Having a tracking number means jack sh*t in Jersey City. In April and May, I had three separate packages that never arrived. One had a tracking number and we could see that it had made it to the downtown JC post office....in fact it had arrived about 3 weeks before. I called...I went down in person....no package. I finally gave up, and the company I ordered from refunded my money. So, of course, about 4 weeks later, the package mysteriously shows up. It sat somewhere in the post office for 7 weeks!!! Ridiculous.

But the best part was when I called the post office to find out if they have a room there for mail that they are not delivering..if there was a place I could come search, etc. I got lectured about using tracking number and how that would solve everything (HA HA HA HA HA!). He couldn't explain why my package with a tracking number couldn't be found. He went on to tell me over and over how in the history of the JC post office, they have NEVER LOST A PACKAGE. I fell over laughing. It was the funniest thing ever.

On several occasions, they've given me other people's packages or not had the package that I got a slip for and given me a different package (and then mysteriously find them when I call back to say that the package I received wasn't the one I was expecting). I explained this to the man on the phone. He didn't respond well when I explained that yes, technically if you give a package to a person...even the wrong one....it's been delivered.

Right before the Fourth of July, I found a neighbor's tax refund check (or stimulus payment) on the floor of my building's lobby peeking out from under some circulars, magazines and other crap.

I brought it over to the correct address (an apartment in the building next to mine) and the older man who answered the door was so excited when he saw it. He called to his wife and she came running to the door with a smile. The guy could barely understand me and spoke very little English, but he practically gave me a hug.

The post office really should be uniformly careful when delivering our mail, especially when certain envelopes obviously contain checks and other important items.

My mail carrier ends up stuffing my neighbors' mail into my box all the time.

I've also had more mail get lost and never arrive at my Jersey City address than at anywhere else I've ever lived.

Also, a weird pattern has periodically emerged where I'll get no mail for a few days, and then a small stack will appear in my box. Like it comes in waves.

It could be coincidental, but it makes me wonder if my mail is actually being delivered daily.

Summer is coming and if you are traveling and thinking of having the PO hold your mail DO NOT DO IT....You will never see that mail again or it will emerge months later in bulk with no explanation.....Pay a neighbor to pick up your mail..anything but the PO.....
I have also learned that all parcels MUST be sent thru the JC PO with a tracking #.....costs a bit more $ but it at least provides hope that you may one day receive the package....

My postal carrier, Nick, should be the poster boy for the Post Office! He is awesome, never losing our mail, conscientious, always a friendly smile.

However, the few times I had problems were not with regular mail but with Parcel Post. Recently, I had a shipment of roses that were there a week before I found out as there was no slip left, no bells rung (I sit about 8\' from the buzzer)despite the info on the tracking slip. So I called this guy below and everything was straightened out:

3/17/08 rich =mngr 201-915-7011

Good Luck!

Quote:

My mailman is great but I really hate picking up certified mail or packages at that little window in the back of main post office.

There often is NO one at the window -- there is NO bell and if you yell out hello after standing there forever -- you might if you are really lucky get this guy who yells back that he is busy -- Otherwise it's just a black hole. It happens to me all the time -- I told him he really needs to get a bell but he strongly disagrees.

I can hear him just shooting the sh!t with others back there! HAHA

About a year ago, a woman at the window of the main PO downtown refused to take a package from me because it was too heavy for her. She claimed to have had a bad back. The package was an old Palm Pilot and the box weighed maybe 5 pounds. She would have had to get off her chair and walk about 10 feet with it. When I realized it wasn't a Candid Camera skit, I started to get loud. A supervisor came by and supported the woman's story that she couldn't lift heavy items. I flipped the box in the air to show that it was practically weightless. I suggested the woman should not be at the window of a post office if she can't lift stuff or move. It was suggested that I just move over to the next window. I was about to make a suggestion in return that she procreate with herself when a JC cop walked in. Go figure, a Jersey City cop arriving BEFORE trouble starts. Anyway, I went to PostNet on Grove and had them send it. Nice guy. No complaints there.

JC Post Office flat out steals.

I recently had a watch delivered via USPS with a tracking number, insurance, and all.

Never got it.

The tracking number was useless to prove my case because no signature is required on delivery with Priority Mail.

USPS said they delivered; I said they were full of shite - I happened to be home all day that day.

Luckily I paid for the watch with my credit card, so my CC company had to eat $200, because I said I ain't paying for non-delivered goods.

