Myers Depot Metal Detectors

My every December annual USPS sucks rant

achaios

achaios

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Joined
Jul 7, 2006
Messages
1,568
Location
Alexandria, VA
Once again, it is December, when the USPS can't handle the work it solicits. I donated a game to a charity auction, and on 12/5, shipped it priority mail to the winner of the auction. While it is only 12/10, the problem is that the tracking information shows that the package has been at the Merrifield, VA sorting facility since 12/5 and has not progressed further.

I'm going to have to buy a new copy of the game and send it again, but this time, I will have to find a ride to the UPS store and send it by a method that has NOT failed me in the past.

If the USPS had two neurons to connect to each other, they could figure out that they could do an SQL query to find packages with a non-delivered status, method priority mail, and date > estimated delivery date. However, I fear it would be a LONG report, given their history of incompetence. Instead, it is much easier on them to wait until the sender or receiver notice that the package hasn't made it to the final destination and then complain.

A few years ago, a bunch of ancient coins that were shipped to me never made it. The most horrible thing I discovered was that they weren't even going to look for 30 days, allowing that much time for the package to process "normally". Of course, it would also give internal thieves (and they DO exist!) a 30 day head start.

Both my local post office and the Merrifield sorting center foul up on a regular basis. When I got a 17th century silver coin from a fellow on this forum, he sent it registered mail, and the only reason I got it was that the nobody was home at the wrong address they attempted to deliver it to! I was able to see the attempted delivery using the tracking info the seller sent me, and demand redelivery to the CORRECT address, giving them awards for blithering incompetence.

I hope everyone else has better luck with their Christmas/Holiday shipping.

-- Tom
 
November/December is just a bad time of the year to ship stuff. Don't think it's just USPS, they are just more convenient, so the most overwhelmed. Pretty sur 'Priority' doesn't really mean anything, and even less, if everyone else sends their packages 'Priority'. 5 days should have been plenty of time to get half way across the country. Possible it just missed getting scanned.

I'm not in that big of a hurry, so don't worry much about delays. Live in a small town, might not be on the best terms with all the neighbors, but they'll make sure mis-delivered mail gets to the right place. If I wasn't happy with the service, I wouldn't use them. I'm not a huge fan of UPS, outer boxes are often damaged, usually a little concerned about what's inside, feel lucky they haven't broken anything. I avoid them, might be faster, better tracking, but wouldn't be quicker, if it comes damaged, and have to go through replacement/reimbursement.

Give it a few more days, just a bad time of the year to expect speedy service.
 
HarveyH48 said:
November/December is just a bad time of the year to ship stuff. Don't think it's just USPS, they are just more convenient, so the most overwhelmed. Pretty sur 'Priority' doesn't really mean anything, and even less, if everyone else sends their packages 'Priority'. 5 days should have been plenty of time to get half way across the country. Possible it just missed getting scanned.

I'm not in that big of a hurry, so don't worry much about delays. Live in a small town, might not be on the best terms with all the neighbors, but they'll make sure mis-delivered mail gets to the right place. If I wasn't happy with the service, I wouldn't use them. I'm not a huge fan of UPS, outer boxes are often damaged, usually a little concerned about what's inside, feel lucky they haven't broken anything. I avoid them, might be faster, better tracking, but wouldn't be quicker, if it comes damaged, and have to go through replacement/reimbursement.

Give it a few more days, just a bad time of the year to expect speedy service.
Click to expand...

I agree that 5 days would be enough time to get halfway across the country, but missed getting scanned? It may have missed the departure scan at Merrifield, but if it got there, it also missed the arrival scan at the local post office, and the delivery scan.

No, based on past experience, it fell behind something at Merrifield, and they don't check it until a complaint comes in.

As for UPS, so far, I haven't had damaged packages arrive, but have with USPS and FedEx. Well, there was some shipments from Amazon Prime, but that was due to Amazon's poor picking and packaging, as it was damaged before it ever got to UPS. I never order 12-packs of soda from Amazon Prime anymore, because the machine that packs it ALWAYS punctures at least one can. The last shipment, UPS detected the problem and sent it back to Amazon.

