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Mail Hoarding Is Real, and I Just Experienced It
Post Office Might Deliver Mail (and Gadgets and Netflix) One Less Day a Week
TiVo Completes The Evening TV Dinner: Adds Domino's Pizza Ordering
Leopard Deliveries Delayed at Apple's Request?
Nintendo Delivers Wii In Ice Cream Trucks
Dell Stiffs Customers

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infmom
04/16/09

In reply to Mail Hoarding Is Real, and I Just Experienced It
I once subscribed to a magazine and, as I usually do, chose not to pay the invoice till I'd actually gotten the magazine. The second time I got a bill but no magazines I called them and they insisted they'd been sending me the magazines. I explained that I'd pay as soon as I got the actual magazine.

I never got one single issue of the magazine and eventualy called and canceled my subscription. I don't know whether someone along the line was stealing them or whether the magazine just didn't send them out, but I noticed that the magazine folded about three months later.
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fuchikoma
04/15/09

In reply to Mail Hoarding Is Real, and I Just Experienced It
UPS has left expensive parcels on my front doorstep several times. Then, they've also sent me threatening letters out of the blue that BROKERAGE FEES WERE OWED AND THIS IS THEIR LAST WARNING BEFORE SENDING A COLLECTIONS AGENCY AFTER ME SO PAY UP OR DIE! ...very professional considering that was my first notice.

Couriers suck... plain mail or EMS FTW, but UPS and FedEx just gouge and gouge.
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Nick
04/15/09

In reply to Mail Hoarding Is Real, and I Just Experienced It
mail men don't do this to steal. they do it cause they get backed up and then it snowballs. i think in a lot of cases the fault lies with those bums sending the pennysaver etc. why is it legal to mail something to everyone? regardless of the fact you paid postage it's still a plague on our pony express.
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MetaOrbit
04/15/09

In reply to Mail Hoarding Is Real, and I Just Experienced It
I refuse to use FedEx for this reason. Or at least Fedex Ground/Home Delivery. This shit always happens to me. The driver scans it into the system as attempted delivery but he NEVER came. I'm next to the door all day long. No doorbell, no hangtag, no person, nothing. But he just didn't feel like doing his job that day and I wasted a day hanging around for it to be delivered.

That pisses me off. And what's more, FedEx really doesn't seem to care. Oh well. I use only USPS and UPS now.
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infmom
04/16/09

@MetaOrbit: UPS has done that to me, too. I've rechecked the tracking number all day from my home and have discovered that somehow I magically was not home all day.
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FrancesTheMute
04/15/09

In reply to Mail Hoarding Is Real, and I Just Experienced It
what possible gain do they get by hoarding mail?
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infmom
04/16/09

@FrancesTheMute: The same gain people get from never deleting anything from their Gmail accounts.
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HeWhoAwaitsChuckFinale
04/15/09

In reply to Mail Hoarding Is Real, and I Just Experienced It
Why is everything so dirty? Look at the mail boxes in the bottom right of the picture. If I was doing this, I would want to keep everything in good condition so I could sell it.
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markterry
04/15/09

@HeWhoisYourNewBestFriend: Right... because junk mail, pre-approved credit card offers, holiday cards and circulars fetch quite a premium on craigslist...

/sarcasm
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HeWhoAwaitsChuckFinale
04/15/09

@Mark Terry: Lots of expensive stuff gets sent in the mail like new cell phones, stuff off Ebay, etc.
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GitEmSteveDave_Isn'tFreshPerked
04/15/09

@HeWhoisYourNewBestFriend: Uh, things that have tracking numbers and people would miss!

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Ellipsis marks are ... my friends
04/15/09

In reply to Mail Hoarding Is Real, and I Just Experienced It
Wait, I'm not the only one who gets those 20% off Bed Bath and Beyond coupons? My world just crumbled around me.
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Nick
04/15/09

@riflehunter: well, you are Current Resident. you should feel honored.
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markterry
04/15/09

@Nick: No, I'm current resident! Why the hell is he getting all my mail!?
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Nick
04/15/09

@Mark Terry: that'll teach you to not leave a forwarding address.
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Obed Cutaran
04/15/09

In reply to Mail Hoarding Is Real, and I Just Experienced It
Ww, tht's smthng mbrrssng.

