New Postal Shipping Rules Proposed

[cindy]

In the past I would call and ask if I could ship finches, they said they would call me back with an answer from Tampa. They called me, told me it was approved by the manager in Tampa and told me when to get to the local office to fill out the paperwork. On the box and paperwork I wrote FINCHES. Never hid the fact of what was in the box. They filled out the forms, wrote it was approved and took my money...the red carton was sent out and arrived safely at it's destination about 8 hours later. I always called to get approval prior to sending out or receiving. Always honest and said finches. This was in 2009. Have not shipped since.

If it is so illegal how do major bird brokers like Singing Wings and Birds Express allowed to ship USPS all these years?

[coopers]

I hope this goes through for all the reasons other supporters have mentioned. It would help me out a lot and allow me to ship less at a time. Due to how far I am from the airport I choose not to ship less than 6 birds at a time because it's not worth my time. There's always cons to everything but if this proposal is accepted then I would hope the USPS employee SOP will be amended and birds will be taken care of and not looked as replaceable items like gamebirds and waterfowl (although not an excuse with those birds either).

All in all I vote for this to be approved.

[Sally]

I'm retired from an airline, and my brother is retired from another airline, and we've discussed airline shipping many times. My experience was all with in-flight passenger service, while he has experience in sales, cargo, charter--almost every aspect of the airline business. Basically, most airlines would rather not carry pets in the cargo hold at all. It is a huge hassle for the airline, and they only continue it due to public demand. I have no doubt that Delta's recent increase in shipping price to approximately $160 is in part to discourage the practice completely. Look at the prices most airlines charge for a pet in the cabin--$100 to $150 each way, for a pet that does not occupy a seat, but rather goes under the seat in front of you and qualifies as one of your allowed carry-on luggage. So if you want to take Fifi with you to visit Aunt Minnie, it can cost you upwards of $300 for the privilege.

There are some species that should always be shipped via airlines because they are either so expensive or so delicate, but I would love to see the option to ship USPS for those who have no choice. Let's face it, USPS shipping goes on, some of the largest brokers in the country routinely ship USPS, but it would be nice to be legal.

[mayble]

I would hope the USPS employee SOP will be amended and birds will be taken care of and not looked as replaceable items like gamebirds and waterfowl (although not an excuse with those birds either).

I was thinking the same thing, though I realize that some people are compassionate when it comes to animals, and some are not.
Even though companion animals such as dogs and cats are generally looked on as members of the family, it is my understanding that to the courts they are considered property and their value is limited to their actual cash value. So if the airline is neglectful and Fido dies as a result, there is no liability beyond what it would cost to go to the breeder (or the pound) and get another dog. It's just as if they had lost your luggage. The same holds true if your dog dies while in a boarding kennel or the groomers.
In the end, we need to trust the humans in the delivery chain to have empathy for our pets or we just don't ship them.

[30 Seconds to Bob]

If it is so illegal how do major bird brokers like Singing Wings and Birds Express allowed to ship USPS all these years?

Don't know. Maybe "illegal" is a bit too harsh a word, as I don't know of anyone having been prosecuted or gone to jail over it. The bird shipments could have easily been confiscated or rejected, however. Perhaps "unacceptable" is a more appropriate term. It has been written in the Domestic Mail Manual publication for as long as I can remember. There are valid reasons for this, of which I have mentioned several times. Maybe "special permissions" have been granted or local offices have simply chosen not to abide by the regulations. Again, I've seen enough birds come through DOA over the years to never want to subject any bird of mine to it. If anyone thinks that shipped birds are "gingerly handled" with kid gloves in climate controlled cabins, you're living in a pipe dream.

I'm done with this topic but will post any useful or relevant info I find out pertaining to this when I go back to work for those who still care to ship. No grudges. Bob

[cindy]

All I know Bob is that the office in town had to call Tampa to get permission for my shipment to go, which was granted. It also had to be warm weather to do so. That was 2009...about a year ago I called to see if I and a friend could ship birds to one another.... this time it was denied and we were told it was being strictly enforced. Since then it has not crossed my mind until this new proposal came around. One can only hope that if this does come to be that special precautions will be taken for shipping, perhaps bettering the experience....after all it could be a money maker for the post office not to mention bird breeders and the hobbyists.

[Pukasand]

I was contemplating not having birds anymore, since I had no where / no one to take the chicks and had to pay an arm and a leg to get any new birds. This sounds great. Plus, I think once the USPO and the public get used to the idea, the birds will have safer trips. Thanks, Sally for the news. And thanks to all the members who had input.

