Slashdot Mirror
Four Facepalm Bugs In USPS Label-Printing Site
Right away, the USPS website failed that test because it does not allow you to print first-class mail labels, instead steering you towards the more expensive Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express options. Online users have complained about the lack of first-class-mail options on USPS.com for years, and users on several forums suggested using the PayPal Ship Now site instead, which does let you print first class mailing labels online, along with Priority Mail labels other options.
In my case it was a moot point because I had to use the Priority Mail labels in order for my packages to arrive by Christmas, but the deception was still hugely aggravating. Not just because of the thought of millions of people wasting money (and the finite resources of the postal system) due to the USPS site tricking them into a more expensive upgrade that they didn't need. But because it now meant I'd have to second-guess every recommendation they made, wondering if they were steering me toward something that was worse for me and better for them. The reason sites like Amazon are so stress-free to use is because, for the most part, they do display the options that are best for you, even at the expense of their own short-term profit. Some third-party merchant is selling a book for less than Amazon's list price? They'll let the seller list the book right on their site and undercut Amazon's own sales. The benefit to the user is not just the cost savings, but knowing that you don't have to feel like a chump for not wasting time on search engines trying to find a cheaper deal.
Once I realized the USPS site was concealing the cheaper options, in my determination to avoid getting ripped off by the USPS I almost ended up getting ripped off much worse by one of their "partners". I remembered an ad on a Google search mentioning Stamps.com, so I signed up for an account there and downloaded their software, which does in fact let you print first-class postage. It was only after reading a warning in the original subreddit that I realized I had unwittingly "agreed" to a $15.99/month charge. It turns out that the Stamps.com registration page says above the credit card form that your card info is "required to purchase postage", but this is misleading -- the fine print in the sidebar says you will be charged $15.99 per month if you don't cancel. (And neither the software nor the website gives you a link to cancel -- you have to call their customer service number.) Fortunately, I did call and cancel after realizing I'd been duped, but I was not surprised to learn on Wikipedia that the company had been the subject of over 1,000 Better Business Bureau complaints from users regarding the unauthorized monthly charges. (The part on Wikipedia about "long hold times" is out of date, though -- the automated prompts recognized my account by my phone number and let me cancel without any waiting.)
What does that have to do with USPS.com? Because it never would have happened if the USPS website had been on my side in the first place, giving me all the mailing options that I actually needed. It's bad enough when a private company does this, but the USPS works for us, don't they?
So that's not a "bug" in the traditional sense, but I'm counting it: #1: Not giving users all the mailing options they want to know about.
Most of the other bugs are not self-serving tricks; rather, they're just unclear directions where you have to pause and puzzle out what you're really supposed to do, which is different from what the site tells you to do. For example:
#2: Listing boxes as shipping options that don't fit the dimensions that you've already entered
On the label printing page (requires a USPS.com login if you don't have one) is the option to enter package dimensions. If you specify package details of 1 lbs and 13x5x6 inches, and click to calculate "available Services and Prices" based on the details you've entered, you're presented with a list of options that include 'Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope 12-1/2" x 9-1/2"', 'Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box 5-3/8" x 8-5/8" x 1-5/8"', 'Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Box 11" x 8-1/2" x 5-1/2"', 'Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Box 13-5/8" x 11-7/8" x 3-3/8"', and 'Priority Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelope 9-1/2" x 12-1/2"' -- all of which, of course, are too small to hold the package whose dimensions you just specified.
You could argue that it's the user's responsibility to make sure their package fits into the box they select, but a user could reasonably assume that the whole point of entering the length, width and height is so that the USPS can recommend only those boxes that will hold the item. Remember, the user usually doesn't have these boxes in front of them at the time they're printing the label. They could end up selecting a box option, printing the label, taking it all the way to the post office along with their package, only to find out that the package doesn't fit into the box that they printed the label for, and that they have to wait in line anwyay to pay for an alternate method.
It's a middle-school-level programming exercise to take the length, width, and height of a package as an input, take as a second input a list of boxes of varying lengths, widths, heights, and costs, and find the lowest-cost box that will hold the package (keeping in mind that the package can be rotated to different orientations so that the "height" becomes the "width", etc.). It's reasonable to expect the postal service to be able to do this too.
