USPS sucks.

[beccaiscool]

We had to file our taxes via snail mail this year as we qualify for the First Time Home Buyers credit. We fill out all the forms, write everything down, sign it, put a stamp on it, and send it on it's way via USPS. First Class. This was on the 27th of January

Comments

[amandeeta]

If you don't send it certified, there's nothing they can do. If it's something important, suck up the $5-$15 and be glad knowing that it'll get there or that you can tell where it is. Some items need the extra protection and tax returns are DEFINITELY one of them.

There's probably a mail sorter in Podunk County, USA whose clapping his hands in glee because he stumbled upon the one uncertified tax return. He's probably gone nuts with your credit by this point. Definitely get a credit check and definitely pay for the monitoring.

It'll suck much, much more for you if not paying $5-$15 costs you thousands and a bad credit score.

[said_by_me]

There's probably a mail sorter in Podunk County, USA whose clapping his hands in glee because he stumbled upon the one uncertified tax return.

Or you know... it could have fallen behind a piece of equipment, misrouted or dropped in routing bin

[amandeeta]

I read an article a few years back about an expose on Post Offices which speculated that most lost mail was really stolen mail. Especially on mail that was treated "special", such as checks, W-2's, IRS returns and other documents that have sensitive information.

[said_by_me]

Huh

Having actually worked there... while that may happen sometimes, that is not the majority. At least not at the plant I worked at.

[amandeeta]

I can't find it online at the moment, but the gist of it was that the first stop of sorting, usually at the local post office, isn't covered by security cameras because most of them don't have the money to fund such measures. Many workers pilfer the mail there. In addition, if a worker finds a wrong sorted piece of mail down the line, there isn't a solid check and balance in place to determine whether or not that wrong sorted piece of mail gets to the right spot or gets to the workers pocket.

Perhaps the reporter was focusing on a small minority of the way post offices work, but they did succeed in leaving a sore taste in my mouth about the whole process and sensitive information.

[sarahcb1208]

As the wife, daughter-in-law, and sister-in-law of mail carriers, I can say that that has got to be the biggest POS I've read in awhile.

Yes, there are some letter carriers that are lazy and that have stolen mail, but that's the same in *every* business. The USPS, for envelopes and first class, use sorting machines. Which means it relies on a computer, not a person to sort the mail.

Mail gets lost, same as packages sent via UPS and FedEx, just as easily. Most of the time its not the carrier's fault, though at least 90% of the time, they get the brunt of people's displeasure over it.

[amandeeta]

It's not the carriers the article was about, it was about the human sorters.

[sarahcb1208]

Do you not realize how much trouble someone would get into for stealing mail? We're talking jail sentences and fines, as well as pretty much being considered unhireable.

You send something in an envelope, it touches a hand like 4 times, maybe, if that. Its sorted by a machine, and has been for over 15 years.

[amandeeta]

I do realize it's a major, major offense. However, most thieving jobs are lucrative until they are caught (not that I advocate it, or ever would). But, there's a lot of things that the USPS can't catch, i.e. sorters at the first-stop facility who aren't watched by cameras, wrong-sorted mail that doesn't have a check and balance down the line. There's also a lot they don't want to see, because that means trouble for themselves.

And yes, every business has thieves. But most other businesses have a better check and balance system to catch the thieves, unless of course, the thief is the one running the check and balance system.

[sarahcb1208]

You obviously are basing this all on one article that you've read, and really don't seem to want to listen to what others are saying, so I'm done with this conversation.

[bluelinegoddess]

The one article they read that they can't recall the source nor find it online. My guess is Weekly World News, personally.

[sarahcb1208]

I completely agree, because I've never read anything like that, and when it comes to the USPS, if a carrier, or anyone gets busted for stealing mail, it makes national news.

[stangerine88]

Its sorted by a machine, and has been for over 15 years.

Yeah, not in the smaller towns. My godmother works in our local post office with four other people. No machine sorting the mail there. The people she works with? I wouldn't be surprised if they were stealing mail.

[sarahcb1208]

Actually, it's sorted at a larger processing center then.

[manda_babylon]

I read an article a few years back about an expose on Post Offices which speculated that most lost mail was really stolen mail.

...I'm going to stop you right there, in hopes that you'll review that sentence again and realize how ridiculous it is.

[taperkat]

my hometown of 600 people's post office has in all honesty NEVER lost an outgoing piece of mail of mine in all the time I have been here, and when I lived in DC and VA and NC, the larger towns would lose it.

Podunk County USA (which, i think my county would subscribe to, our largest town in county is 3k people) isn't as hick or stupid as you'd like to believe.