Yesterday I was out for a walk in our neighborhood and the USPS was all over delivering boxes...I had go laugh because I kept seeing him.

I ordered a bowtie for my son and had it in my hands within a couple of days even though I only paid for regular ground. I often do that. I learned awhile ago, it's typically faster to go USPS than UPS route. I use USPS all year long for many things. It's just easier to order online; life is so busy with an involved teenager! Like a great white shark, never stops moving. I will say they've gotten better about delivery overall. It's much better the past couple of years than say, five years ago. They're on the ball.

The Fed ex guy that delivers here cracks me up. He is at a full on dead run as soon as his feet hit the ground. He is a young man. I bet he gets a great workout.

Our regular mail lady has been getting later and later some time it's after 7 pm and she forgets stuff. I don't know what is going on with her. She is always on her cell phone screaming at some one. She parks at the dead end for hours on the phone. We were expecting a few packages and a certified letter with a check in it. The email had come in telling me that I should have received them. But I had not. I flagged her down and sure enough she started digging and found my packages and the certified letter with a major check was in a huge pile on her dashboard! Where wind could have blown it out or it could have been easily grabbed. She started going through that pile and I spotted the green certified sticker, she pulled it out of the middle of the stack and sure enough it was our check! No telling if we would have ever got it. I hate to report her but this kind of stuff is just not acceptable.

USPS seems to be the service used by Amazon for Sunday deliveries. I got one yesterday.

This time of year, our regular mail guy spends his mornings zipping around the neighborhood with packages, then the afternoon on his normal route. He brought us an Amazon-purchased laptop Thursday morning and was back many hours later to deliver the mail. I don't know if it's an overtime/extra hours drill for the holidays but he's much more visible than normal.

I think they do a great job. Much more of our dealings with them now are packages, mail stop/start orders and junk mail. I switch all billing to electronic means to eliminate the volume of paper we get. I have only compliments, no complaints. We always give him a nice Christmas gift (money or a good bottle of wine), he deserves it without doing anything more but I think it helps our service.

Granddaughter-in-law left her purse here on Sunday.......sent it out Monday AM at 10:30 and she had it 24 hours later. I was duly impressed!

I used to mail about 100 packages a year when I was dealing in waterlilies. Never had a problem. I did with UPS. Hated when someone requested it and I had to use it. Sometimes the orders were so large, I had to use UPS though....like, 700 irises, for example.

Ravencajun,

Do your mail carrier a favor and report the troubles. If she's spending a large amount of time on her cell phone, she's may be having marital/child care/who knows what trouble and the USPS can help her through the many employee benefit plans available to her. It is unlikely you will get her in trouble.

We have the opposite with USPS here. We have been told that our neighborhood is the local "training ground", and we often see carriers in street clothes rather than uniforms. Perhaps because of that, we have a big problem with items shown as "delivered" in the tracking that don't show up for days, or even over a week, sometimes not at all (including items being delivered for Amazon). And many of us have found mail and packages dropped in the lawns or on the street -- I rescued another from the street last month -- it wasn't even for an address in our neighborhood.

"It is unlikely you will get her in trouble"

You can't be serious with that comment. Reporting an employee's poor performance or consistently inappropriate conduct does put them on a list, but you can be sure it's not the "Postal Carrier of the Month" list.

I think with all the competition out there, USPS is trying harder. Elmer, I have seen a mail truck on Sunday and wondered about it.

For years, we had regular mail carriers. Then a few years back they started to rotate them. So, you never knew when to expect your mail. There were multiple errors and I guess after many complaints, we are back to a regular carrier.

Raven, I would call and ask if you can get window of when your mail will be delivered. Hopefully they will speak to your carrier and she will get the hint. I have never heard of USPS workers working that late in the evening.

Mail carriers talking on cell phones is a pet peeve of mine. Even when they use a hands-free device.

