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I know there are good and decent people who work for USPS. I know that every industry has its hard workers and dregs of the workforce.

But this enraged me when I opened my door to find this, and the USPS truck pulling away fast:

This was pathetic. NO explanation. NO instructions on how to proceed. No words of apology for this abortion of "service". This was a large box full of expensive hot sauces. It had been crushed, the box had been wrapped with plastic tape to try to keep it in one piece, then the entire mess had been shoved in a gray plastic bag to "keep all the juices in". There were several bottles still unbroken and usable inside, and after much careful cleanup to ensure I didn't get any habanero sauce in my eyes (opening the damn bag and merely looking inside made your eyes water) I was able to salvage them. This was the last bottle I pulled out:

When I called the post office, they denied all responsibility, and said it was between me and the seller!

That made me hopping mad. The shipper sure as hell didn't drop it off broken, taped and in a plastic bag. It was pretty easy to determine responsibility here.

But, they will be bailed out with MY hard earned money. How galling is that?

I had three packages stolen in less than a year - all being shipped by USPS.

They had ‘tracking’ numbers. Their tracking system is a joke. It doesn’t track.

They were insured. The value of the items, one was over $400, was clearly printed on the outsides of the boxes. Another joke. (you don’t want post office employees wasting their time on boxes worth less than $50).

To add insult to injury you have to wait A MONTH to report any package missing. (need to give them time to cover their tracks)

BTW - almost every time I have posted an anti-USPS message here on Free Republic I have received a FRe-mail from a post office worker. A nasty one!

As you know the prevailing doctrine for parcel post, or express, or freight, is that the package contains the seeds of its own destruction, therefore your claim is against the insurer, if any, and not the common carrier.

That, BTW, has been the law since about the end of the Kingdom of Rome ~ and the founding of the Republica with its SPQR, and piles of law books, records and charts.

Although most folks encounter this law when the shipment involves unsealed food, e.g. frozen steaks that arrive rotten, it applies to anything shipped in glass ~ after all, glass is breakable!

The shipper failed to pack sufficiently to withstand normal handling. He should be happy to replace the items for you.