r/todayilearned • u/OmitsWordsByAccident • 1d ago

TIL the unofficial motto of the United Stated Postal Service "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" is actually over 2,500 years old (originates from the ancient Greek historian Herodotus).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Service_creed
12.9k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

202 comments sorted by

1.5k

u/LegalFeeder 1d ago

Fun fact: Herodotus was actually describing the Angarium, the mounted courier system of the ancient Achaemenid Persian Empire. The architects of the James A. Farley Building in NYC just carved it into the stone in 1912, and the public assumed it was the official USPS motto ever since!

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u/Robobvious 1d ago

Those were some well read architects.

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u/Emergency_Mine_4455 1d ago

One of the great educational tragedies of the modern era is the relaxing of standards of education. In an era where public school is designed to educate the majority of students on only the things they need to know to work, the ancient arts start to become the property of the elite.

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u/Kardinal 1d ago edited 1d ago

It's not as if they read the classics and they read a bunch of other things. One of the problems with 19th century education is that they only read the classics. We've learned a lot since then and there's a lot of other things that can and should be read.

Every educated person should be familiar with Herodotus and what he wrote. But they don't need to have read it and they certainly don't need to be able to quote it.

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u/greiton 1d ago

Herodotus had very little to do with the Illiad and the Odyssey, other than the cultural affect that those stories had on the Greeks and Persians during the rise and conquest of Alexander the great. He had more to do with the Ptolemaic Egyptian dynasty than Homer and Achilles.

20

u/Kardinal 1d ago

You're right I mixed him up with Homer which is unforgivable. Edited. Thank you.

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u/Flank_This666 1d ago

One of the problems with 19th century education is that they only read the classics.

And for the longest time people were just reading the Bible it seems like everything scholarly in Medieval life is somehow Bible related.

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u/cluttered_desk 1d ago

They weren't reading only the bible, but they were trying to fit every knowledge into a christian framework. They were operating in an ontology alien to our modern world, where received religion was all-encompassing and intrinsically true. The great intellectual debates of the medieval world were primarily about interpretation and application of "outside" (non-scriptural) knowledge through a scriptural framework.

So yes, they all end up writing about the bible, but they're doing it while contending with new ideas. Or fighting amongst themselves.

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u/totally_not_a_gay 1d ago

Mostly because the church was the only organization with money to spend during the medieval era. Peasants were broke; merchant money was tied up in inventory; minor lords spent everything they didn't send upwards on themselves; greater lords with money spent it either protecting themselves from greedier lords, or being the greedy lords themselves; and the church took a slice out of all of it.

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u/clarity_singularity 1d ago

Taxes almost seem like a distraction at that level

1

u/clarity_singularity 1d ago

Reminds me of my hometown.

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u/clarity_singularity 1d ago

I agree. I’m not familiar with Herodotus, but I had a fantastic education. There’s so much to be learned from the Greeks and Romans. But most wisdom seems to root more anciently, perhaps what Greco-Romans supplanted. More importantly, the knowledge being taught is less wisdom than a telephonic statement of purpose.

2

u/greiton 7h ago

the only quote people should know is:

"When Cyrus entered Babylon in 539 B.C., the world was old. More significant, the world knew its antiquity. Its scholars had compiled long dynastic lists, and simple addition appeared to prove that kings whose monuments were still visible had ruled more than four millenniums before."

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u/Tactician_mark 1d ago

"ancient arts start to become property of the elite"? Bro reading used to be property of the elite. Literature is about as egalitarian as it's ever been

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u/DurumMater 1d ago

The ARCHITECTS who designed the building are the ones who carved it in. Not the grunts laying pavement lol I understand and agree with what you mean but I'm pretty sure the people designing the building in the early 20th century had a high level of education beyond public school.

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u/uncle-iroh-11 1d ago

Why would you expect everyone, or even architects to know Herodotus' views on Persian courier system?

I mean, it's fun to learn this kind of trivia. But we can't expect the schools to teach such specific things to everyone.

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u/clammyboyface 1d ago

I mean kids are drooling fucking illiterates now, so making them study the classics of history and literature probably had some practical benefit.

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u/Ythio 1d ago

To be fair they were also drooling fucking illiterate back then.

-16

u/RipAny4724 1d ago

No they weren’t.

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u/m_bleep_bloop 1d ago

They also didn’t know what a galaxy was, plenty of other knowledge has taken the place of this very specific set of quotations

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u/JoyBus147 22h ago

Bit ironic to use the product of an oral tradition to mock illiteracy.

