What’s going on with USPS? (1 Viewer)

[Himewad]

I know this is a dump-on-USPS thread, but this summer we had a full-size stove being delivered by FedEx from Tennessee to Iowa. It reached the Mississippi River (about an hour away from us) before deciding to take a trip to the Chicago area. It hung out there for a couple of days before I called the company that delivered the item. The company said it's a good thing I called because FedEx had no idea where it was supposed to go after reaching Chicago (where it never should have gone in the first place).

Incompetence isn't limited to the USPS. Government agencies and divisions do seem to have a strangle-hold on it, but it creeps out to public companies from time to time.

 

[redeagle]

I'll chime in on this also. The world has become very polarized and its easy to always bitch. I get frustrated when everybody tries to make a point based on an exception data point, not the norm. Every company has its good stories and bad. For sure the government has more bureaucracy (not necessarily incompetence). So how many oil companies have hidden spills, chemical companies poisoned land and people, internet companies violated privacy, hospitals hidden malpractice, auto companies lie about safety, etc... They just have two different motives. Job guarantees in civil service can cause lack of effort/care, but profit motive can cause major ethical violations and disregard for people (get a machine and we can fire 10%, move it all to asia for 10c per hour child labor, just look the other way and virtue signal). NO organization is perfect, and NO organization is all bad.

I love our USPS and almost all of the employees I have met. Sure, I've also spent hours in line and gotten frustrated at some of the staff. Same for UPS, DHL, Fedex, Amazon, Card rooms, Auto dealers, the list goes on, etc.... My job has sent me on extended implementations to many countries in the so called 3rd world, including about 6 years spent living expat in 4 different countries. It gives you an interesting perspective and I admire our country more after living overseas. Some of these places have NO mail. You cant even get a postcard reliably. Almost 90% of any packages gets lost/stolen. Despite it's problems today, the US Postal Service has been a wonderful social value for Americans for centuries (yes, not decades). I think the major decline in personal and business correspondence due to email has caused the most disruption as they are now becoming a package delivery service which is a very different business model.

So bitch all you want about delays or loss/theft, but it is a system few others in the world can enjoy and consider how many packages you do get on time, in good condition.

In all fairness, I will also continue to bitch and moan about delayed packages, but I will not throw the baby out with the bathwater for that one package of dozens that came a few days later than expected.

 

[FordPickup92]

I know this is a dump-on-USPS thread, but this summer we had a full-size stove being delivered by FedEx from Tennessee to Iowa. It reached the Mississippi River (about an hour away from us) before deciding to take a trip to the Chicago area. It hung out there for a couple of days before I called the company that delivered the item. The company said it's a good thing I called because FedEx had no idea where it was supposed to go after reaching Chicago (where it never should have gone in the first place).

Incompetence isn't limited to the USPS. Government agencies and divisions do seem to have a strangle-hold on it, but it creeps out to public companies from time to time.

We've had issues with fed ex also

 

[redeagle]

We've had issues with fed ex also

You are a virtuoso with words. Each one a gem. All my meaning above in 7 simple words.

Pardon my lengthy diatribe above.

 

[FordPickup92]

You are a virtuoso with words. Each one a gem. All my meaning above in 7 simple words.

Pardon my lengthy diatribe above.

They recently left us a box around $400/$500 at the mailbox in the rain in the middle if the night (we live on a court and cannot see the mailbox from the house..)

 

[redeagle]

It was probably revenge for their hernia/back operation after all your other successful deliveries.

 

[Taghkanic]

Incompetence isn't limited to the USPS. Government agencies and divisions do seem to have a strangle-hold on it, but it creeps out to public companies from time to time.

I’ve had some really disastrous problems with UPS, almost all due to sloppiness by drivers and bad attitudes in the local distribution center, which is about 15 minutes from me. Stuff can disappear in trucks and the shipping center for weeks, and they don’t seem to care. This seems peculiar to this location; I suspect a bad boss is causing workers under him not to GAF.

 

[Himewad]

They recently left us a box around $400/$500 at the mailbox in the rain in the middle if the night (we live on a court and cannot see the mailbox from the house..)