#3: Everything wrong with the "print your labels" page
Here's a screen grab of the "print your labels" page that appears after you've paid, which you can use to play the Highlights "What's Wrong?" game:
-
The text at the top says "You'll have until 11:59 PM CST of the Ship Date to print these labels." OK, but if I print them at 11:59 PM, what good does it do if the post office closed at 6? Are the labels only valid on the ship date, or will they still work if I take them to the post office the next day? This should be more clear.
-
Text says "A SCAN Form must be printed when taking packages to the Post Office." Fine, but there's a checkbox next to that sentence. If that sentence describes a postal regulation, what does it mean if I un-check the box? That the regulation no longer applies to me? Can someone tell me if the drug laws work that way as well?
-
The next sentence says: "Close out and print your SCAN Form here." I have no idea what that sentence means. Close out of the browser? And where is "here"? When it's not hyperlinked, "here" means here.
-
WHY IS THE "PRINT LABELS" BUTTON DISABLED?? I have the checkboxes checked for both labels. I want to print them. What else do you want me to DO? (My PC has a printer, which the Chrome browser is aware of -- it lets me print from other webpages with no problem.) I got it to work by saving the PDF and printing that, but I never figured out why the Print button was just sitting there, mocking me from behind its veil of grey.
-
The "Schedule a Pickup" button at the bottom -- same problem as the "print until 11:59 PM" message at the top. Since I printed these labels with the ship date specified as today, it should be more clear if the labels will still be considered valid tomorrow, which is the soonest time that a pickup could be scheduled.
#4: Over an hour on hold and never got through.
As an adherent to the touchingly quaint notion that a reporter should talk to the subjects of their story before running it, and also because I just wanted clarification on some of these questions, I called the USPS help line and waited on hold for 30 minutes before their help line disconnected me. I called back and waited for another 40 minutes before I hung up this time. OK, strictly speaking that's not a "bug". They just suck.
In the end, after reverse-engineering their pricing options as I had vowed to do, I determined what appeared to be their rules, (applies only to domestic Priority Mail), which you may find handy:
- If you're shipping in a Flat Rate box, the weight of the package doesn't matter (up to the 70 lb limit), only the dimensions, to the extent that they determine which Flat Rate box you can fit it into, with the bigger ones being more expensive.
- On the other hand, if you pick the Priority Mail "Use your own box" option, then the dimensions don't matter (unless you exceed the allowed limits), only the weight -- a 5 lb, 3"x3"x3" package and a 5 lb, 21"x21"x21" package both ship for $15.22, but if you change the weight, that's when the price changes. (If you try to ship a 22"x22"x22" package, you get an error that you've exceeded the dimensions for a Click-N-Ship.)
Using this, I was able to strategically break my one shipment, which would have cost about $30, into two separate shipments which cost $12 and $8. All told, with the effort to reverse-engineer their pricing options and to document all of the bugs for posterity, it took me about an hour to figure out that $10 savings and to print labels that I could take to the post office and skip the line -- which, it turned out, looked only about 3 minutes long -- in order to experience what one redditor described as "feeling the hate from the people standing in line as I casually stroll up and drop my packages off at the front desk". But the important thing is, I did it efficiently.
Hallelujah! Bennett's back! My life has meaning once more.
Get this crap off the front page.
... it's full of stupid.
Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
Have you asked to be made an editor on Slashdot, so you can post your own stories -- and those that don't want to read your crap can just filter you out instead of filling up the comment sections with complaints like mine?
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Nothing is done for the convenience of the user. Why should the website be any different?
And, for the record, if you can't figure out the USPS website you're an idiot. All these idiosyncrasies have been around for as long as I can remember on their site, and yet we ship out stuff all the time with the system.
I feel like I've just been trolled by BH.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
It's not "deception", it's Innovative Marketing, you commie!
Table-ized A.I.
It's the government. These are features, not bugs.
Okay okay it's "independent" buts it's still the government.
He needs a curbstomp.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Well, no, websites annoying the customer more than it would standing in line actually does not defeat the purpose. Government bureaucracies don't give a hoot whether you're annoyed or not. Maybe the more the better, I don't know. This is the same thing the world over. If it's quiet they're nice and helpful in that curiously sedated pace that you just don't see in commercial shops. If it's not quiet they'll be exactly the same and you will steadily move up in line, no matter how long it is, until it's your turn or it's closing time, whichever comes first. No. Exceptions.
They don't care. They don't have to care. They're the government agency's company.
So no, no purpose was defeated that day. Website annoying you? So much the better for successfully retaining that authentic "we don't care" feel online, too. It's practically part of the branding. Perhaps it's an UPU requirement, who knows.