[lfkd.cm]
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Papercutninja
04/15/09

@Obed Cutaran: Excellent. Comment just to get your blog noticed. Don't bother contributing anything, facebooker.
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GitEmSteveDave_Isn'tFreshPerked
04/15/09

@Papercutninja: Even worse, most of the articles on his site ARE from Gizmodo!
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Steve Abbott
04/15/09

@Obed Cutaran: + @Papercutninja: Maybe there should be a link to the "Commenting Rules" the first time a FB user connects, because so many just don't "get it"
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GitEmSteveDave_Isn'tFreshPerked
04/15/09

@Steve Abbott: Thus the "audition" rule people want for the FaceBookers. This stops a lot of the "I didn't know" excuses and eliminates the chaff from the wheat and keeps the baby and not the bathwater.
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Gann
04/15/09

@UsingTheColbert_GitEmSteveDave: By "audition", do you mean "get a gawker account"? Because I'd be all for that.
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GitEmSteveDave_Isn'tFreshPerked
04/15/09

@Gann: No, b/c then they whip out the "Remember two logins?! That's impossible. No brain could handle that much information!" argument. Of course, the Dutch have 4 logons, and smoke pot, but that's besides the point.

I know we can't stop them from posting, so why not just subject them to the same audition. There ARE some good FBer's out there. But we could eliminate a lot of problems w/an audition for them. Comment threads like this, and then the general animosity people have for dealing with it. Many of the banned people only posted two or three times. I think if the FBer's knew they couldn't get automatically in, it would stop a lot of people from trying to do stupid things.
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Evodico
04/15/09

@SittingOnTheColbert_GitEmSteveDave:Was that an Eddie Izzard reference?
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GitEmSteveDave_Isn'tFreshPerked
04/15/09

@Evodico: Yes. Just his expression when he goes off on how impossible it is to know more than one language, and how no one can live at that speed is awesome.
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re-cyclist
04/15/09

In reply to Mail Hoarding Is Real, and I Just Experienced It
At least with tracking numbers, it's easier to identify when this is happening. With the USPS, who knows what gets delivered when? That's why I say, forget the USPS, let it die. If somebody needs to send me something that can't be sent by e-mail, let 'em pay a couple of bucks. And likewise, if I have to send something that can't be e-mailed, I'm happy to pay a couple of bucks for the guarantee that it'll actually arrive (or, if it doesn't, the ability to figure out what happened to it).
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infmom
04/16/09

@re-cyclist: I have never had the USPS claim they couldn't deliver something because no one was at home, when I had been waiting all day and never so much as heard their truck drive down the street. I have never had the USPS take extra money for overnight delivery and then misread the zip code and deliver the package to the wrong city and then take five days to get it to where it was supposed to go--and then refuse to give me a refund for the extra postage. I have never had the USPS claim that a signature was required on a package when it wasn't, and refuse to leave it on the porch, and insist I had to drive 20 miles in LA area rush hour traffic to pick the package up at their out-of-the-way warehouse if I wanted it, because otherwise they were sending it back.

Fedex and UPS did all that to me within the last year.
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ViperBorg
04/15/09

In reply to Mail Hoarding Is Real, and I Just Experienced It
Honestly? I mean, come on. That's just stupid. Do your job like everyone else, please.
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Nick
04/15/09

@ViperBorg - SpaceBat hates Facebook: wellll, i am work cruisin' Giz right now. Seems like he IS doing it like everyone else.
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Margatron
04/15/09

In reply to Mail Hoarding Is Real, and I Just Experienced It
This is how thousands of repaired Xbox 360s went missing through DHL, then Xbox decided to switch to UPS which has tracking numbers. I'm sad to see that even with tracking numbers, this sort of stunt still happens.
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GitEmSteveDave_Isn'tFreshPerked
04/15/09

@Margatron: FedEx has tracking numbers as well. As for losing things, ask Iron Mountain how much data/documents they lose shipping through UPS.
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Geisrud
04/15/09

In reply to Mail Hoarding Is Real, and I Just Experienced It
Nice sunglasses. Are those Oakley's?

