USPS

[Rudy Vey]

I am having a package in transit to me, shipped from just outside Philly, which is pretty close to where I live. It is tracked daily twice, and it has moved from outside Philly to Indianapolis (!!!), and it was there on the 1st, and it says since then it is on the way to the next station...I know, it will making it eventually to me, but just not in the three to four days I had hoped for. It was shipped on the 24th of last month....

 

[hydro-magic]

They do the same thing here. Makes absolutely no sense. UPS needs to buy the postal service. It would then run efficiently.

Yes it would. Unfortunately for lots of people in rural areas, efficiency means they'd get service once a week, once a month, or maybe just not at all. The reason UPS etc. have contracts with the USPS is so UPS/FedEX/etc. can push off the deliveries that are too expensive for them to make a profit on. For a private company, efficiency means making the most money. For the USPS, efficiency is delivering the mail as quickly as possible. I'm not sure what your definition of efficiency is.

 

[CapnPanther]

Here's one. Had a package that originated in North Carolina. Made its was to a local USPS processing center less than 15 miles from my home. Sat there for five days with no tracking updates. Then this morning I get a notification that it's back in North Carolina. I assume it's being returned to sender.

I subscribe to USPS "Informed Delivery" and this item automatically appeared on my dashboard, presumably when the sender created the shipping label or at first USPS scan. So they know it's intended destination. One would think that if there is a problem with the address label, all they'd need to do is scan it and create a new one to slap on the package. My limited brain, no doubt, must be missing something.

 

[noslen]

Here's one. Had a package that originated in North Carolina. Made its was to a local USPS processing center less than 15 miles from my home. Sat there for five days with no tracking updates. Then this morning I get a notification that it's back in North Carolina. I assume it's being returned to sender.

I subscribe to USPS "Informed Delivery" and this item automatically appeared on my dashboard, presumably when the sender created the shipping label or at first USPS scan. So they know it's intended destination. One would think that if there is a problem with the address label, all they'd need to do is scan it and create a new one to slap on the package. My limited brain, no doubt, must be missing something.

yeah I'm waiting on a razor from West Coast Shave and this ones Fed Ex, been sitting up in the northern end of the state for a day or two with a "Pending" scheduled delivery, and with a Maggard's order that I should have also gotten by now, USPS is telling me it's "running late" without telling me where it currently is. I'm guessing this Covid holiday season is taking it's toll on shipping in general, just hope Fed Ex didn't lose that package

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

With limited sorting facilities, you see this almost every shipment with USPS. here I received a package shipped from Tulsa to me here in Tulsa that went to Oklahoma City to be sorted before it was returned to my post office in Tulsa. What used to take one day now takes several. I live in the city and the shipper lived in another part of the city.

 

[CapnPanther]

yeah I'm waiting on a razor from West Coast Shave and this ones Fed Ex, been sitting up in the northern end of the state for a day or two with a "Pending" scheduled delivery, and with a Maggard's order that I should have also gotten by now, USPS is telling me it's "running late" without telling me where it currently is. I'm guessing this Covid holiday season is taking it's toll on shipping in general, just hope Fed Ex didn't lose that package

Mine is now bouncing around in Greensboro, or it has received a combined five arrival and departure scans in the last three days.

 

[Rrose Sélavy]

I rarely have issues with USPS. Sure, there are sometimes delays during the holidays, but this is the case with all carriers. One thing that I can say for sure, UPS and FedEx charge MUCH more to deliver letters, padded envelopes and most small packages. For example, I just mailed ten tucks of blades to someone on the other side of the country for around a dollar AND I recently mailed a moving box full of LPs for like $10 (via Media Mail). For all of USPS's issues, they still provide outstanding value that UPS and FedEx can't touch. How much do folks think it would cost me to send those packages if i had shipped with FedEx?

 

[KeenDogg]

I'm delayed on several things. I have a priority package that has been in limbo for 6 days at least.

 

[Wolfgang von Kessler]

I have two razors stuck in mail, one in PA, and another in WI. They haven't moved in DAYS (shipped supposedly on the 30th of Nov). In the meantime, I am getting packages from CA, OR, WA, TX and Europe in record time (less than a week from Europe, and 3-4 days in the country). *** is going on here!? Seems like upper Midwest, and East Coast are the worse when it comes to shipping, I wonder why?

