The U.S. Postal Service....

[NH Shooter]

….is once again demonstrating how badly it sucks.

The latest fumble is with a Malkoff Bodyguard head I ordered on Tuesday, 6/26. As always, the Malkoffs got it out the door immediately via Priority Mail. It was slated to be delivered by end of day Friday (yesterday).

USPS got it from their AL distribution center to the one here in NH (which is just 12 miles away from where we live) in 32 hours. But since arriving there on Thursday the package remains "in transit to the destination" which as of this morning has been delivered to the wrong post office. God only knows where they'll send it next....

I wish this was a rare occurrence but unfortunately when it comes to USPS, incompetence is no surprise. I guess I should be happy to see it before the 4th of July holiday.

[Rich@CCC]

I feel for ya' Shooter.

In the interest of full disclosure, I worked as a systems/electronics technician for the USPS for 12 years. I left due to the fact that I was losing my ability to not choke the life out every manager on the floor for their sheer stupidity and general malignancy.

I do have to say that in my experience, the USPS does a pretty damn good job in spite of being hog tied and sabotaged by vindictive management and Congress.

I ship many hundreds of packages annually via USPS Priority Mail and First Class Parcel. I have had very few problems with delivery or damage. I can't think of more than five instances with any problem over the last 12 years of running my business.

They're not perfect by any means. I do see strange tracking routes from time to time and The one time a customer paid for second day express, it took 5 days and the customer had to go to the post office to pick it up. The postage was refunded.

Now UPS and FEDEX are another story altogether. But that would take it's own thread.

[NH Shooter]

With USPS, delivery is like a box of chocolates.

Latest tracking update shows package is now at the correct post office. There is hope....

[hufnagel]

I'm having last-mile problems locally, and a postmaster general that doesn't give a damn about how shit his pickup/delivery employees have been doing lately. I've taken to personally dropping off all my out-bound packages to the depot in the next town; ironically they're closer to me than my town's.

[blues]

In fairness, I have to say that the vast majority of my deliveries are accomplished without incident or drama. Sometimes quicker than I might have expected.

Occasionally one goes off the rails like the OP has stated. Most recently some diamond lapping paste that was accepted in upstate NY (from a Canadian vendor) and ended up down in AL or MS before being turned around and being sent back north to my location.

That said, I've had very few instances, and none that come immediately to mind at the moment, where I never received the item.

Now, their tracking website...that there is an abomination and needs to be updated and upgraded, imho.

I suppose around these parts my biggest complaint with USPS is that sometimes they don't take enough care to get the right mail in the right mailbox. Might be more or less prevalent in my rural area...don't know. The carriers themselves are good folks.

[Hambo]

I got a package this week via Fedex Smartpost that actually came a day early, but I've also had stuff move from zip code to zip code within the Opa-Locka sort facility.

All things considered it's better than the days of mailing a check and waiting four weeks to get your stuff.

[NH Shooter]

Update

Out for Delivery - highly likely it shows up today and their fumble is only going to cost me a day. I'll take it.

[Trooper224]

I have the biggest issues with packages coming from the northeastern seaboard. I watch the tracking and if it gets routed through Chicago or Detroit, God only knows where it's going after that, or it may set there for a couple of days.

[txdpd]

USPS is pretty shitty. We constantly get the intended recipients of packages that want to report stolen packages so that they can get USPS to settle insurance claims. USPS refuses to process a claim without a police report from the recipient, even though the insurance is contract between the shipper and USPS. If the police do make a report USPS will use that report as proof of fulfillment of their contract and deny the claim.

The recipient of a package can't report a package as lost or stolen to the police unless they can show that they were in care, custody or control of the package.

[BJJ]

I dated a gal from Peru. She told me if you mailed something there, it was a 50/50 chance of whether or not it would ever get delivered. Hearing that made me appreciate the USPS a little more.

[OlongJohnson]

I've heard that people in many places south of our border often pay all their utility bills in person for that reason.

Houston's local USPS sorting facility can go off the rails pretty badly from time to time. I've had inbound packages sit there for nearly two weeks. But it's mostly good.

[beenalongtime]

I dated a gal from Peru. She told me if you mailed something there, it was a 50/50 chance of whether or not it would ever get delivered. Hearing that made me appreciate the USPS a little more.


Thank you for the laugh, I needed it.

Mail order bride sprang to mind reading this.:D

[vcdgrips]

My experience mirrors Rich. I routinely use USPS to ship from KC outbound CONUS. If I get the package out overnight or first thing in am, 3 days max is the norm. I can count teh number of times things just did not make it one 1 hand in 10 yrs of business. Two or three of those events were in the Gulf right before or after a big storm.

I know of a dealer who does big business in used guns and uses USPS almost exclusively WITHOUT insurance. His rationale is as follows:

1. The package almost always gets there or back to him in the end
2. He passes much of the savings onto the customer
3. He figures he has saved thousands of dollars by not insuring. When he did insure early on and made a claim, it was so time consuming to get them to pay i.e. spending 20-25 hours to track down a gun he had 225.00 in, it was not worth his time even at near minimum wage.

[Malamute]

The USPS usually works fairly well, but certainly have some odd moments.

