Jeer - US Postal service

[tomtedesco]

Please allow me to vent. On Jan 30th I took a flat rate box containing three pens to the post office, sending them to Wichita Kansas, the package was going to be delivered in three days. After four days with no delivery I tracked the package. It left Colorado, went to Kansas (destination), and then to Omaha Nebraska. Why Omaha?? I called the USPS phone and talking to a machine I filed a case and was told I would get a phone call about the missing package. Three days later I get a machine call back from USPS telling me the matter has been resolved. HOW?? I called the phone number again and talked to a real person who gave me a new case number and said someone will call me back. It is now 11 days with no info or package. The tracking info still shows item in transit, to where? Do I remake the pens and send again or wait it out?

 

[rixstix]

I'd wait. Over the years, we had packages delayed but can count on 1 hand the number actually lost.

Was the label handwritten & postage puchased over the counter retail price or printed online & paid online? There's a big difference.

 

[tomtedesco]

I'd wait. Over the years, we had packages delayed but can count on 1 hand the number actually lost.

Was the label handwritten & postage puchased over the counter retail price or printed online & paid online? There's a big difference.

I printed the address/label on my computer and clear taped it to the box. Box taken to a post office for mailing.

 

[wolf creek knives]

It's a pain for sure. One of my packages left Montana headed to Iowa. It ended up in Quam. Took three months to finally get where it belonged. It's everywhere. My son sent us a Christmas package from the Netherlands in late December. It's been stuck in customs since early January...in Chicago. Go figure...I give up on any Govt. system.

 

[Velcrodog]

It's a pain for sure. One of my packages left Montana headed to Iowa. It ended up in Quam. Took three months to finally get where it belonged. It's everywhere. My son sent us a Christmas package from the Netherlands in late December. It's been stuck in customs since early January...in Chicago. Go figure...I give up on any Govt. system.

I have one that shows sitting in ElPaso PO for nearly 3 years but they can't find it. Good luck.

 

[Todd in PA]

Sympathies on your package. I hope they turn it around to its destination quickly!

A flat rate box for three pens seems inefficient. Flat rate boxes are great for sending heavy items, no? I sent 8 pens and the post office explained the flat rate box would be more expensive than by weight.

 

[tomtedesco]

Sympathies on your package. I hope they turn it around to its destination quickly!

A flat rate box for three pens seems inefficient. Flat rate boxes are great for sending heavy items, no? I sent 8 pens and the post office explained the flat rate box would be more expensive than by weight.

You are right, I use the flat rate box because its easy and comes with 100 dollars of insurance so I should not be out anything.

 

[TDahl]

I had a similar issue happen, but I was the recipient. I received a notification the item was out for delivery, but I never received it. I filed my concern with USPS. USPS notified me via email they received my request to look into the matter, and would get back to me in a couple days. Two days later I received an email they were closing out my case, and never provided my with any explanation. I finally received my item two weeks later.

 

[Edgar]

Our USPS system is especially messed up right now. Packages & letters are getting stuck in their warehouses (processing centers) for weeks & months. Apparently it's due to installing new equipment that hasn't been adequately debugged & tested and inadequate staff training. It's happening all over the country.

Chances are good that your package will eventually get delivered, but no way to tell when. Tracking isn't much help.

 

[jttheclockman]

Last year we switched from a carrier delivering the newspaper (yes that is right I still get a newspaper) to the postal service now delivering.. Well this week so far I received 2 papers and it is Fri. The papers I received today were Tue. and Wed. Did not get Mon. Thurs, or Fri. If this happens next week there will be phone calls going out. To add insult to injury the News paper bill came and it went up $3. Have to love the Postal Service.

 

[Doughboy]

As a retired Postmaster I can say the Postal Service isn't what it used to be...They used to be about customer service but now it is all about the bottom line...

 

[Woodchipper]

I can relate to the posts here. My wife ordered a present for one of the grandkids. She didn't proof the address so the gift got delivered somewhere or kept by someone at the PO.
Story: The postal workers in an African country went on strike. Undelivered mail piled up behind the buildings. After the strike was settled, instead of delivering the mail...they burned it.

 

[Lew]

I have given up on using USPS and use only UPS. I have never had a problem (knock on wood) with sending items through UPS.

 

[rherrell]

I average 200 packages a year with the USPS and I have never had a lost package in over 15 years. Now, they DO take the long way around sometimes, and it's frustrating, but it always seems to arrive safely.