The only solution I know, is to "open the case" with Ebay (or Amazon, Etsy....or whatever), and force the sender to contact USPS, and open the claim for the insurance (providing that they purchased the insurance). When USPS receives the claim, they start to investigate, and in most cases find the packages that some postal employee threw in the corner of some warehouse, and forgot about it. If there is no word from USPS by the 12th, I'll get my refunds from the Bay, but that's not the point. Shopping, paying, waiting, planning.....all wasted time. All this is "related to COVID", is the answer I hear from ALL different businesses in order to describe pure ineptness, incompetence, and downright laziness (and there is a lot of that here in the USA).

 

[CapnPanther]

I have two razors stuck in mail, one in PA, and another in WI. They haven't moved in DAYS (shipped supposedly on the 30th of Nov). In the meantime, I am getting packages from CA, OR, WA, TX and Europe in record time (less than a week from Europe, and 3-4 days in the country). *** is going on here!? Seems like upper Midwest, and East Coast are the worse when it comes to shipping, I wonder why?

The only solution I know, is to "open the case" with Ebay (or Amazon, Etsy....or whatever), and force the sender to contact USPS, and open the claim for the insurance (providing that they purchased the insurance). When USPS receives the claim, they start to investigate, and in most cases find the packages that some postal employee threw in the corner of some warehouse, and forgot about it. If there is no word from USPS by the 12th, I'll get my refunds from the Bay, but that's not the point. Shopping, paying, waiting, planning.....all wasted time. All this is "related to COVID", is the answer I hear from ALL different businesses in order to describe pure ineptness, incompetence, and downright laziness (and there is a lot of that here in the USA).

Sent a tracer to USPS on Monday. Haven't received a response, not unexpected, but they did send a request for feeedback. You can guess what it was.

 

[CapnPanther]

I rarely have issues with USPS. Sure, there are sometimes delays during the holidays, but this is the case with all carriers. One thing that I can say for sure, UPS and FedEx charge MUCH more to deliver letters, padded envelope and most small packages. For example, I just mailed ten tucks of blades to someone on the other side of the country for around a dollar AND I recently mailed a moving box full of LPs for like $10 (via Media Mail). For all of USPS's issues, they still provide outstanding value that UPS and FedEx can't touch. How much do folks think it would cost me to send those packages if i had shipped with FedEx?

I'm generally okay with USPS service, but when they screw up they do so mightily.

 

[Rrose Sélavy]

I'm generally okay with USPS service, but when they screw up they do so mightily.

Maybe I'm just lucky, because I purchase WAY too much stuff online, yet I couldn't tell you the last time I had a delay of more than a day or two.

 

[Wolfgang von Kessler]

Maybe I'm just lucky, because I purchase WAY too much stuff online, yet I couldn't tell you the last time I had a delay of more than a day or two.

You ARE lucky, and most likely like the people (humans in general), so you live in "civilization". "Buying way too much on line" sounds humorous to me,....I NEED to buy EVERYTHING on line (except maybe groceries), because I don't like humans, and I chose to live out of "civilization". So when shipping screws up, it's a major problem. Like when las summer one of my refrigerators went out, and it took about ten weeks (!!) to get another one. Covid my foot.

 

[jaro 101969]

the last 2 shipments have probably been my worst shipments in awhile.. The one for the captains choice has been stuck in USPS purgatory in IL since the 30th of NOV. It says its moving but it hasnt gotten to the next place still and the other shipment was less than 30 min from me at a post office there so they decided to send it several states away to turn it around to send it back here and that added an extra week and a half.. the other from longer ago was also about 15 minutes away at a post office and they sent it to Michigan and then to OK. and then it came back to the carolinas where I am. it took almost 3 extra weeks for that package and the shipper had sent it with 2 day shipping and it took a total of over a month!!!!

 

[ackvil]

the last 2 shipments have probably been my worst shipments in awhile.. The one for the captains choice has been stuck in USPS purgatory in IL since the 30th of NOV. It says its moving but it hasnt gotten to the next place still and the other shipment was less than 30 min from me at a post office there so they decided to send it several states away to turn it around to send it back here and that added an extra week and a half.. the other from longer ago was also about 15 minutes away at a post office and they sent it to Michigan and then to OK. and then it came back to the carolinas where I am. it took almost 3 extra weeks for that package and the shipper had sent it with 2 day shipping and it took a total of over a month!!!!

