We have really poor service from the local post office. We don't have a regular carrier, they seem to use contract/part time people who rotate constantly, so they don't know who you are and often put someone else's mail in our box. Our development has mailbox clusters in each cul-de-sac, so you have a lock box for your mail, it doesn't get dropped at your house.
Someone new moved in to the house next door and I guess they requested to have the lock changed on the mail box. Except the stupid postal maintenance person changed the lock on our box by mistake. And of course we have no key. And when I called the carrier supervisor, she was totally unhelpful. They screwed up, but they want me to go to the post office to pick up the key.
Excuse me, why should I be inconvenienced because of your stupidity. We haven't been able to get our mail for 2 days, and this "supervisor" said she didn't know if she'd be able to get in touch with our carrier to have her take the mail out of the box and drop it on our front porch, that she's "not required to have the cell phone number for the carriers".
So basically if I can't take time out of my day to go completely out of my way to the post office between 9am-3pm I can't get my key! Great system, or what.

What do you expect from the post office? It is a government agency after all. Here's an example of how the PO works. A friend of mine got a part time job with them. His job was to sort mail, and put it in the correct box at the post office. A worker showed him how to do it my picking up a letter, reading the name and #, then walking over to the boxes and placing it in the correct box. At that point it was my friends turn to try it. He picked up a handful of letters, and started to walk over to the boxes, but he was stopped and told not to take more than one letter at a time. Taking a handful of letter at one time, would speed up the job, and would make all the other mail workers look slow and lazy. Couldn't have that happen. So he had to walk back and forward all day with one letter at a time. That's the post office for you. And your tax dollars at work, if you can call it work when the post office does it. More like NON work.

I happened to be home this morning working when I spotted the Postal Maintenance truck out at the mailboxes fixing the locks, so I jogged out to talk to the guy and get my mail while the door was open. He made up for the unpleasant woman I spoke to yesterday, he was very apologetic and embarassed about making the mistake. Got my new keys so back to normal.
Some interesting facts:
The right of the United States government to engage in postal services is established by Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the Constitution
The USPS is often mistaken for a government-owned corporation (e.g., Amtrak), but as noted above is legally defined as an "independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States," (39 U.S.C. § 201) as it is wholly owned by the government and controlled by the Presidential appointees and the Postmaster General. As a quasi-governmental agency, it has many special privileges, including sovereign immunity, eminent domain powers, powers to negotiate postal treaties with foreign nations, and an exclusive legal right to deliver first-class and third-class mail. Indeed, in 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the USPS was not a government-owned corporation and therefore could not be sued under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

So Government incompetance being what it is, no wonder the Post Office barely survives...and needs a law to protect them against lower-priced competitors!

Well, no wonder some people get fed up and go "Postal"!!! And if you had threatened to blow open your own mail box I bet you could have been arrested. But glad you got it fixed and can now receive your mail.

How much you want to bet, the first mail Aimee gets is either a bill or junk mail ????

Don, yes on both counts...

Isn't that alway the case?

And explain to me why the cost of stamps keeps going up!

The price of stamps keep going up because you have veteran postal carriers who work for the government who need to have their salaries. But as a governmental agency there is no oversight on how they do their jobs. Just look at PennDot and the crappy jobs they do with fixing our roads.

Klun, don't get us started on Government agencies...you think PennDOT is bad, you should hear about NJDOT...the only time they do a re-pave is when someone needs to be re-covered (if you get my drift).

LOL... that was great.. Reminds of something out of the Sopranos..

Wow, see in NC I think we have the most paved roads per capita of any state...our DOT used to have tons of money...I think now they bitch moan and groan but they were loaded...of course the road work we need on a stretch of business highway will take 2 years full time with the road close..I'm sorry but I could pave the damn road in 2 years!!!!

PennDot is always out fixing the roads, it's just the same stretch of road year after year, fixing the same potholes every year. And when you do go thru the construction zone, IF there is anyone working there, it is usually a crew of 10 guys standing while on scrawny little college kid is doing the shoveling.

Have they finished I-40 between the split with Business 40 and Greensboro yet? That seems to some 10 year project maybe 15.