No parcel lockers available, so USPS won’t deliver packages?
 

We live in Duval and twice in the past 6 months the post office could not deliver a package to my local mail station because the parcel lockers were all full.

They want me to pick it up at the Lady Lake post office :22yikes: They will only retry delivery once then if I don’t pick it up within 14 days, they will send it back.

Does this happen at other stations, or do I have a lazy postal team? I’ve always had good luck with the mail in the past.

Thanks for your input
Jerry

I've had packages delivered to my home by the postal contractor at Pennycamp without asking…

It's common. There aren't enough empty lockers at times - many people don't go daily. I've seen notices at postal stations and online from the USPS contactors to please empty the lockers. Keep in mind that online shopping wasn't the big business it is today when many postal stations were built. I've read that recently the contractors have a new contract and they don't deliver to homes that aren't within a very short distance of the station - I do not know if this is accurate, seems to be based on comments. I tell anyone sending me a package to not use USPS, and if online ordering will rarely order if the shipper is USPS. A big issue is when the last part of the delivery is through USPS, was UPS or FedEx as the first part of the delivery then is handed off to USPS - the tracking shows "delivered" when it is scanned at the PO - NOT when in your box at the postal station, making it hard to track/verify packages.

St. James here. Yes, the postal lockers do get overwhelmed. When that happens, our postal folks will deliver packages to our home. When an international delivery was returned to Lady Lake because I wasn't here to sign for it, I enrolled in the online signature available through informed delivery. Your postal carriers may be working to the requirement, but they're apparently not doing over and above.

Another reason that Amazon is so successful. Almost all of my Amazon orders are delivered to my house by an Amazon truck.

Our carrier provides us with a package hold card to put in our box. We must pick it up during her hours, but will even hold giant boxes that get passed off from UPS and FedEx. So depending on your contractor, they can do as they please

Why aren’t the packages held till bin become available? IMO USPS responsible to deliver packages that customers paid for delivery. But, IMO being the USPS has more management that actual boots on ground this what you get. SAFU…..

Agree, I ordered plate glass table top and FedX rolled square box up my driveway. Naturally corner was chipped when I opened it due to all four corners smashed. Was too much hassle to not accept it being I didn’t have recorder recording them bouncing it up my driveway and there was two of them to boot. I managed to get it in house carrying it.

I'm confused. When do you do the online signature, before or after you receive the package? If you sign before you receive the package, it is ridiculous. How is that any substitute for a signature receipt? If that is the case, the USPS shouldn't even offer such an absurd service. It's fraud. If you sign before receiving the package, then the USPS should assume responsibility if the package is lost or stolen, but they probably won't.

Correct, the important part is "almost all". More & more Amazon vendors are shipping not exclusively with Amazon - the last part of the journey is USPS, which is where issues are within TV and full lockers. You can usually tell on an Amazon item by looking at who sells/ships - although not always.

My understanding is they are - for a set amount of time, after which they are returned to the PO in Lady Lake. apparently with so many packages and so few lockers the packages can sit for a while, which isn't allowed per USPS guidelines. I don't know that timeframe, I recently received a package with a notation to return on a date 6 days from the day it was placed in a locker - which was 4 days after my USPS "informed delivery" says it was delivered. I have no idea where it was those 4 days, presumably in the postal station.

Informed delivery is a great free USPS service, you receive an email each day of what is being delivered.

WE have a lazy postal team. I have had to drive from Everglades to Lady Lake several times to pick up a pair of shoes or small objects that could have fit in the mail slot. I spoke to the “supervisor” at Lady Lake asking why the Driver passed my home at 5:15 pm and left an orange note for me to pick up my package at Lady Lake or request redelivery. The package would have fit in thee slot with the orange note.
The response was that mail carriers are no longer required to deliver to homes more than 0.5 miles off of the carrier’s main route. With that rule even redelivery is a problem. USPS would not give me anything in writing. I told them this could be a form of elder abuse and would slow critical deliveries. Several of my neighbors are recovering from surgeries and can’t drive to Lady Lake.

May I suggest knocking on the Door at the local PO station, introduce yourself.. A generous gratuity will go a long way... (or not and continue to make your life more difficult )

In reading the replies, I feel fortunate that my last 2 carriers in Polo Ridge either delivered to my door, or put a long paint stirrer in my mailbox for me to knock on the door & they then get it out of their van & give directly to me, if the package is too big for the locker. I have never seen our lockers all full here. I would go to the mail kiosk when you think the carrier is there, knock on the door & politely ask him or her what he or she is going to be doing @ your village. Any of the opinions here are purely speculation. Ask & you’ll know.🙂

jacksonla
 

Our TV house is a second home, both in Florida. We do not get mail here and have no post box. Amazon sub-contracts USPS. A third of the time their sub-contractor will not deliver to our Village doorstep, even though it's in the "special instructions" to do so. I get messages that say my packages have been delivered to a parcel box I do not have. I've spent hours on the phone with Amazon trying to get them to fix this issue.

Nope, not mine.

Never met your team, so :shrug:

Why should I have to pay a tip for them to do their job?

They will deliver to.my front door

They are to deliver it to your house if the parcel lockers are full. Do not contact the Lady Lake post office as they are useless. Contact the Postal Inspection Service and the Office of the Inspector Geneneral.

We were told that the postal workers used to be able to bring packages to the home, but the contractors are no longer able to per some directive.

So money bribes works? I don’t think Florida considered 3rd world yet.:faint:

USPS needs to be contracted out. Too many worthless high level managers making 150K plus year have no clue what goes on in trenches IMO. :undecided:

Verbal Altercation
 

I tried this with our postal service when there was a mixup with hold and forwarding between our Villages home and our home in Central Pennsylvania during our vacation (this situation never happens in the Villages, right? <sarcasm Sheldon>). The PA mail kept being delivered for 3 weeks while we were on vacation (yes, we had a house sitter weekly but not daily) and the Villages mail was continued as stopped well after the hold period. Figured as above that a friendly contact at the local post office would solve the problem.

