USPS rant

[pat sublett]

I am going to quit ordering from people who ship by US Postal Service. I reciently waited several days for a package and finally called the shipper who told me that the local postmaster signed for the package the day before. It is a small Post Office and only manned by the Post Master. The post Office is 2 blocks from my house so I sent my wife to get it. The Post Master told my wife that we did not have a package. When she told her that the shipper said that she signed for it, she said yes but I am not suppost to give it to you until tomorrow. On another occasion, I waited several days for a package. I tracked it on the great USPS tracking system. It left a major city east of me, went to a small town 20 miles west of where I live, then back to another major city east of me, laying over 24 hours in each location than back to my post office. Twice on different days it passed down the interstate 2 miles from my post office. It wasn't becaus it was mis-handled according to my Post Master, this is just the normal routing. You can't make some of this stuff up. Any time govm't is involved, there is no acountability.

 

[jeremy in NE]

It's not going to get any better. Our little post office is only open 2 hours a day. 10:30-12:30. According to the PM the people voted on hours but nobody in town said they voted. Person has to take a half day off to get packages.

 

[Rkh]

I had the same problem with UPS. Bought from amazon, tractor # said be here Wednesday, we were home all day & no pck., next day website said no one home arriving next day. Next day, same thing, so called ups said be here this next Monday. We shall see

 

[Hayfarmer]

Amazon sometimes ships by UPS but if the package is smaller the local UPS guys take it to the post office for delivery. Generally takes an extra day at least. I ordered some medications through my insurance company a while back. It seemed like they were taking longer than normal to get here so did the usps tracking. They were coming from Guam. My insurance company assures me all their warehouses are in the states so I assume they were sent to Guam by mistake. Zip codes weren't even close

 

[ss55]

The problem might be local. Neat Omaha, NE I'm seeing USPS making Sunday package deliveries with U-Hail vans. Every package I send now gets a tracking number for free. Overall, I seen service improve since the smaller Post Offices have been consolidated.

 

[D beatty]

I have no problems with our small local post office but have a major hub that our mail comes out of and it can lay there for several days before reaching our post office.

 

[Russ from MN]

We have had good luck with the USPS!

 

[Russ from MN]

I wanted to edit my post, but that option is disabled! My further comment is, I would really like to see a stop to Saturday delivery, it seems silly in this day and age to get mail delivered on Sat. It would also make the postal workers schedule a lot simpler, and they could have a more normal lifestyle. I am sure there will be negative comments about this from some who are jealous of anyone with a good civil service job with good benefits!

 

[Crazy Horse]

I have ordered stuff from the USA and often get it shipped to a US address (someone I know on holidays somewhere), then whoever I send it to brings it back to Canada for me. For regular ground shipping, I found that often the same shipment is shared by UPS and USPS, not sure how that works. In situations where I order something from the US to be send directly to me here in Canada, give me USPS every time (it arrives here by Canada Post our regular government mail). UPS seems to add all kinds of fees and charges whereas the USPS seems to avoid that for the most part.

 

[tom stalker]

I've shipped alot of stuff using USPS Priority mail over the last several years

No problems at all....occasionally a box can get held up at a transfer point for a few days but generally not the case

Shipping up to 70 pounds anywhere in the US and Alaska with the flat rate Priority boxes is very economical

 

[JayinNY]

I'm sick of the USPS, I get a magazine weekly, that comes with a monthly issue, I had problems getting it 1 time I got 3 on the same day, this comes out of Kentucky, I call the magazine, Blood Horse and they say we mail them on such and such date, it not is, they were sent its the post office, I have not seen the monthly issue at all for December. ?

 

[ztrmower]

sounds like you need to become sub carrier, solve issues.use all services here daily and can't complain

 

[F-350]

Have had more problems with USPS in 2015 then I can ever remember...They lost a total of 5 orders from Amazon and Ebay and the sellers had to refund the money....Fortunately it was mostly small orders of under $15..