 

[jrista]

The USPS has become utterly incompetent. Such a disgraceful fall for the organization that once stood by its motto "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

I ordered a bunch of rare, exotic, highly figured or downright unusual blanks from a seller on eBay a little before Christmas. He shipped it promptly, and it was marked "delivered" a couple of days later, Dec. 22nd. I was out at the time, and didn't get a chance to check the mailbox until Dec. 26th. I had a bunch of mail, but no keys for the parcel box. I had no box of anything in my mailbox itself, but it was stuffed with plenty of normal mail.

I checked the tracking, and it did say it was delivered. I contacted the USPS about a potential misdelivery. They called me back over a week later, stating they had contacted the mailman who delivered it and he insisted he put it in the right mailbox. They said there was nothing more they could do.

Clearly, if it WAS delivered, it certainly wasn't placed in the correct mail box. It was either placed in the wrong mailbox, or in a parcel box where the key was placed in the wrong mailbox, or it was simply lost after being scanned? In any case, none of my neighbors ever delivered the box to me. And it hasn't shown up in the intervening weeks.

Since that incident, I have had TWO neighbors bring me boxes for items I ordered that were MIS-DELIVERED. One was a set of Woodpecker's OneTIME tools from Tool Nut (a very expensive set of tools!) The other was another box of these figured mahogany blanks that I ordered off this very site! Earlier in the year, I had an EXTREMELY important order from South Africa (the last set of Victorian Pewter Fountain Pen kits on the planet, as far as I could find at the time) that had a handoff to the USPS once the package entered the US, that had taken a solid three+ months to be delivered. That box, too, was delivered to a neighbor...with a blue door (my door is white), a fact I only recognize because the nitwit delivery guy took a photo clearly and proudly demonstrating his incompetence. I ended up having to scout my neighborhood for a blue door, until I found the one behind which said package was thankfully sitting with my neighbor!

Suffice it to say...I am now afraid to order anything, for fear that anything could be permanently lost and valuable or rare items could simply vanish from the face of the earth, never to be seen or heard of again, due to the persistent incompetence of our once great national delivery service...

 

[egnald]

Our USPS route driver is address challenged. Sometimes the house number is correct, but the street name is off. Sometimes the street name is correct, but the house number is wrong. It appears that we are always re-distributing mail around our neighborhood. Things usually wind up at the correct address, but in a roundabout way. The only time it is a big issue is when the mail contains perishable or temperature dependent stuff, like insulin and other medications. That and this time of year when tax forms start to arrive. It's kind of frustrating when one's W2's and other tax forms go to someone else in the neighborhood.

Dave

(PS The Post Office has been notified on multiple occasions, but it doesn't really seem to invoke any changes).

 

[derekdd]

This must be a regional thing as USPS has been rock solid here.

I shipped out dozens of pens and other items this past year with zero issues.

For you guys who have experienced trouble, I know how frustrating it can be. I hope issues are resolved sooner than later.

 

[jttheclockman]

Our USPS route driver is address challenged. Sometimes the house number is correct, but the street name is off. Sometimes the street name is correct, but the house number is wrong. It appears that we are always re-distributing mail around our neighborhood. Things usually wind up at the correct address, but in a roundabout way. The only time it is a big issue is when the mail contains perishable or temperature dependent stuff, like insulin and other medications. That and this time of year when tax forms start to arrive. It's kind of frustrating when one's W2's and other tax forms go to someone else in the neighborhood.

Dave

(PS The Post Office has been notified on multiple occasions, but it doesn't really seem to invoke any changes).

We have this here right on my street. We have a running joke every time one of the neighbors delivers our mail. The problem is no 2 mail carriers do a complete year. They keep changing. By the way no papers again today. That is the last straw. They owe me a week and will here from me on Monday.

 

[Woodchipper]

Re: jrista's post; I have had medicine delivered to another house with the same number but totally differnt street name. Fortuneately the OP has been kind enough to bring the meds to me. Fortuneately it hasn't happened for a while.

 

[jrista]

Just for reference, in case anyone wondered:

Mission of the Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an independent establishment of the Executive Branch of the Government of the United States and operates in a business-like way. Its mission statement can be found in Section 101(a) of Title 39 of the U.S. Code, also known as the Postal Reorganization Act:

The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities.

I don't know about anyone else, but based on my experiences around here the last five years...the USPS has failed in its explicitly stated duty to provide any of prompt, reliable or efficient services to patrons in ALL AREAS or render services to ALL communities.