It must be a regional thing. UPS works best for me, FedEx has goofed up once or twice, and the USPS, well you may as well hand your package to Ray Guy and have him punt it to you.

-- Tom
 
USPS has been a 99.8% success rate for me over the last 10 years.....Fed Ex is ridiculously slow....UPS has been on par with USPS. I ship approximately 10 small packages a week via USPS.....with 80% of those packages being first class and the other 20% priority.

Knock on wood, but everything has been great so far.
 
And, it gets WORSE!!!

I filled out the online customer service form. I entered the tracking number as printed on the receipt. It gave me an error: NO BLANKS ALLOWED! Then WHY print them that way?

I deleted the spaces, and filled out everything else. It would not allow me to proceed without a tracking number.

When I get home, I see I have an e-mail: They tell me to contact my post office supervisor and give him the tracking number, because they can't do anything without it!

Conclusion: Either the USPS programmers/contract programmers are too stupid to write a proper web page, or it was my bad luck to get a flaming moron to respond to my complaint. Who was it? No idea. They didn't even sign it with a pseudonym. At least the ignorebot at Toyota that answered my complaint about their spam signed it "Darren R.", which I guess meant "Darren Roboresponder".

I will have to call my postal supervisor to tell him one of the inmates at customer service can't deal with numbers higher than they can count on their hands.

-- Tom
 
I remember your USPS ordeal last year. Where I live, USPS seems to be the most reliable (albeit slowest)... But I do the majority of my shipping UPS. I've only once had a problem with UPS. Not only did the substitute driver unload it, but someone signed for it (it being an empty package - one end wide open). Fortunately it was less than $20 worth of stuff missing. FedEx will outright forge signatures or make them up when they're in a hurry. They'll just leave packages, sometimes not even on the right side of town.
 
Sorry buddy, but I'm sure someone isn't looking to steal your $10 game. And I'm also pretty sure you should get facts straight before popping off at the mouth about hiring convicts. Do you honestly think the post office is the only place of work that has dishonest people? This whole world is full of dishonesty.

I've worked there going on 11 years and this is the busiest I've ever seen it so maybe you should take something to calm yourself down and it will get there.
 
quicksilver82 said:
Sorry buddy, but I'm sure someone isn't looking to steal your $10 game. And I'm also pretty sure you should get facts straight before popping off at the mouth about hiring convicts. Do you honestly think the post office is the only place of work that has dishonest people? This whole world is full of dishonesty.

I've worked there going on 11 years and this is the busiest I've ever seen it so maybe you should take something to calm yourself down and it will get there.
Click to expand...

Convicts aren't necessarily dishonest people. Would kind of think that many would make good employees, considering their past, they'd be extra careful not to do questionable things on the job. They'd know that they would the first to be suspected, under close watch, not likely too eager to go back to living in a cage. Don't think I'd want to be working around violent offenders, or have sex offenders living in my neighborhood, though.

Really doubtful the employees steal packages. I'm sure it does happen occasionally, but it's a good paying job, not really worth loosing on a maybe something valuable is in the box. Computers track everything, if it comes down to finding a package, there will be only a few people who handled it, before it disappeared. Doubt that an employee could keep losing packages, without losing their job.
 
quicksilver82 said:
Sorry buddy, but I'm sure someone isn't looking to steal your $10 game. And I'm also pretty sure you should get facts straight before popping off at the mouth about hiring convicts. Do you honestly think the post office is the only place of work that has dishonest people? This whole world is full of dishonesty.

I've worked there going on 11 years and this is the busiest I've ever seen it so maybe you should take something to calm yourself down and it will get there.
Click to expand...

I don't know if you were talking to me or not, since I never said anything about hiring convicts. The big issue here really comes down to customer service. In my last message, I pointed out that the web site asked for (and I provided) a tracking number, but that either the web programmers were too stupid to pass it along, or the customer service rep couldn't be bothered to look.

