[dataway]

The tracking for my package from Massena NY .... I live about 1.5 hours from Massena 12 days and counting. At one point it was 30 minutes from my house ... but then drifted farther away, then to another state, appears to be on the way back now. It would be funny if I didn't need what was in the package. Hard to figure out how they stay in business this way. So instead of handling the package about three times, they will handle it probably ten times or more ... multiply that times hundreds of thousands of packages that go through this same scenario and you'd need a fleet of tractor trailers on the road 24/7 just to handle the shipping mistakes.


October 19, 2020
In Transit, Arriving Late
Your package will arrive later than expected, but is still on its way. It is currently in transit to the next facility.
October 15, 2020, 9:49 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility
SPRINGFIELD MA NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER
October 15, 2020, 9:47 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
SPRINGFIELD MA NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER
October 13, 2020, 5:48 am
Arrived at USPS Facility
NEWBURGH, NY 12550
October 13, 2020, 5:48 am (Evidently stayed at the Newburgh PO for five days )
Arrived at Post Office
NEWBURGH, NY 12550
October 8, 2020, 4:07 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility
SYRACUSE NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER
October 7, 2020, 9:44 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
SYRACUSE NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER
October 7, 2020, 8:29 pm
Accepted at USPS Origin Facility
ALBANY, NY 12206
October 7, 2020, 3:44 pm
Shipment Received, Package Acceptance Pending
MASSENA, NY 13662

[dataway]

Exactly.

[67drake]

Not as bad, but I bought an item off a member over on the HAMB last week. It was supposed to arrive today priority mail. I paid an extra $1.50 or so for priority shipping so I could track it better.
The seller mailed it Wednesday, and it’s made it about 25 miles from his home in CA. As of last night it was still in Santa Barbara at 11:00 PM, but it was still estimated to arrive on time today in my rural WI town. Yeah right.

[Stuart]

It's not all doom and gloom for the USPS...as an example, my brother mailed a large (45 lb) package from Minneapolis at noon on Friday, and it arrived at its destination in upper Michigan this morning. You hear about it when there's a delay or mixup, but no one comments about the vast majority of mail that is delivered without issues.

[poncho-mike]

The mail service is very erratic. I have a rental house 120 miles away. My house and the rental house are in the outskirts of a large metropolitan area.

My neighborhood is pretty spread out, all of the houses are on 1.5 acre or larger lots with lots of trees. Several years back, we had somebody stealing mail, so I told my tenant to always email me the day he sends out the rent check. About half the time, the mail is delivered within three days, sometimes two days.. I would say that about 75% of the time, it is here within five days. It is generally always here within seven days, and on occasion it has taken up to two weeks to arrive. If it is late, I check the post mark to confirm it was mailed when he said it was.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by dataway

Exactly.

Exactly what?

Oh yeah, you were responding to a post that mysteriously disappeared

[dataway]

Hehehe yes that is what I was responding to

I think it may depend on your locality or something ... I get typically a package every day. UPS has about a 100% on time rate at my house. FedEx express (like from business to business) close to 100%, Regular Fedex about 60% (they don't like to come up the mountain), USPS is about 80% ... so at least better than FedEx ground

If it's something critical I will have it shipped UPS ... so in general if USPS is late it's not a big deal, doesn't bother me that much.

What goes against my grain is the tremendous waste, surely it would make more sense to make whatever changes are necessary to increase accurate delivery compared to sending hundreds of thousands of packages on these bizarre round trips. That means they have to be taken on and off a truck a dozen times, scanned a dozen times, carried unnecessarily over hundreds of miles of highway. How does a single package get miss-sent to half a dozen different locations? I'm actually really curious about the logistics system that would not ring a bell at the first wrong location.

My guess is that a package in the wrong location has to be physically picked up by someone and walked to a different location, and there lies the problem, it's probably way easier for the less than motivated employee to just chuck it in the nearest bin and let the next guy at the next processing plant do the leg work. I'm guessing there are just not the repercussions for poor performance at the USPS as there are in private sector businesses.

What's weird is the USPS has some very cool technology, I can use an app on my phone to actually see scanned images of mail BEFORE it gets to my house. They seem excellent with letters/envelopes ... but I think the whole Amazon thing has caught them way off guard, their systems are just not up to the job of delivering probably 500% more packages than what they were designed to handle.

[dataway]

Well at least the tracking is now updated to "Delivery Date Unknown"

[Old Goat Racer]

A couple weeks ago I was supposed to get a USPS package on Tuesday. It came the Saturday before.

[Joe's Garage]

Around 10% gets there a day early and the rest is a day or two or more late.

We had a payment several years that we mailed using Priority Mail that took almost three weeks because it, according to the missing mail people, "fell behind a machine" and went un-noticed for sixteen days.

