I must admit I haven’t had that bad experiences with my mail man(s). From the hundreds of packages I ordered, less than ten (I can remember four) got lost in total in the last ten years. And one package I send myself got lost thus far (although I don’t send packages that often).
I did had some damaged products, but usually it’s not the mail man’s fault, but the seller for not properly packaging it. Like loose cards without toploader nor sleeve in an envelope. Or I once had a 10 cm high puzzle ball that was put in an 7.5 cm high box… They just indented/deformed it on both sides to force it into the small box… I was able to get it somewhat back in its original shape, but it still has dents in it…
My mailman is actually a pretty nice guy. The only problem is that he’s always in a rush… If I’m upstairs and he rings the bell and I go down right away to open the door, he’s usually already standing at the neighbor’s door… And if I happen to be on the toilet it’s usually already delivered at one of my neighbors before I have time to zip my pants.
I have rather similar experiences as @quuador , it’s hard to say bad things about mailmen I’ve come across. Surely occasional delays happen but those are mostly because of bad weather or busy seasons like Christmas. All the packages I’ve received/sent have always found their way to right address, thumbs up.
I remember one envelope being completely soaked in water because the postman forgot to close his flap on his little trolley xD Otherwise all mailmen I came across were always doing great, nothing to complain about!
My usual mailman is great and has the ability to read. I live in an industrial part of the city so the front of my building is literally the sidewalk. No neighbors really but a lot of foot traffic due to the bar/an impoverished neighborhood a few miles away. That being said we have a sign posted on the front of the building near the letter slot to deliver all packages to the alleyway gate so the goods are hidden from view and not stolen.
Fedex does not posses the ability to read and thus always claims to make a delivery attempt when they clearly do not as I will sit and wait for them.
When my mailman has days off every fill in also apparently cannot read as they constantly LEAVE IT ON THE LITERAL SIDEWALK. So I’ve had packages stolen and sifted through.
One fill in guy did actually read the sign and this time I had ordered an expensive new printer. He threw the box OVER the gate and of course it was totally smashed beyond repair.
I once had an overseas order and sent it with tracking. It went to Norway where it was suppose to be shipped but backtracked to the US and then sat in Chicago for three months before finally being shipped back to Norway.
Seems like the nobody home, collect at post office practice is pretty common worldwide. I used to get that a lot here in Australia as well, I work from home and my office is right next to the front door and I’d often get ‘attempted delivery, pick up at post office’ slips in my mailbox even though I was home the entire time. The current parcel guy I’m friends with though since he’s delivering stuff almost everyday, so it hasn’t happened in a long time.
The worst thing that happened to me was a sign on delivery parcel with a $5k card in it was left on my driveway, in full street view, just sitting there in the sun. Anyone walking along the footpath could’ve just gone and picked it up, when I went out and saw it I was pretty pissed off but luckily everything was ok.
The usual mailman is great. He actually comes into the alleyway and leaves packages. It’s just the ones who work when he has days off. They literally just don’t care. I’ve requested they hold any and all mail/packages before out of curiosity and they still deliver them and leave them on the sidewalk. It’s not exceptionally frequent but once is enough.
I had considered a P.O. Box of sorts but they had none available. I get a large amount of sizeable packages thru the week via USPS and UPS. Regular envelope mail is fine they always put it in the mail slot. Not sure what Post Net is. It’s a mildly frustrating predicament. Best course of action would probably be to move to a suburb instead of living in an old downtown building. The gunshots are tiring anyway. Haha.
I think the worst offender for me was a non-pokémon purchase.
Bought a few books online got all ready to pick my stuff up (1984 and a hardback complete collection of the Watchmen comics) but the postoffice had already delivered my package. I thought they were shipping it to my door instead of handing it out in person, which only happens if the package is small enough to fit my mailhatch on my door. Turns out the note telling me to pick up the package was accidentally handed out to someone else and the postoffice didn’t bother to ID the person picking the stuff up. It still bugs me that they could forget to ID the people picking packages up. This still bothers me to this day that something so tiny like a white paperslip let someone nab my books.
Worst things my postman has done other than deliver packages to my house would be, ringing the doorbell when I forgot to stamp an envelope, and giving my dog a treat when I was walking her.
By way of an update, Aus post has refunded $110 Aud ($100 being max refund and $10 for shipping) and i get to keep the item. Overall $27 aud out isn’t the worst result
only had 2 packages lost. unfortunately one was an order from TCA years ago for a miscut base set blastoise. that one stung. I wonder if it ever made it back to rusty?
the second package was from a seller reselling their toploader binder. USPS lost the package and the seller didn’t want to reimburse me because “I fulfilled my duties and it’s not my fault it’s lost.” sound reasoning but of course ebay refunded me.
