[LTH]

It's no wonder our US Postal service can't get any business. I ordered 3 GPS's for me and a couple of friends last Friday the 24th out of Chicago. The place I ordered from only offered USPS shipping. One of the guys was wanting his by this weekend so I paid extra to have them shipped 2 day Priority Mail. Tracking at USPS showed delivery should have been Monday the 27th. I've been waiting and checking the tracking for updates and it kept showing no change except the pickup time at Chicago. Well I just know checked and guess where it's at. SANTA CLARITA, CA. Now I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer but does this seem like the shortest route from Chicago, IL. to Knoxville, Tn. to you? I know things happen sometimes, but it seems far more often with the USPS. I know FedEx and UPS both have went sky high on their shipping rates, but I've had a lot of stuff shipped through both of them and never had a problem. OK I've vented, now I feel better. LOL

 

[TravelinLite]

...Well I just know checked and guess where it's at. SANTA CLARITA, CA. Now I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer but does this seem like the shortest route from Chicago, IL. to Knoxville, Tn...

That is part of their Business (destruction) Plan. Yeah, their tracking system really sux.

 

[Monk]

My experience has been much the same. Their tracking system is a joke. If there is a delivery date given, I usually get it the next day after delivery.

I wonder why they are having problems ... :shrug:

 

[Goldwing Guy]

I wonder why they are having problems ... :shrug:

Government involved....4:

 

[Scratch]

Meh. I've tracked UPS and FedEx packages that started out way north of me, then for some reason wound up far south past my state/town before finally getting to my doorstep.

 

[Blown306]

I've done some service work in the package sorting facility (in Forest Park if I remember right, it was 10-15 years ago). Anyway, all packages in and out of Chicago went through that facility. I can tell you, it's amazing that packages got anywhere they were addressed to. I saw packages that fell off the conveyors covered with dust 1/8" thick. The best way to describe the place was borderline chaos. I'm glad the gov didn't grab a monopoly on the package delivery service too...I ordered a part from PA that took three weeks to get to IL via USPS. I think I could have walked there, picked it up and walked back faster. Granted, some have had problems with the gorillas that load at UPS, but not me. I can't say the same for the USPS.

:agree: Their tracking system is worthless. It usually gets updated after I receive the parcel.

 

[Biker John]

USPS is run by the federal government, what do you expect? :shrug:
I've all but quit using them, pay all my bills online.

 

[rej4449]

USPS, like TSA, is run by political appointees. Need I say more?

 

[stickyfingers]

My experience has been much the same. Their tracking system is a joke. If there is a delivery date given, I usually get it the next day after delivery.

I wonder why they are having problems ... :shrug:

Civil service.....have you been inside a post office in the last few years?? They are a good example of what is wrong with ALL the government agencies that employ workers...

 

[OrangeCrush]

Actually, having grown up with the Canadian postal "service" (can you say "UNION") and seeing it take 2 weeks to get mail from the next town up the line ... I've always been thrilled with actual home delivery (the closest mail pickup in rural Alberta was 15 miles away) and SIX days a week.
I've had the occasional glitsch ... but most of the time, the mail exceeds my expectations.
It's when the mail service and the parcel service overlap that fun begins. A couple of weeks ago I had a shipment coming from Dallas (3 hours away) and watching the movement via the 'net showed UPS picking it up, checking it in in MISSISSIPPI, then checking it in at an ALABAMA sorting plant, then transferring it to the USPS.
Both FedEx and UPS (prefer them) have the regional sorting stations and I constantly see my stuff bypassing Arkansas and then getting shipped to Little Rock or Hot Springs, and then showing up at my place late the next day.
Any one of the 3 can screw up or confound you ... but the basic process of regional sorting plants is what keeps the price down. I still can't believe that UPS can afford to bring a package out to my place in the sticks for the price they charge many of these businesses that do volumes.

 

[Harry Robinson]

I asked my Postal Delivery Person if they could quit leaving Junk Mail.
Her reply was that the Junk Mail, that I have to throw away, paid her salary.
:shrug:

Can't get what you need, only what you don't want in the first place.
:nojoke:

 

[Scooterdog]

Check if you can get a refund some how. I over nighted a cashiers check to DirectLineParts last Monday and they received it on Wednesday. Asked the USPS clerk today about it & she said to bring in the receipt and I,d get my $18.30 back. Hope the same gal is there tomorrow.

 

[Drames]

As a USPS employee I will be the first to admit we have our problems, but your talking about a huge company who for the most part can't make the decisions needed to become better. We are overseen by a"Board of Governors"and by congress. We can't do the smart thing like shutting down a little post office that's just a few miles from another one because Mr Smith has gotten his mail there for 20 years and by god his senator will not let that office close and inconvenience Mr Smith! Never mind the fact that just the wages for those two employees adds up to maybe $100,000 a year and that post office only brings in $50,000 in revenue! We can't do hardly anything without their approval. One of you said you couldn't believe the usps could delivery your mail to you way out there for the price of the postage.....well, we can't! It's the postage we receive from all that"junk mail" that nobody wants that keeps the price down for all us little guys.

