# The Postal Service and Missing Magazines



## bstuart29 (Jul 11, 2006)

Lets just say I'm not to happy with the Postal Service at the moment. In the last eight months I have not recieved four magazines. I didn't say anything with the first two I just ask the magazines to send me another copy and they gracious did. Recently I didn't recieve my Small Farmers Journal so I I emailed them and they sent me another copy and never recieved the extra copy they sent so I went up to my local post office to file a complaint and they said they couldn't really do anything that I should talk to the publisher. It's not the publishers fault, they have been out of the money for the additional magazines. I know sometimes the covers get ripped of magazines and they are then throw away but off four magazines coming from different parts of the country I highly doubt that happened. It more likely someone with the Postal Service stole them but I can't prove it. The only thing I thought of was to have Small Farmers Journal send me another copy but send it certified and then I could track it. Does anyone else have any ideas what I can do or if there is a process of filing a claim in such a occurence. The point isn't I'm out one magazine but the publishers are out the money plus one should be able to get mail without it coming up missing:flame: I guess I shouldn't be to surprised when the Postal Service is a quasi government agency.


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## Cygnet (Sep 13, 2004)

Could be someone else in your neighborhood too. Do you have a locking box, or can you build one? (One neighbor of mine has a box with a slot in the top and a baffle set at an angle, so nobody can reach in.)

I'm in the process of getting all my mail sent to a drop box in town at the UPS Store locally. it's expensive, but cheaper than identity theft, which is what we have issues with out here. (The local post office is only open four hours a day, a post office box is not workable. Plus,the UPS Store accepts packages from everyone, including other shippers and the USPS.)

-- Leva


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

bstuart29 said:


> Recently I didn't recieve my Small Farmers Journal so I I emailed them and they sent me another copy and never recieved the extra copy they sent so I went up to my local post office to file a complaint and they said they couldn't really do anything that I should talk to the publisher. It's not the publishers fault, they have been out of the money for the additional magazines.
> 
> It more likely someone with the Postal Service stole them but I can't prove it.
> 
> Does anyone else have any ideas what I can do or if there is a process of filing a claim in such a occurence.


Well I really doubt that a postal worker would jeopardize a well paying job and the threat of losing their pension over a magazine costing a few dollars. There are those idiots that would though, just not your average USPS worker by any means.

There is a process the postal service can go through to check on the magazine even if those at your office don't know it. I qualify that by saying, unless they have done away with it since I left the USPS. 

It is a publication watch form. The office receiving the publishers shipment records that the publication has been mailed along with the date they put it into the mail stream. If and when it arrives at the receiving post office a worker notes when it arrived. It may take a few months but the loss point can eventually be determined and hopefully corrected. 

I hope the problem can be resolved without further undo stress. And being a former postal worker I also hope it is found NOT to be the fault of USPS.


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## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

Well, I know when I was working for the PO many years ago someone was arrested after they found his car trunk full of undelivered mail! If you file a complaint a postal inspector will look into your situation if deemed serious but often just a call to the postmaster will solve the problem. We had one carrier that would cram anything into our box--even 5" trees!!--have the big size one here at the farm--or just leave it on the ground for anyone to rip off or get rained on. We are almost always here and our box is not 50' away from our front door...duh,couldn't he honk and we'd run out? We asked him several times to do so and then the postmaster asked him and he quit doing this to us but we now have a new carrier! Heard he had many other similar complaints of missing or mis-treated mail. DEE


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## RockyGlen (Jan 19, 2007)

When we lived in town we had a subscription to a popular magazine that came out weekly. It was delivered every Wednesday without fail. Then we got a new carrier and all of a sudden it was delivered every Thursday and seemed a little rough around the edges. I had no doubt that the carrier was reading it, but it didn't really bother me much.


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## hintonlady (Apr 22, 2007)

I have had all sorts of postal issues, JUST in rural delivery areas.

My understanding was these folks are independant contractors and not the typical benefited employee.

Had packages and birthday cards come semi or completely opened. Usually just peeked in, thank goodness no one sends cash.

Had a netflix movie come a week late and opened with the special "sorry we munched your mail sticker". Yeah right. I hope they enjoyed the documentary on pompeii I was going to show my son for homeschool unit. (ha ha ha)

Yeah, I never ever trust the usps. the employees are only human and they are entrusted with lots of very sensitive and valuable information.


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## Fla Gal (Jul 14, 2003)

I've lost at least one book and two seed orders from Baker Creek "lost" in the mail that was sent to my post office box. The book was about 10 months ago and the seed orders since February. I didn't blame Baker Creek for the lost mail. I reordered. The second order was "lost" too.

I don't know what to think about this because the Baker Creek seed orders were the only ones I didn't receive of the 10 or so seed orders I made. I didn't have this problem with Baker Creek when I lived in Florida.

I live in a podunk 8 stoplight town and believe a postal employee wanted my seeds more than I needed them. Crenshaw melons, a special small carrot and green eye peas... not received. Second order (made a month later because I didn't receive the first order of seeds), three packets of green eye peas... not received.

I'm at the point I don't trust the employees at the local post office.


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## Wilbursmommy (Feb 27, 2003)

Unless the magazines could be put in a plain brown wrapper, I don't know what else could be done. But, Fla Gal, I would call Baker Creek and let them know that your seeds are getting stolen. Ask if they would put your return address on the package instead of theirs and to make sure that in no way would someone be able to tell where the package was really ordered from. I got married in Wrens, GA which is not far from you. You really are in podunk!