The only real purpose is that shunting people off to talk to machines using their own machines and internet connection saves on the number of staff having to face the public in person and thereby on the need to retain facilities where this can happen. That is all.
About the same time the ridiculous mandate was placed on the USPS to forward fund all their employees' benefits for the next 50 years, my local Post Office in the heart of a major urban area removed the existing fleet (4-6, I don't remember exactly) of vending machines that allowed you to pick and choose various books of stamps in favor of 3 "shipping stations" that allow you to weigh your parcels, select various shipping options, and print exact postage stamps; they can also print sets of one "standard" stamp.
With the old vending machines, if you wanted to buy stamps, you had a great choice and could quickly select the your desired stamp selection, pay via inserted credit card or cash, and wait briefly for a few seconds while the stamps were dispensed. If you needed to mail a package with any special options you'd have to wait in line and deal with a postal employee.
With the new machines, if you want to buy stamps, you have to wait in line while the people preceding you try to figure out how to get stamps or select their desired parcel mailing options, and when it gets to be your turn you have to navigate through several screens to get to the single choice, pay, and wait about a minute for each sheet of stamps to be printed. Or wait in the long line to get to a postal employee. If you want to mail a package, you can select them with the machine, and it certainly beats waiting in line to deal with a postal employee.
I suppose the idea is that the USPS doesn't want to be in the business of selling stamps, they're leaving that to grocery and convenience stores, but the place I still think of for buying stamps is the Post Office, and for me, since I happen to be directly across the street from one, is the most convenient location physically. Unfortunately, the interior process changes mean that it is sometimes quicker for me to go to the nearest grocery store blocks away and buy stamps rather than wait in the lines at the Post Office.
Maybe if everyone just stopped posting comments to stories by Bennett, he'd get bored and go somewhere else.
Active hostility doesn't seem to be working, maybe good old ignoring will.
USPS Click-N-Ship neither prints labels correctly nor saves you money. What do you expect from a marginally-governmental agency with Congressional oversight? Witness every web-based rollout by a US government agency - they all suck, just by varying degrees.
>> make the process more annoying than just standing in line at the post office
BH complaining about wasting time.
I've used the USPS abler printer a number of times, and not once had any issues.
You seem to veer off the rails all over the place, but the main thing that mystified me is - why would a label NOT WORK the next day (a "confusion" you list more than once)? It's insane to think it would not. People like you are the reason shampoo labels say not to microwave the shampoo or pour it down your throat without breathing.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I turn on Adblock just for Bennett. Get a blog. Stop taking a shit on /.
How in the world is this even remotely news of any sort, let alone news for nerds? This looks more like basic information for my grandma. Just print the labels, it works dumbass. I've done it before with ZERO problems. Maybe Bennett needs to go work for an actual company. Start in the mail room because, well that appears to be all he's truly qualified for and move up.
Bennett, you think WAY to hard about very simple problems and issues. Keep it Simple Stupid
Ah, you're one of those people who clog up the lobby boxing your stuff up at the post office, using the wrong tape (such as the tape meat to mark an Express package on something you're shipping Priority or First Class) and breaking in line to ask someone behind the desk for scissors.
You realize that the post office isn't a full service pack and ship place, right? At least none of the ones I've been to around here are. You're supposed to have everything packed up and ready to go before you walk in the door. You also realize that your local PO probably doesn't stock all the sizes and shapes of shipping box the website describes, and that package weight is supposed to include the box, right?.
That is, you're supposed to have boxed up your parcel by the time you got to this part of the form. The only thing missing should be the label.
Could be worse. You could be like the person I saw who tried to send a package wrapped in normal Christmas wrapping paper.... That was going to be a shredded nightmare on the other side.
Program Intellivision!
Have you tried converting to the metric system? I am not sure how or why, but I am very sure it will fix your problems with this.
In all that time, I've only had one problem during transit of a "used my own" box (that I had simply dropped off at the Post Office) in that the website calculated the online discount correctly and the live mail handler at the processing center didn't and the package was returned. Taking that package back to the Post Office and talking with someone behind the counter got that cleared up and the package re-shipped correctly.
The reviewer has some valid complaints about using the site, but is, perhaps, also an idiot.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Didn't click through (I don't want to reward the author with ad traffic) but it seems he's looking for ways to get confused just to produce article content.
...not another Bennett Haselton partial-birth abortion of a story... This guy needs a new hobby, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a willing farm animal, something to just get him to shut the fuck up!
