USPS Horror Stories:

[souldog]

CPers,

I just came back from my local United States Postal Service Post Office located in breezy Murrieta, CA, after trekking out from two separate trips there. :angry: :angry:

The first trip was to locate a package I sent to a BOTL on the board A WEEK AGO. In communication, it was discovered that he has still not received a package of cigars I sent as payment for a Nintendo DS (a gift for my lovely wife :love: ). The outcome of that first trip was a USPS worker telling me, "Looks like they lost it dude... Sorry, can't help you..."


So, little Soulpuppy toddled off back to his doghouse, and put together a THIRD PACKAGE of the same f@ckin' cigars!!! I'm running out of duplicates of these, doesn't USPS understand?!!??!?! I went to the PO and sent the same package, a third time. I bought insurance, as well as the standard DC#.


I'm just gettin' a little perturbed at this occurring, as it is the third time I've sent a set of PREMIUM HTF CIGARS, and twice these %&#$ers lost it!! :angry: The first time, they returned the package to me, cigars crushed and unsmokeable, saying the address was undeliverable. So, I resent a second package, and now that one is LOST. Third time better be a damn charm!!



With my story now out there, I'm asking you to share your worst USPS Horror Story. The B/SOTL who has the worst cigar-related story of USPS wins the prize: The bragging rights to knowing that you have been bent over by the best shipping service the United States had to offer!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:


Ease my pains with your misfortunes...

 

[g-smoke]

Well, I was just bitching this morning (to no one who cared in my house) about the 10er of Serie JJ belicosos I ordered from Cigars Int'l on July 16 that have not yet found their home to me yet. After one failed attempt, it's now been about 11 days that they've been in limbo. I'm sure they're probably hosed by now...

Still, that doesn't really match your tale.

Maybe some enterprising individual should start a cigars-only shipping and delivery service....

Here's hoping your smokes arrive safely.

 

[switters]

Which carrier will you be using to deliver said prize package? :whistling:

 

[Atlasm]

I will never take a package to my local PO. last time I did, the package never got there. After weeks of me badgering and them ignoring me, I sent another. They both showed up together a week later!

 

[Nimrod]

Nothing like sending sticks out in the middle of summer, only to have it returned dried out a week later saying it was an unknown address.
I have no love for the USPS.

 

[uptown_isy]

Ive actually been having problems with UPS for the first time in 11 yrs. Now, there are 3 problem packages with them. FEDEX is looking better each and every day.

 

[mmburtch]

You didn't draw a picture of a bomb on the outside of the package like the one you sent me did you? :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

[jlada]

Two or so years ago at the post office as I was there about 9 am. Only 2 people in the entire lobby - me and an elderly woman in front of me. I overhear her saying the package is very fragile etc, etc. In huge capital lettering FRAGILE in written in black Sharpie marker. She buys insurance. She buys DC#. She takes forever and it frustrated me because I thought I got there early enough to get by the line.

I get called up next.

The guy picks up the obviously heavy/large package from counter, does a 180, drops it from about waist high on the ground, and it hits with a huge thud noise. He pauses, turns around, and says, "How can I help you?".

To this day I am still floored.

 

[souldog]

You didn't draw a picture of a bomb on the outside of the package like the one you sent me did you? :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Of COURSE I did!! It's my trademark drawing, I HAD TO!!! :sign:

 

[altercall]

I had a nice premium package of smokes I sent to a brother that was lost, but this one is the best.

I ordered some cigars from France, you know the kind. After not getting them in 3 weeks I emailed the seller and he couldn't figure it out. He had sent the box when they were bought. We decided to wait a week just to be safe. The end of the week comes and nothing. By that point I'm a couple days away from a vacation so we decide one more week (by this point we're over a month).

Well, I get back from vacation to find this:

Fearing the worst, I heard rattling inside. I was thinking the cigars were in pieces, but it turned out the peanuts had shrunk somehow:

Then I figured out why they shrunk. You see, some of the stuff inside the box was still set. Apparently at some point the box got soaking wet, and this is what it left inside:

Thankfully the ox was in plastic and paper was wrapped around it, but they were banged up good:

In the end, only 2 sticks came out undamaged, though most of the damage was at the foot or the tip of the cap and could be dealt with.

 

[TBaGZ]

Holy chit mang!!! That is crazy, I woulda had a fit right there in the lobby! They would have had to get me dragged out of there before I left willingly without doing something for the lost packages.