My pony express has taken too many a wrong turns lately. Sigh. Maybe he's underfed....or has sleep apnea. Whatever the cause may be..."timely" isn't one of his qualities. Maybe it's the latest price to be paid for rural delivery in this neck of the woods during the holiday season. I've been waiting 10+ days for books from a semi local [in State] seller...when it should take no more than a few days at most. Patience as a virtue is slowing ebbing away. :-(

I just wish I could get my carrier to not leave other people's mail in my box (and, of course, I believe he is doing the same with MY mail!), and to not push it all the way back in the box so that it cannot be reached without getting out of the car. The man is a moron, and an indifferent, rude one at that. The entire neighborhood hates him and USPS could not care less.

Anglo...your postman and mine must be related. Groan.

As to whether USPS cares...they do but their hands are tied. The carriers have one of the strongest unions I have ever seen and it almost takes an act of a higher being to remove them from their job. Complaints from customers don't seem to fall into that category. Both I and my neighbors have been complaining for almost 28 years. Have we had any success? Nope! And I'm convinced we never will.

I got a package delivered by the US post office last Sunday. And saw them delivering yesterday morning (Sunday) too. They are definitely trying harder.

Our postal carrier is a mess...lost packages, wrongly delivered mail, broken items. We used to have the most wonderful carrier, but he got promoted...no surprise.

I get Amazon deliveries on Sundays by USPS. Also, late, past 8pm.

Our mail has been coming late recently. I'm betting they're overworked.

The mail truck is in our neighborhood almost every Sunday morning. Someone here orders a lot! I do feel bad for our guy, though. We routinely get our mail between 6 and 7 pm. I sure wouldn't want to be out doing that job in the dark!

USPS delivered here on Sunday.

I got an Anker package (fulfilled by Amazon) this evening at 8 PM. Independent delivery person using their own van.

The ONLY mail service that did not deliver to our neighborhood this weekend was UPS. I could SCREAM they dropped two of three packages on Friday and now want us to drive 30 miles to get the third. I know all the whys but still this is very FRUSTRATING!!!

I live in an apartment building and our mailman keeps putting the mail in the wrong mailboxes. It is very frustrating.

My mailman surprised me with a package when I went out to get the newspaper at 7:00 this morning.

Yes, I think if our mailman killed half the people on his route, his union would protect him. We had the nicest man for 25 yrs and now this idiot.

SUCCESS..got home to five packages literally THROWN on our porch..no time to walk up the stairs...but the ONE we were dying for was across the street at the neighbors due to the "signature needed" on it. Watch out this year..the delivery people be CRAZY about now!!!

About those Sunday deliveries - I asked my regular letter carrier about that and he said that it's usually part timers who deliver on Sunday. It's less expensive to use part timers then to pay the regular mail people overtime.

Speaking of package deliveries, especially at this time of year, SIGN UP for tracking and live delivery notifications whenever you possibly can. This way, you not only know when the packaged is expected to be delivered and where it is in the delivery process, but when it's dropped off at your designated location.

I second this suggestion. I live on a busy street so I like to get packages inside my house as soon as possible after they are delivered. My regular delivery people are very good about posting the 'delivered' status within a minute or two after delivery. This is very helpful, because of my hearing impairment I don't always know that something has been delivered, although most of the time the dogs are pretty good about barking to let me know someone is there.

(and a video doorbell like Ring is very useful for deliveries, too)

DH ordered a replacement tablet last week, and it was delivered two days early, while we were gone. He got the delivery notice, and was able to get his parents to stop by for it before it got rained on. The delivery guys no longer walk around to the front porch. They just prop boxes up against the garage door, even if it's raining.

We used to get consistent knocks on the door with deliveries, but that doesn't happen all the time anymore.

Our Ring goes off with movement, so even with no knock or ringing the doorbell, we at least get an auditory cue when we're home.

what Elmer said.

"Reporting" someone *always* makes trouble for them.

I love the post office!

the *real* post office, not the ones operated by check cashing businesses, etc.

I've always gotten help, & helpfulness, from the post office.

A client who works for USPS in another state told me that there is *no* vacation time in December, so I try to at least smile & be cheery to the people who work so hard in December.