USPS Sucks

[T Jones]

Buyer / Seller beware! Seems I'm not the only person who's having delivery issues with USPS. I was expecting to receive a package a couple days ago, via USPS, which failed to arrive on the expected delivery date. I can understand delays in deliveries due to the current Winter weather conditions across parts of the country. Usually I wouldn't be concerned but it seems the package I was expecting dropped off the radar and USPS doesn't know where it is. John Galt sent me a real nice Knox 15 Westlite, and damn, I'm pi$$ed! I have the tracking number and it shows when the package was received and when it left the sorting facility 10 days ago. But after that, no other information is available. I'd like to able to track it just so I know I'm going to eventually get my package. I sent out two emails which USPS has failed to respond within the time frame their website promised. Don't even think you're going to reach a live operator by telephone. I'd feel a lot better if I could at least track where the package is at in transit. There's nothing, and they're raising our postal rates! has anybody else had a similar experience with USPS?

http://www.ebay.com/gds/THE-USPS-SUCKS-PLEASE-READ-/10000000004659923/g.html

 

[yttclothing]

Hi

I've sent out numerous packages from the UK to the US recently, all of them are getting delayed I sent one on the 12 Dec got to the USA on the 18th of Dec then was held up finally got to the customer on the 22nd or so of this month ! Another I sent on the 30th of Dec only left Chicago on 2 days ago after arriving in Chicago on around the 3rd of Jan, if you use twitter you can tweet usps I now find this is the quickest way of contacting big firms as they don't like the public humiliation ! But yes I thought my parcels had dropped off the rader as they were both sitting in one location for 20 days each ! USPS blamed customs and a Holidays backlog but that seems like a stupidly long time to clear a backlog !

 

[TheDane]

Terry, I'm sure it wont help to swap services. The Danish post services are not the least better. Prices are constantly rising - while service is dropping. This winter has been completely insane. Some packages disappear for weeks, and other arrive extremely late. I don't know what to do, but I certainly share your anger and frustrations [huh]

 

[Baron Kurtz]

We've all become addicted to super fast and cheap service through our government-owned or -subsidized (typically loss-making) postal services.

With the current trend towards greater privatisation of postal services, we'll all need to get used to either 1) slower services at the same price or 2) similar faster service at much higher prices. While a government run or subsidised service can suck up losses, no business can do so. Either one believes that private industry can do things better than a government run or subsidised system can, or you don't. I do not (recognizing that continual cutting of costs must necessarily reduce quality independent of the price increases) but I realize I'm in the minority and that cheap and efficient postal systems are a thing of the past. What we really need is for the respective privatized services to now stop pretending that they can meet the delivery targets of the previous subsidized services. That they continue to claim these target delivery times is wishful thinking at best … downright dishonesty is the more likely truth.

That being said, I resigned myself to the inefficiencies of the system (particularly the online tracking modalities) several years ago. I've never had a package lost, and I no longer stress over timescales.

p.s. Paddy the package arrived today (3 days).

 

[TheDane]

Well, if it was just slow delivery, that was the problem! Maybe your description fits your country, but it surely doesn't fit here. The fact that visionary policy has been replaced by comatose administration, seems to be the problem here - but I guess, the subject is not really suited for a forum like this.

 

[T Jones]

Thanks Baron, Dane, yttclothing. I wouldn't mind the delays if I could at least track where the package is and talk to a live operator over the telephone. That way I would know where everything stands. I wish I could share the same confidence in a taxpayer supported institution but government run services haven't shown me anything to be confident in. At least with a private run business a customer can get hold of a live person to talk to and there's some level of accountability. On the other hand, our government, from the White House to Congress, and even down to its institutions feel that they owe no accountability to the taxpayers who support them. If our government employees and office holders had to work for performance based pay they'd starve to death. I know that all institutions have their quirks, but I'll put my confidence in the private sector over a government run program any day.... just my 2 cents

Dane

but I guess, the subject is not really suited for a forum like this.

...maybe borderline. We're not actually arguing political viewpoints, just a general complaint about government services, namely USPS which directly affects a lot of us here on the forum since we use the services. [huh]

 

[Tomasso]

With the exception of their media mail service, I've all but given up on the USPS.