I downloaded the FedEx app a while back, and it works great for stuff like this. I've said before that I have all of my FedEx deliveries sent to a Walgreens about 1/4 mile from my house. Just so no packages are sitting idle on my doorstep. The app tells me when any package in their system is in their possession, when it is scheduled to be delivered, and when it is ultimately delivered. I'm sure UPS has a similar app, but I hardly ever get packages delivered UPS. Maybe even USPS has that available. I should look into that.

 

[Ben8257]

Most of the time I feel like USPS does a decent to good job. But back when covid hit it was terrible and again it's back to the same thing!! This is flat out unacceptable

You have a job to do, limit the number of packages taken in daily, whatever it takes to keep a manageable work load. We all know the holidays were going to be ridiculous on shipping this year. Put packages not moving for almost 2 weeks??? Defend all you want but in my line of work that would mean termination!

 

[BGinGA]

We've had issues with fed ex also

Same here, and with UPS, too. Over the past 20 years, I've had a much higher rate of issues (damaged, late, and missing/lost packages) with FedEx and UPS (percentage-wise) than with USPS.

And over the past five years, Amazon has had a much better delivery record than any of the other three.

 

[FordPickup92]

Same here, and with UPS, too. Over the past 20 years, I've had a much higher rate of issues (damaged, late, and missing/lost packages) with FedEx and UPS (percentage-wise) than with USPS.

And over the past five years, Amazon has had a much better delivery record than any of the other three.

I'm relatively torn between them all really, USPS has disappointed me quite a few times, Amazon has been fast but I've also been disgusted with how they treat packages, fed ex I've never really been pleased with, and UPS is somewhere in the middle. Working for them now overall the attempt to handle packages correctly and get them there safely/timely is a general priority, but I've also seen first hand how the trucks get loaded.... I know that shit was not put in there "with care"

 

[philhut]

I just got an order in from Apache. Nevada to Toronto Canada in just over 3 days (not bad) Toronto to my address 8 days and I am 60kms away from the airport where it landed lol. Canada Post is at a crawl, overwhelmed with Amazon packages and the fee's go up for the regular guy all the time but Amazon still gets their cut rate to offer free shipping......grr anyway just thought I'd let ya know how your postal system trumps ours by a longshot.

 

[lwnemesis]

Ordered something in Nov and it finally shipped on the 25th. Last pinged on USPSes website on Dec 4th when it left Palatine, IL then crickets. Its now Dec 9th and still says delayed. Maybe I'll get it by Christmas.

 

[redeagle]

Remember when there was no tracking? You didn't even get a ship notice from the vendor.

Today, Domino's tells me when the Pizza is in the oven, in the car, on its way, almost there and at the door.
Then I get a pain in the ass survey about "how was everything". Some folks can't even have sex without this many status updates now.

Maybe it's the zen mind or I'm just patient. Or I like the anticipation of waiting for it to arrive. Actually, maybe the trick is to order enough stuff from Amazon so that I have something arriving every day to relieve the "need attention" syndrome.

 

[TKEUofM]

I just had a SFRB go from Detroit to Germany in about 4 days, no issues, perfect tracking and delivery. I have another SFRB that is going to Canada and it has said "in route to next facility" for the past 6 days. Starting to get worried about it.

 

[redeagle]

I just had a SFRB go from Detroit to Germany in about 4 days, no issues, perfect tracking and delivery. I have another SFRB that is going to Canada and it has said "in route to next facility" for the past 6 days. Starting to get worried about it.

I’d stay on top of it, but between the US elections, recent black friday sales and the holiday season, don’t be surprised at mail delays. Somebody else just posted recently that Canada post was very slow right now.

 

[JoeyMack]

Follow up on my USPS woes from yesterday. This morning tracking showed it was supposed to be delivered today by 7:30 PM. Checked periodically throughout the day with no updates. While watching the news I checked again, and finally got the following update:

No doorbell ring. No knock. They just left the note. What the f@#%! No...I don't think I will be rescheduling for tomorrow. I'll take the 5 minute drive to make sure I get it. At 5:35PM you know they had to be at the end of their shift and they just said f-it. I am sooooo irritated right now.

 

[ReallyGoodUsername]

Follow up on my USPS woes from yesterday. This morning tracking showed it was supposed to be delivered today by 7:30 PM. Checked periodically throughout the day with no updates. While watching the news I checked again, and finally got the following update:

View attachment 590414

No doorbell ring. No knock. They just left the note. What the f@#%! No...I don't think I will be rescheduling for tomorrow. I'll take the 5 minute drive to make sure I get it. At 5:35PM you know they had to be at the end of their shift and they just said f-it. I am sooooo irritated right now.

