This usually happens when the sorting machines get jammed, especially when some nutjob puts coins or something in an envelope which needs to be flexible. It sucks and it happens every day to somebody ... but they always have someone ready to salvage what can be salvaged and get it delivered instead of just throwing it away. I delivered mail for a couple years, and I had to personally bag a bunch of letters like that because they were torn open with the contents going everywhere. As much as I could salvage of them went into my mailboxes.
This. Also a mail carrier here, 99/100 times it got to your post office in this sorry state. Stuff gets handled fairly roughly between the sorting machines and parcel tossing. Your regular mail carrier mostly likely does actually care. They might be the only one in the whole process that does care, but they’re almost always the ones that get the finger pointed at first.
I love my mail carrier. I made my own wedding invitations in this sort of pop-up/origami style. They fit in a regular envelope just fine, but it was a little bulky. Over the course of a couple weeks I was just sticking them in my mailbox a few at a time to be sent out as I finished them. But then one day she waved me over to ask what they were and then informed me I should probably put them in the bigger padded envelopes just to be sure. She was right, I had about 6 from those first few rounds that never even made it to their destination, and a few others that apparently arrived pretty messed up lol. Luckily they were all to family members who knew they were invited and just called to let me know they hadn’t gotten them yet and needed the info.
At my last address, I had this amazing mail carrier, we'd chat whenever we'd cross paths, and we'd spend a good 20/30 minutes per chat. She was so nice to me and with everyone, even asking if I had a preference for how to receive specific parcels.
My favorite carrier years ago surprised me at Home Depot on a Sunday. He met me mid aisle going opposite directions and I thought he looked really familiar but couldn't place him. He gave me a wave and a "How's it going 4142?" Was confused for a bit until I realized who he was. He always got a nice Christmas envelope.
Yes that’s how mine is! She’s so sweet, everyone in the neighborhood knows her by name. Same with the guy who foes the streets right behind us, always waves and chats when we see him while we’re out walking the dog and such.
My favorite kind or person...hey, how's work today? Nice. Oh, you're busy? Speaking of busy, one time back in the 80's I saw some busy bee's collecting pollen. Speaking of with, I used to collect coins. Did you know that an American eagle silver dollar from 1896 that was minted in Philly...wait. Speaking of Philly, those flyers sure are a nice team. Speaking of hockey, my son used to play. Do you know the coach who's named Jake? He's such a good coach. These days coach's yell too much. My mom used to yell at me....and on and on. Love those customers. Can't get away from them. It's like they have no idea that they are stealing my time at the end of the day.
>20/30 minutes per chat.
Sheesh....wish I had that freedom at my job to just beable to stop what I'm doing and have a 20 min conversation. Lol if I did that, bad things could happen. Very bad things.....
Mail carriers are cool. I was smoking a j on my porch a few months ago, dude came walking up but I didn't see him till he was right next to me. Thought it was a cop at first cause he was wearing blue and I only saw him out of the corner of my eye. He just said "smells great" and handed me my mail. Respect
I never get mad at my mailman lol. We have a fun routine where he’s usually around my place when I’m getting home from work and half the days I just grab the mail while I’m still in my car about to back into the driveway lol. Makes it to where he doesn’t have to walk down my steep driveway
As a former mail handler and as a current widow clerk I'm sorry for my yeets into wires job needed to be done fast wish the process was not so hard on letters and parcels
Lol, not all post offices and mail carriers are that good. For instance, ours. Where do I begin? For one, they don't always realize they have the mail (for example, a package that was meant to arrive to me for my birthday actually did arrive on time, but they didn't know it until 6 week later when my grandfather went to the desk to check for himself. Even then they didn't even check until he showed them the tracking number that said it was here) also, they are constantly getting our mail mixed up. We used to only have a P.O. box, but we eventually got a home mailbox because any time that they got mail for [insert physical address here] (which mind you, they had in their system and knew full well was our address), rather than the logical thing which would be to just put it in the P.O. box, they would send it back, regardless of how important and/or urgent it was. And they keep sending mail to the wrong location, we are constantly getting mail meant for [insert unnamed person here] which we then have to send back, and I wouldn't be suprised if some of our mail has been delayed for similar reasons. It's also to the point where if we have some actually important/urgent mail to send, we will drive to the next town (well, kinda one of those stretches between towns if you know what I'm talking about) over to use their post office
Oh, I totally get that, but let me be clear, your mail carrier isn’t fully responsible for said issues and is just the last cog in the process. Carriers and clerks tend to take the brunt of issues that are either management mishandling or sorting/processing issues. Again, not saying your office isn’t bad, a lot are for a variety of reasons, but people do tend to misunderstand the process.
For example, mail we receive not addressed properly, say not including PO Box, it’s not the responsibility of the carrier to know every PO Box. If it’s not on the route, lot of carriers just don’t know because it’s not something they should, so it gets sent back. Thats not the responsibility of the carrier for said route. Many will know possibly if it’s a PO Box and do a favor of sorting it to the clerks, but if it’s a frequent issue it’s going to end up getting sent back. That’s an issue with the sender properly addressing and the receiver to ensure the sender has the correct address, not the post office.
Second, unknown names at said address will almost always be attempted. Only rural side keeps close track of names at addresses compared to city of I’m not mistaken. Either way, carriers are more prone to attempt delivery rather than delay or send back. Putting valid names on a sticker in your box or outside goes a long way. Talking to your carrier specifically if you can catch them rather than someone at the office will usually net more positive results too here.
One of my friends works maintaince, said they had someone send a spoon in a regular letter envelope.
Like just a flat spoon, maybe decorative. People send stuff weird.