BTW, the game cost about $30, and the replacement is coming out of my pocket. Not because it was necessarily stolen, but probably fell behind a piece of equipment, where nobody will look for it until complaints arrive, even though they can see in there system that it was never delivered. A $100 box of meteorites didn't show up for over two weeks, and nobody looked for it until complaints by the seller. Then, it all of a sudden was found and scanned at Dulles, and delivered to me.

I consider it false advertising to advertise the shipping as "Priority 2-day", with no disclaimers about that being the target, but not achievable during the holiday season.

With UPS, tracking tells be pretty much every step of the way. I can get answers from UPS. The USPS tracking, most of the time in my experience, is "It was sent" and "it was delivered".

My father used to work for the USPS. He is not offended by my rants. The ancient coins that disappeared were worth a couple of hundred dollars. Sorry if you are offended, but my experiences OUTSIDE of the holiday season aren't really any better. The customer-facing folks at UPS have always been more polite than the ones at the USPS. Perhaps that is why you've been complained to enough to make you short-tempered: Surly clerks, long lines, missing packages, and the news stories we all hear about the overtime pay.

I don't mean to offend you personally, but USPS is loaded with red tape and their customer service sucks. The supervisor I talked to today said that he has heard my rant about the USPS customer service web site being totally useless many times before.

And finally, I have NO confidence whatsoever that "it will get there". USPS has failed me too many times before.


-- Tom
 
HarveyH48 said:
Really doubtful the employees steal packages. I'm sure it does happen occasionally, but it's a good paying job, not really worth loosing on a maybe something valuable is in the box. Computers track everything, if it comes down to finding a package, there will be only a few people who handled it, before it disappeared. Doubt that an employee could keep losing packages, without losing their job.
Click to expand...

Maybe thing have changed since that "60 Minutes" story several years ago, when the postal authorities couldn't put a camera in the work areas without pretty much getting union permission. Back then, you couldn't trace who handled the packages. They did film one postal worker picking birthday/holiday cards out of the bin and opening them, because they had the best chance of having cash.

My dad told me that it almost impossible to fire a bad postal employee once they made it past the probation period, but maybe that's changed too.

-- Tom
 
And we have a pretty high success rate on getting stuff there, it amazes me that people concentrate on the bad and never say anything good about the place.
 
achaios said:
I agree that 5 days would be enough time to get halfway across the country, but missed getting scanned? It may have missed the departure scan at Merrifield, but if it got there, it also missed the arrival scan at the local post office, and the delivery scan.

No, based on past experience, it fell behind something at Merrifield, and they don't check it until a complaint comes in.

As for UPS, so far, I haven't had damaged packages arrive, but have with USPS and FedEx. Well, there was some shipments from Amazon Prime, but that was due to Amazon's poor picking and packaging, as it was damaged before it ever got to UPS. I never order 12-packs of soda from Amazon Prime anymore, because the machine that packs it ALWAYS punctures at least one can. The last shipment, UPS detected the problem and sent it back to Amazon.

It must be a regional thing. UPS works best for me, FedEx has goofed up once or twice, and the USPS, well you may as well hand your package to Ray Guy and have him punt it to you.

-- Tom
Click to expand...

took 5 days from conn. to ny 2 weeks ago
 
I feel bad for all delivery service employees during the holidays. It gets really hectic out there. I know people who work for both FedEx and the USPS, and they have some real horror stories. One of them, the FedEx driver, was chased back into her truck by somebody's dogs (don't remember the breed but I think Rotweilers or mastiffs. BIG dogs). Another nearly went into a snowy ditch because the mail vehicle's tires were bald and the post office wouldn't replace the tires. Anyone who hasn't had to drive on Wisconsin (or any northern) roads in winter should be thankful. It's a nightmare, especially in the country where they don't put salt out right away. Then there's all the packages they're stuck hauling around in below-zero weather.