Temp forwarding. Despite handing it in in person to people that personally know you, they take 10 days to send, to the new temp address, a note asking if you really made the forward, and if not, let them know, if they dont hear from you in a while they will go ahead and send the mail to the new temp address. So, if I didnt make the change, how would I get the notice sent to the new temp address asking if I really made the change? Its usually 2 weeks before i see any forwarded mail. One piece had 3 yellow forward stickers on it, indicating it sat for 3 weeks in the same place before it went anywhere.

One package was at the post office before I left once. No notice. Went in twice asking about it,...'No, nothing here". Checked tracking from sender after it not arriving when expected. It had been at the post office 3 days before I left. Called Post Office, talked to a person I knew personally, they discovered the package, and hand addressed it to the new address so it wouldnt be affected by the long delay in forwarding. It beat me to the destination town, then they sent it back across the country, it bounced back and forth across the country for 3 weeks before I got somebody that said I could change the destination, (which others said was impossible), then it arrived some time later. Took 10 days to go 1000 miles at one point with no info in the tracking data where it was during that time. It turned out that despite the address written on it, the tracking tag kept sending it back and forth.

Sent buddy some cool doo-dads. Had one number off in the zip, a 6 instead of a 5 at the end, it was the zip to the post office 8 miles away in rural-ish area, and had the correct person and town name. PO apparently delivered it to the box number in the zip town, despite having a different name and town written on it (a whole 8 miles away, but apparently unknown to the PO folks). Buddy never saw it. How hard is this?

[41magfan]

One of my brothers has over 30 years with the Postal Service in several different jobs, in various locales. If you knew some of the stuff he's told me, you'd question how the current level of service is even possible. Irregardless, it's a sinking ship and their tipping point of insolvency will require a costly government bail-out at some point. There comes a time where raising prices as your only solution to addressing incompetent business practices becomes futile.

[NEPAKevin]

I once had a vendor call me with an update on a check that they had not received. Flash back, maybe six months earlier, after receiving a past due notice, I went through the SOP of having the bank verify that it had not been presented, stop payment. reissue check, yadda-yadda, and went on with life. Flash forward, the AR guy on the other end told me that he got an over sized envelope which contained pieces of the mutilated check along with a note from the recycling center that it had been found jammed in a mail processing machine that had been sent to them to be destroyed. He just wanted to know if I wanted him to mail the "check" back or destroy it. I requested he file 13 the poor document as the USPO had already had enough fun with it.

[ubervic]

I’m still amazed that USPS can consistently deliver letters coast to coast within a business day of average quoted time for mere pennies.

[Bigghoss]

I have not had an issue that sticks with me for years, and I order plenty of stuff. There was one time several years ago that I ordered something, it made it to the Denver facility (I live in Pueblo) and then they sent it to Spokane, WA for some reason. Spokane sent it back to Denver and Denver sent it back to Spokane. Three times! then it went to Alaska for some reason so I used the contact form on the USPS website. They never responded but the package did conclude it's nationwide tour immediately after and finally made it to me. It looked like they had been dragging it behind the trucks but the contents were undamaged. I did have a local carrier put a package in a parcel locker at my apartment complex and then didn't put the key in my mailbox. I waited up for him the next day and he had to use his spare key to open the locker, he couldn't find the key he was supposed to leave in my box. I suspect he accidentally put it in someone else's box and I was just lucky enough to intercept it in time.

It's a government agency that works like a business except congress won't let them run themselves so that they can turn a profit because granny in BFE won't vote for congressman so-and-so if they close her post office down or charge enough for a stamp to actually cover the cost of mailing a letter. With the volume they do I think they do a pretty good job for the most part.

[revchuck38]

I ordered a hammer spring from LTT in AZ. It went out Priority Mail the same day it was ordered and made it to the Lafayette, LA distribution center, about 80 miles from my house, in good time. Then it was listed as "in transit" for several days...and showed up in the distribution center in Guam. I figured it was going to be a long time before I ever saw it and ordered another. The second one was in my mail box in three days. The first one showed up the following day.

[Rich@CCC]

There are several distribution centers in the USPS that are known for lackadaisical methods and incompetence. Cleveland Ohio being one of them. My post office(Youngstown, Main) used to handle Cleveland's overflow. We would constantly get mail that was a week old as "overflow". A semi trailer was once found parked there, completely full of mail and had been sitting for months because a supervisor didn't want the Number Of The Day to look bad and "forgot" to process it.

What is the Number Of The Day you ask? Well, that is some arbitrary statistic that some over paid mouth breathing knuckle dragger in upper management decide was the most important thing in the world today.

Keep in mind, in the USPS you do not get promoted for doing a good job. You get promoted to get your useless, lazy, dumb ass out of your office so you become someone else's problem. Also keep in mind, those who get promoted in this manor always become the ones who authorize promotions and dictate local policy.

[NH Shooter]

Keep in mind, in the USPS you do not get promoted for doing a good job. You get promoted to get your useless, lazy, dumb ass out of your office so you become someone else's problem. Also keep in mind, those who get promoted in this manor always become the ones who authorize promotions and dictate local policy.

