The USPS SUCKS

[medjuck]

I usually get pretty good service but I just had a package that was supposed to be delivered today, arrive in Santa Barbara yesterday only to be shipped to LA.  Now it's back in Santa Barbara.  We'll see if I get it Monday or if it bounces back to LA. 

[Ken Dryden]

Packages that come from New York to our home outside Chattanooga frequently go to Atlanta then out of the way to Nashville before heading back East. It seems like they throw packages in random bins just for fun.

Edited May 21, 2022 by Ken Dryden

[jcam_44]

I have a package that shows delivered to Richmond, CA… I live in Long Beach, CA. No one can say why this happened. The address used by the shipper was correct. 

[Ken Dryden]

I may have mentioned this previously, but tracked media mail is a crapshoot, it depends on whether the carrier pays any attention. I came home one day to a mailbox full of padded envelopes with promo CDs. But the last one was a book, not addressed to me, to anyone on our street, or even anyone in our subdivision. But it's a safe bet that the USPS marked it delivered. I stuck it back in my mailbox with the flag up and hope the carrier was more successful on his/her second try.

We must have had a subsititute carrier yesterday. The mail truck was about two doors away from us when I left to meet a friend for lunch. As I left the subdivision, my video doorbell camera sounded, twice. It took me some time to make a U-turn on the twisting two lane road outside our subdivision, but I felt the need to return, as I had a package stolen out of my mailbox in March when I was gone for several hours in mid-afternoon. When I got home, there was nothing on the porch nor in the mailbox. A neighbor two doors down got the neighbors' mail (in between us), my immediate neighbor got ours. When I caught the carrier on the way back up the street, I asked him about the package, he apologized and said as soon as he put it down, he realized that it wasn't for our address. I hope the rest of his day was more organized...

[JSngry]

I keep getting all my mail. What are they doing wrong?

[Ken Dryden]

My mail issues have include: a padded envelope with a Discogs order returned to me torn open and empty after two plus months, ridiculous delays with orders placed or packages sent of up to 8+ weeks, a carrier who leaves packages on the edge of our steps exposed to direct sunlight and rain (an issue if we are gone for a few hours) and an inability to track missing packages state of origin from the tracking number, so I have no way to guess who sent the stolen package.

[Dan Gould]

Stupidity resumes ... 
Tampa ->Ybor City -> next stop should be Plant City but no, somehow up to Tallahassee and all in the course of two hours. ( And it's a 5 hour drive to Tallahassee from here, so did it fly?)  Wonder if it will show Out for Delivery in Tallahassee soon.  And BTW this wasn't a cheap purchase, I really wanted this CD and got the seller down to $35 on eBay. If it disappears that will be infuriating.

And while this isn't USPS fault, I have another box from a discogs seller who took ten days to "find" my purchases, then an additional three days to 'create the label' and now three days after that, USPS is still waiting for the package.  About to give those asshats a serious sense of what I think of them.

 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I just got in Ben Allison's latest release, a vinyl LP of "Moments Inside". It arrived in an LP shipper with a large red FRAGILE sticker on it. It also arrived looking like it got ran over by a postal truck. Surprisingly, the LP only suffered a slight corner ding and another corner is slightly bent, but c'mon USPS, you can do better than this.

[Ken Dryden]

I remember when Newvelle screwed up an order and sent me LPs for a customer in Europe. In the mean time, my correct order shipped from New England went to California before eventually arriving in Tennesssee. It is almost like workers are tossing boxes in random bins.

 

[riddlemay]

Not saying Fedex isn't better than USPS, just saying that Fedex tracking has shown me at one time or another that packages are going the wrong direction before they go the right direction. I have always assumed there was a rational reason. (And still do.)

I hope someday to see a package go from Natchez to Mobile.

[JSngry]

It's a worrisome thing.

[Ken Dryden]

My mail issues have include: a padded envelope with a Discogs order returned to me torn open and empty after two plus months, ridiculous delays with orders placed or packages sent of up to 8+ weeks, a carrier who leaves packages on the edge of our steps exposed to direct sunlight and rain (an issue if we are gone for a few hours) and an inability to track missing packages state of origin from the tracking number, so I have no way to guess who sent the stolen package.

