, have been taken as being mildly critical of one of their delivery drivers, but as I reckoned the problem was caused by general organisational incompetence, I deliberately prefaced the point with
'Please note - I don't want this to be taken as criticism of the driver'

When the woman in customer services replied, she told me the driver in question had been disciplined, and told he'd be sacked if made any minor mistakes in the future. There was no mention whatsoever of my original letter, nor of my main complaint, which was about the incompetence of the customer service department itself. When I wrote back to explain my annoyance, send her another copy of the original letter, and ask for an explanation, the excuse she gave me was
'Oh - your original letter must have been lost in the post'

Unfortunately, like many large organisations, their customer service departments aren't entirely free of arrogant and deceitful people. Given that their entire life is a matter of avoiding admitting to mistakes, that kind of person never learns anything from them, and nor does the organisation.

(I'd better not even _start_ on the smug, semi-literate, and terribly dim people I encountered when complaining about the local (Barnes or Putney, can't quite remember) sorting office throwing away an entire month's worth of my post when some shit-for-brains screwed up my mail redirection.)

That said, the Post Office in general has to be one of the best. Almost always next day delivery, and I don't believe they've ever lost a single letter of mine. (Not even to Parcel Force...)

I can be persuaded to feel sorry for the Post Office/Parcel Force. Here is the service they provide: delivering a letter from me to someone else literally anywhere in the UK - be that in Shetland or the Scilly Isles, the middle of London or the wilds of Scotland, doing so within 24-48 hours, and doing all that for the price of a Snickers bar.

The vast, overwhelming majority of the time, they get it right. The vast majority of the time you don't even really think about it. They persist in providing this service even as people abandon it in droves for email and similar, because they're legally obliged to, but still it's incredibly reliable given the scale of the operation.

It's just that when they do get it wrong, it can be egregious or catastrophic. And those are the ones you hear about, obvs. I've never had anything go astray in the post, for the record.