USPS Worker Caught On Video Throwing Fragile Boxes Into Mail Truck
A USPS worker has been caught on a security camera aggressively throwing a business’s packages into their truck while on a collection run. Unfortunately, the business in question wasn’t selling cushions…but instead vinyl records which need to be handled carefully.
The incident happened in Phoenix Arizona and the business in question is a store called The ‘In’ Groove which specializes in selling vinyl music records both in-store and online. The owner of the store was watching the incident happen live from his security cameras in the office at the time.
You can see clips of the security video from this Fox10 report below.
USPS Responds To Incident
Even though The ‘In’ Groove takes a lot of care over its packaging, they do not expect their packages to be thrown long distances into a mail truck. When talking to Fox10 the store owner Michael Esposito said on average the company shipped out 300 orders a day.
When Mr. Esposito saw what was happening he decided against confronting the mail worker as he felt that at the moment no good would have come out of a confrontation.
Esposito says the store’s lead packer asked the postal worker if he wanted the packages moved closer to the truck. To which the postal carrier allegedly said “no, that’s alright, I got it.”
According to Mr. Esposito, the value of that shipment was also no small number.
“It was approximately $40,000 worth of records,” said Esposito.
USPS did release a statement regarding the incident and while they wouldn’t give any insight as to whether the postal worker in question had been reprimanded in any way, they did say this:
“The situation has been addressed with the employee. This is clearly unacceptable behavior that does not reflect the efforts of the thousands of professional, dedicated carriers in our workforce.” – USPS Statement
Mr. Esposito was clear to state his main concern was the experiences of his customers but that he also understood the tough job that mail workers have especially at this time of the year.
“It’s a very difficult job and I applaud the post office for that and in my experience, everybody at the post office has been fantastic, but at the same token, I feel bad for my customers. The experience of spending a lot of money on a record.. if you spend $200 to $300 dollars on a record, you’re excited about it. It’s a release that you maybe have waited months for it finally comes in the mail, you get it, and it’s been destroyed,” said Esposito.
While this is clearly a disappointing video for many eCommerce business owners that use USPS collection services to see, it does seem to be an isolated incident.
If there is one thing that we have realized in recent times is that couriers and postal workers should always assume they are being recorded on camera. Such as this FedEx driver was caught frisbeeing a package from a moving truck.
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Dave Furness
Dave is a Co-Founder of eSeller365. For over 10 years he has been involved with eCommerce with a particular interest in the marketplaces and the huge opportunities available for sellers when utilizing a multi-channel strategy. After a year of being the UK’s youngest eCommerce consultant, he built an education platform called UnderstandingE that showed the world how to utilize Magento as the “Third Generation of Multi-Channel software”.
Dave has also created a YouTube channel dedicated to entrepreneurship and eCommerce as well as a podcast dedicated to mental health awareness. When Dave isn’t working his main interests include learning and playing Chess, researching the Crypto and NFT space, and trying to find the nearest beach.
I spent 12 years working in a post office and I can tell you that this is nothing. When those boxes arrive at their destination post office they will be thrown about 3 times that distance when they are sorted.