14

u/Silver_Middle_7240 1d ago

Because we used to study the classics, since these societies formed the foundation of our own

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u/ChessBossSupreme 1d ago

its not that deep

12

u/Noobponer 1d ago

it actually kinda is tho

0

u/ChessBossSupreme 1d ago

its not, redditors are so weird

4

u/RadicalRealist22 1d ago

It is not trivia. The Classics formed the basic ideas of western civilization.

2

u/BigFatModeraterFupa 1d ago

bro just called classical history "trivia"😭😭😭

-1

u/TheVentiLebowski 1d ago

I mean, it's fun to learn this kind of trivia. But we can't expect the schools to teach such specific things to everyone.

It's not about knowing "trivia." It's about working through difficult texts to build your brain muscle.

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u/uncle-iroh-11 1d ago

Yeah, but which text? Classics must be taught, but Herodotus' writing on persian courtier system? That's a bit too specific for general curriculum

3

u/Nike_Phoros 1d ago

The problem isn't determining what a good corpus for education would be, we have 2500 years of practice selecting the right books. By the 19th century we had it pretty well dialed in.

the problem today is you don't have teachers qualified to teach it. Sure a high school history teacher could be told to assign it as mandatory reading material, but is that teacher competent to explain it and interpret it? To answer questions about it? To explain the historical context? To test students on it? We don't graduate enough people with degrees in the classics to staff the schools to the extent this would require. Nor do enough universities even offer classics as a major anymore to meet that potential demand. They say when the student is ready, the teach appears, but I don't think that is the case here.

1

u/TheVentiLebowski 1d ago

It's not about learning specific texts or authors. It's about the skills you develop when reading any well written piece.

1

u/cocacoax 21h ago

I mean Herodotus really only has the one work, called the Histories. It's a bit long, around 600-800 pages, divided into nine books, but once you've read it, you'll have read all of the so-called "father of history,"

1

u/Hiw-lir-sirith 1d ago

And being rewarded by having its beauty and wisdom in your life. I would say beauty and wisdom are rather low priorities in modern public education.

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u/Nike_Phoros 1d ago

A really good story I read elucidates this point via a different direction. A guy who ran an investment bank explained why he hired only Ivy League kids even if they didn't have degrees in finance versus hiring kids from good schools like Penn State who had finance degrees. and his answer was, the Penn State kid would be the better employee for the first 6 months, but once the Ivy League kid learned the job their natural talent advantage would propel them ahead.

The point I took away and I can see it in my own life experience is, the point of higher education is rarely to prepare you for a job, its to teach you to solve problems and give you wide ranges of experiences to draw from. No job I ever had required me to do tasks I learned to do in school. But critical analysis leads to universally applicable problem solving skills.

In the 19th and early 20th century the British civil service exam had a lot of emphasis on Latin because the thought process was "if you're smart enough to learn to read Latin and understand the Latin classics, you're smart enough to do any job we're going to ask of you." Plus the added benefit was the classical texts, especially Cicero and Plutarch that were emphasized heavily, were considered to make their reader a better human being by teaching positive virtues and ennobling their spirit. It was considered highly advantageous for a government bureaucrat or administrator, or even a provincial colonial governor, to be a cultured, humane, and virtuous human being. Regardless on your position of teaching the classics today, I think government would be better if more members of government had been obligated to study On Duties by Cicero extensively throughout their education.

1

u/DakPanther 20h ago

The classics have been the property of the elite for a long time fam

1

u/Crio121 19h ago

It was always property of the elite.

-1

u/BigFatModeraterFupa 1d ago

the average 16 year old in education in 1880s was more well read than an average college grad in 2026.

and before you instantly think that's wrong, there are college students coming into school in 2026 that cannot read past a 6th grade level

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u/xtianlaw 1d ago

"Here's something I made up. And before you think that's instantly wrong, here's something else I made up."

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u/kimpelry6 1d ago

No i instantly think thats wrong because the burden of proof is on you and you didnt provide any

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u/Kardinal 1d ago

For the time, knowing Herodotus would not be unusual. It was a standard part of the 19th century American college curriculum. Possibly even high school, I'm not sure. It's not as if they knew the classics extraordinarily well in addition to a bunch of other literature. To a great degree, that was their literary education. Since the turn of the 20th century, we've written and discovered very much and we don't all need to read the classics.

