[phil21]

It's highly dependent on where you live and the individual driver assigned to your route.

I used to absolutely wonder in confusion why people complained about the USPS - where I grew up it was always cheaper and generally more reliable than UPS or Fedex. Plus if you ever had to go into the Post Office the people were downright pleasant and competent.

Then I moved to Chicago, and I instantly realized the reputation was deserved. It was essentially two entirely different postal systems, you would simply not recognize them as the same "company".

UPS and Fedex I've both had utterly fail for me living in different locations, just lazy worthless drivers happened to be assigned to me.

I will say all the complaining about "leaving packages to get stolen" needs to stop - if you're concerned get a box to put them in. Otherwise it's not reasonable to have these guys wait on you to come to to door. Sure it's only 30 seconds, but that's 30 seconds multiplied by 200 each day. Sure there will be some shrink just like a retail store, but it's still overall much more efficient.

[kalleboo]

> Otherwise it's not reasonable to have these guys wait on you to come to to door. Sure it's only 30 seconds, but that's 30 seconds multiplied by 200 each day

The only place I've had packages left outside is in the US. In every other country, every package that doesn't fit in the mailbox requires you to come to the door (or in many cases, it will require you to pick it up at a local postal pickup point, usually a nearby supermarket/convenience store/gas station)

[massysett]

My USPS drivers are so shiftless I have no reason to believe they would put packages in a box if I had one. They have left boxes on the driveway in the rain even though there is a covered porch a few feet away. I routinely get my neighbors' mail. USPS is so bad that I do everything I can to not receive mail.