From then on, I've specified either UPS or Fedex on all package shipments.

I have no patience for the petty USPS thieves.

When I lived in JC, on Montgomery St directly opposite the old Medical Center, I set up an account at Global Mail on Van Waggenen Street to receive parcels from online or catalogue vendors. The parcels were addressed in my name using the address of Global Mail and I was notified by telephone whenever a package arrived. Depending on size of the parcel the fee was $1.00 or $2.00. There were no other fees or requirements. I never missed a parcel. Since Global Mail was a business the USPS always made the deliveries and they were signed for by the store employees.

Here is who you should contact:

Quote:

Does anyone have anyproblems receiving their mail? My company seems to just not get their mail on a fairly regular basis. I call the post office, and while they are nice and they assure me all the mail is being delivered, I know it isn't. I have customers that have paid every invoice in a timely fashion, and then all of a sudden for 5 days in September my mail was not regular and many checks were lost. It is a hassle to call all these customers, and have them reissue checks, mostly because this is the 2nd or 3rd time for many of them.

So does anyone have any insight into how or why so much of my mail is getting lost? We moved 6 months ago and had some intial getting started problems, but now it is becoming a nusiance, getting mail doesn't seem like it should be rocket science, but I am nearing exasperation on this issue.

We had the same thing happen. Complained and he came out to talk and then spent a good deal of time discussing it with us. After he fixed the problem, he gave us a phone number and asked for any other thoughts in the future.

He's the Steve Fulop of federal government officials......

Made my day and week!

What can we say about the JC post office.

One attendant working a line of 20 people that takes 45 minutes to get through.

Getting notices that they are holding your mail and when you get there there is nothing there to collect.

Sending multiple change of address notices and don't get any forwarded mail for months and months

And here is the best one!!!!!!!!

I moved and didn't sent a change of address. Guess what happened. They actually figured out my new address and forwarded the mail themselves.

I am convinced that the JC Post Office is one of the worst run, least efficient Post Offices in the Country.

In a STUNNING turn of events, I just received a phone call from the Post Master General of Jersey City. After filing numerous complaints all over the place, this guy actually called me, apologized and claims he's looking into who is responsible for the most recent activity.

And get this - he gave me his phone number, and asked me to call him if anything else occurred.

I don't exactly expect any serious large-scale, long-term changes. But still...

The Jersey City post office is simply not able to
handle packages larger than a small book or
cd/dvd.
If you order from Amazon, try and get things
shipped separately, item by item, which costs
you more in shipping but will utlimately net
you more items arriving at your door.
Aim for things that will fit thru your mail slot
or into your mail box. Packages larger than
that --- forget about it: you will never get them
from USPS.

Arrange to have large items come to you via
UPS or FedEx or some other private carrier.
If you are not home at time of delivery,
UPS will leave the item with a designated
neighbor. FedEx also has been very co-
operative in getting packages/letters delivered.
Both these carriers are supposed to return
to the warehouse with their trucks as empty
as possible, so they do make the effort to
get your stuff to you.

USPS refuses to even ring the doorbell for
big box delivery. I've seen the guy time
after time just jump out of the truck and
slap an adhesive notice on my front door
while I sit and watch him from my window.
Then, if I run out and confront him, he
gets all like confrontational and ugly.
Calling the postmaster to complain does
no good because the postmaster is either
his aunt or uncle or brother-in-law, and you
get the picture.

Altho my daily letter carrier Nicky is the very
best in the business, the guys/gals who
handle the big stuff are the very worst.
It's best just to avoid the whole issue
of using USPS as a package carrier.

The Bergen PO is not better. The first notice of delivery - they don't deliver - they just drop off the peach slip. The best was when they lost my package & the supervisor at the branch tried to tell me that I already picked up the package. She refused to answer phone calls - she sure chnaged her tune once I filed a complaint on line. THEN it was found & the trick came out & the delivery man had the nerve to get nasty with me telling me he was there & no one answered -- umm, no, I saw you drop a package off across the street, get back into your truck & pull away.

Ah, yes, the JCPO. Stunning, isn't it? Remember when "the check's in the mail" was a poor excuse for a late payment? Now it's probably true.

The JCPO delivery problems are endemic and not restricted to any neighborhood.