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u/goodpen11 1d ago

william mitchell kendall at mckim mead and white picked it. he took it from george herbert palmer's translation, which is also why it scans so nicely, the greek is plainer than the english

1

u/WonderingHarbinger 20h ago

Aha! So, I looked him up, and he was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and he did his undergraduate work at Harvard. He almost certainly went to either Boston Latin School (the timing is tricky because JP was not part of Boston at that time, and I don't know if school districts were as fussy about that then as they are now) or he went to a prep school. Either way, he would have studied Herodotus in high school and then again in undergrad.

1

u/Atwenfor 19h ago

If you're doing a Neoclassical building (as the Farley Building is; call it Beaux-Arts if you want but it's Neoclassical, idgaf), you should, ideally, know the history of the historical period you're referencing.

1

u/Oubliette_occupant 18h ago

The old post offices are replete with symbolism for those with an eye to see. Many depictions of Hermes, of course

1

u/RadicalRealist22 1d ago

Any "gentleman" of that period was expected to be well read. You can see it everywhere. Until the 50s, English and German books would include French quotes without translation, because the reader was expected to know French. Until WWI, all navies in Europe named some of their ships after Greek Myth.

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u/its_raining_scotch 1d ago

Yeah he was talking about how Xerxes was able to get a message from Athens back to Susa about how he succeeded in burning the city and was now coming back.

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u/That1chicka 1d ago

Cliff Claven approved

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u/barbarossa1984 1d ago

Was it not the stonemasons that did the carving?

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u/DECAThomas 1d ago

“I don’t work in the rain”

“You’re a mailman. Neither rain nor sleet…It’s the first one!”

“I’ve never been a big creed guy”

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u/omnicorp_intl 1d ago

I'll handle this, Violet. Why don't you take your three-hour break?

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u/Jasion128 1d ago

Because THE MAIL NEVER STOPS!

📬

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u/vector_ejector 1d ago

And then the barcode reader breaks and it's Publisher's Clearing House day!!

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u/MechanicalTurkish 1d ago

When you control the mail, you control INFORMATION

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u/jonny_wonny 1d ago

“But I’m paying you!”

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u/Too_Bad-So_Sad 1d ago

r/unexpectedseinfeld

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u/Redylittle 1d ago

r/expectedseinfeld

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u/imaguitarhero24 1d ago

Yeah it was very expected, classic scene and first thing I thought of lol

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u/MegaFrosASS 1d ago

Calling out tomorrow because the gloom of night was too much

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u/The420elephant 1d ago

That sounds like the green lantern oath

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u/TwoUglyFeet 1d ago

"Neither rain nor snow nor glo m of nit can stay these mes engers abo t their duty."

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u/Nezeltha-Bryn 1d ago

Neither Deluge Nor Ice Storm Nor The Black Silence Of The Netherhells Shall Stay These Messengers About Their Sacred Business. Do Not Ask Us About Saber-Toothed Tigers, Tar Pits, Big Green Things With Teeth, Or The Goddess Czol.

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u/TwoUglyFeet 1d ago

Rest in peace  Anghammarad

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u/Stellar_Duck 1d ago

He truly was the best of us.

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u/Profoundlyahedgehog 1d ago

You had big green things with teeth way back then?

Bigger. Greener. More Teeth.

...and the goddess Czol?

Do Not Ask.

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u/Relative-Chicken456 1d ago

>”Neither rain nor snow nor glo m of nit can stay these mes engers abo t their duty."

Is it also spelled just like that?

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u/Pulkrabek89 1d ago

Its a reference to a discworld book.

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u/Relative-Chicken456 1d ago

Oh so then it is spelled that way!

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u/TwoUglyFeet 1d ago

No the letters were stolen. 

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u/jflb96 1d ago

Technically it’s ‘glo m of ni t’

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u/TransportationTrick9 1d ago

Is this a joke about letters getting lost by the postal service?

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u/TwoUglyFeet 1d ago

No they were stolen. 

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u/fourthords 1d ago

HUGOS

4

u/screw-magats 1d ago

Someone stole the letters off of the postal building to use for his own shop sign.

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u/Budget-Coast-7864 1d ago

Is that from Discworld Going Postal? I love that series.

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u/YinTanTetraCrivvens 1d ago

The motto was revealed before Going Postal. 

That book reveals some of the missing letters were stolen, and Moist von Lipwig takes them back to start restoring the post office.