As for the tracking? What can I say....ours may not be quite up to"the other guys" but to an extent you get what you pay for? Try and go to one of them and mail a package across country priority with tracking for $4.95? their tracking may update quicker because they have a realtime system where as ours doesn't update until the carrier gets back at the end of the day. But look at how many carriers we have out there compared to them. I dont think there's anyway we could begin to afford to equip them all with a new system. Another difference is w have to delivery to every address every day.....not them! Do you know one of the ways they save money is by dropping some of their packages off for us to deliver? Hey, we're going to your house anyway so why not?

Bottom line is no we are not perfect, yes we have some problems. But we are working on it and we, as the employees really do try and get you you're letters and packages as quickly as we can!!!

 

[wimpyhonda]

Larry just go get you a map they have worked for many years:joke:

 

[gstevenson]

When i order something from the USA, to be delivered to Canada,i actually request it be shipped by USPS. Warts or no warts, it works and connects with Canada Post at a reasonable cost.

By comparison, UPS tacks on an outrageous brokerage fee. As an example, i recently ordered a $100 part. The shipper sent it UPS for a cost of $20. Then UPS charged me another $35 in brokerage fees. It seems they just pick a random number.

 

[cycledude]

USPS works great for me ! i have shipped out waaay over 1,000 steeringstem sockets using USPS (United States Postal Service) Priority Mail and believe it or not i have NEVER had a delivery failure ! :thumbup:

 

[RogerC]

What's this all about?

I recently went to my local USPS to mail a package. I was about 4 or 5 in line. This lady wearing a "Lobby Assistant" tag came up to me, started asking tons of questions about how I was going to ship the package. I told her I did not know just yet (typically I check Priority Mail price, then parcel post price before deciding). I asked her what this was all about and she said it was to speed up the waiting in line. She handed me a printed form with all the questions checked "No." I looked at it and immediately asked her why all the answers were checked "No" when I didn't answer any of her questions directly. She took it back and put question marks on each answer. When I got to the counter I handed the paper form to the postal clerk, who promptly wadded it and tossed it in the trash. I told the lady at the counter that the "Lobby Assistant" was a waste of taxpapers' money. She made a classic comment "You need to talk to the Postmaster--they don't listen to what we say." If I had not been on a schedule, I would have done just that. BTW, the line behind me was also 4-5 deep with packages to be mailed but the "Lobby Assistant" had then disappeared. Yesterday, I saw this same warm body standing behind the clerks at the counter--doing nothing!

 

[larryjb]

:agree:

As a USPS employee I will be the first to admit we have our problems, but your talking about a huge company who for the most part can't make the decisions needed to become better. We are overseen by a"Board of Governors"and by congress. We can't do the smart thing like shutting down a little post office that's just a few miles from another one because Mr Smith has gotten his mail there for 20 years and by god his senator will not let that office close and inconvenience Mr Smith! Never mind the fact that just the wages for those two employees adds up to maybe $100,000 a year and that post office only brings in $50,000 in revenue! We can't do hardly anything without their approval. One of you said you couldn't believe the usps could delivery your mail to you way out there for the price of the postage.....well, we can't! It's the postage we receive from all that"junk mail" that nobody wants that keeps the price down for all us little guys.

As for the tracking? What can I say....ours may not be quite up to"the other guys" but to an extent you get what you pay for? Try and go to one of them and mail a package across country priority with tracking for $4.95? their tracking may update quicker because they have a realtime system where as ours doesn't update until the carrier gets back at the end of the day. But look at how many carriers we have out there compared to them. I dont think there's anyway we could begin to afford to equip them all with a new system. Another difference is w have to delivery to every address every day.....not them! Do you know one of the ways they save money is by dropping some of their packages off for us to deliver? Hey, we're going to your house anyway so why not?

Bottom line is no we are not perfect, yes we have some problems. But we are working on it and we, as the employees really do try and get you you're letters and packages as quickly as we can!!!

 

[bikerbillone]

Government involved....4:

As a retired USPS guy, I understand the frustration out there. The Postal Service is mandated to not receive one red cent of government subsidy, but as a quasi-government agency, cannot make meaningful fiscal changes with approval of congress. The Postal Service is laying off and transferring people as much as possible without breaking union contracts. So that means mostly higher echelon folks that are not covered by letter carrier, or clerk craft unions. So, before beating us up, think that it's difficult to compete with UPS, and FEDEX since those folks are purely private industry and not government/politically controlled. I could go on, but to what end~~

 

[trell]

THE USPS SERVICE stink but its govm't controled. Here we have rural route people, our old mail lady retired after 30yrs. Now we have this dude for about 2 wks now who think he is god. Telling people to paint thier boxs,get new ones or move them and all sorts of things. So now i think i'll get a p.o. box and make a complaint against the dude. That way i want have to deal with him. BAD service and abuse not for me.