USPS Issues

[Horseman]

I haven't had home mail delivery in thirty years.

I started using post office boxes for all delivery, due to rampant mail theft from roadside boxes (mostly prescription narcotics sent through the mail by the Veteran's Administration) in my area.

Guess what? No one's stolen any of my mail in all those years. No one's destroyed my mailbox on the curb with a baseball bat or their Camaro. All packages are held in a locked post office until I go pick them up, so they've all gotten to me, too.

Sending things is super-duper easy with the USPS.com app and a printer to make your own labels. You can drop outgoing stuff off at random PO's you pass, even after hours.

Yeah, it's a little more effort, but most mail can be accessed about once a week if me or my family don't get into town for other reasons.

[mmc45414]

Yeah, it's a little more effort, but most mail can be accessed about once a week if me or my family don't get into town for other reasons.

I cannot tell you exactly how to do it, because I do not exactly remember how I did it, but now I get daily emails telling me what is on the way for the the day. Might be handy to just have a track on what is down in town waiting for you.

[Exiledviking]

I cannot tell you exactly how to do it, because I do not exactly remember how I did it, but now I get daily emails telling me what is on the way for the the day. Might be handy to just have a track on what is down in town waiting for you.

I have that service too and it's called Informed Delivery. It's nice to see what's coming in the mail.

[mmc45414]

I have that service too and it's called Informed Delivery. It's nice to see what's coming in the mail.

Our routine is to get the mail when we take the dogs out for their final business of the day, but if I am here (WFH) and there is something important I will go get it and not leave it in the box (even though on our dead-end street theft is very low probability).

[ragnar_d]

Well, I just wanted to update this.

I would say there's some serious issues at UPS with the way they're currently running things. Perusing the reddits gives me the impression that all the decent workers have bailed or been laid off and the proverbial ship is sinking.

Earlier this week I paid for next day air shipping on an item, and now UPS is playing the "Failed Delivery Attempt" game. Thankfully the shipper was sympathetic to my concern and refunded me the cost of next day air shipping without hesitation...I'm assuming it's a rising complaint that they have to deal with. Some UPS customer service person called me today and asked for proof that a UPS driver never came to my door. When I said that was a ridiculous request and pointed out that there's a problem at UPS with drivers and supervisors playing the "failed delivery attempt" game, she immediately started closing out the conversation and hung up.

There's a special place in hell for these people. I think for now on for sensitive shipments, I'll just go USPS without signature. My current place has a lockbox for packages, so even if I have to put up with the comical USPS routing/tracking which is like watching a ball in a pinball machine, at least they can just drop it in the lockbox instead of being enticed to play the "failed delivery attempt" game to fuck around with their metrics for packages they can't deliver.

I feel like I'm going the other way. USPS has been a damn disaster around me recently and I'm gonna throw most of the blame at whatever is going on down in Birmingham and in DC.

First example: I ordered some parts that were coming from Charleston, SC. It took 23 hours to go from USPS having the package in their hands to getting to Birmingham (IIRC, all the mail in the state goes through B-ham) and from there it took them 4 days to get from the Birmingham Distro Center to the . . . Birmingham Distro Center Annex. Then it took another day for them to figure out how to put it on a truck heading north.

Second example: Sold some car parts on ebay. Pack them up, ship them out to South Dakota via USPS Priority on Monday with an estimated delivery date of Wednesday (Today). The package left the PO at 4PM Monday and the last scan was at the Birmingham Distro Center Annex at 4AM Tuesday and it hasn't moved since. I don't think that it's gonna make it today.

I saw this article was posted last weekend. Ignoring the hand wringing about mail-in voting, it looks like the USPS is "upgrading" their systems and it's having about the exact results you'd expect. I imagine that Birmingham got their turn with the system "upgrade" that has turned a bunch of other distro centers into dumpster fires:

The delays appear to largely stem from a new system the Postal Service began rolling out last fall that will eventually funnel all the nation’s letters and packages through a consolidated network of 60 regional distribution centers — similar to the airlines’ hub-and-spoke model. The change is part of a wider $40 billion, 10-year overhaul of the network that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has said will reduce costs, improve reliability and make the Postal Service more competitive. But in some instances, the plan has done the opposite, according to the Office of the Inspector General for the Postal Service, members of Congress and Postal Service advocacy groups.

“It’s just a dumpster fire right now,” said Leo Raymond, a former Postal Service manager and managing director of Mailers Hub, an industry group for direct mail companies. He said his members have had everything from customer bills to strategically timed marketing material caught up in the delays. “If you’re a business, you’re going to be discouraged from using the mail because you want your stuff to actually get there.”

Nationwide, 87% of first class, two-day mail arrived on time during the last three months of 2023, a 2.5 percentage-point decrease from the same period a year earlier, according to data published by the Postal Service inspector general. For mail intended to take three to five days, just 70% arrived on time, a decrease of 11 percentage points, the data showed.

[kwb377]

First example: I ordered some parts that were coming from Charleston, SC. It took 23 hours to go from USPS having the package in their hands to getting to Birmingham (IIRC, all the mail in the state goes through B-ham) and from there it took them 4 days to get from the Birmingham Distro Center to the . . . Birmingham Distro Center Annex. Then it took another day for them to figure out how to put it on a truck heading north.

If it only took 4 days to make it from the B'ham Distro to the Annex, then another day to leave there...I envy you.

I have several packages that were scanned into the Annex this past weekend that haven't moved, and two that were last scanned at the Annex in March (24th and 28th) and still haven't made the 23 mile trip north to the Kimberly P.O., apparently vanishing into thin air.

[ragnar_d]

If it only took 4 days to make it from the B'ham Distro to the Annex, then another day to leave there...I envy you.

I have several packages that were scanned into the Annex this past weekend that haven't moved, and two that were last scanned at the Annex in March (24th and 28th) and still haven't made the 23 mile trip north to the Kimberly P.O., apparently vanishing into thin air.

My personal "best" was a package falling into a B'ham black hole for 28 days on it's way to south GA. Unless the USPS can fix that clusterf*** of a distro center, I'm looking at biting the bullet and going to UPS or FedEx for packages in the future.

[mmc45414]

Our routine is to get the mail when we take the dogs out for their final business of the day, but if I am here (WFH) and there is something important I will go get it and not leave it in the box (even though on our dead-end street theft is very low probability).

And today it looks like my Medicare card will be in there, so for example, I will go get the mail as soon as I hear them drop it off.

[idahojess]

I had a USPS package shipped from Houston on Friday. It went into the Missouri City hub and got here in Eastern Washington today (Monday).

I'll give credit where credit is due --maybe I've just been lucky.