I ordered a copper bowl from Scott. It sat in Phoenix for days. I began to think the PO was going to walk the 18 miles to deliver it.

 

[Owen Bawn]

My daughter's friend posted a Christmas gift to her on the 11th of December at Cleveland, the other end of the state from where we live. She had a tracking number, and on that date it read 'shipment rec'd'. There was no further action at all until the 23rd, when it finally said the package was accepted at the USPS facility in Cleveland. Later that day it went to Akron to be sorted. It has since only shown that it is in transit. Finally, overnight they posted this update: "In Transit, Arriving Late. Your package will arrive later than expected, but is still on its way. It is currently in transit to the next facility." Twenty days and it has travelled less than 40 miles from Cleveland to Akron.

 

[Rudy Vey]

My daughter's friend posted a Christmas gift to her on the 11th of December at Cleveland, the other end of the state from where we live. She had a tracking number, and on that date it read 'shipment rec'd'. There was no further action at all until the 23rd, when it finally said the package was accepted at the USPS facility in Cleveland. Later that day it went to Akron to be sorted. It has since only shown that it is in transit. Finally, overnight they posted this update: "In Transit, Arriving Late. Your package will arrive later than expected, but is still on its way. It is currently in transit to the next facility." Twenty days and it has travelled less than 40 miles from Cleveland to Akron.

the problem is that packages get strapped on the back of pigeons, if the box is too heavy, it takes a long time to travel even a mile....they do not fly anymore as they became too fat, so they walk the distance.
I also have packages in limbo for weeks before they arrive, its a pita right now

 

[xiletero]

Well FeDex is similar, some packages get stuck for days in the middle of the trajectory. If you call them, they will just BS and read back what you know.... I do not like USPS and that is mainly because my local carrier is utterly messy, they put stuff in everyones mail boxes....BUT in the last few months it has worked fine for me. Now Fedex......going down..... and DHL in the US (the worst service available ). UPS seems to be the best. And before I finish, the ultimate worst service is all the combined , when either UPS or Fedex start and drop it at USPS....I think out of resentment USPS will take very very very long to deliver those packages (USPS all the way is faster and I bet they do it on purpose).

 

[vacman]

I received this email from Jane Parker a few days ago (this is an excerpt):

"The problem that has caused the hundreds of emails and phone calls that we have received regarding the packages, arose because the Post Office failed to scan the packages into their tracking network.


This year, the POST OFFICE chose not to scan the individual packages, and left millions of packages in their sorting facilities, for sometimes as long as 2 weeks, choosing to keep us and our customers in the dark as to what was happening. Instead of receiving accurate tracking information, the Post Office has LIED TO US ALL, and our customers were receiving tracking saying “Label created, awaiting shipment of item”.


This mislead all of our customers to believe that we just printed labels for your packages and did not ship them. This is 100% NOT the case. The Post Office has LIED and MISLEAD everyone. Not only does this demonstrate a lack of caring by THE POST OFFICE for the packages they received, but it leaves all of our customers in limbo, not knowing if their package actually shipped, when the POST OFFICE had possession the entire time."


I had a package that sat in the Chicago postoffice for almost 2 weeks waiting for acceptance. I was told by the USPS that it was lost. Then, it got delivered two days later!

 

[xiletero]

I received this email from Jane Parker a few days ago (this is an excerpt):

"The problem that has caused the hundreds of emails and phone calls that we have received regarding the packages, arose because the Post Office failed to scan the packages into their tracking network.


This year, the POST OFFICE chose not to scan the individual packages, and left millions of packages in their sorting facilities, for sometimes as long as 2 weeks, choosing to keep us and our customers in the dark as to what was happening. Instead of receiving accurate tracking information, the Post Office has LIED TO US ALL, and our customers were receiving tracking saying “Label created, awaiting shipment of item”.


This mislead all of our customers to believe that we just printed labels for your packages and did not ship them. This is 100% NOT the case. The Post Office has LIED and MISLEAD everyone. Not only does this demonstrate a lack of caring by THE POST OFFICE for the packages they received, but it leaves all of our customers in limbo, not knowing if their package actually shipped, when the POST OFFICE had possession the entire time."


I had a package that sat in the Chicago postoffice for almost 2 weeks waiting for acceptance. I was told by the USPS that it was lost. Then, it got delivered two days later!

And the worst part: zero liability. They get paid, get the benefits and if they do a poor job: NO one gets fired....they just float to the top.