A rant about USPS ...

Kenny Phillips

Kenny Phillips

Final Approach
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Jul 29, 2018
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Kenny Phillips
I like to read actual paper books; due to a ceiling collapse a few years ago that destroyed a few hundred volumes, I'm slowly rebuilding my collection of favorite reads. I ran into a missing one, ordered a copy on eBay, and patiently waited. I live about 30 minutes from Cincinnati, and only ten minutes from the larger distribution center.
Then this routing happened (read it bottom to top). If this wasn't the third time that this has happened, I'd not be so annoyed. And yet USPS still has the delivery listed as later today.
It won't be here today. Last two times, there was nothing wrong with the labeling at all.
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They seem to have their good periods and bad periods. I went for several years with absolutely stellar service from USPS; even onn Priority Mail packages were arriving consistently anywhere in the country in 3 days or so. Lately, though... not so much. I had one package go from Michigan to Sacramento, where it disappeared for nearly a week before finally leaving there and arriving here in Omaha a few days later. 2 weeks total time. I figured the package must have been damaged or the bar code obscured... nope. Everything plain as day. Another one was mailed in Skokie, IL on 8/31 and just arrived today.

And speaking of shipping, if you ship anything and have not yet checked out Pirate Ship, you really should.
 
We have the choice of close-your-eyes-and-point-to-a-day delivery time, with intact packaging (Fedex), or on time delivery in a box that has first been run over by, and then dragged behind, the truck (UPS). USPS is actually the winner here.
 
UPS: we have your package and it will be delivered to your front door tomorrow at 10:37 by Kevin.

FedEx: we have your package and it will be delivered.

Post Office: what package?

Amazon: you were thinking about ordering suppositories and your wife agreed. They have been delivered. Check your bathroom. Lower left drawer. Picture posted to Instagram.
 
Ed Haywood said:
UPS: we have your package and it will be delivered to your front door tomorrow at 10:37 by Kevin.
Click to expand...

And at 10:38, and for the next five days, "Your package is in transit. We have no further information at this time. Check back later for updates."
 
We had one that was at our local village post office (not a big place) and for some reason was sent back to town, then to Chicago then to town then back to Chicago then to town and then village and mailbox. Wild.
 
I feel your pain, @Kenny Phillips. I had a package that was supposedly on the USPS truck for delivery to my house on Friday. As of this morning (Weds), the most recent update was Friday evening, where it was back to "Processing" at my local PO. And I've got daytime obligations that will prevent me from going to the PO in person until next week at the earliest. (As if that will even help.)
 
Jim_R said:
I feel your pain, @Kenny Phillips. I had a package that was supposedly on the USPS truck for delivery to my house on Friday. As of this morning (Weds), the most recent update was Friday evening, where it was back to "Processing" at my local PO. And I've got daytime obligations that will prevent me from going to the PO in person until next week at the earliest. (As if that will even help.)
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You can file a missing package report on line through usps.com. I did that for one that they just stopped reporting progress after it disappeared somewhere. It just magically showed up a day or two later.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
I like to read actual paper books; due to a ceiling collapse a few years ago that destroyed a few hundred volumes, I'm slowly rebuilding my collection of favorite reads. I ran into a missing one, ordered a copy on eBay, and patiently waited. I live about 30 minutes from Cincinnati, and only ten minutes from the larger distribution center.
Then this routing happened (read it bottom to top). If this wasn't the third time that this has happened, I'd not be so annoyed. And yet USPS still has the delivery listed as later today.
It won't be here today. Last two times, there was nothing wrong with the labeling at all.
View attachment 154879
Click to expand...
I once had a package from Nevada that got about halfway across the country, then popped up in Honolulu. The shipper and I had fun watching it make its way back to me.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
I like to read actual paper books; due to a ceiling collapse a few years ago that destroyed a few hundred volumes, I'm slowly rebuilding my collection of favorite reads. I ran into a missing one, ordered a copy on eBay, and patiently waited. I live about 30 minutes from Cincinnati, and only ten minutes from the larger distribution center.
Then this routing happened (read it bottom to top). If this wasn't the third time that this has happened, I'd not be so annoyed. And yet USPS still has the delivery listed as later today.
It won't be here today. Last two times, there was nothing wrong with the labeling at all.
View attachment 154879
Click to expand...
Sent first class or media mail?
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
We had one that was at our local village post office (not a big place) and for some reason was sent back to town, then to Chicago then to town then back to Chicago then to town and then village and mailbox. Wild.
Click to expand...
I worked at the UPS distribution center in Atlanta while in college, back in the '70s. When the shift bell rang, we had to run to our station and keep running until 5 hours later when the bell rang again. That gave us a 10 minute warning and then we had to stop whatever we were doing. And every package at our station had better been loaded or we would be fired. If we weren't making around $10/hour (while minimum wage was $1.60) many of us would have quit. So when the warning bell sounded, we just threw everything on the closest truck, no matter where that truck was going. Of course, there was no on-line tracking back then. There was also no bar code readers. We had seconds to pick up a package, READ (with our eyes) where it was going, and put it on the correct conveyor belt. Even the most experienced sorters still made mistakes.
 
Again, I am going to ask the question, how many times has USPS, UPS, FedEx, et al^ got it right?

Even Amazon has been "effing-up" lately...
 
Lindberg said:
Sent first class or media mail?
Click to expand...
Media mail, but another important bit was first class. They can misroute anything.
My book has finally left Shreveport, on its way back north to Cincinnati. I hope. I don't know.
 
I purchased a critical boat part on eBay from Stuart, Florida which was shipped USPS Priority to the USVI. Seven days later it is at a distribution center near Milwaukee after passing through Oshkosh. Maybe the USPS knows I’m a pilot and wanted to give it some karma? :mad2:
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Last two times, there was nothing wrong with the labeling at all.
Click to expand...
It is their sorting equipment, lots of errors and equipment that just doesn't work.

I stepped in and did the bookkeeping for a friends restaurant in NYC years ago. I actually started printing the envelopes, so no handwriting issues, and they were going to the same addresses for some of the purveyors for decades. At one point, 4 out of 6 months checks came back as "Undeliverable." I finally took a stack of these up a couple of blocks to our local Post Office and talked to a Supervisor, the answer was that there was nothing wrong with our envelopes or addressing. But now the majority of letters that are thrown out by the machines are because the machine malfunctions. And all those letters that are kicked out before someone turns off the broken machine are NEVER looked at by a human or even sent through another machine. They just go in the Undeliverable bin and are returned.

She did resend those letters and did say I could bring them back up if it happened in the future, but I had already been moving them to Online Banking and letting the bank send out the checks.
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
We use them to ship to South America. I haven't tracked them enough to have an opinion. Our rep for our business is super helpful though.
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I would guess their international game is strong. But they don't have a very good delivery capability in the US from what I have seen. I order a lot of outdoor gear from a website that uses them, and receiving shipments is always iffy.
 
Ah, my package is now in Indianapolis, only 120 miles away. It's traveled, up to now, about 2,200 miles, well over four times the actual driving distance, with a few hours to go.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Ah, my package is now in Indianapolis, only 120 miles away. It's traveled, up to now, about 2,200 miles, well over four times the actual driving distance, with a few hours to go.
Click to expand...

Wow.... and yet, my son's passport application that as mailed from Santa Barbara, CA to Philadelphia, PA got there in two days, and he just recived the new on yesterday, that was mailed on Tuesday....

Screw the post office, they could mess up a one car funeral...
 
Finally, after traveling all 2400 miles of its 495-mile actual road distance. This was the next book in my reading list, and I won't read them out-of-order. I have a checklist for that.
 

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