Yep the most BS thing they consistently do. I've had the same happen 2-3 times before... always delivered the next day though in my cases.

 

[JoeyMack]

Yep the most BS thing they consistently do. I've had the same happen 2-3 times before... always delivered the next day though in my cases.

Since most of my packages do not require a signuture I really haven't run into this before. Yeah...you are probably right about getting the delivery tomorrow, but the P.O. is close and I want my chipes!

 

[PAZ]

USPS.com® - USPS Tracking® Results

 

[ReallyGoodUsername]

Since most of my packages do not require a signuture I really haven't run into this before. Yeah...you are probably right about getting the delivery tomorrow, but the P.O. is close and I want my chipes!

99% of the time I'm guessing they were expecting it to be delivered and marked it as such but then they ran behind. Instead of going backwards in the tracking process they just say - oh we did but it was your fault it didn't get delivered.

 

[BEANO52]

I know it's the busiest time of the year but c'mon, I want my chips! This package has been floating around 20 minutes from me for to long.

 

[Himewad]

over 2-1/2 days to go from St. Louis Distribution Center to St. Louis Network Distribution Center. How bad is that St. Louis traffic?

 

[grantc54]

When a package is stalled I strongly suggest having the sender reach out to them via phone or send an email via their site (click contact USPS, enter tracking info, and then click 'where is my package', from there fill out the form).

All 3 times the packages started moving right away. I dont think it's a coincidence - as always, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

PS you guys dont know how good you have it when comparing USPS to Canada Post. Your heads would explode if you had to deal with their incompetence.

 

[warewulf]

Follow up on my USPS woes from yesterday. This morning tracking showed it was supposed to be delivered today by 7:30 PM. Checked periodically throughout the day with no updates. While watching the news I checked again, and finally got the following update:



No doorbell ring. No knock. They just left the note. What the f@#%! No...I don't think I will be rescheduling for tomorrow. I'll take the 5 minute drive to make sure I get it. At 5:35PM you know they had to be at the end of their shift and they just said f-it. I am sooooo irritated right now.

This is how they punish you for requiring a signature. I had an expensive package that I told the shipper to require signature. This is what they did, kept leaving notes even when people were in the office. I had to go to the post office and pick it up. I complained to a supervisor, but that's like complaining to the DMV.

They're basically trying to teach you the hard way that if the package requires a signature, they're not going to bother. You just have to pick it up.

 

[chicubs1988]

I don't want to jinx it, but I haven't had any issues. I've both sent and received numerous packages over the past year and no problems have popped up. In fact, I've been impressed with how quick the service has been. I'm in San Diego and almost every package I've mailed has arrived within 2-3 days. This could be due to the fact that I'm near to both regional and national level processing centers.

 

[mathewsarcher83]

Had a PCF package from CA make it all the way to my local 60634 post office and *poof* ... just gone without a trace when out for delivery - still says “awaiting delivery scan” about two weeks later

 

[allforcharity]

PS you guys dont know how good you have it when comparing USPS to Canada Post. Your heads would explode if you had to deal with their incompetence.

Really? I've had no problem with Canada Post in general, except for that one time a package was almost set on fire. All my outgoing stuff has been smooth.

 

[grantc54]

Really? I've had no problem with Canada Post in general, except for that one time a package was almost set on fire. All my outgoing stuff has been smooth.

Generally it can be a lot slower, tracking isnt great, and general mix ups. I'm sure they are worse, but for me USPS has been better for me.

Also much more expensive.

 

[Coyote]

It took USPS six months to acknowledge responsibility for damage and theft (for a package from Greece to the US).

This was achieved only after the addressee sent me (the sender) his Damage Report to the USPS (which the USPS claimed it did not exist) and happily, for a change, Hellenic Post (USPS's equivalent, both institutionally and in inefficiency) rubbed the Damage Report (through myself) on the USPS's filthy nose.

Even in-country (in most countries) shipments have collapsed by now.
I would strongly advise against selling or buying anything before some normalisation of the pandemic issues.