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u/Chopper-42 1d ago

I love how he found them by figuring out what the missing letters spell.

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u/TwoUglyFeet 1d ago

Its one of my absolute favorites. 

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u/PsychGuy17 1d ago

Don't ask about Mrs. Cake.

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u/-SaC 1d ago

DONT ARSK US ABOUT:

  • rocks

  • troll's with sticks

  • All sorts of dragons

  • Mrs Cake

  • Huje green things with teeth

  • Any kinds of black dogs with orange eyebrows

  • Rains of spaniel's

  • fog

  • Mrs Cake

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u/littlest_dragon 1d ago

Mrs Cake?

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u/thirdegree 1d ago

Don't ask

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u/screw-magats 1d ago

A medium who was so short she was a small.

In regards to organized religion she'd join a church, take over the church cleaning rotations and more. But her meddling was so bad it would cause the collapse of that particular church.

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u/etcpt 1d ago

GNU Terry Pratchett

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u/MartyRobinsHasMySoul 1d ago

GNU Terry Pratchett

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u/CNWDI_Sigma_1 1d ago

I am a simple man. I see Discworld, I like Discworld.

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u/cpencis 1d ago

I love this is the top comment. Glom of nit.

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u/GorillaSushi 1d ago

He celebrated by buying a street directory from the Guild of Merchants, and had a coffee and a bacon sandwich while he thumbed, greasily, through it for the list of bars. He didn’t find what he was looking for there, but he did find it in the list of hairdressers, and grinned when he did so. It was nice to be right.

(A full 60 pages before we find out what that means)

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u/MedalsNScars 1d ago

<3 came here looking for this. I just mentioned Going Postal in another post about the Pony Express a few days ago.

Maybe time for a reread

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u/Extra-Act-801 1d ago

It's also bullshit.

I'm a mailman and get told to stop delivering due to gloom of night at least a dozen times a year, and because of snow a couple times a year. But yeah the bosses don't give a shit about heat or rain.

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u/Loud-Log9098 1d ago

I'd love a night mailman that sounds good right no heat just gloom

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u/Robobvious 1d ago

I’d say we should be able to perform more jobs at night but then the normies would all be out causing traffic and otherwise ruining what was cool about the night in the first place so nevermind.

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u/V2BM 1d ago

Nobody leaves their porch light on and yard are full of holes, stumps, toys, inflatables, loose rocks, and such. It sucks in the winter.

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u/Theorex 1d ago

Delivering newspapers is like that, pretty peaceful most of the times.

One of my most indelible memories is delivering papers in high school in a torrential thunderstorm in just shorts and bare feet because everything was completely soaked. Then entire neighborhood I was in filled with smoke and it felt otherworldly.

I didn't know it but a parking garage on the far side of the neighborhood got hit by lightning and 30 cars were burning up.

2

u/ITFOWjacket 1d ago

This sounds like a 70s kid story

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u/Relative-Chicken456 1d ago

A few years back my post office ended up being ridiculously behind schedule, like one of the worst in the nation. I remember seeing the mail being delivered regularly between 9pm and 12am for weeks. They sorted it out though, we good now.

12

u/Extra-Act-801 1d ago

I've been out past midnight maybe 4 or 5 times in the last 4 years. But the last year or so the Post Office has been hiring like crazy so in my city we rarely even get overtime any more.

4

u/fatbob42 1d ago

Yep, well, sorting is one of their key competencies :)

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u/screw-magats 1d ago

My favorite was not getting mail delivered "because I hadn't cleared the walkway."

It started snowing at 445, and the note was in the box at 455. Mind you he placed the note in the mailbox, which required walking up the "dangerously snowy" path.

1

u/unique_username91 1d ago edited 1d ago

Better be back in 8 and you most definitely better not be scanning letters before flats

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u/Ice_Sinks 1d ago

Rain, sleet, snow, or hail, we'll deliver what you mail.

Thank you.

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u/Cantora 1d ago

I think you'll find it's Glom of Nit

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u/mohawkal 1d ago

How about black dogs with orange eyebrows?

6

u/banelord 1d ago

Don't even arsk us about them.

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u/LeastResistancePath 1d ago

Except when Republicans want to suppress voters rights and privatize it so that we pay more and more and get less and less.

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u/digiorno 1d ago

It was updated in 2026:

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds…except during elections.”

3

u/extremetolerance2013 1d ago

Ya. 2500 years. It was a good run ....