Also 4-5 times its showed that a package was delivered to us but it never showed up until 1-3 days later..My wife has one a week overdue right now..

 

[730virgil]

our usual postman is thinking about retiring in the next few months because of the goofy things that happens with the postal system

 

[rrlund]

The wife ordered something Dec 1. It was delivered to the post office about a week later but wasn't delivered to us. She contacted the shipper after another week,they sent another one so we had it by Christmas. The first one came Wednesday.

 

[Chris English]

We always had a carrier that used their personal vehicles. No more I guess a surplus of those funny looking mail trucks are in use now. We live a few hundred feet of the road with a large space to turn around albeit by backing up. So no more packages brought to the house "no backing" is official policy

 

[pinball]

I sell things on Ebay once in awhile. Most are fairly heavy parts. The post office will deliver the boxes I need to mail them, pick it up at my house. I live in the country side. They do want you to mail priority mail which I due. I use Ebays postage print out. They give you a discount on the shipping. The priority boxes are flat weight boxes. Up to 70 lbs for under $13.00 If it weren't for this program I couldn't sell these items and people could not save money on purchasing them. Tracking number are provided and you can watch the packages all the way. Have had very good experiences. A lot of the problems are the post offices there selves. This time of the year is the worst due to the post office hiring temp help. Some of them could care less. Although I might think its hi the post costs are cheaper than other places and for the amount of mail they deliver I think they do a pretty good job. Just my 3 cents worth. NORM

 

[pinball]

We have a mail box out on our road by our driveway which is a requirement for the post office. Our drive way is probably 80 yards long. If they have a package to deliver or pick up a package they drive right up to my house to deliver or pick up in there little box car. We live in the country. If I were you I would contact your postsmaster. You might have a lazy postal driver making his own rules and believe me there are some lazing ones out there.

 

[Heyseed]

I have good and not so good results with the USPS. I have customers that mail me a payment one day and I get it the next. They are in Dc and I live 90 miles away. Then there is the case of me mailing a book to Winchester (40 miles) three weeks later it never made it, so I sent a second one. The next day I find the original book in my box saying unable to deliver. Turns out that the customer gave me the address with last digit 4 instead of 5. OK the address was wrong, but this is a rural route and they have lived there 20 years, same name etc. The second book made it just fine even with the wrong number.
I also don't get junk mail. I think my carrier must trash it. People laugh when I say this and offer me theirs, but I worry about what else doesn't make it. I can go weeks with nothing in my box.

 

[dr sportster]

I agree the flat rate boxes can't be beat. How easy is it when they supply the boxes and almost no weight limit. Plus a discount. I have no problem shipping USPS.

 

[fixerupper]

I have never had problems with USPS and packages that I know of. First class is another story. Whenever I send an important letter first class, like a rent payment to a landlord I send it registered. That way I know the recipient got it. A couple of years ago I financed my seed through a major seed company. When we decided to pay it off Marilyn called the company to get the exact interest amount and in the conversation the lady on the other end suggested we do a direct bank transfer instead of sending the check. The lady told Marilyn too many mailed checks are not arriving or are arriving months later. The farmer sends the check and thinks he is paid off but the letter doesn't arrive at the destination. The customer gets another statement the next month or months later with more interest tacked on and he is not a happy camper. The extra monthly interest and possibly penalties on a five or six digit bill is no small amount.

 

[F-350]

The sub just delivered our mail and when I got it,4 pieces of the neighbors mail was in our box..The sub is a nice guy but sometimes has his problems..

I think that some people are so mean that they keep a misdelivered item or just throw it away...I always put it back in the box or bring it to them if they are close..

 

[charlie n]

I bought Vise Grips off Ebay on Christmas day. 700 mile trip.They got delivered Tuesday.

We have 2 post offices here in town.If I mail a letter local it goes to St.Louis county to get sorted. Then comes back across the river to the same place I dropped if off.Then it gets delivered.4-6 day turnaround.

If I'm lyin,Im dyin.