That said, I've never personally had issues with the delivery of my packages, not even during the holidays, although they do take a little longer to arrive.
 
quicksilver82 said:
Sorry buddy, but I'm sure someone isn't looking to steal your $10 game. And I'm also pretty sure you should get facts straight before popping off at the mouth about hiring convicts. Do you honestly think the post office is the only place of work that has dishonest people? This whole world is full of dishonesty.

I've worked there going on 11 years and this is the busiest I've ever seen it so maybe you should take something to calm yourself down and it will get there.
Click to expand...

I know all about the usps had my !!!! miss deliverd 3 weeks from Conn.to NY WHAT WAS IT ?60 BILLION DOLLARS LAST YEAR AND THEIR STILL IN THE RED
 
Bad service? Don't use them! Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. This is Capitalism, take your business elsewhere.
Personally, I have no problems with the USPS. The problems I have seen where self-inflicted by the sender. Hope everything works out for you.
 
Insurance! I make sure I add plenty of insurance on any package I send no matter who the carrier. When you insure a package they seem to treat it better. Probably because if they loose it or damage it the company wants to know why they lost money.

Here is a package as received. The drive handed it to me like this and I said do you realize this is a very expensive guitar? He just said if it's damaged I'll need to file a claim. It was a 13 year old Fender American Stratocaster Deluxe Ash Sinnaburst in mint condition. Luckily it was also in a Fender Deluxe hardshell case and not a canvas case like many. Had it been in the soft case it would have been toast.

2002_strat_1.jpg

2002_strat_2.jpg
 
coin-op said:
Bad service? Don't use them! Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. This is Capitalism, take your business elsewhere.
Personally, I have no problems with the USPS. The problems I have seen where self-inflicted by the sender. Hope everything works out for you.
Click to expand...

I agree. If you aren't happy why do you use them? there are UPS and Fedex options along with others.

I have never had problems with the USPS not delivering what was shipped, but I will say that their tracking service SUCKS. I have received packages and the tracking still shows it sitting in a sorting facility across the country.
 
stinger said:
I know all about the usps had my !!!! miss deliverd 3 weeks from Conn.to NY WHAT WAS IT ?60 BILLION DOLLARS LAST YEAR AND THEIR STILL IN THE RED
Click to expand...

Just to make it right the postal service gets no tax dollars, operates the largest vehicle fleet on the planet and employ's almost 700,000. people...They earned, not tax collected 60 Billion dollars and overall lost 1.2 billion....They must fully prepay every year 5.2 billion dollars for pension and health care..No other Gov;t entity does that...How much ya willing to pay for a stamp ....?? :D
 
Jason in Enid said:
I agree. If you aren't happy why do you use them? there are UPS and Fedex options along with others.

I have never had problems with the USPS not delivering what was shipped, but I will say that their tracking service SUCKS. I have received packages and the tracking still shows it sitting in a sorting facility across the country.
Click to expand...

My big problem is that I don't drive. When I need to go somewhere that I can't walk or take a bus to, I need to get a ride from my brother or my sister-in-law. And since they are having to take care of her mother and mine (for the time being), I feel guilty asking them to do anything more.

If I hadn't already been late sending the package (because the receiver was out of range of his computer for a while, and couldn't send me the address), I would have figured out a time to catch a bus to the UPS store. Since I was in a hurry, I stupidly used USPS.

I am sorry if I offended any USPS employees, but your employer has a bad reputation for a reason. I know that a lot of the problem with USPS finances right now had to do with a dumb action by congress (the opposite of progress) requiring the USPS to fully fund up front the retirement for employees. However, it isn't helped when, as occurred a few years ago, the head of the USPS got a 5 digit amount (IIRC, something like $20,000) including hotel expenses for moving ACROSS TOWN! When the USPS has financial problems, people remember stories like that and believe their problems to be self-inflicted.

My suggestion for a new USPS motto: "It should probably get there eventually."

-- Tom
 
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