USPS is a mess...

[BClemens]

Certainly hope things get better with our mail system in 2021. I ordered a dozen iron wheel castings back on the 9th of Dec. and they are still "in Transit". Tracking them, they seem to bounce around, going from facility to facility very close by and even very often go back to the same facility but they never get to where they are supposed to go. They claim they have transportation problems but trucks are running to the wrong places most of the time... They wouldn't make 'tracking lies' to us would they? I'm worried about this. If we can't count on the mail, we are in serious trouble.
Just saying...

[gwrdriver]

Having worked there for a time in a professional capacity (not mail connected), and seeing 1st-hand why occasionally someone "goes Postal", yes in general the USPS has systemic problems. But considering ALL of the prevailing circumstances which currently affect delivery, of anything, anywhere, by any means, and I ordered a parcel on Dec.09, I would not be surprised that it's taking longer than it should. I would have anticipated this since we were told explicitly (via national news) that the delivery systems were already overloaded, so I would either have ordered much earlier, or after the crush. But that's just me.

[John Hasler]

USPS here works pretty well. But sometimes I think we live on a different planet.

[gwerhart0800]

Shipped two packages via USPS, both priority, bot sat in Denver for 5 days. One of them took 15 days to reach the destination. There are severe staffing shortages caused by Covid illness or quarantining because of exposure. Colorado moved postal workers into a higher priority for vaccination.

[BClemens]

I believe that 99.9% of the people that work for the Postal Service are the finest but looking at the whole government run snowball gives reason for a sigh. When a dam is built it is for worst case - not so with the USPS. They are underfunded, short staffed, pandemic, Christmas rush, transportation issues, etc, etc... - sigh... time means nothing. They need larger storage areas in their distribution centers, more staff, larger vehicles, more hours in a day, and higher pay.
On to better things...

[pat1027]

While politicians clamor for the postal service to cut losses and be more efficient, the postal service provides locations and services its competitors do not. UPS and FedEx cover my area from service centers 40+ miles away that cover at least two counties. You ship by printing your own forms and dropping the package in a box or pick up location (not staffed by them). The postal service has to staff an office in every one horse town. Mix in the political dis-function where party egos are more important than the good of the whole the post office is stuck in a no-win scenario.

[kcameron]

Compounding the problems for USPS was the other services telling some of their customers, no we won't take more packages than XX per day. Guess where the overflow went?? We had a package show leaving Georgia, hitting FL and no further notice for 6 days. Then it showed up in Newark NJ and then no further notices for 8 days. It then showed at regional and took 2 days to get to us, that normally would have been 1 day to come from regional.

If it is packaged right, they have to take it. The other guys can say no.

[SteveM]

Our local post office near my house is not the best one. There's almost always a slow-moving line. I've gotten grief for using too much tape on a box (what do you want when you say I can put 70 lbs in a 20 lbs box).

The other day, I asked about regional rate boxes and they didn't know anything about them (later found that you can print the postage for them on the machine in the lobby 30' away from the counter).

I found it is often faster to drive to the post office in the next town.

When I was still going into the office, the post office near my office was stellar. Fast, efficient, knowledgeable, friendly.

I guess it can be hit or miss, just like a lot of places.

Still, you can't beat flat-rate boxes for shipping machine tools and parts that can fit in one. Looked up the UPS price for a box I am shipping and it would be $20 vs $8 for a small flat-rate box. UPS and FedEx will often beat them for a larger box, particularly if it is light weight.

Steve

[Gra2472]

UPS isn't much better out where I live. I ordered a pair of Tom Bee trucks a couple of months ago. They had the correct address on one side, and a sticker on the other with a wrong address. I checked with Tom Bee (company, not person) and they concluded that they had indeed made a typo on a small shipping label. It was just one number, but it had a big impact on a less than vigilant UPS driver. I don't know why, but he delivered the package containing the trucks to a vacant lot two blocks down. Now, out here in Monte Rio, we have a very small community. I am very grateful for a neighbor who saw the box, figured out what it was, and that it probably belonged to the guy with the tracks in his front yard. But I can't figure out why a UPS guy would drop a box off in a vacant lot, when the other side of the box had an address that he delivers too at least twice a week. Go figure. Thank goodness for honest people these days.

[Greg_Lewis]

Tracking numbers are of little value. I have personally experienced this more than once. My carrier admitted to scanning parcels addressed to me as delivered when he loaded the truck at the p.o. and not at the time he stopped at my mailbox. I have verified this by checking the time of the scan and the time he passes our mailbox. I lost one shipment because of this and, as far as the USPS and the shipper are concerned, it was delivered even though the carrier sheepishly suggested he may have put it at the wrong address. I never got the package.

Second, I have had a package tracking say that a shipment left Reno at a certain time and arrived in Sacramento at a certain time when the highway over Donner Pass was closed due to weather. The tracking later showed the package back in Reno. So how could it have arrived in Sac?

Third, the Washington Post recently ran a story headlined: "U.S. Postal Service employees and supervisors have routinely falsified data on package deliveries, likely so they are not penalized for tardiness, according to postal workers and internal data obtained by The Washington Post." (https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va ... -packages/) Here is a key paragraph from the story:
Postal workers said in interviews that they have been pressured by their bosses to perform false scans increasingly over the past six months so that late packages appear to have been delivered — or are delayed because of issues at the delivery address — to ensure they don’t count against the agency’s delivery statistics.

Finally, due to porch pirates, you should have any important package sent "signature required" or sign up for the "hold for pickup" service, which will hold the package at the p.o. for you to pick up (or rent a p.o, box). I note that Amazon now has secure drop locations available in some communities.

[atunguyd]

Ha, I would do unmentionable things to a sailor on shore leave to have USPS here.

Here (South Africa) our postal service started failing way before COVID. All due to corruption at all levels and our local workforces habit of going on weeks to months long strikes. A parcel from say China takes a week to get into our borders and hit customs. At this point it is given a local tracking number which you cannot get (phones just ring). The parcel then makes its way through the the system and if you have not received it within three months you should assume that a postal worker now has your goods in his house.

But sometimes miracles occur, I once got a parcel 7 months after it s shipped to me.

I also have received parcels which are empty (who seals the contents and then still goes through the effort to continue to deliver the now empty package)

COVID just made things worse, our brilliant government workers decided that the best outlets to use to provide the COVID grant (I am not lying it is the equivalent of $15 a month) is to use the already inept post offices.
Now even if your parcel is there for collection (they don't deliver anything bigger than an envelope) you will have to wait outside in a line normally spanning 400 to 500 yards with no social distancing. If you get there nice and early (say 5am) you may just get into the building before they close for the day.

Couriers are our only option these days.

Sent from my SM-N975F using Tapatalk

[SteveM]

I ordered some custom guitar picks for a local music school.

It was obvious they were guitar picks from the name of the company on the package.

When the small flat-rate box arrived, the perforations were torn and it was obvious that it was pushed in at one point, then pulled up (like you would do with a finger).

When I opened the box, one of the four ziplock bags had the bottom cut off with a scissors. As there were 100 picks in each bag, I didn't bother counting, but I figured I didn't need to to figure out what had happened.

Steve