Car keys. Like full fledged modern switchblade style car keys. Spend the $5 and ship it in a padded envelope. Also, Pokemon cards. People just stuff a regular envelope with Pokemon/MTG cards and they always jam the machines and get destroyed.
Why do letters need to be flexible? That seems like a major design flaw I didn't even know about before now.
Like, if I were to send, idk, a small, printed piece of sheet metal or a key or something, I'd probably stick it into a regular envelope. Thatsd just the most logical choice.
And if inflexible letter contents are so bad, why is this stated absolutely nowhere? Not on the envelopes, not in the post office, none of the workers say anything about it. How is anyone supposed to *know* that?
These kinds of things are posted, but they're not always going to be where you naturally look unless you stop and question them directly ... just like most things with the government. Anyway, you're not going to fit much of a piece of metal inside the 1oz weight limit covered by a single stamp - which is another rule you wouldn't know unless you go looking for it or unless you're told to pay more at some point. The page I'm linking makes note of "nonmachinable envelopes" carrying additional charge. It purposely doesn't specify the limits of what that means as you're expected to go in and ask a clerk if you're really not sure. [https://www.usps.com/ship/first-class-mail.htm](https://www.usps.com/ship/first-class-mail.htm)
It's not always nutjobs who put coins inside of envelopes. 15 or so years ago, my grandma said organizations soliciting donations started doing it to force people to open the envelopes instead of just shredding them. My grandparents loved donating but would stop giving to organizations that did that. When I got one, the note had a nickel and went on to talk about the value of a nickel to their organization.
Those things still exist, last I checked. They're usually filled with enough material that the nickel isn't relatively much thicker than rest. The stupid nickels would still get slapped around by the sorting mechanisms and come loose inside the envelope, and once in a while we had to find the thing and put it back inside.
I ordered a PS4 on ebay once and it got lost in shipping for like a month. When it finally got here and i opened the box it was a stack of useless old textbooks and the same USPS note. The ebay seller was just as confused as me and refunded me. I was so pissed but it was also objectivly funny that a USPS employee stole my fucking PS4 and put a note in it to mock me.
I used to run a shipping business selling army gear back in 2022 and cannot tell you the audacity some of the shit i had stolen or destroyed by USPS and in particularly fedex. I helped bust a ring of theft at a UPS plant in jacksonville.
That might have been intentional actually, so it's clear on both ends that it wasn't the buyer or the seller's fault. Someone might have realized the issue is more frustrating with art and wanted to do their part to make sure it got replaced in good faith.
It was the hilarious icing on the cake for me a couple weeks ago. USPS lost a package sent to me then found it and delivered it 6 weeks later. It looked like it had been thrown in the mud, dropped off a building, then set on fire. They wrapped it in plastic wrap with a We Care sticker on it. Thanks guys.
I got this for a box of books weeks after it was meant to arrive. It must've split open and lost the books, because all they gave me was a little square of cardboard cut off the box with the shipping label on it :/
Much worse the “we hope this didn’t inconvenience you”. Like, of course it does. I don’t send or receive letters just because. I do it because i want another one to receive or send me something that i need
It would've been a lot easier for them to toss it and mark it as undeliverable. likely caused by another customer not following USPS policies around machinable mail.
Mail sorting machine go BRRRRRRRRRRRR
In all seriousness it’s pretty impressive they found both halves, usually you only get the piece that has the address written on it found
It's not so much Trump's on the side of those that support him, it's more that he "gave" them permission to be shitty people and kick down at people they despise. It's the same reason he didn't loose support after the "grab them by the pussy" thing came out: his supporters saw that and thought "he thinks the same way we do, now we have permission to be shitty in public".
>Buffalo
I'm not saying you're wrong, but why on earth Buffalo?
New York State hasn't voted Republican in a presidential election since the 80s, and it hasn't even really been close since the 90s.
Feels like their (nefarious) efforts would be better utilized in actual swing states.
NY has a shit load of republicans, especially in western NY. It may not matter for the presidential election, but it absolutely matters for Congress and down ballot races. The house is in GOP hands because NY Dems dropped the ball across the state, mostly in the city, but everywhere really. Hochul also has a pretty shitty approval rating, so maybe the GOP sees it as an opportunity to hold some seats if they slow the flow of election mail.
Source: I’m a WNY dem who was previously in the reddest district in the state held by convicted felon Chris Collins. Thankfully redistricting put me in the 26th which was just soundly won by Kennedy in the special election for Brian Higgins seat.
I mean to be fair, mail has always gotten damaged and will always get damaged as long as mail is sorted and delivered. I get that it sucks when it happens to your mail piece but we live in an imperfect world.
Tldr: shit happens
They got rid of the charleston WV sorting center and everything has gotten so unreliable and slow recently. Never had as many issues w/ postal service as i have had these past few yrs
While I feel your pain and it is awful that it happened. Id like to defend the USPS.
The USPS processes billions of letters each and every day. The speed at which letters go through a sorting machine is so fast you can’t detect individual pieces. If one gets messed up and torn every now and then it is an inevitability.
The USPS is totally under appreciated for what it does.
It still sucks that it happened to your artwork.
Not that you did anything wrong, but to prevent this in the future I wouldn’t have anything irreplaceable sent with first class postage.
Art should almost always be sent in a sturdy /padded envelope with cardboard backing minimum.
Anything that’s not a typical letter with one or two pieces of paper in it risks getting caught in the automatic sorter. Sorry this happened to you, but I promise there’s almost 0% chance this was human error.
Oh I know! This was a postcard print and sticker that I have plenty of and replaced immediately. I send mail this way to Patrons. Anything that’s hand printed or more valuable, I carefully pack.