It's getting so bad...I'm starting to wonder not if but when when I'll find a postal truck has driven through my yard and parked itself in my living room...

 

[keithbyrd]

About 4 years ago the postmaster at our local office told me to start using pirate ship for shipping. You can choose options and save a few bucks even on the postage rates and can ship UPS for usually a few pennies more. Have only ship 5-6 USPS packages since then.

 

[Amanap]

Sorry about the delayed shipment but my view is not like some of the other post. Stuff happens and when you deliver over 160 million pieces of to every home in the US on a daily bases stuff is going to happen. I guess I have a soft spot for the people and companies that deliver since I work for one of them, but it also gives me insight and a different perspective. Again, sorry and I hope they deliver your package.

 

[TonyL]

Government involvement at it finest. Our delivery is actually pretty good. A neighbor registered a complaint (big mistake) and all our mailboxes were mailboxes left open for a couple of days and our mail was found in the shrubs. We have one superstar that beeps the horn when she knows the resident works from home. She doesn't want to get out of the truck to deliver packages to the door.. BTW, my uncle and godfather is one of the oldest USPS employees in the system. I think he is 78 (out of Ft. Lauderdale).

 

[egnald]

I had a great aunt Ruth that was the postal carrier in Newell, SD for many, many years. As for our situation, I don't know if it is our delivery person, or perhaps the person that sorts and groups the mail for them at the main office. One or two mixups are understandable, but lately the frequency in our neighborhood recently is a little ridiculous.

That being said, I still have a considerable admiration for the USPS as a whole. It's really pretty amazing all things considered. We can send a letter from anywhere to anywhere and 99% of the time it makes it there in just a few days all for under a dollar. It's actually pretty impressive considering everything that is involved.

Dave

 

[jrista]

Sorry about the delayed shipment but my view is not like some of the other post. Stuff happens and when you deliver over 160 million pieces of to every home in the US on a daily bases stuff is going to happen. I guess I have a soft spot for the people and companies that deliver since I work for one of them, but it also gives me insight and a different perspective. Again, sorry and I hope they deliver your package.

Interestingly, the current trends with the USPS are downwards. Over just the last year and change, USPS volume (yearly) has dropped by about 2 billion pieces of mail a year.

Going back a decade, and the USPS was delivering over 155 billion pieces of mail per year, a drop of nearly 30 billion pieces of mail a year as of last year's 127 billion!

In the same time, FedEx deliveries have about doubled. As far as I could find, it looks like UPS' deliveries have gone from maybe (if even) 10 billion packages a year to over 27 billion per year...so more than doubled, almost tripled!

I'd say these statistics are a rather scathing review of USPS...and its performance over the last decade or so. The numbers for the last year seem impressive, but only outside of the longer term context. Within the long term context, the USPS has been in long term decline, in terms of volume shipped, reputation, and quality of service.

Generally speaking, if I MUST have PERFECT shipping? I pick UPS. They seem to be just about flawless, and are a heck of a lot cheaper when it comes to shipping larger packages (and they are really good at it!)

I still use the USPS for most of my small packages that I ship, because they are lower cost by a few dollars, and then I get further discounts through Etsy (who just added UPS, but its a lot harder to use and the label system isn't really working yet.) I don't generally use flat rate boxes, I purchased a bunch of boxes of various sizes when I started my business last year, so I ship as small as I can for as little as I can (primarily to benefit my customers!)

 

[tomtedesco]

After two weeks, package delivered. Must have been pony express.

 

[keithbyrd]

Interestingly, the current trends with the USPS are downwards. Over just the last year and change, USPS volume (yearly) has dropped by about 2 billion pieces of mail a year.

Going back a decade, and the USPS was delivering over 155 billion pieces of mail per year, a drop of nearly 30 billion pieces of mail a year as of last year's 127 billion!

In the same time, FedEx deliveries have about doubled. As far as I could find, it looks like UPS' deliveries have gone from maybe (if even) 10 billion packages a year to over 27 billion per year...so more than doubled, almost tripled!

I'd say these statistics are a rather scathing review of USPS...and its performance over the last decade or so. The numbers for the last year seem impressive, but only outside of the longer term context. Within the long term context, the USPS has been in long term decline, in terms of volume shipped, reputation, and quality of service.

Generally speaking, if I MUST have PERFECT shipping? I pick UPS. They seem to be just about flawless, and are a heck of a lot cheaper when it comes to shipping larger packages (and they are really good at it!)

