I probably will never get DVDs through Netflix again because I am so tired of USPS fail.

I shouldn't brag, but in spite of my 'edge of town/between towns' location, I get great service from the USPS (reliable daily delivery between 10:30AM and 11:30AM), FedEx (between 9:30 and 11) AND UPS (usually before 10, and usually a day or two BEFORE due date on tracer). If only my internet service was as reliable...

We have a great post office and a stupid post office. For some reason when I miss package deliveries I have to pick them up at the stupid post office even though it's twice as far from my home.

I've never understood the USPS hate some people have. I've never had the issues others rant about. No lost or late packages. No wrecked packages (or, no more so than what UPS or FedEx manages to wreck)

And, "lazy"? Not seen that, either. Just people doing their jobs, like everyone else in the world. But, then, I don't expect people to snap-to the second I walk in the door, either.

It would then seem that you do not have the USPS hate that others have because you have not suffered as others have suffered.

I have had package failure at the new place and I dread seeing the pink slip of paper because it is a pain in the ass, and once they left something COD without getting the money, but I ended up getting the money from the person and fifty dollars for making a serious complaint about it.
I find it is very variable depending on your local post office. I've bought stamps off mail carriers and had really nice ones. Maybe Bukowski is working at yours. You never know. I think if you can get work at the post office it may be hard to get fired, but maybe that's not true any more. They have been shutting them down all over.

Lazy: Mailmen leaving package notices in the mailbox without at least checking to see I am home. I know they don't check because my front door is open and I have a sign on the screen door saying that I am home. You cannot touch the screen doors in this place without the neighbors hearing it. Fresno has been the worst by far, but I had constant problems in East Atlanta too.

I've had some problems with the post office over the years but nothing compared to the pain that FedEx and UPS have inflicted.

I have been pretty luck when it comes to postal deliverers and deliveries, unlike my friend who has had major troubles in both Chicago and NYC. The only exception was a few months ago when THE BASTARD BENT THE ENVELOPE THAT EXPLICITLY STATED "DO NOT BEND!" TO STICK IT IN MY MAILBOX AND SCREWED UP MY 8X10 PICTURES. I'm still a bit pissed about that. Seeing the pictures every time I look at the wall probably does not help with the pissedness.

I love USPS but hate Fedex. Eh, first world problems.

Sorry, in my experience the USPS in my region (Pacific Northwest, including Alaska) is excellent, both the local carriers and the staff at the post offices. When I've heard horror stories about damaged/stolen/lost packages or bad service it's always been in the eastern U.S.

I have to express mail documents for work and always choose the USPS express mail over FedEx or UPS. Here it's more convenient (a few blocks vs. driving out to the airport), as cheap or cheaper, and they have never failed to deliver on time.

USPS service to my home is fine. The service at my business is comically, Brazil-the-movie bad. We print postage using Endicia. Our mail carrier usually comes by around 10:00am. Say we get an order during the day. We pack it and print the postage, but don't want to leave the parcel in our mailbox overnight (not that it would matter - keep reading) so we take it to the post office after work. The little rinky-dink post office that serves our shop closes before we do and doesn't have a parcel drop. So we take it to the post office in the next town over, which is also closed but has a parcel drop.

Then we get a nasty note from the post office telling us that mail has to enter the mail stream on the same day the postage is printed, and we must use rinky-dink post office because that's where we're located.

So playing by their rules, we cannot use mail service. We can't get to the post office during their business hours because they're shorter than our business hours are. And if we left the parcel (assuming it fit) in our own mail box for pickup the next day (and it didn't get stolen overnight), it would still be entering the mail stream a day late.

Don't even start me about the motorcycle fuel tanks that make it to rinky-dink post office in three days FROM AUSTRALIA and then sit there for a week because they won't fit in our mail carrier's car.

GRAR

My mailcarrier (nice lady 5 out of 6 days of the week) brings packages too large for my mailbox to my front porch, even though it's 75 feet from the bank of mailboxes (but then, the bank of 24 mailboxes is SO easy to work with from within the mail truck, she doesn't mind a few steps once in a while). In fact, all the delivery folk love my front porch. On the rare occasions where I had to go to the Post Office, the line has been long and it appeared understaffed (with no sign of slackers not working the counter) but the worst delays seemed caused by clueless customers. I bought a roll of 100 forever stamps almost two years ago, and since the only bill I pay by mail is the rent, it'll probably last another 2 years.

Yes, most of my mailbox mail is junk (more so after I had my late dad's mail forwarded to me... the people who had him on mailing lists must have thought he was an idiot), but they reliably deliver all the mail to Craig, Howard AND Wendell (I got on a couple mailing lists during my Wendell Blog days, including one for a monthly promotional magazine from the USPS for junk mail SENDERS... very interesting). And I still get occasional mail for a previous resident (that would be 6 years ago) that I always mark NOT AT THIS ADDRESS and put back in the box. Interestingly, the latest news story about the local "crazy guy housing the homeless on his ranch" (previously on MeFi) quoted a resident there... with the unusual name of the previous resident. I'm now officially afraid to move.

I've had only lovely-to-neutral experiences with the post offices in California. The post office I was forced to use when I lived in Washington, DC, however, drained every ounce of my will to live the second I stepped into it. The employees most definitely appeared to be in a competition for "most actively obstructionist human being on the planet."

Lazy: Mailmen leaving package notices in the mailbox without at least checking to see I am home.

I've had both FedEx and UPS do this, too. Potayto/Potahto.

UPS hasn't done it to me since they put package telemetry online.

Every time the package requires a signature, I get a notice instead of delivery. They're quite capable of leaving non-sign packages at my door, but won't even try to deliver signature-required. Surely it's more work to fill out the slip than it is to drive up to my doorstep and ring my doorbell? I am home all day every day.

File a complaint each time. Each time the postmaster assures me "it will never happen again." Yeah. Now I'm just convinced the postmaster doesn't care despite the complaints.

Won't go into all the lost mail.

mightshould - your package arrived here in Ohio! It's wonderful! Thank you SO much!

Each time the postmaster assures me "it will never happen again."

The Postal Workers Union is too strong for complaints to have any effect other than retaliation against the complaining party.