USPS Issues

[Dark Star Gear]

It's a crapshoot. We do a combo of drop off, pick up, and blue box drop offs. We have had, at a prior location, a carrier who would skip our pick ups if it was raining. At the new location it's much better, but we just recently got a new driver and they have let a bag of 200 packages sit, somehow, for almost a week before anything was scanned. At the last location I complained to the postmaster and things were fixed for a week, until all mail was held sporadically, seemingly as a malicious reponse. I learned my lesson and won't say anything, but it's costing me money to address the tracking emails.

[Half Moon]

To be fair all the carriers can suck. Had a FedEx package finally arrive last week. Three days to get from east coast to west coast, 2,925 miles, then stuck nine days at a processing center 200 miles away...

[BN]

Arken Optics recently switched to UPS because of the delays with USPS.

There are news articles saying that USPS is doing a major revamp of services and it's not going well. Someone reported that one large office removed 2 smaller sorting machines to be replaced by one bigger machine but it wouldn't fit in the building. They are needing to hand sort.

[Trooper224]

I had a few gun parts scheduled for delivery on Friday. Everything made it to Wichita, then everything sat there for twenty-four hours. So, one package arrived late on Saturday. The other one is now in California, at City of Industry. the USPS has now sent my mail everywhere except the gulf coast, but the year is young.

[revchuck38]

A few years back, I ordered some springs from LTT in AZ and they sent it USPS. The package made it in good time to the last sorting center in Lafayette, LA, from where it should have gone to my local post office. Instead, it went to Guam. I finally got it about a week later.

[Rex G]

Arken Optics recently switched to UPS because of the delays with USPS.

There are news articles saying that USPS is doing a major revamp of services and it's not going well. Someone reported that one large office removed 2 smaller sorting machines to be replaced by one bigger machine but it wouldn't fit in the building. They are needing to hand sort.

That is what happened at the distribution nearest us, in Missouri City, Texas, a ‘burb on Houston’s SW side. The big, new, modern machine would not fit into the building. I watched the USPS tracking show packages sitting there, for quite a while. I noticed that a more-recently-sent package went to a sorting center in Dallas, 200+ miles from Houston, then go straight to our local PO, totally skipping the distribution center in Missouri City.

Notably, two congress critters got involved in sorting-out the mess, because the primary election will occur soon, and a clogged mail distribution center would keep voters from receiving their ballots in time, and keep the returned ballots from being received in time.

[okie john]

I've done some marketing work for folks trying to sell advanced software and technology services to the USPS. Our biggest challenge was that the USPS leaders have never worked anywhere else--I'm talking 30+ years--so they have no idea how the rest of the world works. They also don't feel like there's any competition. It's like the DMV but without the surgical precision and the sense of urgency.

That kind of tenure would be a massive red flag outside of .gov, but they're treading water until they max out their retirement schemes and nobody can stop them.


Okie John

[BN]

Notably, two congress critters got involved in sorting-out the mess, because the primary election will occur soon, and a clogged mail distribution center would keep voters from receiving their ballots in time, and keep the returned ballots from being received in time.

Sounds like a good reason for in person voting with ID.

[mmc45414]

I wouldn't put a check in the mail today. I used to pay my property taxes by mailing a check. I did that a few weeks before it was due. Dropped it into the USPS drive thru big heavy secure mail box outside the post office. Several months later I get a bill from the county. I didn't pay my property tax and the late fee was $120. Sum Ting Wong. Either the USPS lost the letter or the county lost it. No way to know. I just have that one auto pay now also.

Just had this same conversation with my 86yo mother this morning. For some inexplicable reason she wants to write a check for the property taxes instead of having me do it on line like I do all of her other bills for her. But I at least convinced her to take it to the post office, and she prefers to take it inside and visit with the people, and that is probably good for her (the lockdown did significantly change her). I figure if you are going to get in a car and drive to the post office she could just take it to the county (that is practically across the street) and get a receipt, but I caved and let Mom be Mom.

[ragnar_d]

I wouldn't put a check in the mail today. I used to pay my property taxes by mailing a check. I did that a few weeks before it was due. Dropped it into the USPS drive thru big heavy secure mail box outside the post office. Several months later I get a bill from the county. I didn't pay my property tax and the late fee was $120. Sum Ting Wong. Either the USPS lost the letter or the county lost it. No way to know. I just have that one auto pay now also.

Learned my lesson on this as well. A couple checks for payments never made it where they needed to. On top of that, mail fraud/check washing seemed to be a pretty big thing in this area for a while. So bad that the outdoor drop boxes were sealed off and people were told to not drop anything in them until further notice. Some of those boxes are still sealed off. Anymore, if I can pay online by card/ACH, I'll do that instead.

https://www.waaytv.com/news/madison-...9002825a3.html
https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/2...-on-route.html