Gas cans next to ordinary combustibles? No es bueno.
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GitEmSteveDave_Isn'tFreshPerked
04/15/09

@Geisrud - MS150 fundraising time!: IIRC, that was from a story about a mailman who was ill, and to reduce his delivery load, stored "junk mail" from his route instead of delivering it. His customers had no problem with it from what I heard.
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Qu33f_Machine
01/28/09

In reply to Post Office Might Deliver Mail (and Gadgets and Netflix) One Less Day a Week
Here is a crazy idea... actually compete with FedEx and UPS so that you do make money. If you can't do it, then hell, maybe the government shouldn't play this game?

You know the USPS is screwing things up when a package weighing 5 pounds costs one price, but if you take the same exact package and just write 'media mail' on it it costs a dramatically different (and cheaper) price.

I love the USPS because it is cheap, but that is also CLEARLY why they can't make profit.
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RosettaHizeck
01/29/09

@Qu33f_Machine: Things to consider: USPS is not a business it's a goverment service. They are not supposed to make a profit like Fed EX or UPS (Who send their letter mail through USPS). If it was you would have to spend $5.00 to send a letter from California to Florida. It's not funded by taxpayers but by the postage fee paid. The USPS delivers more pieces of mail in one day then UPS and FEDEX deliver in one year. A one cent increase in postage costs the average person only $1.00 to $2.00 a year at the most. If you put "Media Mail" on your package then you've authorized the Post Office to open and inspect the package to insure it is. If it's not valid Media Mail it will be returned.
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Dustin Luck
01/29/09

@RosettaHizeck: "USPS is not a business it's a goverment service. They are not supposed to make a profit like Fed EX or UPS"

True, but the Postal Service is not a charity either. It is supposed to be self-sustaining. The USPS website states "We are a self-supporting agency, using the revenue from the sale of postage and products to pay expenses."

Perhaps Qu33f_Machine misspoke by saying they need to "make money." I guess their true goal should be to break even, but right now the point is that they're losing money and something needs to happen to stop that. I'm all for a little healthy competition.

Also, the (il)legality of misusing "Media Mail" aside, what rational is there to charge a different rate for what amounts to the same package (and in theory) the same amount of handling based on the contents?
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Dustin Luck
01/28/09

In reply to Post Office Might Deliver Mail (and Gadgets and Netflix) One Less Day a Week
OK, let's get back to viewing the story through the lens of Netflix.

First off, stopping Tuesday delivery would suck because that's when new releases show up in my mailbox. I've got it down to a science where I ensure I have empty slots on Monday for the week's new releases and they show up Tuesday. Now I won't get them 'til Wednesday?! How can I handle that I ask you?

Secondly, I thought this was interesting in light of a story yesterday on Hacking Netflix that Netflix is going to start testing Saturday shipping.
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92BuickLeSabre
01/28/09

@Dustin L.: Man I wish they would. I mean, that's when I need the friggin movie after all.
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Barion
01/29/09

@Dustin L.: My Netflix shipping center is Santa Ana, CA, which is one of those doing Saturday ships now. I was very pleased to get that notice that a movie I had mailed back on Friday arrived Saturday morning, then several hours later I got the notice that another disc was on the way, due Monday. I always wondered why Netflix was closed on Saturday...not the best way to ingratiate yourself to your customers.
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Dustin Luck
01/29/09

@Barion:

My shipping center is Santa Ana as well. I've gotten used to not sending movies back on Fridays, so I never noticed any Saturday processing. I probably won't start either, since as I said above, I want them to get my movies on Monday so they ship new releases out to me.
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92BuickLeSabre
01/28/09

In reply to Post Office Might Deliver Mail (and Gadgets and Netflix) One Less Day a Week
No decaf after twelve.

No mail on Tuesdays.

Fewer big box stores.

No credit market.

Magazines shutting down.

The potential loss of the American newspaper industry.

The potential loss of the American auto industry.

No government in Iceland.

Shit is gettin' weird.
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Thats Dr Bear to You
01/28/09

@92BuickLeSabre: The law firm I work for has STRONG coffee available damn near 24/7, those lawyers need their fix.

As to the other stuff....yeah I'm building a bomb shelter.
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92BuickLeSabre
01/28/09

@Thats Dr Bear to You: None of my own 6-8 cups of coffee a day are decaf either, and I don't actually go to Starbucks (unless I'm stuck at a hotel or other institution and the only coffee around is a Starbucks in the lobby.)

But it's still a little weird.
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