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## JGex (Dec 27, 2005)

Postal problems? Try running a mail order business. 

:stars:


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## LvDemWings (Sep 11, 2005)

There is something available called inteligent mail barcode that will track each piece of mail from the point of entry to delivery to your local post office. It is voluntary right now and will be manditory in another yearish. Call the magazine company and ask when they are switching over to the new barcode. The postage costs are the same.


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## wwubben (Oct 13, 2004)

Ask your postal clerk for a claim form.They must give you one.


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## Grandmotherbear (May 15, 2002)

In 1972 when I was one of the first subscribers to MS Magazine it came every month for a year with rips and wrinkles and muddy footprints and looking like someone had thrown it on the floor and stomped on it. I also had a mail carrier refer to your "lesbian magazine" when I was at the mailbox one day when he arrived. Even if it was a lesbian magazine- which it wasn't! it wasn't the Post Office's business to editorialize. Unfortunately I never knew what to do about it.


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## Ed Norman (Jun 8, 2002)

I used to live in a town and would go home for lunch. I always saw the postal jeep parked under a tree on a nice street, and he would be kicked back eating his lunch and reading a magazine. I'm betting he wasn't reading his magazine. 

In the 80s I came home from work to find my M1 Garand rifle from the DCM leaning up against my mailbox post on a busy country highway.


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## Quint (Nov 12, 2004)

Back before I moved back to the homestead i lived in a small town and in a couple of very large metro areas. On two different occasions I had mail carriers who kept my magazines to read and they also opened my mail. They'd also "save" mail and deliver it every other day or once a week. One of my room mates had a subscription to...well... a certain magazine.... and it always arrived pre-read and a day late once we got a new mailman. Given the nature of the publication it's pre-read status made handling it a distinctly unpleasant operation.

Knock on wood my mailmen out here in the sticks have always been very good.


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## Beaners (Feb 23, 2005)

The mailman here has complained to the office downstairs about having to deliver too many packages. My in-laws like to send us things, and the office gets deliveries for the business too. We are lucky that he hasn't gotten too upset about it yet, relatives occasionally send us cash (I know, I know) and checks but none of them have gone missing.

Now, the old mailwoman we had, at my mother's house just down the street, would deliver quite a bit of "accidentally" opened mail. It wasn't someone messing with the mail before we got to it, because the mail would usually arrive right as my sister got off the bus. (My sister kept a couple notes from getting to my parents about school though.) I think she was switched somewhere else or "let go" because she didn't deliver our mail for more than a year or two. And once she was gone things started staying sealed.

Kayleigh


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## Rocky Fields (Jan 24, 2007)

Hey.

If your local PO doesn't want to help, then complain to the Postmaster General. There are complaint cards at the PO.

RF


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## june02bug (May 23, 2003)

Rural carriers are employees.
Some of them are also crooks/thiefs/dummies.
Turn in complains to the post master at the post office or post master general. 

I have in the past had packages left that shouldn't have been, read magazines, etc.

That being said we thankully have never had a problem here. Every December we leave a Christmas card in the box for the carrier with $10 in it (has also been $5 or cookies before). She delivers many packages here and it is our way of saying Thank you/Sorry for being a pain. Yes, their pay and benefits are good, however as a rural carrier they provide their own vehicle and deal with the wear and tear on it. Then there is the back and shoulder problems that develop after delivering for years. It is hard work. 

Some of them deliver many packages to some addresses and are never thanked.


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

Hey Billy, sorry to hear that. I've been having major mail problems myself ever since I moved in January. Things I send never reach their destination, and LOTs of things that are sent to me never get here. I've tried talking to the post office and have gotten absolutely nowhere. I'm sorry, I don't have any suggestions for you, but I'm hoping someone else will have some good ones and I can benefit also, hope you don't mind. 

Now I'm having problems with UPS also! I had a very expensive piece of equipment sent to me from my job two weeks ago, and they kept insisting the driver left if on my porch. Well, they left it on someone's porch, but it sure wasn't mine! Finally, after five days of searching frantically and many phone calls, apparently whoever got it brought it down and left it in my mailbox (which is at the end of my road, about half a mile from my house). They put a note on it and said they called UPS and asked them to pick it up since it was delivered to the wrong place, and UPS refused! I had also tried to file a lost package claim with them, and they wouldn't let me do that either, since they insisted it had been delivered! Now I'm waiting on some very expensive software from work, which should have been here Wednesday or Thursday...and still no package. I'd bet a dollar to a doughnut it was delivered to the same house the last package went to. :shrug:


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

Once my paycheck was about ten days late, so I called my employer and they said it had been mailed, my next stop was the postoffice, they said it had been received and should have been delivered to my mail box, it was not received in the mail. So I called my employer to tell them to stop payment and they informed me the check had been cashed at a large grocery store and they were sending me a copy of the check, plus my money from the check. Sure enough on the back of the check was the name of the grocery store and to my surprize, the name of the person who got the check cashed. Next stop Police Dept to fill out necessary papers and to my second surprize they said we know that person. She spends a lot of time in jail for one thing or another and they were wanting to question her anyway about a homicide, and that check would be the door opener.  When was stealing so important that it had preference over question someone about a MURDER :shrug: Anyway the only thing we could come up with was either the mailman lost it or put it in the wrong box, but it couldn't have been hers because she is nowhere close to his route and the only other way she could have gotten the check was steal it from my mailbox which is what I believe happened. Sorry to make you folks read so much. Eddie


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