[Nerien]

Gee, I can't even trust our PO with my regular mail. Stuff never arrives, here, or outgoing. Or takes three weeks for what should be an overnight trip. I get mail for the right house number, but wrong road. Or just randomly get all the neighbor's mail in my box, and them mine and others too, some days you see as each person goes out to their box, they sort through the mail and then walk up and down the road for our little section putting mail in the correct boxes. My little town PO was so bad, our state legislature rep called regional level PO people in for a town meeting, the crowd filled the room the hallway and out of town hall into the street, and they just got reamed for over two hours until they shut the meeting down. Personally, I've got the worst carrier in town. The other carriers say so (many people in town know and love their carriers), so does my retired friend who used to work in this town and a neighboring one as a supervisor. Ol' Helga hates us all, hates delivering mail, hates everything. Everyone on the route has had problems with her. Knows darned well I walk slowly, with a cane, yet pulls in my driveway when she has a package, then sits there in the truck pretending to sort things until I get on my shoes, get my cane, walk out and down the front steps and come to her truck in the driveway to get the package. Me? I now go as slowly as possible, to make her meet me on the porch and not have to deal with the stairs. (If a family member is home, I do send them running out to get the package from her. But I should not, nor should not have to, do that!) So she hands me my package, then backs her truck out of my driveway and puts the rest of my mail in the mailbox across the street. So rude! Folds cardboard mailers marked "Photos-Do Not Bend" and crams them in the mailbox. Stuck my town tax bills for the cars INSIDE the pages of the junk newspaper ads (actually within the folded pages of the ad) so that they almost got thrown out because we didn't see them. Once ordered a cheap $4 lilac bush, it came in a long skinny box as it was just two or three stems marked "Live Plants", she folded the box in half and crammed it in the mailbox. Hoping she's older than she looks and she retires soon. And our packages are ripped, crushed, smashed, hanging open--I have actually gotten packages with full boot prints crushed into them, and a few with TIRE TRACKS, yes, tire tracks (like forklift size) across the mangled remains of the box. There are many times I have not bought things on the internet because the only shipping option is USPS. UPS is not much better, stuff mangled, left in the driveway in the rain, but at least they deliver it all. Fedex is good, here. Wish they did birds. I know my USPS service here has to be about the worst example anywhere, but geez, cannot possibly imagine entrusting something living to them. The rest of you all are so lucky.

[Sally]

Nerien What a nightmare! Makes me realize how lucky I am. Surely there is somewhere your neighborhood can file complaints (or maybe people are afraid to do so for fear they will never get their mail again). Sounds like it might be time to take some videos and present them to your local Postmaster. This carrier is guilty of vandalism.

When I first moved to my neighborhood, we did have problems with the mail. Not that it was damaged or destroyed, but we were constantly having to redeliver the mail, as it was always mixed up. We finally solved that, because we started putting the misdelivered mail back in the box, putting the little red flag up, and the next day she had a pile of mail to shuffle. Once we all stopped sorting the mail for her, it soon got straightened out. For years now, we have had a different carrier, and she is very good, no more misdelivered mail.

I had a problem with UPS this week. I ordered something from another town in my area. I was going to drive there to pick it up, when I realized that between the cost of gas and my time, I was just as well off having the item delivered. But all week, I have heard nothing. Called today, and it turns out that there was a different driver than normal on the route, and he returned the package to the main office saying the address was wrong, as there was no such street. UPS mailed me a postcoard to tell me they could not deliver (and I have yet to receive any postcard). I told them that I have had this address for 13 years and have never had a problem with UPS or FedEx finding me. That's when they told me there was a 'cover' driver on the route who may not have been familiar with all the streets. I was told I could drive to Ft. Worth to pick up the package. Why would I drive there, when I have paid $23 for them to deliver the package to me? So now I will get it Monday (I hope). In hindsight, I should have driven to pick up the item. I would have had it last Tuesday.

[Nerien]

Speak of the devil....

I look out my window just after lunch, I see this:



So I grab camera and go out there, and I see this:




Get closer, and yup, sure enough:




Same thing written in huge letters completely across the back.

Thank you, Helga. Inside were the four Presidential Volunteer Service Award certificates for my Girl Scouts. Only ever so slightly wrinkled, thank goodness.

Going to print off these pictures and have hubby hand deliver them to the Postmaster in town. We just got a new one, and he actually seems to care. Finally got Helga to bother shutting my mailbox after delivering the mail. (Called in the day I took the dog for a short walk, and four of the first six boxes I passed were open, two with crammed-in packages hanging out. box was closed the next day, then not for the rest of the week. Called again, now we get our boxes closed.) Also going to have hubby mail out bills from work, not putting anything in the box after I send these pictures in, not worth the risk. angry Helga not a good thing.