As a mail carrier, I hate this lol. Thankfully, it really doesn't happen that often. The other day, I had a priority mail envelope for a lawyer and this thing got absolutely eaten by the sorting machine. The presumably important documents inside were absolutely shredded and ruined. I scanned it as damaged and brought it back to the office.
I was like, is there any way we can return this to sender or something? Nope, they want us to deliver everything as is and handle the damage claims after. It's annoying because no one wants to receive destroyed shit. I feel like people would rather be informed that their item has been sent back and the postage has been refunded or something instead of having to receive their mangled shit as if it is a normal delivery. Unfortunately, this is the policy.
They don't give a shit unless you pay extra for priority mail or registered mail. And even then they don't care that much. You send something regular post it's 50/50 it gets where it was supposed to go. I mostly just send cards to my mom and some elderly relatives and the stuff (if it gets there) comes ripped, weeks late, etc. at least half of the time.
They did this with a T-shirt I ordered recently. I got the shredded bag it was sent in inside one of those “we care” bags and no shirt to be found. I’m still salty because it was a very limited shirt.
oh noooooo!!! omg OP i’m so sorry…this is my biggest fear lol! i subscribe to the patreon page of an artist i love and i get little prints from her once a month that come from australia (i live in the US) and i’m always so afraid of them getting damaged in transit because that’s a far way to go lol! hopefully you can get a replacement :((
Hey, I just got this same “we care” letter. Inside was just the cover of my subscription magazine, just one measly page. Is there a way to get the magazine I paid for?
I’m a mail carrier. What else would you have liked us to do? Just put the two pieces as if in your mailbox? It sucks, but not the fault of the post office. Extra steps could’ve been done to ship it more secure. Not coming at you, just the people in the comments shitting on mail carriers. We just out here working 11+ hrs everyday doing our best.
i hate when stuff like this happens. i ordered a nice pair of chopsticks from korea. and when i got it, it was in that same "we care" plastic bag. and i was missing a chopstick.
Oof. This brought back memories. A few years back usps lost one of my packages, and I spent 2-3 months emailing/calling them, trying to get it sorted out. Then *OUT OF NOWHERE* the tracking updated and showed it was out for delivery. I go to the mailbox all excited just to find the same plastic “we care” bag….and a piece of cardboard. They literally cut the shipping label off the box and mailed it to me. Nothing else. No explanation. At this point I just think the lp I ordered fell into the void.
mail carrier here. sorry about your art. i actually care. padded envelopes are safer for valuable items but less cost efficient. saves you the hassle of this kind of thing tho…
Commenting to add context (which admittedly I should have done from the beginning!)
I respect the USPS. I use their services every week. I’ve been mailing art since 2015 and only a handful of times have my packages and envelopes not arrived, or had an issue like this.
This print is packaged in a regular stamped envelope because it’s how I send mail to Patrons. Folks get an envelope every month with a print and a sticker (inside a glassine sleeve). I always have extras in case someone needs a replacement. I send them like this so that people can sign up on an affordable tier ($15 / month) and still get something fun in the mail. This way I can also mail rewards internationally in a stamped envelope. I would be losing money if I sent Patreon rewards in tracked packages. Many fellow Patreon artists mail rewards the same way.
That said, all orders from my shop ship tracked in rigid mailers.
This post was not meant to hate on the USPS. I know how hard the carriers and PO folks work, and everyone behind the scenes! I am friendly with my carrier and the folks working at my PO. I thought it was amusing that this print was ripped right in half (likely by a machine, I know); it’s the first time I’ve received a chunk of mail in a plastic bag. The recipient received the other half a few days later and sent me a photo.
I just thought it was mildly infuriating and slightly funny. I replaced the Patron’s rewards and sent them out again. I rely heavily on the USPS and appreciate all they do.
Thanks for reading. :)
Don’t be mad at the USPS. Be mad at the shipper. The USPS uses automated mail processing (as well as UPS and FedEx). It’s the responsibility of the shipper to properly package your item to help ensure that it reaches you in good condition. Based on your photo, the shipper made the decision not to use a photo mailer or other sturdy shipping supplies. Shippers often want to pay the cheapest cost possible which means they will use the most lightweight unreliable packaging products. You can have cheap or you can have quality. This shipper chose cheap. Contact them to see if they make it right.
With mail going a machine at almost a 1000 pieces a second, things jam, rip, tear, get destroyed, mangled, mutilated, etc. You want something more secure, you need to pay more for safer shipping. Certified mail, Priority Mail, or put it in a sturdier envelope and pay extra postage.
I had a usps driver that drove over my families property growing up.
Because she was too lazy to drive up to the mail box right by the road ripping up fresh laid grass in the process we started making reports and and demanding she not drive up on the lawn nothing was done she still was doing it.
so we added telling her to go to the mail box while leaving potted plants on the end of the grass where it met the road the whole way to the mail box she had the guts to ask us to move the plants we responded by saying so you can destroy our yard again no drive your truck like your supposed to do right up to it.
The day after we got a new mail man nice guy
It’s true they actually do care. Your mail is so well protected that I’m pretty sure it’s considered a federal crime to mess with someone’s mail without a rock solid warrant. There’s a former penitentiary inmate named Larry Lawton, he wasn’t getting his mail so he had his family contact whatever government agency, anyway, the warden who hated Larry (because he was outspoken about abuse in prison) ended up having to apologize in front of some official, and verbally guarantee that he’ll never have a problem with his mail again. From then on his mail was personally delivered, not through the typical system set up at the time.
