Kim,

I know it wasn't meant personally. The main 
point of my email was to try and let you know 
there are "bad post offices" out there - ones 
that just can't get their act together.  I work 
for a small town post office, and we all strive 
to provide the best customer service we can. ;)  
I think it's the bigger cities that have the 
real problems. (I live in a fairly large city, 
and the service is just not as good as it is in 
a smaller town.)  While I adore the regular 
mailman who delivers to my house, I hate his 
sub. :P   On the regulars day off our mail gets 
here at around 8pm. ~.~ 

Actually, what has caused a HUGE amount of 
problems with shipping lately is the fact that a 
*large* number of the truck drivers went on 
strike.  For some reason that baffles all of the 
other postal employees, the truck drivers can go 
on strike. o.O; Mail carriers and clerks can't 
strike - we're considered government employees, 
and therefore are not allowed to strike. Odd. 
Anyway... The strike didn't last too long, but 
it actually made a big impact.  When there isn't 
anyone to drive the trucks, the mail backs up 
QUICKLY =/   And that just creates a domino 
effect. *sigh*   Then theres the fact that a lot 
of the large distribution centers have held mail 
when waiting for those irradiating machines to 
arrive. (Prolly spelled that wrong.. gomen, a 
bit on the brain dead side after working today) 
That was causing some significant delays during 
October and November. But in the past 3-4 weeks 
(at least where I am - northern Texas) the mail 
has been running very smoothly.

I agree about the telephone customer service - 
it's horrendous. Before I went to work with the 
PO I had to call it on a couple of occasions, 
and it was as if it was a huge deal to check on 
something. I was like err... it's your JOB to do 
this. ;P 

Another problem is that there are a lot of 
budget cutbacks and some PO's are just letting 
the older employees retire and just not 
replacing them. o_O;  or replacing them with 
temporary employees who really don't care about 
the work they do. :/

Anyway... I know going to the PO is a real pain 
in the arse (I won't go near one when I'm off 
work anymore =P) but if you can determine which 
has caused a problem in the past, it might be 
beneficial to avoid that one if it's 
possible. :/  Maybe you can see what the stamp 
is on the insurance ticket or whatever for the 
packages which were slow?  I dunno.. just a 
thought. ^^;

Well... again, just some random thoughts. :)

Sheri