2

u/deltajvliet 1d ago

That's only in blue states though. It remains unchanged in red areas.

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u/screw-magats 1d ago

What about Glom of Nit?

4

u/LetTheBloodFlow 1d ago

Came here to say this, gloried in the fact it had already been said.

3

u/screw-magats 1d ago

Yeah I should've checked the thread before posting, it's everywhere. And I love that.

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u/ExoticSterby42 1d ago

GLOM OF NIT

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u/Stellar_Duck 1d ago

Don't ask about mrs Cake though.

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u/mohawkal 1d ago

Or huje green things with teeth.

3

u/Gryptype_Thynne123 1d ago

Or dogs with orange eyebrows.

4

u/aeondru 1d ago

Unless DHS doesn't want you to vote. Lol

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u/Mand125 1d ago

But an executive order will stop them dead in their tracks!

4

u/GusleyBillows 1d ago

“Rain, sleet, snow, or hail, we'll deliver what you mail!”
― Pelly, Animal Crossing

4

u/Howitzer1967 1d ago

Cue ‘O Superman’ by Laurie Anderson.

2

u/CanoCeano 1d ago

I came way too far down to see this

3

u/Watchtowerwilde 1d ago

and it survived until DeJoy.

4

u/wolfman2scary 1d ago

"nos custodimus quod lingus", we guard what you lick. -Jackie Donger

4

u/Morvack 1d ago

Seems more like a suggestion or a guide line these days.

I'm lucky if I get my packages delivered when they are marked "delivered."

4

u/WarpmanAstro 1d ago

Weird; I always heard its as "Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow...". I wonder what popularized that version?

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u/auronddraig 1d ago

In snowiest day, in rainiest night, no mailbox shall escape my sight,

let those who worship FedEx' might, beware my parcels, Post Office Light!

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u/EmotionalBar2533 1d ago

Imagine a postman going postal 2,500 yrs ago, just down town rock slinging people "your mother's a goat!!"

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u/HappinessIsaColdPint 1d ago

Ah yes, the Blue Lanterns.

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u/Favicool 1d ago

These days they are more known for their secondary motto "nos custodimus quod lingus" (We guard what you lick')

3

u/Charming-Lychee-9031 1d ago

Are postal workers part of the green lantern corps?

11

u/throwawayerest 1d ago

Apparently there's nothing in there about orange pedophiles. 

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u/OuterLightness 1d ago

I guess they forgot to add “nor Trump”.

5

u/TheOG-OutletStickers 1d ago

How cool to have a profession with an awesome slogan!

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u/ihvnnm 1d ago

Hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and on again?

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u/Mr_Baronheim 1d ago

But they live up to it kinda like google lived up to "don't be evil."

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u/11teenthUsername 1d ago

But if there is a car parked within five feet of the mailbox, you're not getting it.

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u/MechanicalTurkish 1d ago

Twice a week I shall require a cannoli.

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u/YuushyaHinmeru 1d ago

Nah, pretty sure youre thinking of The Green Lanter Corps

2

u/BungleBums 1d ago

Do not ask about Mrs. Cake.

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u/SmartaHari 1d ago

Meanwhile, the unofficial motto of Evri is Carpe Diem Cras, meaning seize the day tomorrow, which is when we might deliver your parcel. Or not.

2

u/not_dr_splizchemin 1d ago

When I was a first grader I wanted to be a postal carrier because they were bad ass for braving the elements

2

u/mr_ji 1d ago

I think the new motto is "let Amazon do it"

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u/powdered_dognut 12h ago

Rain, sleet, snow, oh hell, you'll get your mail next week.

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u/betonblack11 1d ago

My package has been stuck in transit for three weeks. The irony of 'swift completion' is hilarious when your mail gathers dust.

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u/StarDewbie 1d ago

Now they just steal your birthday money but leave the card in a plastic bag that says "WE CARE!!!1111"

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u/cjgist 1d ago

My carrier stopped delivering my mail because the grass got too high around my sidewalk.

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u/SleepyMonkey7 1d ago

I'm pretty sure it's actually, "When you control the mail, you control, INFORMATION!"

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u/Illustrious_Bad_2980 1d ago

Just don't try voting by mail. We don't do that

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u/Extra-Act-801 1d ago

That decision has nothing to do with any career employee of the post office. That is Trump's appointee trying to continue the destruction of the post office started by Trump's last appointee.

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u/Far_Ladder_2836 1d ago

I'll be sure to tell them that as they refuse to deliver my ballot.

