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We use a small local post office...so small that the few people who work there kinda get to know many regulars, especially those using one of the few hundred PO boxes.
At Christmas time we had a notice in PO box of a special item to be picked up at the service desk. This wasn't unusual and we expected an Amazon or gift package. To my surprise we got the BACK of an envelope, the Christmas card, AND a check for $100 which had been sent (as it is every year) by our relative in FL. The service people had identified us through names on the check (the writer's printed name and our endorsed and our paid to name).
Days later we received the front addressed part of the envelope. The post office agents said they'd never seen anything like this before Scary...on one hand someone or more went above and beyond but we were lucky ... automation isn't perfect.
In fairness it should be noted that delivering small to large, various shaped, handwritten, multi colored, envelopes ...where probably 50% of the volume is concentrated in a few weeks of the year is much more difficult than delivering packages and mailing boxes/envelopes.
With a few exceptions (well under 1% I'd guess) our mail has gotten to/from us over decades in various post offices in the Northeast. We've especially liked the many small post offices we've used with PO boxes.
We've also had our tussles with various package delivery services...
sorry, haven't noticed any decrease in capabilities or service. Other than mail arriving a bit later in the day. I do see mail trucks out much later than I recall.
I saw one delivering mail on Sunday last week, I was shocked.
I have to agree with many of the concerns expressed here.
My local carrier is outstanding, but she can only do so much. If she is out...and she took Christmas off because management was being a PIA about service (their version, versus hers).....service falls off a cliff.
So, her replacement......mail might come at 7 pm (normally mid day--yes, I get it, Christmas rush, but 7 pm?). Some days no mail at all. One day dropped incoming; reached over out-going to get it in the box, but didn't take outgoing? How is that even possible? MANY days neighbors come by with my mail, and I take theirs over!
And slow......Two Day Express or whatever they call it never makes it in less than three days...many times four or five days. International took about a month this year: UK, Europe, Australia and Japan. Not exactly backwater communities either. Domestic letters that should arrive in three days might take three; might take two weeks.
I really believe it is my local post office. I also have a large (commercial) mail box at the main PO. Couple of weeks ago I picked up my mail, only to find a whole bundle of letters in my mail box. Person sorting the mail must have shoved them in there when quitting time rolled around, or just to get rid of them. Multiple recipients, checks for an insurance company, invoices for a local tire retailer. I was stunned, but it explained a LOT about how the local PO stashes things, loses things...who knows how long stuff sits somewhere in that building until someone has an "ah-ha" moment and decides to deal with the stack. The stuff in my mail box could have sat there for a week, so a three day first class letter is now AT LEAST seven days to deliver...and maybe more. Explains why things take two weeks to go across town.
Question is, who do you talk to? Counter help is beetching as much as the customers. Local Postmaster is unavailable; and even after you do have a deer-in-the-headlights conversation there is never any concrete follow up. Phone numbers always roll to a national number...who you gonna ask for, the President?
The whole things is just obscene. These guys are like Radio Shack.....they had THE WHOLE AMRKET in their specialty, and they managed to F it up so badly that they are bankrupt! You couldn't write that script with any degree of believability.
I think much of the problem lies in a system where people basically have guaranteed jobs, so why should they work and be accountable? The mere couple times I have had an issue with UPS or FedEx over the past 30 years, I was able to quickly speak to someone who CARED and worked to rectify the problem.
The mere couple times I have had an issue with UPS or FedEx over the past 30 years, I was able to quickly speak to someone who CARED and worked to rectify the problem.
Whenever I am scheduled for a FedEx delivery, I expect the worst, and I am rarely disappointed.
Over the years, FedEx employees have...
...left bags of dry granular lawn products in my driveway, on a day of torrential rain--rather than walking about 30 feet further in order to place the delivery on my covered porch
...totally screwed-up the delivery of computers from Dell, necessitating 3 trips to their depot in Branchburg
...totally screwed-up the delivery of a case of wine, necessitating a 60 mile roundtrip drive to their Avenel depot
And, when I have had the misfortune to visit the Branchburg and Avenel FedEx depots, all of the employees with whom I dealt, or whom I observed, had the worst possible attitude toward both their job and to the customers whom they were supposed to be serving.
In my experience, FedEx and "caring" don't belong in the same sentence unless you insert the word "not" before the word "caring".
By contrast, I have had no problems whatsoever with either UPS or The USPS.
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Scary...on one hand someone or more went above and beyond but we were lucky ... automation isn't perfect. 