New Girl/Boyfriend? Perhaps someone could ship him a blow-up doll - or stuffed animal; I hear the Post Office has this easy Click-n-Ship site for Flat-Rate boxes...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
...all these problems is to give the Post Office more money that it doesn't need to earn, and that is taken by force from people who don't want to pay. Why do they need to improve anything under those circumstances?
If you want to ship a package for the holiday season, why not use DHL, Federal Express or UPS? I'm confused.
... have my babies.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
The package dimensions are the dimension of the package, not its contents. A child would know ths.
http://pinopsida.com
Working as intended.
How me mail a box? Me no understand. Me write 900 word essay about and put on slashdot. Me show mean lady at post office who is dum now!
Sure, there may be problems with load and usability but it sure as hell beats going to the post office doesn't it?
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
...I'll bet he's into foreplay.
I searched around and found this out a couple years ago when I also discovered that no first class shipping labels could be printed on the USPS site. Now there is a pay straight from eBay mentioning the "secret" option/ability:
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Secret-PayPal-Shipping-Labels-Stamps-off-eBay-Mailing-/10000000007215096/g.html
They provide a "shortcut secret link" as well:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now
- Bennet Haselton
- timothy
- Dice
- Beta
Please make him stop.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
It's the Post Office, what the hell do you expect from union lackeys?
If you think their website is confusing and bugridden, you should try working with their label SOAP server.
I've cooked up an interface between a home-grown ERP and USPS for shipping labels, which they provide as PNG images via this SOAP service. However, they have a bug somewhere that causes some of these PNG files to not decode properly using libPNG. When I mentioned it to the Webservices support people, they denied having a problem because their windows system would read the PNG just fine, even after I gave them examples of the problem.
Apparently they won't support you unless you're writing all your code in C#. My system was written in PHP with the label to printout conversion happening in C.
They also treated all the labels as money, which does make sense, as postage is money, effectively. The gotcha is that if you have to cancel a shipment, they won't return funds to your account immeadiatly, and force you to wait 14 days before the funds for the cancelled label are returned.
If they weren't so much less expensive compared to UPS or FedEx......
perhaps the biggest bug was allowing BH to use the website in the first place?
You're an asshole; and all of Slashdot hates you. I can't wait to say this to your face one day.
We've got some real morons in my local post office. Even though the USPS website has a "hold mail at postoffice" where you enter your name, address, zip and click a box to verfiy that your local office can do it, the maroons at my local office have gotten it wrong each time I've used it. For example, about 6 months ago, we were going to visit wifes' sister for a week, so I entered the info into the website, gave it the dates we'd be gone, and at the end of the hold period, to KEEP the mail at the postoffice and I'd come by and pick it up. Website even gave me a print out of what I'd just told it to do, along with a confirmation number... Fast forward to our return.. I went to the PO, armed with the printout from the website, clearly showing "hold for pickup". Guess what? they claimed they delivered a weeks worth of mail into my little mailbox... They told me to go and look... Went home and looked.. Nothing.. Fortuantly, our neighbor apparently intercepted the mail carrier and grabbed our mail, which never would have fit in the mailbox.. Which is WHY I chose "hold for pickup".. I went back to the PO and spoke to the Postmaster.. he could care less... Said the "hold for pickup" was merely a suggestion... WTF??
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
The last time I commented about the continued posting of Bennet's rants, some idiot moderators marked it as flamebait.
I am posting it again below. This is serious, not a troll, nor funny:
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
I feel like a Windows machine that needs to be rebooted because all my CPU and memory cycles have been used by recursive stupidity.
For the windy length of this article I expected something worthwhile, I am still waiting.
Bugs? I did not see one website bug in your entire rambling. What I did see was someone who the USPS website was too challenging for.
-- Thankfully there are some postal locations that have staff that can assist you.
My questions to the writer...
Was this your first experience with USPS online?
Did you actually compare priority vs first class?
Did you weigh in that Priority is including tracking, insurance and they will pick up for free?
Did you realize that USPS website has a calculate postage option which will tell show you the first class option along with priority, express etc?
--- so if parcel post/first class are a better option, you can take your package to a postal location to ship, but they have made the pricing nearly the same for these two options.