 

[ed will]

Hi, you guys made me think of my mother (long gone)
I phoned her to thank her for the birthday card. She was amazed. She said I just walked back from the PO. And just mailed it. I lived in the next town over. We were both puzzled over that. I got another one a few days later. I didn't tell her. Ed Will.

 

[2underage]

Relax Pat! Things don't always go the way we want but 99% of the time the mail service is pretty darn good. I have had similar problems with other delivery services including Fedx and UPS and I stll use them. I think most people will agree with me.

 

[Dave Sherburne, NY]

I would have no problem waiting til Monday to get my junk mail. I think the US should get rid of pennies too.

 

[oldtanker]

OK guys part of the problem stems from the terror threat as far as routing goes. Not every post office has "sniffers" to detect explosives or something like anthrax. So it has to get routed to a post office that does. So say your receiving office that distributes to your local PO gets a package that hasn't been cleared and they don't have to means to check they have to send it to an office that can scan it. Then it come back to them to be distributed to your PO who then can deliver it. If I mail a letter from one small town near me to the east addressed to another small town just to my west that letter gets sent 90 miles to a major office, then 180 miles to the hub that distributes to the other office. I don't like the system but it's what we have.

Rick

 

[Mark - IN.]

So, all of the stuff sent USPS somehow, somewhere gets checked out by anti-terrorism somebodies? I've done work in recent months in some huge regional postal facilities, huge, huge, HUGE, and don't remember seeing that going on in them or the smaller local facilities either.

Mark

 

[old-9]

This is a shortened tracking of a package this December.
Ordered Nov. 30
shipped Dec. 1 Edgewood NY.
arrived and processed Dec 3 , Urbancrest Ohio
transfered to post office Indianapolis In. Dec. 3
Cincinnati Ohio Dec 3
Dec 11 back to Indianapolis
Arrived and delivered local post office on Dec.14
May I add was a small envlope with a necklass in it. Also wife's birthday was Dec. 13. I was not happy! joe

 

[dr sportster]

I worked at huge sorting centers and the only thing I saw about anthrax was the maintenance guys T-shirts.

 

[dr sportster]

I did some reading on a USPS site and there is a machine the size of a copier that takes bio-samples of mail as it passes through other automation. No mail is rerouted to for testing. Anything white powder etc. is sent to a lab for criminal investigation . Anything radioactive is sent to a different lab for testing . At the point it is taken off the line non of it is deemed deliverable.

 

[Andy Martin]

It sure depends a lot on the local postmaster and your rural carrier. We are in nirvana right now. Great carrier who knows us and I'm getting to know the postmaster. It helps. Rural carrier sometimes delivers my neighbors mail if she knows their out of town, or puts their package in our big box if it's bad weather. We're both OK with it and it works great.

But the mail is sorted 90 miles away and if there is a minor error our mail carrier never gets to see it, it gets returned as undeliverable.

UPS, FedEx and DHL all drop packages at our post office, often after driving past our house. I like it because they are paying the USPS for delivery and the USPS needs the revenue.

 

[d9gdon]

(quoted from post at 21:16:57 01/02/16) I worked at huge sorting centers and the only thing I saw about anthrax was the maintenance guys T-shirts.

I snorted my drink out my nose on that one! Still laughin...

 

[FBH44]

Many many years ago I was on college, and Mom used to mis=address mail to me, wrong town etc. The guys at our little Post Office would just re-address the letters, they knew me, just knew where I was in college, and just send it on. They just knew where to send things. NO problem, just common sense...

 

[jimg.allentown]

I would agree on getting rid of the Saturday deliveries, but not on the pennies. There was a movie some years ago with Richard Pryor and (I think) Gene Wilder about a sharp accountant that had all of his company's "odd" pennies routed into his personal account. Added up to a LOT of money. I'll keep my pennies, thank you.

 

[Ozlander]

(quoted from post at 11:38:14 01/02/16) So no more packages brought to the house "no backing" is official policy

That ain't true here in Kansas.