The "nobody was home" bs is very common, sad to say. I don't know what the problem is. it's stunning to me that there is no quality control, no one is in charge, at least not to the point that "customer service" has any meaningful significance.

i've also seen:

- a FAMILY delivering mail, specifically CHILDREN being handed batches of mail by their (presumably) postal carrier parent to drop into boxes up and down the street. I saw this result, not surprisingly, in mail put into the wrong mailbox and mail thrown onto steps.

- when my landlords moving out, they changed their address, and MY mail stopped coming. after a few days of no mail, i called the PO and was told the carrier had made a mistake. [what kind of a mistake is that? you get a stop mail notice for one party, so you stop the other party's mail too? ????] after that the mail came trickling in but three months later i was still calling the P.O. about mail i wasn't receiving and i finally got a huge bag of mail that was sitting somewhere in a corner in the PO.

it's disappointing how low people's expectations are, of themselves and others.

I have had this happen a few times too. Tracking says attempt was made and notice left. I was home at time of attempt and there was no notice left. My regular package driver is very reliable but he has his day off or sick day like everyone else. I had a chat with him about this and he told me " yeah they couldn't find anybody to cover my route so no packages went out that day" . So what they are doing is just scanning them at the post office so they show up on tracking as attempted delivery. He advised me to complain and said more people should complain if the situation is ever going to change. What I usually do now when expecting a package is check tracking and if I see attempt made, I print it out and go to the PO just before closing when the trucks come in. They always find it somewhere in the back.

ENR,

I def. feel for you and wholeheartedly agree with the seriousness of the mail problems we have in Jersey City. I have had problems with mail theft and my neighbor has had problems similar to yours. The only thing I can think of to rectify the situation, is to not try to fight a losing battle. Why dont you rent a box at mailboxes etc. or a place similar. I know it isnt fixing the real problem but with a bunch of people who really dont care (post office employees), that have complete control of your mail, I dont think it is a problem you can fix. Sorry I dont have something better or more helpful to say. In my experiences with the Jersey City post office, it should be demolished and started fresh with people who take some pride in their work.

The people at the JC PO are either totally incompetent, or inexplicably vindictive. Or some long lost enemy from my past is paying them to drive me slowly out of my mind.

And so to try to preserve my sanity, I am posting this message in order to get it off my chest. It's very long, please forgive me, or just skip on to something else.

Somewhere between 8 and 10 months ago, someone sent me a USPS Priority package with a "delivery confirmation" number. Which means you can look it up on the USPS web, see if it's been shipped, when it was delivered, etc.

Couple days went by, didn't get the package, looked it up. The web page said a "delivery attempt was made at X time on X date - and a notice was left".

I work at home, and have a loud alert dog, and retired usually-home neighbors. I was home at the time of the stated date and time, no one came, no notice to be found. Went to the post office with the printed out web page, they can't find the package. After like, 3 days of calling supervisors, and PO HQ, I finally get someone who finds the package, I go and pick it up.

OK, so not the end of the world, right? But since then it's happened FIVE MORE TIMES.

The last few times, I started filing official complaints, and asking how it's possible that the Post Office allows someone to repeatedly mess with people this way. They can never seem to pinpoint the individual(s) responsible.

So this week it happened again. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a complete fool. Yes, I try to have things shipped by any other method possible, but other options are simply not always available from certain vendors. And some Priority packages have been delivered.

Right. So this time, I started keeping a trail of all the people I talked to, filing both phone, and email complaints. I am assured by multiple sources that my package will be "redelivered" on Saturday (yesterday). It wasn't.

Today, however, I checked the tracking page, and for the second time with the same package, someone entered that an "attempt had been made and a notice left on April 30th at 9:55 a.m." Once again, I was here, my husband was here, dog here, no doorbell, no notice.

If you're still with me, I have one more thing to tell. In February, we spent a month out of state. Like trusting babes in the woods, we had our mail "temporarily forwarded" to our temporary location. That went surprisingly well. Until we got back. We couldn't get it to stop. Many phone calls later, we were assured the problem had been solved, and we would now be getting all of our mail.

Only it seemed a little light. So after we'd been back say 6 weeks, husband went to the post office to see if they had anything lying around. Sure enough a huge pile of mail just sitting there. Including a Jury Duty notice for me. Which was now too late to respond to. I've just received a second notice telling me if that because I didn't show up for the original date, I must now show up for the new date or a WARRANT FOR MY ARREST will be issued.

If you have issues like these PLEASE file email complaints through the USPS web site. Someone really needs to take control of this place. These people are doing things that can mess with your life, in a pretty serious way.

Apologies once again for the length. Thanks for reading.