Break down -- a 3 lb package from the Rockies to the east coast -- (pricing as of Jan 8, 2015) ... again the priority will have tracking & insured & free pick up (so bonus of saving on fuel & time) --
--- you will see below parcel post $11.39 vs 2 day priority $11.59 or medium flat rate $11.30
legal flat rate envelope -in store $5.90- $5.25 online - 15" x 9-½"
flat rate envelope -in store $5.75 - $5.05 online -- 12-1/2" x 9-½" - or 10" x 6"
1 day priority express $44.75 in store vs $34.21 online
1 day priority express flat rate in store $44.95 vs $44.95 online -- 13-5/8" x 11-7/8" x 3-3/8" or 11" x 8-1/2" x 5-1/2"
2 day priority -- in store $13.10 vs $11.59 online
large flat rate - in store $17.90 vs $15.80 online -- 23-11/16" x 11-3/4" x 3" or 12" x 12" x 5-1/2"
med flat rate - in store $12.65 vs $11.30 online -- 13-5/8" x 11-7/8" x 3-3/8" or 11" x 8-1/2" x 5-1/2"
small flat rate - in store $5.95 vs $5.25 online -- 8-5/8" x 5-3/8" x 1-5/8"
regional a - online only $8.98 -- 12-13/16" x 10-15/16" x 2-3/8" or 10" x 7" x 4-3/4"
regional b - online only $14.42 -- 15-7/8" x 14-3/8" x 2-7/8" or 12" x 10-1/4" x 5"
regional c - online only $40.89 -- 14-3/4" x 11-3/4" x 11-½"
parcel post $11.39 in store only
medial mail $3.65 in store only
I am not denying that USPS has issues, they do, but for your article to complain of 'bugs' yet you did not identify a single bug in your rambling.
-- one for their bizarre options is their regional rate, which is a form of flat rate for local areas. I have yet to find a use for that method (it does require their regional packaging - which like other priority packaging they will ship to you no charge, so an option if you are shipping a lot of heavier items locally).
Your comparison of Amazon vs USPS was ridiculous, one Amazon is not losing business by the other purchase options on a product (they collect fees for each item that is sold through their site).
Then your issues with Stamps.com, was more on your inability to read and understand (or inquire) a policy before entering into an agreement, all because you thought you were going to be able to side step a process or prices, that story just made you look bad.
Your issues with the printing portion is beyond baffling, I can not even comprehend what your issues are on that part. When you have finished adding all the labels for that session, and you are at the checkout, you have an option to print two labels per a page or a single label per page, and with or with out a receipt (I select with out a receipt and two per page - you can access the record in your account when needed). The reason they give you a time frame for printing is if you have more packages you will be adding to your order and you want to bundle them into one payment (that would need to be done before midnight that day, again sad that this detail baffles you). The purpose of PDF, if someone is doing this away from a printer, this is a convenience to allow them to save the labels to print later, with out the deadline of midnight printing).
For the pick up option, you can request a pick
1,700 words into this and one of his two conclusions is that flat-rate boxes are flat rate? (Up to 70 lbs which, IIRC, is printed on the side of the fucking box.) Kill me now.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Particularly this guy. Most people would have no earthly idea as to which type of First Class Mail they should use for any given item: letter, flat or parcel. The allowed weights and sizes are different for all three and even the price increase per unit weight is different. Many people wouldn't have a scale on hand that is accurate to the tenth of an ounce and would get upset when their item was returned because they guessed to low. All in all, the USPS is quite right to have domestic first class offered through click-n-ship because it would only end in tears.
If you actually mail out enough stuff to know what you are about you can use PayPal. Or do what I do: use stamps. Really, I do, and it works great.
I printed my labels at home and walked past a line out the door at the post office. Your complaints are invalid.
also: First World Problems!
P.S. captcha phrase "perturb"
Now they're actually trying to bury the fact that Benny Hill is writing this verbal diarrhea by neglecting to put the warning in the summary we all got used to seeing. So before Ben 10 shows up and whines "but wut i r wrong about?", you're wrong about the entire fucking premise. None of these are bugs. Also, you're an idiot.
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-...
Clear form, quick payment w/o entering lots of credit card details, every non-international USPS option, no need to mess with the weird postal service website.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
I don't think a flat box will work, whatever his preference (and regardless of the rate)
Of COURSE their system is broken! You missed the point entirely.
The purpose of ANYTHING the USPS does is to get you to come to a branch and stand in line. Essentially they want you to be so frustrated and give up that you come stand in line. So they can try to upsell you on stuff you don't want, mainly because you might be weak after spending an hour in line and just agree to whatever is suggested.