[stellar]

I don't know who China uses for shipping, but I ordered a 2 lot of a small item. Tracked it to a number of cities in China for about 2 weeks. Waited another 2 weeks or better and it was still in China. I figured I got scammed and filed a claim with pay pal. A week later I checked again and it was in California. Now I think great it should be here in a week. a week later I track it again and it is in Tel Aviv. Waiting for answers from the seller in China and pay Pal without any response. 2 days later it is at my door. How the heck did that happen? Open it and there is an extra piece in it so I got 3 instead of 2. I'm not going to complain about USPS.

[T.Weber]

UPS = United Parcel Smashers

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by T.Weber

UPS = United Parcel Smashers

I never really had any packages damaged by UPS. I had a few go MIA over the decades but can't recall any damaged.

You must be a USPS union postal worker.

[SRR]

Originally Posted by dataway

Hehehe yes that is what I was responding to

I think it may depend on your locality or something ... I get typically a package every day. UPS has about a 100% on time rate at my house. FedEx express (like from business to business) close to 100%, Regular Fedex about 60% (they don't like to come up the mountain), USPS is about 80% ... so at least better than FedEx ground

If it's something critical I will have it shipped UPS ... so in general if USPS is late it's not a big deal, doesn't bother me that much.

What goes against my grain is the tremendous waste, surely it would make more sense to make whatever changes are necessary to increase accurate delivery compared to sending hundreds of thousands of packages on these bizarre round trips. That means they have to be taken on and off a truck a dozen times, scanned a dozen times, carried unnecessarily over hundreds of miles of highway. How does a single package get miss-sent to half a dozen different locations? I'm actually really curious about the logistics system that would not ring a bell at the first wrong location.

My guess is that a package in the wrong location has to be physically picked up by someone and walked to a different location, and there lies the problem, it's probably way easier for the less than motivated employee to just chuck it in the nearest bin and let the next guy at the next processing plant do the leg work. I'm guessing there are just not the repercussions for poor performance at the USPS as there are in private sector businesses.

What's weird is the USPS has some very cool technology, I can use an app on my phone to actually see scanned images of mail BEFORE it gets to my house. They seem excellent with letters/envelopes ... but I think the whole Amazon thing has caught them way off guard, their systems are just not up to the job of delivering probably 500% more packages than what they were designed to handle.

I rode with a friend of mine who drove TT and we would drive down to Wash. D.C. from Mass. switch trailers and come right back. That was in the 80's don't know about now.

[fyrffytr1]

I bought a 1950 Pontiac gas pedal from a guy out west and it was sent Priority mail and was supposed to be here last Thursday. Sunday evening I was walking around my front yard when I heard the unmistakable sound of the mail truck coming down my street. It stopped at every mailbox and when it got to mine there was my gas pedal along with some other mail! Mind you, this was on a Sunday!

[Cardo]

I just had a Priority Mail package that should have arrived in 2 days from Rhode Island to Indiana... took 31 days to arrive!

[F ROCK]

I work in Direct Marketing, Direct Mailing. We do most of our work for the casinos.
USPS is overwhelmed right now and has been since covid began.
I order $20K in postal supplies (empty containers/trays, etc.) every week; from usps
This week my order was cancelled by usps...they could not provide any postal equip.
...and
They didnt tell me.
You can imagine the panic here at the shop.
I called to inquire...They said "Just place another order and wait" lol.

We've been doing TONS of class action lawsuit mailings lately.
Not sure why the jump in class action lawsuits but thought i'd mention.
LG getting sued for their refrigerators...Arlo security systems, a few others escape my memory right now...

[Jeff Hamlin]

I recently had a pair of shoes coming out of NY to me here in VA BCH.
They went from NY to MD then passed me down to NC.
Then past me again and back up to MD, then over to PA,
that's when they fell off the radar.
I reached out to the Co and
they sent out another set that took a similar route but did get to me.
A week later the first pair showed up??
Great System!

[dataway]

I'm not really seriously complaining about the USPS as it pertains to my service. But I'm just amazed at the lack of efficiency for such a huge and long standing organization. I'm sure the virus has a lot to do with recent problems. A 10-15% rate of mis-handling package deliveries would probably not be acceptable in the private sector, again, they seem to have a pretty good handle on letters.

In my case, the item definitely had to be unloaded half a dozen times as it was scanned into and out of distribution centers, I doubt they were sending the entire trailer to all these locations.

Personally I think the USPS should have remained a component of the government as an essential service to citizens and industry. When I was a kid it appeared to almost be run like the military, you could set your watch by when the postman came by. Decades ago it was the great pride of the US, our mail service was probably the best in the world and put other "first world" nations to shame.

[Region Warrior]

FEDX delivered a package from Petco couple months ago. Supposed to go to someone on another street about a mile away.
Called with tracking #. Would pick up next day.
After sitting 3 weeks where they always leave packages, we have a new pet food dispenser and a nice rug/mat to keep it on.