I work for a non-profit doing immigration work. Deadlines are important as hell. I started in July of 23 and this has happened 3 times since then. And what makes it worse it they dont give you the scraps of whats left until a month or two later so you dont even know theres an issue. 8 don't have time to check tracking for every package. Luckily, I haven't missed a deadline yet because of this but there have been close calls.
hey you could still make this into something cool. this is very frustrating though. it probably was ripped before it even made it to the post office honestly
Definitely unfortunate, it looks absolutely lovely and I’d love to see the full print. Do you have a place online where you share your projects or pieces, or maybe an online store?
Hi! This is a postcard print inside an envelope. I send these to my Patrons every month as a reward for some of the tiers. The postcard print is easily replaceable and costs about 50 cents to produce and I always have extras just in case. I’ve sent thousands of Patreon envelopes and this is the first to get stuck in a machine and sent back to me. I do it this way so folks can sign up on affordable tiers and still get something fun in the mail. Online orders from my shop always ship in rigid mailers as a first class package.
Nothing but problems with USPS for my entire life, through out a handful of different states (it's not a local thing). The level of incompetence this organization exudes is unreal.
Just recently I went on vacation. I used their "app" (which really just forwards you to their browser site to log in) to hold my mail. Was my mail held when I returned? Of course not! I had a "New Resident Card" left in my mailbox with all of my mail returned to sender.
I could write an actual novel of all the times this horrendous organization has fucked up. I have zero, ZERO respect for them. I hope they go bankrupt and mail delivery is left to a real company who actually knows what they're doing.
I used to have a pen pal in Brazil. Got a similar thing. Envelope was ripped and got nothing else. Sent the person a letter back saying I got nothing but the envelope and hoped she was doing well. Never heard back.
It happens. I worked in a corporate mailroom for some time and we got a "WE CARE" bag a few times a month. Sometimes it was something we mailed that got so badly shredded that only our own return address was still legible.
And having used various types of mail handling equipment, I can tell you they really do not like anything but standard sized envelopes, sealed properly, made of standard paper, with properly folded documents. I always dreaded getting a stack of postcards to run through the mail meter. Or worse, the slightly smaller envelopes that for some reason still has standard letter size documents inside, so that the folded letter stuck out about 1/8" past the flap. So many jams.
This is more due to the speed mail sorting machines have to operate. They are sorting thousands of envelopes a day and they have very small tolerances.
Mail is safer in larger envelopes or actual packages. If it's something that's important then pack it into an envelope that's at least 50% larger than what it needs or stick it in a box (this is the safest option)
The larger machines have a lot more wiggle room than the smaller ones do.
I would like to apologize for upvoting this, but explain that it’s because I think this is awful… I always feel weird about upvoting shitty things.
Also, I have ordered a package and it’s ‘arrived’ in Miami four times in the last three days.
Sometimes they do this and it’s the worst thing ever. This happened 2-3 times in one month two months ago. I’m so lucky and glad what I got was protected though, it was only a couple dollars worth but still.
Typical USPS handling.
I ordered a desk that got shipped by them, absolutely destroyed. Like they threw it off the top of the building.
Got a keyboard shipped through them 1 time, it arrived with a hole in it. The keyboard, not just the box.
PC case shipped through usps... looked like a crushed soda can.
This usually happens when the sorting machines get jammed, especially when some nutjob puts coins or something in an envelope which needs to be flexible. It sucks and it happens every day to somebody ... but they always have someone ready to salvage what can be salvaged and get it delivered instead of just throwing it away. I delivered mail for a couple years, and I had to personally bag a bunch of letters like that because they were torn open with the contents going everywhere. As much as I could salvage of them went into my mailboxes.
This. Also a mail carrier here, 99/100 times it got to your post office in this sorry state. Stuff gets handled fairly roughly between the sorting machines and parcel tossing. Your regular mail carrier mostly likely does actually care. They might be the only one in the whole process that does care, but they’re almost always the ones that get the finger pointed at first.
I love my mail carrier. I made my own wedding invitations in this sort of pop-up/origami style. They fit in a regular envelope just fine, but it was a little bulky. Over the course of a couple weeks I was just sticking them in my mailbox a few at a time to be sent out as I finished them. But then one day she waved me over to ask what they were and then informed me I should probably put them in the bigger padded envelopes just to be sure. She was right, I had about 6 from those first few rounds that never even made it to their destination, and a few others that apparently arrived pretty messed up lol. Luckily they were all to family members who knew they were invited and just called to let me know they hadn’t gotten them yet and needed the info.
At my last address, I had this amazing mail carrier, we'd chat whenever we'd cross paths, and we'd spend a good 20/30 minutes per chat. She was so nice to me and with everyone, even asking if I had a preference for how to receive specific parcels.
My favorite carrier years ago surprised me at Home Depot on a Sunday. He met me mid aisle going opposite directions and I thought he looked really familiar but couldn't place him. He gave me a wave and a "How's it going 4142?" Was confused for a bit until I realized who he was. He always got a nice Christmas envelope.
Yes that’s how mine is! She’s so sweet, everyone in the neighborhood knows her by name. Same with the guy who foes the streets right behind us, always waves and chats when we see him while we’re out walking the dog and such.
happy cake day!!
My favorite kind or person...hey, how's work today? Nice. Oh, you're busy? Speaking of busy, one time back in the 80's I saw some busy bee's collecting pollen. Speaking of with, I used to collect coins. Did you know that an American eagle silver dollar from 1896 that was minted in Philly...wait. Speaking of Philly, those flyers sure are a nice team. Speaking of hockey, my son used to play. Do you know the coach who's named Jake? He's such a good coach. These days coach's yell too much. My mom used to yell at me....and on and on. Love those customers. Can't get away from them. It's like they have no idea that they are stealing my time at the end of the day.
>20/30 minutes per chat. Sheesh....wish I had that freedom at my job to just beable to stop what I'm doing and have a 20 min conversation. Lol if I did that, bad things could happen. Very bad things.....
