Hating the USPS right now

USPS had been good to me. Really good to me. I have developed an intense hatred for UPS. Leaving stuff at the door, editing tracking info after the fact so it doesn't appear as them being at "fault". Just got a package in via USPS in one day, at my apartment's front office (safe and sound).
 
I own a small business that ships over 1000 parcels a year with USPS. The five years prior to Q3 2014 we had almost no issues with USPS. Q4 2014 forward we have had numerous slow shipments and lost packages. There is no geographic correlation that I can discern. It seems that the reliability of USPS delivery times has dropped off a cliff. I spoke with a supervisor at local USPS facility about this. She said that there was "something" going on. Calls to her facility from customers with issues had more than doubled over last year, but she had no idea what was causing it. I have considered shifting my business to UPS or FedEx, but the cost is prohibitive.

IMHO, USPS is not a bad option. I just feel that they are nowhere near as good as they were a year ago.
 
I have heard some things from letter carriers that are on my office route and additionally from a co-worker I once had whose wife was the postmaster general or manager for the larger sorting hub here in North Dakota, and a personal friend who worked in FedEx sorting at the airport in Grand Forks, ND here. Now mind you there could be little validity to these claims, but certainly does explain quite a bit if true. According to the FedEx friend Priority mail is on their flights quite often and issues of packages and huge gaps in their scanning along the way has to do with when the plane is set to depart. They have a timeline and scan as many packages as they can before moving them to airport to send along and the plane leaves when it leaves, no delays, so if they don't get them all scanned they shove the lot of them on scanned or not and away they go.

The ball gets dropped at the local level here as I'm sure is characteristic of every post office around the country by poor staffing and overburdened sorting centers. Co-worker whose wife is Postmaster hears many things about her day to day job of course, some of those finer points being that when they sort mail they often leave bins left un-sorted because they figured "that was enough for that day's delivery " and there wasn't enough staff to do the job effectively.

I can't fathom how it works as smooth as it does every day, but there are breakdowns in the system and some are more infuriating than others. I'm amazed we get anything at all sometimes.
 
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I was told that the Priority has no guarantee, only a target. Only Express has a guaranteed delivery.

Overall I am really happy with USPS Priority, just lately some issues.

Have had major issues with UPS and FedEx. Will not use them if at all possible.
 
I've only had 2 real problems with USPS in general over the years. One package that was going to Puerto Rico made it there but never was delivered, or so they said. A second package was shipped from out west to me in the East. It made a lengthy detour via Puerto Rico for no reason what so ever. I thought that would never be seen again but it did make its way back up here to me.

Now I do have other issues with my local delivery guy because he is a dope but that is a different story...
 
First of all I have said many times and I will say it again, priority mail and first class mail are handled exactly the same way I always ship everything under 13 ounces first class and you can look at the statements about my shipping speed almost always 2 -3 days regardless of first class or priority. With that said , things have changed for the last three months or so I have had numerous customer inquires about packages with 2-3 day delivery dates that are now late, they always show up , but late. I have had packages going from Oregon to California going to the east coast and then back, one going to Washington State also went to east coast then back. They have blamed it on Fedex and sorting issues but will never say what is really happening. With the exceptions of recent issues , I have been very happy with their service. Hope they work it out, when you offer free shipping it is hard to afford UPS.
 
USPS service domestically within the US is about 80% efficient IMO. People are right, the tracking is something of a joke.
Thats why I only rely on USPS tracking to know that somehing has been shipped, and no gurantee when it will actually arrive.
Definytely Fedex and UPS are much better for domestic shipping. In contrast, USPS international is really quite good. You can send something to Europe or Japan and follow the tracking day by day through the transit points. This is a really good thing because
Fedex doesn't permit the international shipment of knives.
 
I've probably shipped and been the receiver of 50+ USPS Priority flat rate boxes over the past year. Heavily advertised as 2-3 days delivered. I had one show up in 2 days. Maybe three or four in 3 days. The rest were in four or five days. Had one that took nine days around the holidays. All shipped from different locations in the USA. Now don't get me wrong, this is a great reasonably priced service overall. However, I think they need to be more realistic on actual estimated delivery times.
 
kershawguy said:
I have had packages going from Oregon to California going to the east coast and then back, one going to Washington State also went to east coast then back. They have blamed it on Fedex and sorting issues but will never say what is really happening.
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At this point, I'm guessing. Until I retired in 1992, I could have called any postal facility in the country. Now the system has changed a lot and the economic squeeze is hurting sorting and delivery.

As well as I can guess, USPS flies on FedEx aircraft. When FedEx flies to their Eastern hub, USPS goes along for the ride, and then rides back with the sorted FedEx mail. This adds to delivery time. Short staffing and closed facilities also add to delivery time.

