Re: [GSAS-Member] is it me, or is the Postal Service just laughably incompetent

["Clifford Miller" <clifford@clevergeek.com>]

I haven't had the best luck with USPS.  Most of the live shipments I have
are non-fish, and can't legally be sent through the post office, but I've
still found that any carrier that won't insure live goods as live goods is
more prone to have problems.

If you can insure them as live (which in the past you've been able to do
with Fedex (not sure if you still can), and can still do through many air
carriers (US, Delta, NWcargo, Alaska, etc), at least the carrier has a
greater vested interest in getting the package delivered.  The snafu that
cost you this last batch of fish probably only cost the post office $10-30
in the lost fees (or more, depending on how much you were
shipping)....which could easily have been worth ten times that or more if
insured, depending again on what you were shipping.

I tend to consider lost USPS items the cost of doing business with the
state over Fedex (which isn't to say they don't lose packages too, they
do, but less often in my experience).  I guess if you do a lot of
shipping, it's still probably worth it in saved shipping costs.


***begin unrelated USPS story...***
On a side note, since we're on the USPS topic, I recently lost a decent
sized postal money order (my bad, obviously) from an online animal
sale...so the buyer mailed me the receipt so I could do a trace.  (he
didn't feel like dealing with the hassel or $5 fee, which makes sence--
not his problem)

I went to my local office, explained that I needed to fill out a form to
do a MO trace, and that the buyer had mailed me the receipt to accomplish
this.  Five second converstaion, right?  Noooooo.  The fact that I was the
one missing the check AND that I had the recept so completely baffled the
postal employee I was working with that it took almost an hour to get them
to understand what was happening.  (which of course thrills the line of
people behind you going all the way out the door...)

While she was trying to get the form filled out (a USPS person must fill
out the second half of the form) I had to correct her several times (so
picture me, reading a poorly xeroxed form, upside-down, from across the
counter, making helpfull suggestions like "It looks like that spot asks
for ID Type, so I don't think you should write the Drivers License number
there", "That spot asks for printed name, so I don't think you should sign
it that way (illegible)", "That spot asks for License/ID number, so I
don't think you should leave it blank".  I felt like a jerk, but didn't
want to kiss my money goodbye because she couldn't/wouldn't read.  =)

I have a long, slow fuse when it comes to issues like this, and am
especially sensitive about being a jerk when I know I'm there as a result
of my own carelessness (which I was)...but by the end of my postal
adventure, I wanted to reach over the counter and shake someone.  ;)

Cliff
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