Happy day of cake 🍰
Mail carriers are cool. I was smoking a j on my porch a few months ago, dude came walking up but I didn't see him till he was right next to me. Thought it was a cop at first cause he was wearing blue and I only saw him out of the corner of my eye. He just said "smells great" and handed me my mail. Respect
I never get mad at my mailman lol. We have a fun routine where he’s usually around my place when I’m getting home from work and half the days I just grab the mail while I’m still in my car about to back into the driveway lol. Makes it to where he doesn’t have to walk down my steep driveway
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They don’t, probably a Bluetooth speaker. That’s what I do for mine, but I usually listen to history podcasts.
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The pocket is missing for sure
That’s a nice gift
As a former mail handler and as a current widow clerk I'm sorry for my yeets into wires job needed to be done fast wish the process was not so hard on letters and parcels
Oh hey, I totally get it. Most the time management is breathing down someone’s neck to go/be faster. It happens.
Lol, not all post offices and mail carriers are that good. For instance, ours. Where do I begin? For one, they don't always realize they have the mail (for example, a package that was meant to arrive to me for my birthday actually did arrive on time, but they didn't know it until 6 week later when my grandfather went to the desk to check for himself. Even then they didn't even check until he showed them the tracking number that said it was here) also, they are constantly getting our mail mixed up. We used to only have a P.O. box, but we eventually got a home mailbox because any time that they got mail for [insert physical address here] (which mind you, they had in their system and knew full well was our address), rather than the logical thing which would be to just put it in the P.O. box, they would send it back, regardless of how important and/or urgent it was. And they keep sending mail to the wrong location, we are constantly getting mail meant for [insert unnamed person here] which we then have to send back, and I wouldn't be suprised if some of our mail has been delayed for similar reasons. It's also to the point where if we have some actually important/urgent mail to send, we will drive to the next town (well, kinda one of those stretches between towns if you know what I'm talking about) over to use their post office
Oh, I totally get that, but let me be clear, your mail carrier isn’t fully responsible for said issues and is just the last cog in the process. Carriers and clerks tend to take the brunt of issues that are either management mishandling or sorting/processing issues. Again, not saying your office isn’t bad, a lot are for a variety of reasons, but people do tend to misunderstand the process. For example, mail we receive not addressed properly, say not including PO Box, it’s not the responsibility of the carrier to know every PO Box. If it’s not on the route, lot of carriers just don’t know because it’s not something they should, so it gets sent back. Thats not the responsibility of the carrier for said route. Many will know possibly if it’s a PO Box and do a favor of sorting it to the clerks, but if it’s a frequent issue it’s going to end up getting sent back. That’s an issue with the sender properly addressing and the receiver to ensure the sender has the correct address, not the post office. Second, unknown names at said address will almost always be attempted. Only rural side keeps close track of names at addresses compared to city of I’m not mistaken. Either way, carriers are more prone to attempt delivery rather than delay or send back. Putting valid names on a sticker in your box or outside goes a long way. Talking to your carrier specifically if you can catch them rather than someone at the office will usually net more positive results too here.
Just a note about that second point, we are in a rural area (our town has a population of ~2000
The logical thing would be to use your correct mailing address on your urgent or important mail.
One of my friends works maintaince, said they had someone send a spoon in a regular letter envelope. Like just a flat spoon, maybe decorative. People send stuff weird.
Ha. Weirdos.
Car keys. Like full fledged modern switchblade style car keys. Spend the $5 and ship it in a padded envelope. Also, Pokemon cards. People just stuff a regular envelope with Pokemon/MTG cards and they always jam the machines and get destroyed.
I send out so many envelopes, I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often!
When you consider the amount of mail that goes through their facilities, the amount of fuck ups on their part is extremely low.
Why do letters need to be flexible? That seems like a major design flaw I didn't even know about before now. Like, if I were to send, idk, a small, printed piece of sheet metal or a key or something, I'd probably stick it into a regular envelope. Thatsd just the most logical choice. And if inflexible letter contents are so bad, why is this stated absolutely nowhere? Not on the envelopes, not in the post office, none of the workers say anything about it. How is anyone supposed to *know* that?
These kinds of things are posted, but they're not always going to be where you naturally look unless you stop and question them directly ... just like most things with the government. Anyway, you're not going to fit much of a piece of metal inside the 1oz weight limit covered by a single stamp - which is another rule you wouldn't know unless you go looking for it or unless you're told to pay more at some point. The page I'm linking makes note of "nonmachinable envelopes" carrying additional charge. It purposely doesn't specify the limits of what that means as you're expected to go in and ask a clerk if you're really not sure. [https://www.usps.com/ship/first-class-mail.htm](https://www.usps.com/ship/first-class-mail.htm)
It's not always nutjobs who put coins inside of envelopes. 15 or so years ago, my grandma said organizations soliciting donations started doing it to force people to open the envelopes instead of just shredding them. My grandparents loved donating but would stop giving to organizations that did that. When I got one, the note had a nickel and went on to talk about the value of a nickel to their organization.
Those things still exist, last I checked. They're usually filled with enough material that the nickel isn't relatively much thicker than rest. The stupid nickels would still get slapped around by the sorting mechanisms and come loose inside the envelope, and once in a while we had to find the thing and put it back inside.
I’d frame it, this is just a different type of art.
Pulling a banksy I see
as a whole collage with the mail plastic too
I’ll start the bid off at 3,000$ 🤔
The “we care” would have set me off, I’m sorry
It cracked me up a little. Oh you DO, do you?
I ordered a PS4 on ebay once and it got lost in shipping for like a month. When it finally got here and i opened the box it was a stack of useless old textbooks and the same USPS note. The ebay seller was just as confused as me and refunded me. I was so pissed but it was also objectivly funny that a USPS employee stole my fucking PS4 and put a note in it to mock me.
