Delivery Issues

It's the holiday season and you would think that because it happens the same time every year places that deliver things would be prepared with intelligent, hard-working people. I have two separate issues; one with the USPS and the other with FedEx. I'll start with FedEx since it is shorter. They picked a package up in a city 1 hour south of where I live and rather than doing the smart thing and drive it to me they sent it to Connecticut - a state that doesn't even border mine - and then sent it back to my state where it is sitting in a town 1 1/2 hours away from me. It was supposed to have gotten to me today, but hopefully it will get here before Christmas.

Now for the USPS. Last Sunday night I put some mail in my mailbox (which is 1 mile from my house because the USPS refuses to drive on my road) to be picked up on Monday. Sunday into Monday we got a little less than 6 inches of snow -  which is nothing for northern New England. The mail is usually in my mailbox between 12:30pm-1:30 pm and so I drove to the mailbox to check. The mail I had placed in the box was still waiting to be picked up. I returned to the box every hour to hour and a half to check and still the same thing. I then looked online and saw that the USPS said they had attempted to deliver my mail at 5:08 pm on Monday. I had been to my box at: 6:03 pm, 7 pm and 8:45 pm and my mail was still inside waiting so I knew they were telling me lies. I even checked the next day at 8 am just to make sure, but to no avail. So I filed a complaint online and was told to wait 2 business days for an answer. That came and went and I got another message telling me to wait another 4 business days (it's clear the USPS cares about their customers.) On Tuesday I was going to the local Post Office to mail a box anyways and asked the nice woman there (I have never had an issue with her - knock on wood) and asked her to see if my 5 packages were there waiting to be picked up. She said they weren't and even tried to call the mail carrier, but got no answer (cell phones don't work in my town.) The nice postal woman called me an hour later and said the 5 packages were delivered that day to my box and that the mail carrier said she couldn't make it to the group of mailboxes because of the snow. I am not a New Englander, but have lived here several years and know that 6 inches is nothing. We get storms of 1- 2 feet and yet the mail is still delivered - although understandably sometimes a few hours later than usual. If this mail carrier can't deal with 6 inches than she should move out of northern New England - especially out of the mountains where I live. I know the USPS is going broke, but if they want people to continue to trust and use their services than they have to respect their job and their customers. I worked for the Military Post Office in Germany and know all the Federal rules that all Postal employees - whether Military or not - have to follow and this mail carrier did not do that. On top of that she lied. I am still waiting for the local Postmaster to get back to me regarding this issue. If people do not/can not do their job then they should be given a pink slip and someone who can do the work should be hired. I know people are saying "Where's your holiday spirit? It's Christmas." I know it's Christmas and I do have the holiday spirit, but that still doesn't excuse idiots to be allowed to not do their jobs correctly and ruin the holidays for others because of those mistakes.