The postal person answered the door and when she found out the address she started verbally abusing me about how she was reprimanded. I was clueless as she shovelled the small bin at me (which had a small but expensive electronic component in it with mail), but apologized for the misunderstanding, but that did not seem to help.

Turns out my wife had called USPS in PA to straighten out the deliveries in PA and they mistook the PA and FL addresses. (again).

We have had comments from postal employees that "you cannot have 2 addresses".

Currently, I have my mail on forward from FL to PA that was put in place for an unexpected emergency return to PA. Family had sent me a Father's day package. It is in limbo in a postal locker since packages are not forwarded and there is no way currently to place further shipping on item.

Looks like the package is lost to the USPS. Will consider alternate delivery and do use UPS, FEDEX, and Amazon when available. The pass offs still happen occasionally but the Amazon contract to pass off packages for final delivery expired, thank goodness. However, an alternate delivery service does not catch mail/packages sent by 3rd parties to the current Villages address as happened with the current dilema.

Wife will retire in a few more years but am not hopeful for better service.

Unfortunately, people rarely take pride in their work. It’s a slacker attitude. Little effort =little success. Started w/t-ball, everyone gets a trophy regardless of effort…

Yes it does, The Villages as an obscure policy that prohibits the post office from delivering packages to your house if you live more than 1/2 mile from a postal station which we find really baffeling

The last sentence, is wife going to be sorting mail after retirement?🤦

I've had our postal person hold packages for me, w/a note in our box that she had it and to call for it.

'Course, I did give her a pretty nice tip last Christmas...

The Villages has NOTHING to do with USPS policies. I get packages brought to my house frequently and I'm 2 miles away.
Why would anyone in their right mind think that The Villages can dictate what the USPS can do? SMH

Remember to take all of these issues into consideration at holiday time. Good work deserves good tips, and poor service, well, optional.

Mail has been a total nightmare in our experience since we came here years ago. It's always something. Would not attempt to relay all through the years, some VERY serious, some just annoying such as constantly (several times a month) getting some piece of mail for another party. Also have had many things ruined by villages postal employees (they are NOT U.S. government employees) taking delicate items and folding, crushing, whatever it takes to MAKE it fit into our pigeon hole of a mail box.... one time managed to push and rip a shoe box until the top came off they were able to shove the shoes in the pigeon hole...LOL... and said, "oh, probably done in in shipping", no, this is something the villages does repeatedly to MAKE things "fit" in the small space. Doubt things will ever change. Have complained, U.S. post office said "that's a private mail system" (???) "can't help you". Villages listen to complaints but never changes ! Lack of "good" employees maybe ?

Yes ! Seems to always show "delivered" when the package has NOT been delivered to our mail box or to our home. Maddening !

:BigApplause::BigApplause:

Why do I ever read threads like this?

Oh, I know ... it's raining and I can't play golf.

If your sender used SurePost, they're trying to save money. Complain to the shipper. The USPS makes the "Last mile delivery" and you should receive a notice that the package has been delivered. UPS/FedEx tracking essentially ends at the Post Office.



Almost without exception, every shipment by UPS, USPS and Fedex, are bound by their contract with the specific product the shipper bought. The only major deliver service left, is Amazon Delivery. They have no choice but to deliver to your home, as they don't have access to USPS boxes.


You "home" for purposes of the USPS, is your neighborhood mail center. Anyone and everyone who lives in TV, should understand that distinction. Only in very rare circumstances, will the USPS show up at your door.

& your congressmen. All will be equally useless.


It's so obscure, it doesn't even exist. The Villages has no such policy and has no control over the USPS. Baffeling, huh?!


If they're handling USPS mail, they are USPS employees or contractors, they are not employees of The Villages.

I had well over 150 packages delivered to me, between October and May, 2024. At least 50 of those came through USPS.

I had to go to the Lady Lake Post Office, exactly ONCE ... and it was because a package had incorrect postage on it.

Everyone wants "free shipping" and then complains they have to go to their mailbox to get their package.

There were over 25,000,000,000 packages shipped and delivered in the USA last year. If there was an error made in only 1% of those deliveries, it would 250,000,000 mistakes. Odds are, you're going to be subjected to one of those mistakes, once or twice a year. Live with it.

Anyone else tired of that ridiculous saying "boots on the ground"? Are we militarizing the USPS?

How can you own a home in the villages and not have a parcel box? Doesn’t every home have one?

In 3 years I’ve lived here and I order online all the time. Nearly every single thing I order is online and I’ve never once had any issues with getting packages. :shrug:

If you select an Amazon product that has a 1 or 2 day delivery, it is virtually impossible for Amazon to have the package delivered to the postal station. There is not enough time to meet the promised delivery schedule. Occasionally, I have received an Amazon package from a USPS priority delivery driver who comes to the house.

Mailman
 

We used to live in Duval and now are in calmut grove. I had a lot of mail issues there. Have had no issues here. So…. Maybe talk to Megan there. I tried but she seems overwhelmed.

Everyone has a small mail box. At our station the parcel boxes are the group of large boxes.

You may have legal grounds to compel the post office to deliver your package regardless of the availability of parcel lockers. There is law that says they cannot withhold mail and must attempt delivery of all mail. They should attempt delivery to your physical residence, not just a parcel locker, before they require your to pick up at the post office. You could make the argument that mail should not be withheld because of a lack of parcel lockers just as it should not be withheld if the mail piece does not fit into a parcel locker. I would suggest doing some research and talking to the Postmaster. There are federal law mandates that cover the delivery requirements.