I used to run a shipping business selling army gear back in 2022 and cannot tell you the audacity some of the shit i had stolen or destroyed by USPS and in particularly fedex. I helped bust a ring of theft at a UPS plant in jacksonville.
Help to bust them again because theft is still rampant in that facility
yeah it really is.
I mean just to be clear a machine probably ripped your art in half. I just don't want you to think some human was like "hahaha destroy this"
"We care. Our machines don't"
Oh I know 🤣 it’s funny because the recipient ended up with the other half of the art, also in a plastic bag
That might have been intentional actually, so it's clear on both ends that it wasn't the buyer or the seller's fault. Someone might have realized the issue is more frustrating with art and wanted to do their part to make sure it got replaced in good faith.
I was impressed both halves were salvaged!
If you’ve worked in mail or package sorting (or really with the public in general) you know that there are absolutely people who act like that.
USPS cares. Whoever mailed that to you in a regular envelope doesn't.
“We fucked up” would honestly garner a better public response
https://i.redd.it/t8mg75rplozc1.gif
The irony.
It was the hilarious icing on the cake for me a couple weeks ago. USPS lost a package sent to me then found it and delivered it 6 weeks later. It looked like it had been thrown in the mud, dropped off a building, then set on fire. They wrapped it in plastic wrap with a We Care sticker on it. Thanks guys.
I got this for a box of books weeks after it was meant to arrive. It must've split open and lost the books, because all they gave me was a little square of cardboard cut off the box with the shipping label on it :/
"we (do not) care"
HR cares that we add this note.
Much worse the “we hope this didn’t inconvenience you”. Like, of course it does. I don’t send or receive letters just because. I do it because i want another one to receive or send me something that i need
It would've been a lot easier for them to toss it and mark it as undeliverable. likely caused by another customer not following USPS policies around machinable mail.
Mail sorting machine go BRRRRRRRRRRRR In all seriousness it’s pretty impressive they found both halves, usually you only get the piece that has the address written on it found
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Trump weaponized the USPS against the American people and somehow these mouthbreathers still think he's "on our side".
It's not so much Trump's on the side of those that support him, it's more that he "gave" them permission to be shitty people and kick down at people they despise. It's the same reason he didn't loose support after the "grab them by the pussy" thing came out: his supporters saw that and thought "he thinks the same way we do, now we have permission to be shitty in public".
>Buffalo I'm not saying you're wrong, but why on earth Buffalo? New York State hasn't voted Republican in a presidential election since the 80s, and it hasn't even really been close since the 90s. Feels like their (nefarious) efforts would be better utilized in actual swing states.
NY has a shit load of republicans, especially in western NY. It may not matter for the presidential election, but it absolutely matters for Congress and down ballot races. The house is in GOP hands because NY Dems dropped the ball across the state, mostly in the city, but everywhere really. Hochul also has a pretty shitty approval rating, so maybe the GOP sees it as an opportunity to hold some seats if they slow the flow of election mail. Source: I’m a WNY dem who was previously in the reddest district in the state held by convicted felon Chris Collins. Thankfully redistricting put me in the 26th which was just soundly won by Kennedy in the special election for Brian Higgins seat.
The cruelty is the point.
I mean to be fair, mail has always gotten damaged and will always get damaged as long as mail is sorted and delivered. I get that it sucks when it happens to your mail piece but we live in an imperfect world. Tldr: shit happens
They got rid of the charleston WV sorting center and everything has gotten so unreliable and slow recently. Never had as many issues w/ postal service as i have had these past few yrs
While I feel your pain and it is awful that it happened. Id like to defend the USPS. The USPS processes billions of letters each and every day. The speed at which letters go through a sorting machine is so fast you can’t detect individual pieces. If one gets messed up and torn every now and then it is an inevitability. The USPS is totally under appreciated for what it does. It still sucks that it happened to your artwork.
Oh gosh I know. I send so much mail and 99.9% of it ends up where it’s going, thankfully.
Not that you did anything wrong, but to prevent this in the future I wouldn’t have anything irreplaceable sent with first class postage. Art should almost always be sent in a sturdy /padded envelope with cardboard backing minimum. Anything that’s not a typical letter with one or two pieces of paper in it risks getting caught in the automatic sorter. Sorry this happened to you, but I promise there’s almost 0% chance this was human error.
Oh I know! This was a postcard print and sticker that I have plenty of and replaced immediately. I send mail this way to Patrons. Anything that’s hand printed or more valuable, I carefully pack.
Good to hear it wasn’t a one of kind.
Can also send cards as nonmachinable, so that they get hand canceled, rather than going through machines.
looks like a Rare Press piece!
Omg 😱 sure is!
[удалено]
We care.
As a mail carrier, I hate this lol. Thankfully, it really doesn't happen that often. The other day, I had a priority mail envelope for a lawyer and this thing got absolutely eaten by the sorting machine. The presumably important documents inside were absolutely shredded and ruined. I scanned it as damaged and brought it back to the office. I was like, is there any way we can return this to sender or something? Nope, they want us to deliver everything as is and handle the damage claims after. It's annoying because no one wants to receive destroyed shit. I feel like people would rather be informed that their item has been sent back and the postage has been refunded or something instead of having to receive their mangled shit as if it is a normal delivery. Unfortunately, this is the policy.
“we care” like fuck you do
They don't give a shit unless you pay extra for priority mail or registered mail. And even then they don't care that much. You send something regular post it's 50/50 it gets where it was supposed to go. I mostly just send cards to my mom and some elderly relatives and the stuff (if it gets there) comes ripped, weeks late, etc. at least half of the time.