 

[MadMonk]

I just recently had a package returned, that had been seriously damaged. Think steam roller.
A very nice bomb of ten super premiums. Insured, and the intended victim never had a clue.
I've been exceedingly busy lately, so getting to the post office is troublesome. That's the biggest P in the A at this point. Intended victim will just have to blissfully wait another week or two.

 

[Devil Doc]

Never had a problem. I tip my mailman every Christmas. I guess it doesn't hurt.

Doc.

 

[mmburtch]

Never had a problem. I tip my mailman every Christmas. I guess it doesn't hurt.

Doc.

I do as well. Always befriend the mailman. The only problem I have had was a lost package, and that was after the USPS handed it off to the US Army.

 

[bpj87]

My worst incident involved a destroyed MO sent for some nicely aged smokes, for which I was really excited. The seller sends me back the remains, which found their way to him in a "we're sorry" envelope. My letter had been torn in half, and only one side of the MO remained. I took my MO receipt and the remaining half of the MO, spent over an hour at the PO, and was luckily granted a replacement after much confusion as to the proper procedure. All was well in the end, but the matter should have been resolved in a few minutes, not in over an hour. :angry:

 

[Infinity]

I think we undervalue the smokes we ship, especially HTF. We often put together an expensive package and instead of using UPS ground, for say, $12 to $15 we use USPS for $5.

Brian

 

[Bsneed51]

The USPS paid for most of my childhood, and some of my expenses in college(my mom works for the usps), so I won't complain. :laugh:



edited to clarify*

 

[Devil Doc]

The USPS paid for most of my childhood, and some of my expenses in college(my mom works there), so I won't complain. :laugh:

Don't blame you. Where else in the world, for .42, can you send a message and have it hand delivered. Ask some of our Canadien Brothers or European Brothers what they have to endure.

Doc.

 

[half full monty]

Here's a good one:

A BOTL on another forum to remain nameless was selling off most of his collection. I accepted an offer for a box of delish smokes, that have the initials erdmcs. And they've had some birthdays.

I send my end out and he sends his, with the DC. Wife was at the beach with the kids, I was working late all week. I come home one night at 10:30 (ok so maybe I wasn't working the whole time ) and see the flag up on the mail box. This is also the day I would expect them to arrive. Sometimes the mailman (or person) will rubber band a box around the lid and the flag, so now I am worried, as there is no box. I immediately check the mailbox and there is nothing in it, not even a shred of junk mail. Impossible! Never happened in 11 years.

So it's totally dark outside and the neighbors are asleep with their lights off. I head to bed bummed.

Next day is a Friday, and another late work day. I come home and the neighbors are not home. I'm thinking my next door neighbors saw it and picked it up. PMA.

Saturday comes, and I catch him cutting the lawn. Nope. No mail, no package, never looked or saw it. Now I'm jonesin. I go to the PO. No package, check with the supervisor on Monday. The web site shows the package was delivered on Thursday.

I wait a few days, thinking that some miracle will occur and the box will magically show up on my doorstep. I send my wife to the PO to talk to the supervisor. Of course, she goes to the PO closest to where she is running her errands, 15 miles away from the PO that actually would have handled the package. Lesson learned.

She goes to the PO that services the house, and they have no idea, the mail person does not remember delivering a box to the house and I am back to square one.

I send a note to the seller and let him know what is going on. I was more worried about him thinking I am an ingrate for not having acknowledged the delivery and explain the situation. He lived up to his end, I just wanted him to know what I had been dealing with.

At this point, I am resigned to having burnt my cash. More importantly, aged smokes don't grow on trees and I am PO'd at the PO.

Three weeks have now transpired since I entered into this transaction, and I am literally requesting Fed Ex shipping ( and I'll pay the extra cost) for another transaction. I am wondering about the future of my cigar trading hobby if I have to worry about package getting stolen at the end delivery point.

The moral of this story:
I come home one night and there is a rather large USPS package sitting in the foyer. I ask where this came from. " Oh, the neighbors down the street picked up our mail one night when we were at the beach."

The sight and smell of those robusto's might be one of the greatest cigar experiences ever!

 

[TBaGZ]

Three weeks they waited to bring it to you?! I woulda kicked him in the sack! HARD! what if it was something like your kids birthday present and you missed it, that would be messed up. Should never mess with someones mail unless they know or you think it will be ruined by weather or something. Even then you should get it to them asap!