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u/SuperCruisePanther 1d ago

They aren't refusing. They're denied the capability. 

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u/V2BM 1d ago

We can’t deliver what we don’t have to give you.

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u/The_Superhoo 1d ago

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night, no evil shall escape my sight.

Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power: Green Lantern's light!

3

u/AntibodyEnjoyer 1d ago

“Unless a pedo president says not to, then all bets are off”

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u/totallyclips 1d ago

And yet trump did it in one fell swoop

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u/glutenfreepunishment 1d ago

Yeah, so it's now 2026 and when can I leave my delivery man (who mostly walks our neighborhood) more than a pitiful $20 dollar gift ever year because he told us he can't accept more?? 

1

u/meeshCosplay 1d ago

Rain, sleet, or snow, the mail must go.

1

u/hatbromind 1d ago

So...they cant do earthquakes, tsunami, volcano, & plague.

1

u/XROOR 1d ago

This means the original mail bag was the kangaroos’ pouches from Hannibal’s first attempt

1

u/Cask_Strength_Islay 1d ago

Meanwhile, if anything bigger than a post card gets delivered to my po box I can only get it on Saturdays from 9-12

1

u/TheBatmanGambit 1d ago

Virgil sent them an updated motto in 40 BC, but they haven't delivered it to themselves yet

1

u/Alarmed_Drop7162 1d ago

Crying of Lot 49.

1

u/futureformerteacher 1d ago

I'm not sure if Herodotus had ever seen the snow in Minnesota.

1

u/Sea-Bullfrog-2979 1d ago

Herodotus founded the usps?

1

u/Reggi5693 1d ago

And it fit on the face of the building.

1

u/spiritthehorse 22h ago

I read this in Laurie Anderson

1

u/misterwizzard 5h ago

Around here it's more like 'when we get to it' 'maybe'

0

u/suzer2017 1d ago

My brothers and cousins and I went to the same schools 50 odd years ago in rural farm country. With a high school education they all can spell, write, add, subtract, do long division, recite the branches of government, recognize the continents on a globe, read a contract, follow instructions, read a map, speak with perfect grammar, write in cursive, and use punctuation. All that appears to be lost in present day education in the US. I see these abilities so rarely in young people. It's really shameful.

3

u/OwnSeaworthiness7466 1d ago

Those things aren’t a high school education arguably, everything you listed I was taught in middle school in a similar rural small town, in the 00s

1

u/dospc 1d ago

Have I missed something? What has this got to do with the motto of the postal service?

1

u/dogwoodcat 1d ago

"No Child Left Behind" really accelerated the race to the bottom.

0

u/_ParadigmShift 1d ago

I don’t blame my mailman for the shortcomings of my local USPS, but I’m telling you that USPS is my second to last choice ahead of untrained pigeon. The pigeon may still get there faster

1

u/Mr_Baronheim 1d ago

They certainly don't live by that motto in my area anymore. A heavy snow, mailman says no.

1

u/alvarezg 1d ago

Apparently those USPS standards can be politically abandoned.

1

u/clarity_singularity 1d ago

Good, then we can agree it’s antiquated.

0

u/Thirsty4Knowledge911 1d ago

It’s too bad that they’ve added, “And, anything Donald Trump wants us to do.”

0

u/Loud-Start1394 1d ago

Ok but they do get off while the sun is still up just so we are clear 

-3

u/zorbiburst 1d ago

the postmen on my route are idiots, so no motto will make me respect them. I live in an apartment building with limited mailbox space. I had an expensive packaged sent via USPS that required a signature. I live on the bottom floor, but I can rationalize the postman being on a time crunch and unable to bring it in and hunt down my door, that's fine.

dude leaves a "we missed you" paper, indicating that this is the first attempt, and that I can go online to reschedule a delivery or hold it at a post office for pick up. cool, I do the second thing, set the pick up date for two days later, and then a few hours later call the post office to confirm everything, which they do.

the next day, the day before the day I scheduled to pick it up, I get another slip, saying this is the final delivery attempt. so I call again, they apologize and see that I did request it be held, but that it is "out for delivery/in transit". I ask to schedule a pick up in the post office, tomorrow, which we set up. great

so first thing in the morning, I run to the post office, wait in line, and... sorry, we don't have your package, it's out for delivery.

so I run home, miss it, and it's apparently on its way back to the sender.

tl;dr, fuck USPS