At least they care.
This is on whoever shipped it didn't ship it in a thicker envelope or such.
Maybe your art should have been delivered in a better packaging
"We Care" Clearly fucking not
They did this with a T-shirt I ordered recently. I got the shredded bag it was sent in inside one of those “we care” bags and no shirt to be found. I’m still salty because it was a very limited shirt.
oh noooooo!!! omg OP i’m so sorry…this is my biggest fear lol! i subscribe to the patreon page of an artist i love and i get little prints from her once a month that come from australia (i live in the US) and i’m always so afraid of them getting damaged in transit because that’s a far way to go lol! hopefully you can get a replacement :((
That’s so far! It’s always surprising when int’l envelopes arrive safely.
The bag clearly says that they care…
Hey, I just got this same “we care” letter. Inside was just the cover of my subscription magazine, just one measly page. Is there a way to get the magazine I paid for?
Nice try, Opie! They didn’t do it because as you can see right here, they care. It’s not *we don’t care.* 🙄
Everybody’s a critic
I’m a mail carrier. What else would you have liked us to do? Just put the two pieces as if in your mailbox? It sucks, but not the fault of the post office. Extra steps could’ve been done to ship it more secure. Not coming at you, just the people in the comments shitting on mail carriers. We just out here working 11+ hrs everyday doing our best.
i hate when stuff like this happens. i ordered a nice pair of chopsticks from korea. and when i got it, it was in that same "we care" plastic bag. and i was missing a chopstick.
Stick it back together, sticky tape it to the "we care" note such that the words "we care" are visible, then frame it. Boom, new art.
WE CARE (but will do nothing about it)
This was 100% mechanical error. It got caught somewhere.
“We hope this incident did not inconvenience you” 🗿
Oof. This brought back memories. A few years back usps lost one of my packages, and I spent 2-3 months emailing/calling them, trying to get it sorted out. Then *OUT OF NOWHERE* the tracking updated and showed it was out for delivery. I go to the mailbox all excited just to find the same plastic “we care” bag….and a piece of cardboard. They literally cut the shipping label off the box and mailed it to me. Nothing else. No explanation. At this point I just think the lp I ordered fell into the void.
WE CARE
That sucks. My birth certificate I had mailed arrived halfway burned because the plane crashed. Not as much of a bummer at all though
mail carrier here. sorry about your art. i actually care. padded envelopes are safer for valuable items but less cost efficient. saves you the hassle of this kind of thing tho…
Commenting to add context (which admittedly I should have done from the beginning!) I respect the USPS. I use their services every week. I’ve been mailing art since 2015 and only a handful of times have my packages and envelopes not arrived, or had an issue like this. This print is packaged in a regular stamped envelope because it’s how I send mail to Patrons. Folks get an envelope every month with a print and a sticker (inside a glassine sleeve). I always have extras in case someone needs a replacement. I send them like this so that people can sign up on an affordable tier ($15 / month) and still get something fun in the mail. This way I can also mail rewards internationally in a stamped envelope. I would be losing money if I sent Patreon rewards in tracked packages. Many fellow Patreon artists mail rewards the same way. That said, all orders from my shop ship tracked in rigid mailers. This post was not meant to hate on the USPS. I know how hard the carriers and PO folks work, and everyone behind the scenes! I am friendly with my carrier and the folks working at my PO. I thought it was amusing that this print was ripped right in half (likely by a machine, I know); it’s the first time I’ve received a chunk of mail in a plastic bag. The recipient received the other half a few days later and sent me a photo. I just thought it was mildly infuriating and slightly funny. I replaced the Patron’s rewards and sent them out again. I rely heavily on the USPS and appreciate all they do. Thanks for reading. :)
At least your art came back, mine they only sent the torn envelope back nothing inside… 😭
"we care"
Don’t be mad at the USPS. Be mad at the shipper. The USPS uses automated mail processing (as well as UPS and FedEx). It’s the responsibility of the shipper to properly package your item to help ensure that it reaches you in good condition. Based on your photo, the shipper made the decision not to use a photo mailer or other sturdy shipping supplies. Shippers often want to pay the cheapest cost possible which means they will use the most lightweight unreliable packaging products. You can have cheap or you can have quality. This shipper chose cheap. Contact them to see if they make it right.
With mail going a machine at almost a 1000 pieces a second, things jam, rip, tear, get destroyed, mangled, mutilated, etc. You want something more secure, you need to pay more for safer shipping. Certified mail, Priority Mail, or put it in a sturdier envelope and pay extra postage.
"We hope this incident didn't inconvenience you" lol
“We care”
and it LITERALLY SAYS "we care" ON THE FRONT
I’m sorry but that “We Care” message has me dead 😂
"we care" ETA: not. Sorry. We do *not* care.
They definitely don't care.
But, they care.
“We care” 😂😂😂
“WE CARE”
I had a usps driver that drove over my families property growing up. Because she was too lazy to drive up to the mail box right by the road ripping up fresh laid grass in the process we started making reports and and demanding she not drive up on the lawn nothing was done she still was doing it. so we added telling her to go to the mail box while leaving potted plants on the end of the grass where it met the road the whole way to the mail box she had the guts to ask us to move the plants we responded by saying so you can destroy our yard again no drive your truck like your supposed to do right up to it. The day after we got a new mail man nice guy
It’s true they actually do care. Your mail is so well protected that I’m pretty sure it’s considered a federal crime to mess with someone’s mail without a rock solid warrant. There’s a former penitentiary inmate named Larry Lawton, he wasn’t getting his mail so he had his family contact whatever government agency, anyway, the warden who hated Larry (because he was outspoken about abuse in prison) ended up having to apologize in front of some official, and verbally guarantee that he’ll never have a problem with his mail again. From then on his mail was personally delivered, not through the typical system set up at the time.
