USPS Efficiency!!!!!!

[Mobuck]

It's a sorry day to read these posts. My family provided SERVICE to postal customers for over a century(63 years in the community where I still live & 26 years a few miles away where I was Postmaster plus another 25 years where my Cousin is still working).

 

[Mus408]

well it isn't worth a crap down here in Va. I have a shotgun that the seller shipped priority mail from NC and when it got to the distribution center here in Va. it just stopped there for 7 days now. "Package is still on it's way but delayed" It only has to travel 30 miles South to my local P.O. and then 2 miles to the FFL dealer. Nobody can tell me when it will arrive! From what I hear they went to some new handling system that blew up and now packages backed up every where!

 

[cowboycopus]

They don't even tell me where it is!

Sunday, August 6
5:26 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.

4:34 AM
Package left the carrier facility.

1:14 AM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.

Wednesday, August 2
2:33 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.

2:25 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.

7:22 AM
Package left the carrier facility.

7:10 AM
Package left the carrier facility.

Tuesday, August 1
5:53 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.

4:38 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.

8:25 AM
Carrier received the package.


Carrier picked up the package.

 

[Randyzzz]

Well, I got zinged today. I've been waiting for a package containing some hard-to-find parts. The package arrived today- empty. Well, there was a paper towel in it. Carrier noted the package was damaged, I drove into town and the Post Office could only say "Yep. Box is empty, file a claim online." I'm so disgusted/disheartened/pissed off.

 

[hittman]

Was that box cut open or was never taped shut when mailed?

 

[Randyzzz]

It appears it was crushed and the end "blew out".

 

[BULL'S-EYE]

That's looks like a case of a poor, half-assed packaging effort. I tape the hell out of those boxes for that very reason...You cannot rely on the provided adhesive to hold. Some guys, once they've been paid... Just chuck your items in the box and forget about it...Then whistle all the way to the bank...

 

[BearBiologist]

They don't even tell me where it is!

Sunday, August 6
5:26 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.

4:34 AM
Package left the carrier facility.

1:14 AM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.

Wednesday, August 2
2:33 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.

2:25 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.

7:22 AM
Package left the carrier facility.

7:10 AM
Package left the carrier facility.

Tuesday, August 1
5:53 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.

4:38 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility.

8:25 AM
Carrier received the package.


Carrier picked up the package.

I get a lot of those also!

 

[BULL'S-EYE]

I had a package from Midway USA due today, it departed the Indianapolis USPS distribution center 40 miles away last night "in transit to the destination"...Wasn't here when I got home from work...So I checked, and it's currently 350 miles north in Traverse City Michigan. This kind of crap has been happening more and more lately, and is definitely NOT efficient...No wonder the Postal Service is going broke!

 

[epags]

I have been awaiting a package for 2 weeks. Last week it popped up "arriving late, visible damage". Still no package but a did get a letter from usps saying it was damaged.

This is their definition of "damaged" (and it was priority mail)

 

[Armybrat]

Happens. It'll show up.
An FFL in AZ mailed my gun to my FFL here in IL.
It went from AZ to LA to Miami to PUERTO RICO before it finally made it here.
The Puerto Rico thingy made me pucker a bit. LOL.

Maybe your gun wanted some beach time?
(I lived in Old San Juan 1950-54. Had a great time there).

 

[bowserb]

I think the USPS has the same problem that every business in America has--fewer people who want to work. 59 million in America on welfare, and the people in power in D.C. would rather spend money buying votes than upgrading an important government service. I live in a suburban city adjacent to Houston Texas. When we first moved here, I did the change of address form. I also went online and changed our address everywhere I could. A couple months after we moved, my wife was in a Target, and her Target card was declined. She had to go to the customer service to use her Visa card and still get the 5% discount (which was why we had a Target card in the first place.) Later I called Target customer service, and found out they sent a statement to the new address--which was absolutely correct including 9 digit zip--and it was returned "Addressee unknown." OK shame on Target who still had a valid phone and email on file.