 

[TheDane]

Dane

...maybe borderline. We're not actually arguing political viewpoints, just a general complaint about government services, namely USPS which directly affects a lot of us here on the forum since we use the services. [huh]

I know, Terry. It's just a very difficult issue to debate without politics. I simply can't get beyond "Yes, it really sucks!" without getting into politics

 

[yttclothing]

Maybe what american needs is a business like MyHermes, it's the cheapest service we have in the UK that I know about, it uses a network of self employed couriers who pretty much just drop of the parcels from their family car. They get terrible reviews online but I've only had 4 issues and over 200 parcels sent, also there refund system works quicker and is more effective and better for the customer then our royal mail, however they don't have people you can talk to. Everything is over e-mail. Call centres are not cost effective for couriers as one phone call can take hours depending on how pi$$ed the customer is so you can see why just e-mailing works 2-3 minutes per email max. As for tracking no. I will never again use a service without them its worth the extra just for piece of mind and accountability.

 

[1mach1]

With the exception of their media mail service, I've all but given up on the USPS.

:arated:

 

[RBH]

Good points all around.
I believe this to be better suited to the Observation Bar but as long as it remains within the limits.
I will leave it here.

I have had great service with the USPS, but have had a few items take longer here of late.
UPS during the holidays [and a month before] was just awful.

 

[Dan Allen]

Terry, I'm sure it wont help to swap services. The Danish post services are not the least better. Prices are constantly rising - while service is dropping. This winter has been completely insane. Some packages disappear for weeks, and other arrive extremely late. I don't know what to do, but I certainly share your anger and frustrations [huh]

prices have to rise to cover the cost of storage

 

[alanfgag]

TJones, what class of service was used for the parcel you are trying to research?

I have some experience with the challenges faced by the USPS through my work in the Greeting Card Association. The issues and restrictions they face as they try to fulfill their mandate to provide universal service to every address in the United States are incredibly complex. Despite this, Priority Mail remains an affordable and reliable option to residential addresses. If it went another way, the results may be less reliable. Media Mail is for educational material and not suited for hats. The parcel can be opened by USPS and if determined to not qualify for the media rate, will be repriced to first class mail and delivered with postage due... and likely delays.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

While I agree that MyHermes provide a reasonably fast (they don't claim to be the fastest, but 3-5 days is fine, tbh) service, and by God are they cheap (!), their treatment of packages leaves a lot to be desired. Fortunately felt hats can take the kind of crushing Hermes ALWAYS provide, free of charge, and so I don't complain when my packages arrive beat up and crushed (esp with free shipping, thanks again), like the one I received form you today. Were it something actually fragile I would be extremely worried about using MyHermes.[huh]

The problem for such a business in the US is pure and simple: geography. Maybe for intra-state mailing it would be viable, but driving across a state would frequently take longer than a drive from London to Birmingham. The costs, I think, would need to be far higher than USPS.

Maybe what american needs is a business like MyHermes, it's the cheapest service we have in the UK that I know about, it uses a network of self employed couriers who pretty much just drop of the parcels from their family car. They get terrible reviews online but I've only had 4 issues and over 200 parcels sent, also there refund system works quicker and is more effective and better for the customer then our royal mail, however they don't have people you can talk to. Everything is over e-mail. Call centres are not cost effective for couriers as one phone call can take hours depending on how pi$$ed the customer is so you can see why just e-mailing works 2-3 minutes per email max. As for tracking no. I will never again use a service without them its worth the extra just for piece of mind and accountability.

 

[Genuine Classic Gangster]

I just sent a hat back to Optimo for servicing.

The hat got stuck in one of USPS' Chicago customs centers for a week, during which no updates were available when I checked the tracking number. I did a web search about that customs center and read a lot of commentary about it being a "black hole" in which packages mysteriously get stuck and disappear.

After a week, the tracking information for my hat parcel got updated and it started moving again, and it reached its destination about a day after that.

That traumatic experience taught me always to get insurance on all hat parcels that I either send or will have coming to me. At least insurance will give me peace of mind because hopefully if a parcel gets lost, I will get reimbursed for its value.

