I have been getting a lot of deliveries for the house lately and I have a big sign on the house door asking for deliveries to please knock on the rv door instead of the house since I am in the rv. We have one ups guy that understands and will knock on the rv door as he drops the package at the steps . But every other one including the mail lady go to the house and leave the package there . Which means it's exposed to the weather , I have a big awning open over the rv door so there it's protected and they have to walk past the rv door to go to the house lol.

I'm not sure if it's available in Canada, but UPS has a free feature called My Choice that alerts you when a package is coming and allows you to enter specific instructions for delivery. Or for non-delivery. As an example, we were out of town on a trip last week and I got a notice of a coming delivery. I was able to postpone it so that it wouldn't be sitting at the front door for a few days. Last month, I had a PC being delivered on a day we wouldn't be home that required a signature on delivery. I was able to waive the signature requirement and ask they leave the box on the back patio. I've found UPS to be very flexible and service oriented, maybe it's different in Canada.

As far as other delivery means, Amazon has been using the US Postal Service to deliver smaller items. The tracking information suggests that it's a UPS or FedEx service that delivers the items to the local post office sorting facility and from there it goes to the houses via the normal postal delivery. I haven't found that means to be either better or worse than UPS (or some of the other carriers Amazon uses). I'm sure that can vary from place to place. Our carrier leaves such items in the mailbox when it fits, or at the front door when it doesn't.

I hate UPS and Purolator! You pay for delivery and then they don't deliver the package! They leave and note and won't try to deliver a second time so you have to go to their depot and pick it up. Give me Canada Post any day.

One time Purolator was supposed to deliver something for my husband. We weren't home so of course they did not deliver and I had to go the next day to their depot and pick it up. When I got there the clerk was not going to give it to me because my name wasn't on the package - never mind that I showed her my drivers license and of course my husband and I have the same address. She finally gave it to me when I kindly pointed out to her that my husband was in a wheelchair and their office wasn't wheelchair accessible.

Very different here in the states, a UPS person would be in big trouble if they didn't deliver to the door and I've never ever had a problem where they didn't. USPS has been nothing but problems for us.

Tell the boss at your local post office. USPS is trying hard to improve its image and its service, they should know when customers are dissatisfied.

UPS My Choice is an outstanding service tool. It's free and easy to sign up. I receive text updates if estimated time changes, and as Elmer suggests, you can write out specific delivery instructions. So, if you want it tucked in the dog box, that's where you'll find it. If you don't wish to sign for a package, use the remote signature feature and never miss a package.

FeEx offers same type of service tool.

BTW, the UPS driver doesn't have much time to waste. They're on a tightly scheduled route. I can't even get her to chat for a minute; she's walking to her truck waving..gotta go..they're tracking me.

BTW, the UPS driver doesn't have much time to waste. They're on a tightly scheduled route.

I agree. That's why I tend to meet them halfway down the stairs or even at the door if I see the truck parked. I do respect their job, I just want them to at least 'try' to deliver. I received it yesterday, and met him on the stairs.

I have no problems with either our regular mail, they now deliver things right to the mailbox just off of my porch. I used to have to go down a long lane to get my mail and the UPS delivery fellow puts my things right on my porch. I know both of the delivery people by their names, Michele and Steve. Steve has been delivering for UPS for many, many years and used to deliver packages to our business in town. Maybe he still does.

Sue

Elmer, the boss (PostMaster) was a huge part of the problem if not the entire problem. He was mean spirited and worthless. I've been fighting for years to get permission to move our box from across a busy road to the easement in front of our house. The post lady turns around right after the next house, and they had their box moved, but the old Post Master refused our request saying it was a union thing. We're on a curve, on a busier road, people hit the boxes of the houses here constantly, our box was in a bucket of bricks a block down the road because that's the one spot where it was hit the least. We also got stuck with all the bills to replace it and several times my DH almost got creamed by speeding cars. The old PostMaster refused to budge. I went back 3 weeks ago to speak with him again, but he was gone and there was a new guy in charge. Nice and easy going, he said not a problem to move it and the union had nothing to do with it whatsoever. He introduced me to our carrier (who in 10 years I'd never met). She was extremely nice and agreed it would be safer for everyone if it were moved. The new box was installed in front of our house a week ago. Now we'll be able to cancel the PO Box we've had to keep to ensure delivery and most importantly, both the carrier and my husband will be safe when accessing the box. She said the old Post Master was difficult to work with at best and had refused to help most people seeking change. Moving forward, I suspect things will be much more pleasant.

Many Canadians in recently-built homes, subdivisions, etc. no longer get delivery to the door - there's a community mailbox by a local street where there are boxes for often something like 50 people ... and the box is more or less the size of a regular P.O. box in an office - maybe slightly larger.

Not pleasant picking up mail when it's 15 below ... street not ploughed, etc.

ole joyful

Let's say you live in Windsor, ON and you leave a piece of outgoing mail in your mailbox. What happens to it?

Only in rural areas do they have a person who drives to every mailbox and takes and delivers mail. The door-to-door delivery in cities and towns don't include pickup of the mail. We have to go to the post office or stores that have postal services (Shoppers Drug Mart) to deliver mail and packages. Or the red mailboxes in front of plazas.