Next, my wife and I applied for vote by mail. Those are, of course, separate applications for each registered voter. No word back. Since neither of us received mail ballots, I went to vote in person in the next election. Flagged as a vote by mail voter, in order to vote, I had to fill out a lengthy form explaining why I didn't vote by mail (no ballot received) and was informed that if the mail ballot showed up, I would have to go to the courthouse (downtown Houston) to contest the mailed-in ballot. Fortunately, I didn't have to do that, and shortly after the election, we both filled out the forms to cancel vote by mail.

OTOH, in the six years we've been here now, we've never failed to receive a parcel sent by USPS or a package turned over to USPS by UPS or Amazon (I don't really know how that works...do they hand over packages to USPS for final delivery, or to they have access to the cluster boxes directly?) I have, however, had damaged packages from both UPS and FedEx.

BTW, Target had an opportunity to turn a USPS mistake into a customer relations opportunity but did not. We almost never shop at Target in the last six years, for various reasons, but we do get 5% cash back from Amazon with our Amazon/Chase Visa card.

 

[retired@2006]

I have had EXCELLENT service from the USPS ! Never had a problem, and the packages get here FAST ! Maybe I am just lucky, but I prefer the post office.

 

[JackBull]

USPS is useless for packages, they do not know what they are doing. Typical quasi-governemnt agency

 

[BearBiologist]

USPS is useless for packages, they do not know what they are doing. Typical quasi-governemnt agency

"Quasi-government" is correct. USPS employees are NOT Federal employees but work for a government authorized mono-poly!

 

[6GUNSONLY]

I traded a grip frame for a scope here on the forum recently. The forum member shipped in a medium flat rate box stamped FRAGILE in at least three places. The package arrived looking like one side of the box had been run over by a truck. Fortunately it was in the original scope box plus the forum member had added padding around that box as well. The scope was fine but I was actually surprised that it was.

 

[Mobuck]

I'm not going to begin making excuses BUT if you're the one living alone in a rural area, you look forward to seeing that rural mail carrier 6 days a week. I could go on and on about how it used to be but obviously, the 'modernized' USPS is not up to the standards of most present day needs.
I'm old school. I've weighed babies, read letters to folks who couldn't see well enough to read themselves(some were condolences following death of a loved one), helped many who simply couldn't understand some sort of notification written in 'governmentese language', and was generally the representative of our Federal government in a small town.
I'm not happy or proud of how things are going but amidst all this beeching and complaining, there's someone just like me out there at 0 dark thirty preparing to deliver mail to one heck of a lot of folks whose only connection with the outside world arrives by mail.

 

[mirglip]

I find that rural, small town USPS is better than UPS and a lot better than FEDEX. Big city USPS is much worse than UPS or FEDEX. USPS seems to promote the WORST employees to manage major post offices.

 

[peachhead]

I've been pretty fortunate shipping with USPS. They are my preferred shipper. Every so often something will get screwed up on this end but for the most part I don't have any problems.
According to USPS they ship on average 23.8 million packages per day. Law of averages says at some point somebody is going to be pissed off enough to be working for a living that they are not going to care what happens to yours. If it aint USPS then it's going to be Fedex or UPS and I've had just as many or more issues with them at a much higher cost.
That small flat rate box can be sent anywhere in the US for less than $10. Hard to beat that.
@Randyzzz that definitely looks like a packing issue with yours. I tape my boxes to death, I figure tape is cheap.

 

[Dave P.]

I'm not going to begin making excuses BUT if you're the one living alone in a rural area, you look forward to seeing that rural mail carrier 6 days a week. I could go on and on about how it used to be but obviously, the 'modernized' USPS is not up to the standards of most present day needs.
I'm old school. I've weighed babies, read letters to folks who couldn't see well enough to read themselves(some were condolences following death of a loved one), helped many who simply couldn't understand some sort of notification written in 'governmentese language', and was generally the representative of our Federal government in a small town.
I'm not happy or proud of how things are going but amidst all this beeching and complaining, there's someone just like me out there at 0 dark thirty preparing to deliver mail to one heck of a lot of folks whose only connection with the outside world arrives by mail.

I can appreciate your thoughts and the nostalgia behind them but the postal service has changed.
Locally that someone is still drunk at 0 dark forty five ( was late for work ) and will find new and creative ways to screw it up and our "connections"
are lost in....well somewhere known to absolutely nobody.