Today I received a box of CDs that obviously had sat in the rain, possibly in a puddle at the bottom of the bin on an uncovered loading dock. When the carrier rang the bell she handed it to me and it was still damp and coming apart. Included was a cd I had returned because of water damage, this one was far worse.

[Chuck Nessa]

I ordered a disc from an Amazon vendor 2 days ago. The label was created Monday in Niagara Falls, NY. I live about 20 miles away, in Buffalo. Tracking says my order departed Pittsburgh, PA this morning.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I ordered Charles Lloyd's latest releases as a box set on vinyl from Blue Note. I got the FEDEX shipping notice for the first LP last week, saying that it would be delivered today (6/29). So I check the tracking page today and see that it's coming to York, ME with a "Scheduled delivery date - 6/29/2022 by end of day". Then I glanced over at the detailed tracking info and see "OUT FOR DELIVERY - SOMERSET TWP, PA 6/29/2022 12:11".

Um... what??

I'm guessing it's still in transit. But since it's been in transit since 6/24 in this heat, I imagine that it's going to be warped.

[JSngry]

FEDEX is not USPS?

[rdavenport]

Royal Mail have twice delivered packages, that I have sent, to the wrong country.

The first, bound for China, went to Italy. The second, bound for Japan, was flown to China. Both packages duly arrived at the correct destination eventually. I do wonder whether, if they had been sent untracked, they would simply have been binned or "liberated" in the first destination countries. 

Edited June 29, 2022 by rdavenport

[JSngry]

Royal Mail is USPS?

Or is shit fucked up everywhere? Except when it's not?

[Brad]

I sold a CD to someone in Puerto Rico. The Post Office delivered it in record time, unfortunately not to the buyer. The PO apologized but I had to give the buyer a refund. The cd has yet to re-surface. 

[rdavenport]

22 hours ago, JSngry said:

Royal Mail is USPS?

Or is shit fucked up everywhere? Except when it's not?

The latter!

For balance, I guess one only remembers the times when things go wrong, subconsciously (or consciously) forgetting the thousands of letters / packages one has sent over a lifetime which arrived on time and without incident.  

Edited June 30, 2022 by rdavenport

[Tom 1960]

I have a package that has been sitting in Jersey City for the last 6 days without moving. It was shipped from Liberty, New York. For the uninitiated Liberty is located in Sullivan County in the Catskills. Mind you I am obviously not blaming the vendor for this situation. But one time I ordered from him and before arriving up here in Maine it made its way to Memphis, Tennessee then Oxford, Mississippi before it ended up here. I guess this is an improvement. Sarcasm intended.

Edited July 5, 2022 by Tom 1960

[T.D.]

I shudder whenever Jersey City shows up in USPS tracking. All of my weird USPS routes and long delays have featured that hub. Nothing to date has actually been lost, though. FWIW.

Vendor Tommy's Jazz? I recall he's in the Southern Catskills, Sullivan Co. Agreed not his fault.

[Tom 1960]

6 hours ago, T.D. said:

I shudder whenever Jersey City shows up in USPS tracking. All of my weird USPS routes and long delays have featured that hub. Nothing to date has actually been lost, though. FWIW.

Vendor Tommy's Jazz? I recall he's in the Southern Catskills, Sullivan Co. Agreed not his fault.

You got it. Although just checking the USPS a short time ago the shipment is now here in town. I should have ownership by later this afternoon. 

[Ken Dryden]

Detroit and Chicago have been dead zones where media mail goes to sit for a month or more. I guess the workers are playing solitaire rather than sorting packages. When buying from vendors near them, I always pay for priority mail.

[Aggie87]

I just got a package sent from a musician in Austin that got to southern New Jersey in 3 business days, by media mail.  

Ordered on Thursday, June 30th.  Arrived here today, July 5th, with a holiday weekend in the middle.

[gvopedz]

I don't know how many of you already know this about "media mail" - a lady working the counter at the post office that I use told me that each media mail package is opened (by USPS) to verify that it has the type of contents that it is supposed to have.  I told her I was sending only a CD and she said it had to be a CD bought at a store - it could not be a CD made at home.  I asked her if the package will be resealed after it is opened, and she said yes.  I received a tracking number for my package, but I will not start checking the tracking until at least a week from now.