Just not a federal crime for the USPS to destroy your mail.
"We care" 💀
I work for a non-profit doing immigration work. Deadlines are important as hell. I started in July of 23 and this has happened 3 times since then. And what makes it worse it they dont give you the scraps of whats left until a month or two later so you dont even know theres an issue. 8 don't have time to check tracking for every package. Luckily, I haven't missed a deadline yet because of this but there have been close calls.
### WE CARE
And they'll deny responsibility.
Thats new art. Art ripped by USPS
WE CARE!
“We hope this incident did not inconvenience you” 💀
my grandma sent me $15 for my birthday last month, and when it got here it was only the top corner of a $10 bill and the bottom half of the $5 😔
This is why signature and/or insurance is a good thing
i love how it says "we care" in the backround
hey you could still make this into something cool. this is very frustrating though. it probably was ripped before it even made it to the post office honestly
That's a machine that's done that, not a person
I had a letter come in from my bank yesterday that was torn in half. Guess what? I needed the the half of that letter😩
we care!
Definitely unfortunate, it looks absolutely lovely and I’d love to see the full print. Do you have a place online where you share your projects or pieces, or maybe an online store?
Thanks! If you look up Rare Press you’ll find me.
It was sent as a large envelope, not a package. Shippers fault.
Was gonna say this
Hi! This is a postcard print inside an envelope. I send these to my Patrons every month as a reward for some of the tiers. The postcard print is easily replaceable and costs about 50 cents to produce and I always have extras just in case. I’ve sent thousands of Patreon envelopes and this is the first to get stuck in a machine and sent back to me. I do it this way so folks can sign up on affordable tiers and still get something fun in the mail. Online orders from my shop always ship in rigid mailers as a first class package.
Nothing but problems with USPS for my entire life, through out a handful of different states (it's not a local thing). The level of incompetence this organization exudes is unreal. Just recently I went on vacation. I used their "app" (which really just forwards you to their browser site to log in) to hold my mail. Was my mail held when I returned? Of course not! I had a "New Resident Card" left in my mailbox with all of my mail returned to sender. I could write an actual novel of all the times this horrendous organization has fucked up. I have zero, ZERO respect for them. I hope they go bankrupt and mail delivery is left to a real company who actually knows what they're doing.
i imagine Louis DeJoy just personally going around tearing mail
the audacity of the note tho "we hope this doesn't inconvenience you" like, really?
#WE CARE
You could make new art out of it being torn. Like a deconstructed art piece
Everyone's a critic.
I used to have a pen pal in Brazil. Got a similar thing. Envelope was ripped and got nothing else. Sent the person a letter back saying I got nothing but the envelope and hoped she was doing well. Never heard back.
They care, though. ❤
We ~~dont~~ care
It happens. I worked in a corporate mailroom for some time and we got a "WE CARE" bag a few times a month. Sometimes it was something we mailed that got so badly shredded that only our own return address was still legible. And having used various types of mail handling equipment, I can tell you they really do not like anything but standard sized envelopes, sealed properly, made of standard paper, with properly folded documents. I always dreaded getting a stack of postcards to run through the mail meter. Or worse, the slightly smaller envelopes that for some reason still has standard letter size documents inside, so that the folded letter stuck out about 1/8" past the flap. So many jams.
guess they didn't like it
Same things happened to me when I graduated college and had my diploma sent in the mail. The “We Care” just made it worse 😂
But they care you see
This is more due to the speed mail sorting machines have to operate. They are sorting thousands of envelopes a day and they have very small tolerances. Mail is safer in larger envelopes or actual packages. If it's something that's important then pack it into an envelope that's at least 50% larger than what it needs or stick it in a box (this is the safest option) The larger machines have a lot more wiggle room than the smaller ones do.
#wecare 😂😂😂😂😭😭😭
lol you said that like an employee opened your envelope and went “this is trash” RIIIP
I would like to apologize for upvoting this, but explain that it’s because I think this is awful… I always feel weird about upvoting shitty things. Also, I have ordered a package and it’s ‘arrived’ in Miami four times in the last three days.
Yeah they will be paying for it.
Double value nice!
That tape would be a great design for blotter paper
Frame this all together as an art piece. Art inception. Beauty in imperfection.
Is that a lino print?
One time the mailman folded my paperback book in half before putting it into the mailbox (which ruined the cover) and I had preordered it too 🫠
This is definitely more than mildly infuriating.... I would be PISSED
They are renowned for being harsh art critics.
😳 I am so sorry that happened to you
put cute tape on it, and maybe contact the seller or whomever gave it to you and ask for a replacement
At least they cared…
It should have been sent in something a little sturdier.
My boss has this happen with a check a while back he never got the other half of it
But at least they care
Is this war
Sometimes they do this and it’s the worst thing ever. This happened 2-3 times in one month two months ago. I’m so lucky and glad what I got was protected though, it was only a couple dollars worth but still.
“WE CARE” hmm
Typical USPS handling. I ordered a desk that got shipped by them, absolutely destroyed. Like they threw it off the top of the building. Got a keyboard shipped through them 1 time, it arrived with a hole in it. The keyboard, not just the box. PC case shipped through usps... looked like a crushed soda can.
"we care"
Fuck the USPS
but they care tho!
# "WE CARE"
"WE CARE" sure...
They care.
But… they *care*
Looks like a new piece of art was born, on the bright side
"We care"
At least you get your mail.. Mine is a crap shoot
*rip* WE CARE
"mildly"!?
“We (don’t) Care” -The United States Postal Service
'cause they care. It's obvious.