Alisande, as a kid, I remember leaving pennies in the mailbox (I lived in the country) when I didn't have a stamp. The mailman would take the change and the letter and it would get mailed. I can't imagine anyone besides your friendly fellow, doing that today.

I love our USPS carriers! They know that my home office faces the drive and just give me a quick wave as they drop off my Amazon packages. My dogs have a big bark-fest if the doorbell rings but they remain blissfully (for me) unaware that the 'mailman' is at the door.

Brushworks, the community mailboxes on our streets have a slot for regular sized outbound mail. But if one wants to mail a parcel or even a large manilla envelope, it wouldn't fit in the slot, so they'd have to go to a postal outlet.

lukki, knowing your mail carrier (and giving generous holiday gifts) goes a long way for obtaining good service. I'm surprised you went so long without making a connection. Had you done so years ago in the right way, you would have had someone on your side, inside the system, to go to bat for you to get you mailbox moved. Without "fighting", I'll bet the mailbox move could have been done had the carrier advanced the topic with USPS local management with it sounding like his/her suggestion to fix a problem and dangerous location.

I know that mail service can be inconsistent from place to place in the US but it sounds like you Canadians are reconciled to getting less service than you may want to have. Government services these days are all about what citizens want and what they are willing to pay.

In California, the Dept of Motor Vehicles was historically the most frustrating, inept and time consuming agency to deal with. And it couldn't be avoided because it handles car registrations, ownership changes, and drivers licenses. After years and years of complaints, they started taking customer service recently.

For probably the last 10 years, the DMV has been a model of efficiency. Most business can be done entirely on its website. Mail is sent out on time. Appointments (that they honor the timeliness of) can be made online. Using the trite cliche, they've gone from worst to first in the eyes of many.

When there are enough complaints that are constructive and civil in tone, and when enough demands for improvement are made, agencies dealing with the public can do better.

Established neighbourhoods still have door-to-door delivery, but they're getting fewer and fewer, in place of community mailboxes. We still have door-to-door.

I deliver the newspaper flyers every week. There are either mailboxes or the old milk-boxes at the side of the garage to put the mail and flyers in.

Elmer, sometimes your responses reflect a lot of assumptions that are just not true. Not everyone lives in SoCal where cities have their own zip code, the post office is centrally located and their box is just outside their door.

We are rural and we live on a "country road". Our boxes sit on the road where anyone can get to them. Usually people don't bother them but we actually caught someone, a neighbor no less, going into ours after just moving in.

Our "village" has a zip code that belongs to a community 10-15 miles north of us. It's in a direction opposite to where we shop, work and live; ie inconvenient to use. We use another office closer to us for services and have kept a box there to avoid use of our home's box as much as possible. Over the years, we've had to spend several hundred dollars to replace hit/destroyed boxes and pay PO Box fees, which we shouldn't have to do in order to receive mail. I know all the people at the office where our PO Box is and other than getting the wrong mail now and then, we've never had any issues there.

I'm well aware that it's beneficial to have a good relationship with the folks who provide services to us. Over the course of the past 10 years, I've made numerous trips to our post office to meet our delivery person. I was always told she wasn't available by that Post Master. I've left my number and asked if she could call me, but never received a call either. He seemed to block any efforts made to reconcile our situation, not just with me but with other neighbors as well.

BTW, I was raised in Huntington Beach. I used to live 2 blocks from my mother and we even had the same mail carrier of whom we were both friendly with. When one of us would mail the other something as simple as a birthday card, it would still take over a week to be received. Go figure!

"Elmer, sometimes your responses reflect a lot of assumptions that are just not true. Not everyone lives in SoCal...."

Sure, fair enough. I think assumptions are an unavoidable hazard in forum discussions when everyone has limited information. You too have made some wrong assumptions about me, we may have more in common than not. I live in the greater SF Bay area but I'm also from SoCal. I too have a mailbox sitting on a post out at the street, though my area is more accurately lower density suburban and not rural. My mail carrier delivers from a right-hand drive truck. I replaced my mailbox post last month, the one I put in 20 years ago fell over from rot. The post office for my zip is about 10 minutes away, I too go to a closer one if I have something to do at a counter.

The place to meet your mail carrier is at your mailbox. On Saturday if you work during the week. A bottle of wine or cash in an envelope at year end, sometimes both, goes a long way toward developing a lasting "friendship".

Unless UPS has changed in the past few years since I was getting a lot of UPS deliveries, they would usually leave the parcel unless a signature was required. If a signature was required, they'd usually try to leave it with a neighbor or they'd make 3 attempts at home delivery. Post office? Too lazy to walk to the door with a package or even a letter. They throw a note in the mailbox to come and get it and claim they attempted to deliver it. I chased one down the street one day when I happened to see him do it and I needed to get the certified letter to file some court papers. I asked her why she didn't deliver it and all she could do was grunt. And when I've complained at the post office? They just grunt. They EXPECT bonuses and gifts at holidays. You think I'm going to give them something to reward, encourage and promote nonperformance? No way. Now that they have trackers on things it does make it less likely to pull the stunts they pull (and I know several postal workers who've told me the games) but it doesn't prevent mis-delivery, which happens too. I never rely on the post office when it absolutely, positively HAS to get there! I like fax, email and online banking.