[30 Seconds to Bob]

Actually "Do Not Bend" would have been the appropriate endorsement for that package. Sometimes the carrier thinks that they're doing you a favor by leaving it in the mail box and not making you drive to the post office to pick it up. Fragile, (if it doesn't sound like it's broken into a million pieces) can still go in a mailbox. Bob

[Nerien]

"Do Not Bend" she interprets as Fold A Firm Crease right down the middle as you fold it in half and crush it into the mailbox. Have watched her (from inside my living room I can look straight through her truck into my mailbox & what she is doing) actually PUNCH oversize envelopes and packages into the box. This woman has problems. Serious problems.

Still don't think something marked "Fragile" should be bent and stuffed, half hanging out, into a mailbox. Packages she is supposed to pull into the driveway and bring to the door. But as I said before, she doesn't like to, she sits in the truck waiting for someone to notice and come out to her.

The envelope also contained the four small plastic jewelry case boxes containing the girls' Presidential Volunteer Service Award pins. Guess that's why the mailer chose "Fragile". Need to have four more awards sent to me, turns out my girls did over 100 hours of service projects the year before, also, and I can submit documentation for that, also, so they will get two Gold PVSA awards each at this year's ceremony. Will have to call the Council and ask them to send them in a sturdier packaging, and maybe have them sent to someone else's house. Someone who doesn't have Helga who hates both mail and her customers and the world in general.

[30 Seconds to Bob]

On behalf of the Post Office I am very sorry that that happened to you and your girls. There are bad ones in every bunch. The only way things like this will ever get resolved is if enough people continue to complain to her supervisors. We've had several mail carriers FIRED in my office just within the past couple of years for constant misdeliveries or just plain screwing things up. My boss is a no-nonsense Texan. Thankfully, I'm on his "good" list. P.S. and I did get an uncut sheet of collectable baseball cards stuffed into my mail box once, because it wasn't marked "Do Not Bend". My "good" carrier thought he was doing me a favor. Bob

[Nerien]

Thanks, but not your fault. Helga really does have issues, obviously. And previous postmaster didn't give a hoot. In fact, he would hide in his LOCKED office all day, no one saw him, talked to him, for several years we joked that he was just a myth, and didn't actually exist. If you called with a complaint about your carrier, you would get told, "Well, we can have your carrier call you and you can discuss it with them." Uh, yeah, sure, that'll work.

I'd get the bigger size box, but between the snowplows, icy heavy snows, and kids who drive around bashing mailboxes with bats and twobyfours, it would just be wasted money, once they get bashed they don't close right anymore and they just rust to pieces where dented very quickly. Our first box when we moved in here had a metal pole, someone ran it over one night. Drove right against the pole and sent a tire directly across the box, flat as a pancake it was. So then we went to wooden pole and rocks around the bottom to both help hold it and deter drive-bys, tho it's a miracle this one is still in one piece since it's so exposed where it sits, best is to put your box right next to/behind a tree or telephone pole for cover. Don't know why the kids can't find something better to do Saturday night than bash mailboxes. Even still,yYou can see the angle our box is sitting at, snowplows throwing heavy wet crud knock over and destroy many boxes and snap poles. Just not a good place for mail--snowplows, weather, box bashers, and Helga. But then, maybe she has reason to be so nasty, maybe she's having a really hard life, and doing the best she can. Just wish she wouldn't do it on my mail.

But about a month ago when I got fed up with the constantly open mailbox and I called, I got to talk to a brand new postmaster, who actually did care, and did make her start shutting the boxes, and told me to call whenever there was a problem. So, there is hope, possibly. Just wish Helga would switch to another route and become someone else's problem. But my retired postal friend says that here they bid on the routes, so we can't get rid of her until she decides to change. rats. The guy before her was so nice, totally incompetent, we'd get the right house number but the wrong street's mail all the time, and some days I think he randomly stuffed boxes, but he was really nice. Getting hostility-abused mail from a very crabby woman is not fun.

[Sally]

Off-topic, but when I first moved here, I wanted a mailbox with a newspaper slot. Rubbermaid makes one--not the prettiest mailbox in the world, but it had a newspaper slot. I called the newspaper to make sure the delivery person would use the paper slot. Of course, my paper was on the ground most mornings. The only way I got it straightened out was to call and tell them that if my newspaper was on the ground one more time, I would cancel my prepaid one-year subscription. The next day, it was in the special slot. Of course, you can't cancel your postal delivery! As Bob said, there are good and bad workers everywhere, you just got one of the bad ones. Keep filing complaints, it is the only way to get results.

BTW, I finally got my UPS package yesterday, and the postcard came Saturday. The irony is that they sent a postcard to this address to tell me the package could not be delivered because the address does not exist. Huh?