Anyone else have mail problems?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Yes, I know we're into the Holiday season, but mail I, and my daughter, sent separately to different parts of the country has taken over half a month to arrive. One was deposit by mail, the other payment of a bill. Just curious. Glitches in the post office already?

-- D.J. Phillips (gardengal@land.com), December 01, 1999

Answers

Yup,

Sent mail to our neighboring state and it took a week. Have noticed really slow mail for several months. Doubt if it's Y2K though.

-- (Polly@troll.com), December 01, 1999.


It is a Konspiratsi:-)))) Tis wai the Bancs Who Kontroll eferythink Kann Charke you more LATE VEES.

-- papiratsy (Konpiratsi@gov.kon), December 01, 1999.

Yeah, I doubt it is Y2K related too. Afterall, if it was, we would have been told right away? And the Post Office doesn't use many computers do they? And even if they do, they must have been fixed long ago.. at least by the September, no March, no June, no September deadline, right?

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), December 01, 1999.

That's right Linda. PLUS, my post office has an impressive sign that boldly states, "We Are Ready For Y2K", and it's not just some cheap grade of posterboard either. Top notch.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), December 01, 1999.

Oops,

Almost forgot. This is a "everything that does not go right is due to Y2K" forum.

Sorry I lost my temper, girls.

-- (Polly@troll.com), December 01, 1999.



YES! I do alot of eBay auctions and recently had a "priority mail" envelope take 10 days to get to Berkeley from Salt Lake. The PO said priority is nothing more than 1st class but they charge 10 times the amount with no greater speed. Yesterday I realized I had another check I sent 11 days ago and it still hasn't arrived at it's destination. Let's revert to the Pony Express!

-- Wayne Morrison (hypno_ut@yahoo.com), December 01, 1999.

I am employed as a relief post master for the USPS. In the last few months we have noticed that indeed the mail is slower at arriving. We have been reciving boxes of mail dated a day behind and then there may be only one or two peices of mail in each box. Although since we have complained the number of boxes was cut down from 10+ to about normal again. The Post office does use a lot of PCs and scanning devices for tracking. So although I have no answers myself I do relize that the mail is just not moving as fast as it should. If you are mailing packages for Christmas the earlier sent the better....

-- pmrl (postoffice@employee.com), December 01, 1999.

I was told to wait 30 days to see if the first class letter I sent from AZ to IL was lost in the system. 30 freakin days!! I am at day 21 and it still has not arrived in IL.

-- Bill (y2khippo@yahoo.com), December 01, 1999.

I was going to send my January mortgage payment right before Christmas to get it cleared this year. Looks like I will have to send it earlier than that. Goodbye to cash flow in December.

I checked with Washington Mutual, which holds my mortgage. The billing office in Tacoma said I could physically bring the check to any branch. Great! I thought I could bypass the USPS. The WM branch near my office in Sacramento said, sure, they would take the check, but they would then have to MAIL it to the billing office in Tacoma before it would be cashed. The computers don't talk to each other, evidently. So, I have to deal with USPS anyway. Rats.

Anybody besides me planning on pre-paying one mortgage payment? Get it in the mail early. If you are with WM, don't count on them to make things easier.

-- Margaret J (janssm@aol.com), December 01, 1999.


-- Margaret J ,

Take it to your bank and have them put a receive time and date stamp

on it and tell them to give you a dated receipt. It will be the Bamnks problem after that as you have proof of on time payment.

-- just do it (goto@bank.now), December 01, 1999.



I sent a certified registered letter to a business in Utah over a month ago and they have not received it. Put a tracer on it and it's no where to be found. I sent a package via UPS to Fairfax, VA 11/22 and the person has not received it yet. Something is going on.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), December 01, 1999.

I hate to disappoint all the pollies and trolls, but I believe it is Y2K related.

I am a PTF distribution clerk in a size 22 office in N Texas. I have family members who are; A Postal Inspector, A Post Master, A PMR Post Master Relief, a regular Distribution Clerk, another PTF Distribution Clerk, and 3 Regular Rural Carriers. Also 2 retired Post Masters. We have been in the USPS in this area for over 30 years.

About a month ago, my office recieved the version 3.03a upgrade for the CSBCS letter sorting machines. This upgrade is part of the overall Postal Remediation for Y2K. We have had nothing but problems since then. They have been mostly minor incompatabilities, but ARE disrupting the processing of mail. The program is poorly done, poorly tested, and documented even worse. The technicians don't even have complete documentation of the bugs found in other offices. Each office is having to reinvent the wheel, over and over again. I know for a fact, that many EVERY office which I have a family member in, that is large enough to have in-office automation, has had problems with the new software. I have recieved reports of the same in other offices. They are STILL in the process of adding it to offices, so some still have this to look forward to. Also, ALL of our computers are old 286 machines, not compliant last I heard. And to top it off, the new version (Y2K fix) still generates report files using the mm/dd/yy format as a filename. Oops!

Now this is only from our end of the Postal Service. The VAST majority of the automation is centered in Processing Plants in hub Cities. A single letter will run through 3 or 4 machines before it gets to the destination office. I have little doubt that mail processing is or has recieved software just as buggy as ours.

BTW, all of this software comes from Lockheed Martin (sp?) They are the people responsible for that little Mars probe mishap (meters vs feet).

Postal management does not take Y2K seriously. They spent $500 million on it, but they don't know what they're doing. We will do whatever we can next year, but manual sorting is MUCH slower. Alter your expectations accordingly.

-- MegaMe (CWHale67@aol.com), December 01, 1999.


-- just do it

Thanks for the tip. That just may help me prove to Washington Mutual that I paid on time. However, I wonder if that will work in proving to the IRS that I made 13 payments this year? (assuming the IRS is sort-of in business next year) Still think I will pay early, and hope the check clears in 1999.

Looks like Y2K hit the Post Office a couple of months early.

-- Margaret J (janssm@aol.com), December 01, 1999.


...we finally get the snails trained and they changed the team...

-- eubie (eubie@snails'RUs.com), December 01, 1999.

Eubie!! ROTFL!!

>"<

-- SH (squirrel@huntr.com), December 01, 1999.



Local mail (sent and delivered locally) is taking up to three weeks to be delivered. The post office states that local mail is sent to Houston (about 60 miles away) before being delivered back to town. Many people have incurred late fees on their bills due to this. To the best of my knowledge, this started around the first of November. I don't feel it's likely due to the time of year (never happened before...to this extent).

-- NokternL (nokternl@anywhereusa.com), December 01, 1999.

Any regulars recall whatever happened to our friend "nine fingers"? He warned about USPS Y2K automation problems many, many moons ago.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), December 01, 1999.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