This is why the USPS has carefully removed nearly all the stamp vending machines they used to have in every Post Office lobby, why they got rid of the automated mailing kiosks (and those that remain are often broken and simply tell you to go stand in line), and at the same time, they have cut back on the number of clerks working so the line -which you pretty much HAVE to stand in- is as slow and long as possible.
Where a retail store would offer options to customers, open more lines, stay open later in the day or on weekends, the USPS steadfastly does exactly the opposite. The lines are long. YOU HAVE TO STAND IN THEM and forget picking up mail after work. No. You have to take time off. Sucker.
Compare this to Fedex: Their online shipping system is just amazing. And it works. And it's simple. They will come get your package or, at least in town, I can drop it off at their facility as late as 10:00 at night and there's never a line. It just works.
They just added a print kiosk to their lobby so even if you don't have a printer, you can still prepare the entire shipment ahead of time and just scan a QR on your phone to pull up the label, print it, stick it, and done. It's awesome.
The USPS, forget it. I stood in like there yesterday for 40 minutes while the one clerk working argued with a customer about a PO box issue. Nobody opened a second line although there were plenty of clerks standing around behind the counter and a line of customers that grew and filled in behind me, probably 30 deep.
Ludicrous.
So yes the website is broken. Come stand in line. THAT is your fix. Where is my consulting fee?
Sig for hire.
How the bloody hell does this shite keep making it to /. and the front page no less. Does this guy gives you all good head or something to do as he wants? The rambling crapfest wouldn't even make an interesting blog post on its own. Is no one at Slashdot reading over this at all? It kind of shows what utter clownshoes you think your readers are. SORT IT OUT FOR FUCK SAKE.
So you either:
a) stay home, spend a few minutes to figure out a slightly confusing website and get a little frustrated or
b) go to the post office, hoping you show up when your local branch is open, stand in an unpredictable line size, get to the front of the line to be told you don't have the right forms, with no help as to the forms you SHOULD have filled out, made to get out of line and look like an idiot, meekly try to go back to the same person who "helped" you before, looked at like they've never seen you before, mumble what happened while handing the new forms over, hoping your offerings are good enough to spare their wrath, yelled at for trying to swipe your own debit card, asked to see your ID while entering your PIN for your debit transaction, upsold on stamps/faster shipping/whatever and walk out shaking and sweating.
I'd say the in-person and online experience are roughly similar and is working as intended.
With all due respect to the rude commenters, I can't understand why so much criticism is directed at this article about the USPS website. I'm glad someone documented many of the problems with it that I and others experience on a regular basis. Perhaps USPS will now make an effort to improve it.
That's all I have to say. You may now call me names and attack my character in your usual sophomoric way.
Why do sites insist I enter my town, state, then zipcode? If I enter my zipcode, you can get my state, and 99% of time, my town. I find this maddening. Country should be first, then zipcode, then state and town auto populated with an option to change.
Disagreeing with me does not mean you get to mod me troll.
Please use stamps rather than these fugly stickers. With more stamps used more canceled stamps can be collected. Once you collected cancelled stamps send them to Briefmarkenstelle Bethel Quellenhofweg 25 33617 Bielefeld Germany The stamp office in Bethel employs over 120 handicapped people who earn a living wage processing stamps and packaging them for sale to distributors and collectors. This program also funds partially other work programs and rehab for handicapped people with the aim to give them a purposeful live and work either at Bethel or in other settings. Don't want to pay the postage to Germany? Contact me and you can send the stamps to me. Also, if you know of a US organization that accepts cancelled stamps for an as worthy cause let me know. Some folks are hesitant to donate to organizations outside of the US although it is irrelevant where you help people. Also, this is NOT a call for money donations nor do I sell any stamps (you need to take my word for it, but I will share the thank you letter if you want). This is solely about keeping cancelled stamps out of the trash and putting them to good use.
Stauss and Seidel define a bug as "anything that negatively impacts user experience". So #1 is clearly a bug. As far as #4 goes, you'd think that a postal service offers a means to mail them a letter with a question or concern. All they offer is email or phone! I sent a letter a few months ago to the Postmaster General in DC about this, still waiting for a response. Seems as if USPS is not set up to handle and read mail from its postal customers.
Had the exact same experience. Had selected "hold for pickup", yet they still dumped all teh mail at our door.
My current "workaround" is to extend the hold period so that we're home before the end of the hold. Still a pain.