I agree that USPS' tracking is terrible, but I still won't switch from the post office to a courier company, because every single courier company makes up and then expects the consumer to pay illegitimate, extortionary, scam charges on cross-border shipments. At least the post office services are not extortionists, so I'd much rather give my business exclusively to them despite the poor tracking that they offer.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Pound-for-pound and dollar-for-dollar, I've always found the U.S.P.S. to be much better than private carriers like U.P.S. or FedEx. Not to be unempathetic to the OP's and others' issues with U.S.P.S., but listen to these situations I've dealt with....

(1) When I worked as a shipping/receiving clerk at a distribution warehouse (first job out of high school), we had a pallet of merchandise arrive via U.P.S. Freight that had been IMPALED by the forks of a fork lift while in transit! The cost of the destroyed merchandise was about $35,000. Of course the shipment was insured so, as was part of my job, I filed a claim with U.P.S., which they rejected. Their assertion was (a) the manufacturer sent the pallet that way (doubtful, illogical, and frankly absurd) or (b) we did it ourselves unloading the truck, which of course hadn't happened according to their own driver...ultimately the company I worked for had to take legal action against U.P.S. and a U.P.S. subcontractor who'd handled the shipment at some point.

(2) I was shipping deliverable package to a client (on CDs) that were needed for an ongoing audit. As the disks needed to be provide to the government auditors ASAP and hundreds of thousand of dollars were at stake, I sent them the fastest, most expensive option FedEx offers. It cost ~$75 to ship four CDs from the West to East Coast, and have them arrive first thing the next morning ... they didn't arrive for about a week.

... so yeah, I don't think much of private carriers.

 

[BR Gordon]

I have had great service with the USPS, but have had a few items take longer here of late.
UPS during the holidays [and a month before] was just awful.

I agree. I have great service from USPS, they are my first choice.

 

[suitedcboy]

I have had 100% satisfactory service on the one price priority mail boxes.

International is tricky. The wait for customs clearance seems and issue worldwide. With sequestration, I would doubt we have full staffing. I know we don't at airports as a neighbor is in that agency and they are understaffed when international arrivals come in at the same time.

 

[T Jones]

TJones, what class of service was used for the parcel you are trying to research?

I have some experience with the challenges faced by the USPS through my work in the Greeting Card Association. The issues and restrictions they face as they try to fulfill their mandate to provide universal service to every address in the United States are incredibly complex. Despite this, Priority Mail remains an affordable and reliable option to residential addresses. If it went another way, the results may be less reliable. Media Mail is for educational material and not suited for hats. The parcel can be opened by USPS and if determined to not qualify for the media rate, will be repriced to first class mail and delivered with postage due... and likely delays.

I definitely know this particular package wasn't sent priority. It left a sorting facility on the 15th of January and the expected delivery date was for the 22nd. This few days delay would not have bothered me at all given the weather conditions across parts of the country. I became mostly concerned when there was no tracking information available. I went to the USPS site and sent an email as directed. I was supposed to receive a reply within 24 hours. Never got it. I tried calling by phone and there's no way to get hold of a live operator. I was finally able to reach the sorting facility where it was sent from, but they had no idea where it was either. They just said it was odd that there were no other scannings to indicate where it might be after it left their facility. That's when I became the more concerned.

 

[fedoracentric]

I have to say, I don't know what everyone is complaining about concerning the US Post Office. I have been using ebay almost since the day it went live. I've dealt in several sorts of collectibles from comics to old photos to TV show ephemera and in the 20 some years I've been doing this I've only had a few lost packages. With the hundreds I've sent and received, that is a pretty good record. Further, I've only had a few come to me damaged. I'd put the USPS success rate for me in the high 90th percentiles.

This winter has seemed to have made the delivery times thrown out the window, granted. Just about every package I've shipped or received in the last month has been at least twice the delivery time cited.

Still, I find the USPS to be quite good and very reliable. Has it been 100% for me? Of course not. Nothing on earth is 100%. As use grows, some snafu is bound to happen. As long as you insured it, you'll get your money back.

But I have found that the only way to get satisfaction from tracking and insurance is an in person visit to a larger post office where you can talk to a person one-on-one.