In any case, in my time and now, security is paramount, so if it gets to you within a few days of what you would prefer, the mail is not doing badly. Local misdelivery is the responsibility of he local station. Keep them informed. Unfortunately, they cannot help with mail in transit.
 
Actually for the most part, usps flies on fedex during the day - when most FedEx aircraft would otherwise be idle. Been that way for Many Years. The PO just utilizes FedEx's lift. This is good for both organizations and saves the PO fixed costs, as well as allows fedex to help double utilize assets. A win-win if you will. The recent downgrading of USPS priority service is; well just that > it's on them....USPS that is. USPS does not guarantee deferred services, ups and fedex do. They have better tracking, info, etc. Life is all about choices and we all make them, and use what works best for us. That is the beauty of America.......at least for now...
 
Back to the frustration...the tracking functionality has been non existent for me all day. Page won't load, and I cannot get my proof of delivery sent to my email. Not a me issue, tried on no less than 4 different devices. USPS taken a nose dive lately in every aspect.
 
Seneca18 said:
Similar experience this week, I had a package coming from BladeHQ. Tracking showed delivery date Monday, everything was good so far. Monday, tracking showed "out for delivery" and then in the afternoon it showed "delivered". However, no package to be found. Naturally this caused me great concern, as dealing with the post office and a lost package is an absolute headache. Returned yesterday from work and sure enough it was there. I have never had a package show "delivered" but actually wasn't then show up a day later. I know now not to trust the tracking.
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What happened is they delivered to your neighbor, or someone with an address similar to yours, and they left it at your house the next day. Hate it when that happens. Now you know you can trust your neighbors. :)
 
I was a Periodicals Class/2nd Class mailer and circulation manager for a magazine and had to be registered/licensed with the USPS. This was back in the 1990's. We mailed +/- 80k issues every month. Anyhow...if you saw how many mangled mags the post office would send us back every month so we could resend a new copy to a subscriber. About 2,000 a month. They would just send the subscriber label or the entire front cover with address. I have seen tire marks many times, mud, water damage, animal attack :D. If you saw how many mailing the post office destroys, it would make your head spin.
 
I have my own 'story' to share regarding the USPS. I live in northwestern NC and most of the packages I receive get routed through the Greensboro, NC center at zip code 27495. Usually packages stay there for a couple of days, then get sent on their merry way.

Recently, a package coming to me got routed to Greensboro, after clearing customs a few days earlier. It sat in Greensboro with no updates for a couple of days. Then the package began its 'shuffle', getting sent back and forth between Greensboro zip codes 27495 and 27498.

Not knowing what's going on, I sent in a message to the USPS asking about the delay. To their credit, the USPS called me the same day. The lady I spoke with said she'd check into it and let me know. A couple hours later I received another call with the explanation.

According to the lady, it seems that the USPS center at Greensboro is very understaffed. She said that my package for some reason was in a 'cage' even though there was no problem with the addressing or package exterior. Rather than sending the package on its way, the USPS person working in this area would take the package out of the cage and rescan it daily. This rescanning is what was causing the zip code change on the daily update according to the lady.

The package was 'released' from the cage and sent to me. I received it two days later. Had I not inquired about my package, I don't know how long it would have been doing the Greensboro 'shuffle'.
:p
 
Have placed orders at a couple of different places recently. One that was supposed to be here in 2-3 days or so, took about 10 days to get from Las Vegas to me in Georgia. Tracking went dead after the first day or so, stayed like that for several days, then changed to Delayed and stayed that way.
Meanwhile, other stuff shipped, tracked, arrived no problem. They are inconsistent, that's for sure.
 
Rich S said:
My major problem with both UPS and Fedex is that they just leave items by the door even when people are home; never ring door bells, etc. Great way to have stuff stolen from your front door. I've had them leave things even though they were cleared marked "delivery signature required" or something to that effect.
Rich
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I have had this happen with these 2 also, one got lost in the ups new jersey hub. drivers leave packages all over, never ring bell. I know my mailman, he never lets me down. I ship a lot using registered mail, any shipment over $1000 goes registered, its cheaper but slower but the SAFEST way to ship hands down. A recent $3000 shipment of knives sent registered to Ohio from calif got there in 5 days over a weekend.
 
10-4 to that. For a long time usps was on point with the deliveries. Always on time and tracking always accurate, but this past 4-5 months i have also been having touble receiving packages on time and the tracking not being updated or inaccurate. Very annoying i feel your pain.
 
Had to reply to this post, Today I received a Christmas card back, returned to sender, the addressee may have moved true. The postmark on it was Dec18th 2014 What were they doing with it for the last 4 Months Haha
 
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