I still use the USPS for most of my small packages that I ship, because they are lower cost by a few dollars, and then I get further discounts through Etsy (who just added UPS, but its a lot harder to use and the label system isn't really working yet.) I don't generally use flat rate boxes, I purchased a bunch of boxes of various sizes when I started my business last year, so I ship as small as I can for as little as I can (primarily to benefit my customers!)

Check out Pirate ship - easy to use and great discounts - USPS and UPS are both cheaper on Pirate ship. pirateship.com

 

[Woodchipper]

I spoke too soon. My medicine was put in the neighbor's mailbox. Was the gray plastic envelope but thought it was his.

 

[TellicoTurning]

I know the post office is frustrating for a lot of people...I've (knocking on green wodd (two raps to the side of the head))) had pretty good luck with USPS over the years considering the number of packages they handle in a day....

All carriers to have glitches occasionally and usually are exacerbated by the lack of training or lack of giving a D--- back in the 70's I worked for a company out of San Francisco that handled traffic for trade shows, mostly internationally... we had part of a booth that came back into the NYC area airport but didn't get forwarded to the next show destination.... called the carrier, the agent looked, came back and said he couldn't find it.... put out an all stations trace, but called again, talked with a "supervisor", described the piece, about the size of a phone booth, flue in color and whatever the weight was.... he looked and called back that it wasn't there.... I had a confirmation of arrival at the airport, but no one seemed able to find a blue telephone booth in the warehouse.... finally called manager of our NY office and asked him to do a check... he came back and said it was sitting outside the supervisor's office right next to their door.... seems everyone was opening the door, looking into the warehouse, but not looking behind the door.... some people just don't have any more brains than a salamander4.

 

[jrista]

Check out Pirate ship - easy to use and great discounts - USPS and UPS are both cheaper on Pirate ship. pirateship.com

I actually did, and had planned to use them, until I actually got the Etsy store set up. Etsy offers their own discounted label generation, and its deeeply integrated into their system. So printing a label does a bunch of stuff with the sale, dispatches emails and other notifications, and updates certain statuses. Delivery then also automatically updates statuses, etc. etc. The integrated shipping also allows accurate shipping costs to be estimated, even for multi-item shipments, at checkout for the customer (and it will also factor in your own custom box sizes as well), which has been a huge bonus. That deep integration was too much to give up to use PirateShip. I get pretty darn good rates...I think they would be within cents of PirateShip.

On top of being able to do everything within Etsy itself from one single place...I also have CraftyBase. I linked this with Etsy, and everything I do in Etsy is automatically reflected and tracked properly within CraftyBase. It even splits out the postage costs (among many other things) so I can track and report on that independently. The two products together are pretty amazing.

Anyway. Etsy offers UPS shipping now, but its rather primitive, and the discounts aren't yet quite as good as with USPS. It is getting better, and I do hope at one point to be able to at least offer that as an option to my customers.

 

[jrista]

I know the post office is frustrating for a lot of people...I've (knocking on green wodd (two raps to the side of the head))) had pretty good luck with USPS over the years considering the number of packages they handle in a day....

All carriers to have glitches occasionally and usually are exacerbated by the lack of training or lack of giving a D--- back in the 70's I worked for a company out of San Francisco that handled traffic for trade shows, mostly internationally... we had part of a booth that came back into the NYC area airport but didn't get forwarded to the next show destination.... called the carrier, the agent looked, came back and said he couldn't find it.... put out an all stations trace, but called again, talked with a "supervisor", described the piece, about the size of a phone booth, flue in color and whatever the weight was.... he looked and called back that it wasn't there.... I had a confirmation of arrival at the airport, but no one seemed able to find a blue telephone booth in the warehouse.... finally called manager of our NY office and asked him to do a check... he came back and said it was sitting outside the supervisor's office right next to their door.... seems everyone was opening the door, looking into the warehouse, but not looking behind the door.... some people just don't have any more brains than a salamander4.

Yup! Sounds about right!

The trouble for me today, is not "that" mishaps happen. I've had them happen with every shipper. The trouble I have today, is the VOLUME and ACCELERATION of mishaps. They seem to be becoming so common place, and the sad thing is, my mental baseline is shifting from "I'll definitely get my package!" to "Man they always screw it up. Should I even waste the money and time here??" and that...is really depressing... (Doubly so, because online sales have killed nearly all of the local shops that used to carry a lot of what I buy online these days anyway...and if it wasn't for all the online/lets ship it crap...I would just drive 10 minutes to a store and pick it up the moment I needed something.... )