Sounds like a winning business model to me! :-0

[Rich@CCC]

That's Govt. operated public sector politics for ya'!

[Gun Mutt]

A company recently made a mistake and sent my package to the address on file instead of the new address I sent with my order. With tracking, I was able to see that the package was at the wrong post office, so what the hell, I've got multiple phone lines at work, I called them. I waited on hold for 1.25hrs before someone who's mother tongue was most definitely not English answered. Why in the ever loving world would you put someone with broken English on phone duty unless you wanted to piss off and discourage the caller from ever trying it again?

[blues]

A company recently made a mistake and sent my package to the address on file instead of the new address I sent with my order. With tracking, I was able to see that the package was at the wrong post office, so what the hell, I've got multiple phone lines at work, I called them. I waited on hold for 1.25hrs before someone who's mother tongue was most definitely not English answered. Why in the ever loving world would you put someone with broken English on phone duty unless you wanted to piss off and discourage the caller from ever trying it again?

Apparently speaking English is so two weeks ago. (As is that particular tired idiom.)

[revchuck38]

Also keep in mind, those who get promoted in this manor always become the ones who authorize promotions and dictate local policy.

Just wondering if this was an intentional misspelling...:)

[blues]

Just wondering if this was an intentional misspelling...:)

They live to serf.

[Rich@CCC]

Just wondering if this was an intentional misspelling...


Nope. Just carelessness.

[NH Shooter]

Nope. Just carelessness.

Let me guess - you once worked for USPS?







(sorry, couldn't resist....)

[blues]

Let me guess - you once worked for USPS?







(sorry, couldn't resist....)

It's obvious you'll be needing a bit of sorting out.

[willie]

Maybe I'm a slow learner because I was 50 years old before I understood the meaning of "they don't care". Literal interpretation is accurate in most cases when trying to figure out why some people screw up so frequently.

[Bigghoss]

Why in the ever loving world would you put someone with broken English on phone duty unless you wanted to piss off and discourage the caller from ever trying it again?

They probably outsource the phone duties to a call center overseas.

[RevolverRob]

It's been slightly over a month since anyone bitched about USPS.

I ordered a very beautiful custom knife for a friend who has just finished earning his jump wings at Benning. The maker shipped it promptly and it was originally set to be delivered yesterday prior to 8pm. Of course, no delivery was ever attempted, despite leaving the distribution center at 4:00am yesterday morning, the package was returned to the distribution center at 8:08pm yesterday.

Cue the music, this morning it left the distribution center at 10:03am and delivery was "attempted" at 11:54am this morning, but "no authorized person was present to sign, notice was left."

Now, this I find quite interesting - because my wife and I were sitting in our living room this morning at 11:54am about 10 feet from the front door. We left to get lunch at 12:45 or so and no notice, no attempt to contact, etc. had occurred or been left. In fact, at present there is STILL no notice present anywhere and I've had to reschedule the delivery for Monday. :rolleyes::mad:

Because USPS sucks. At least they didn't just leave it downstairs like the UPS guy does (even on packages requiring signatures). Only people who ever seem to deliver things correctly and promptly is FedEx.

[SD]

Somehow it seems to have become common practice that none of the delivery people from the Big Three will knock or even ring the bell. They just drop and run. In todays world Porch Poachers are everywhere. Has company policy changed or is this just the work ethic of the individual themselves?

[OlongJohnson]

UPS fairly often leaves packages outside the locked door of my workplace after 5:00 on Friday.

[blues]

My last several packages sent or received via USPS have arrived a day early. Definitely a welcome trend.

UPS gets my vote as most reliable and efficient in terms of being the service I can count on.

FedEx Ground and Home are the worst offenders in my experience. When they drop the ball they use any number of b.s. excuses for failure to deliver in a timely fashion...including making up excuses that gates were locked where there are none, or environmental issues in the absence of any. Lies and damn lies.

[psalms144.1]

At the facility where I work, there is a locked "mail room" that is unmanned. The USPS folks used to just dump the mail and packages outside the door, and it was up to various units' "mail clerks" to sort them out. I lost a portable printer that way - delivered to the "mail room" but someone obviously decided they needed it more than I.

When my agency finally got around to sending me an M4 - you got it - they MAILED it. Luckily it was sent Registered, so I could track it, and have it held at the local USPS office for me to pick up...

[TQP]

Our FedEx ground guys have been dropping packages at the curb lately. On trash day.

I just heard about this last week, but apparently-according to the facebook local drama group-this has been going on for a while.

I signed up for informed delivery from USPS, and it helps. At least I know when to be on the lookout.

[RevolverRob]

It's 9:09pm on Monday, August 20, 2018 - the day I rescheduled delivery of my package for. Where is it? I know where it isn't. Here.

Tracking is no longer useful, apparently scheduling a redelivery request renders USPS's already inadequate tracking completely unusable. It's now unclear where the fuck my package is (except for the one place it isn't...).

Tomorrow, I'll be calling the USPS Customer "Service" Line and screaming expletives until my fucking package is found and delivered.

It's no wonder the other countries are beating us...we can't even deliver a motherfucking package on time to the right place in the correct fashion.