I recently saw a blog post on ApacheDug's Teepee about a Christmas card that came to him partially torn off.
I wondered why the postal department didn't include the other broken piece of mail so he could at least tape it together to read the entire card.
AND THEN....
Would you believe?
So now I'm wondering about mail we send out. Should I use shipping tape and wrap it around the letter?
Have any of you seen this problem?
I must tell you that our mail carrier is the absolute BEST!!! I've seen her doing extra trips to deliver packages and she's told us how they're all struggling to keep up with everything.
Have any of you had your mail damaged this way recently?
No, I haven't. That's terrible! My mail comes all in one piece and always has.
ReplyDeleteI don't know our mail person since we have a community box. We have keys to our own box and never interact with the mail person except on very rare occasions when there is a special deliver although I can't think right now when that last occurred or why. Perhpa it was when a box was too big to fir in the package containers at the bottom of our letter boxes.
ReplyDeleteI asked my husband who is retired now, but worked for the USPS about 40 years, if you should use shipping tape and wrap it around your letters. He said don't do that. The tape wrapped around a letter like that would most likely cause your letter to get caught up in the machinery of the high speed mail sorting machines that the post offices use.
ReplyDeleteWe have received damaged letters in a Postal Service envelope like you did a couple of times. It is mail that has gotten caught up in the high speed sorting machine. The Main Post Office here in St. Louis is like a big factory. It is amazing to see the amount of letters that go through there. What surprises me are the stories we hear about Postal employees who manage to steal gift cards and such out of envelopes. They must be goofy. There is a walkway all around the work floor at ceiling level. That ceiling level walkway is draped with heavy canvas that has small observation cut-outs all along it for Postal Inpectors to watch over all of the employees. The Inspectors behind the canvas are watching for theft and other suspicious activity. Postal Inspectors observe the workers 24/7 while the workers are there. One time my husband saw a woman who worked there handcuffed and taken out. The Postal Inspectors had caught her stealing out of the envelopes.
I hope you don't receive anymore damaged mail in the future.
Thank you for the warning, Susie. It's a good thing you told me.
DeleteI always wonder about that and as my husband scotch taped our Christmas letters closed so they wouldn't be ripped open. Some had Christmas checks inside then we emailed family members to make sure they got their checks and also watched our bank statement to make sure they cashed their checks!!! Machines aren't that careful!
ReplyDeleteYikes! I just posted about mailing a box with a fragile thing in it. I hope that box doesn't end up like your envelopes.
ReplyDeleteHow strange. Something I have never experienced has happened to two people I know in one month. Hummm.
ReplyDeleteThe P.O. is pressured to use auto machines and I imagine that they get jammed and mail gets torn. I have not had torn mail in many years. Our two postmasters live across the street so I might someday have such an issue but can find out why,
ReplyDeleteI can recall a few times over the year receiving letters with damage to them but nothing like what you or Doug have received. Me personally, I think paying someone $0.58 to deliver a letter anywhere in our country is such a deal, I wouldn't complain even if I got damaged letters more often.
ReplyDeleteLike a dog got to it. I have had mail opened up I complained when it happened more than once then I wrote in and it stopped
ReplyDeleteMany years ago I received a large parcel containing a variety of items I had ordered from somewhere, which appeared to have been ripped open and taped back together. Inside, along with my own items, I discovered a small separate package addressed to someone else in a completely different part of the country. Obviously my package had been damaged in transit through the postal system, and when some postal worker was putting my items back inside it, they included the other small package by mistake. Since the small package had the proper recipient's name and address on it, I re-mailed it to them myself. This is the only time I've ever seen something like that happen.
ReplyDeleteI get so little "real" mail any more that it would be a big surprise to see something like that. Of course it would never happen with the junk mail. Everything that I care about is now online, other than nice cards at Christmas. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've had a couple of letters come in a "We Care" exterior envelope from damaged mail. This was a few years ago. I don't recall it being any overly important mail. Since LeJoy was put in place in order to have his company's sorters used by the USPS, like his character and lack of care, I suspect damaged mail might occur more often until, and if, he and his machines are kicked out. Why can't the machines damage the junk mail? I'd heard that we shouldn't mark boxes "Fragile," because the few cranky postal workers will throw it around more.....although I've not experienced any broken items. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteI don’t see why they couldn’t have ripped the junk mail which we get a LOT of. I’ve had damaged boxes. I’ll remember NOT to put Fragile on my packages. Goodness!
DeleteKay, I'm very sorry that happened to you too! I don't get it, these are some pretty big rips! I wanted to say that also like you, I have one of the best mail carriers in Pittsburgh. I've known mine (Jim) for years, and like your carrier said, Jim says things are really rough right now. (Also, after 70 years we lost our neighborhood post office in 2021 after the loss of their sorting machine.)
ReplyDeleteThat’s what Wendi, our mail carrier tells us. I think Omicron is hitting mail carriers too, just as it’s hit so many of our teachers.
DeleteI've had only 1 or 2 but still intact but busted up. Your pieces were demolished!
ReplyDeleteMost of my mail are flyers. My three bills are emailed to me.
ReplyDeleteA piece of mail sent to my son was very late and beat up.
ReplyDeleteI've had things bent but never torn in half like that! I feel sorry for the mail carriers. They seem to be caught up in a horrible bureaucracy. I love my mailcarrier too! He's been getting to our mailbox so late these days. Poor guy!
ReplyDeleteIt's been a long time since damaged mail was returned.
ReplyDeleteI have not received damaged mail. I would never know if I had lost mail.
ReplyDeleteI do think it's amazing that we get the mail service we do. The huge number of mailed items, the different ways it is handled, the miles it travels, and still it almost always gets here intact. Then unfortunately it might get stolen out of your mail box. So many of our neighbors have had stolen mail. We have a very tough, expensive , supposedly pry open proof mail box just for that reason.
Our mail where I live gets damaged weekly. We never get those nice Sorry envelopes. I have lost 2 gift cards in the past two months in the mail. I do not have a lot of faith left in the UPSP.
ReplyDeleteNo never Kay
ReplyDeleteNever...knock on wood.
ReplyDeleteSorry your mail got damaged.
ReplyDeleteOurs has been fine :)
All the best Jan
Hi Kay--All the emails I've sent to you lately have come back as undeliverable; have you received any of them?
ReplyDeleteGosh! I don’t know why I’m not getting it. I’ve gotten an email from one blogger. So weird.
DeleteI see it every day in my company's incoming mail. Not many when you balance it against the 1000s of pieces of mail we receive, but it happens regularly
ReplyDeleteNo mail torn like that. I've had some the postal service person exposed to rain on rare occasions when we've had any and some envelopes somewhat crumpled.
ReplyDelete