The USPS SUCKS

[Rooster_Ties]

8 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

I can honestly say that I've never had anything lost in the mail. Nor a package from UPS/Fed Ex/DHL that never showed up. 

I think I'm pretty much the same.  Maybe one package (one at most) in 30 years, but even then, I can't remember what (or even if there really ever was one).

Never had an airline loose my suitcase either (and I've flown 2-3 times a year since I was in my mid-20's).

[paul secor]

8 hours ago, Ken Dryden said:

The USPS has lost one mortgage payment (another took 11 days to go across Tennessee), one five figure car note payoff, two consecutive checks to the same doctor's office an who knows how many promotional CDs sent over the years. 

UPS has occasionally screwed up as well. One lazy driver left a package by our sliding glass door in a duplex, if he had bothered to look through the open blinds and curtain he would have seen that the unit was empty, as we had moved to our new house. I only found it because I came back to get some stuff out of the storage room behind the duplex. There is no way to give a forwarding address to UPS, if the sender doesn't have it and UPS drops off the item, it will likely disappear thanks to a thief.

 

Wouldn't it be your responsibility to notify the sender of your new address?

[Ken Dryden]

You can provide a forwarding mailing address to the USPS. There is no way to do it for UPS, as I tried in the past, due to sometimes getting packages I wasn't expecting via UPS. 

Of course, I moved in 2014, but I am still having issues with publicists using my old address. Some of them didn't update the information (I did several mailings well in advance) or some are just using old information they got from someone else. Just today I was notified of a CD that was returned with my old address.

 

 

 

The lost car note payoff check was a big pain, as I had to put a $28 stop payment on it. I didn't want a check for $10,000-$12,000 supposedly being lost then showing up after I wrote a second one.

My favorite USPS record horror stories include a lazy postal worker who left a box with an LP between the flag and the mailbox on a hot summer day, rather than make the short trip to the porch to put it in the shade. It was warped beyond belief by the time I got home. Another LP was ruined when something punched through the carton in transit and cracked the LP. The first one I have yet to replace, fortunately, the second was still available from the supplier and I got a replacement.

[Dan Gould]

Well hope springs eternal:  A little over two weeks and the package arrived back in Tampa this morning. 

Will it make it to Plant City or head on down to Miami again?  Stay tuned ...

[jlhoots]

On 6/8/2017 at 5:14 PM, jlhoots said:

I'm waiting for a package that was in San Francisco on June 4 & shows no movement at all since!!

No "movement" in 6 days.

[Ken Dryden]

I sold a CD through Discogs awhile back. After putting stamps on it and mailing it, the buyer informed me after a couple of weeks that he still hadn't received it. Since it was media mail, I asked him to allow a couple of more weeks. It didn't arrive and I gave him a full refund. Then something like two months later it shows up, with the stamps unconcealed. That taught me to take it to the post office to at least get a tracking number.

I returned 4 CDs to ImportCDs a month ago with they prepaid return label. Unfortunately, the USPS would not give me a tracking number to trace it and I have yet to have my inquiries answered by them. It may be my last order with them if they don't get on the ball.

[Dan Gould]

On 6/10/2017 at 11:56 AM, Dan Gould said:

Well hope springs eternal:  A little over two weeks and the package arrived back in Tampa this morning. 

Will it make it to Plant City or head on down to Miami again?  Stay tuned ...

I said this only slightly in jest but holy fuck, it went back to Miami.

 

 

[Dan Gould]

Check these two snips out. Two days to go from Sweden to Chicago. Five days to get out of Chicago. 

Guess I should be glad its now "out for delivery" three days after that.

 

[Dan Gould]

What the hell is it with overseas shipments getting thru to the domestic delivery side?  Package from Japan hasn't moved in NYC since March 29 - six freaking days!

[Brad]

You think that's bad. I ordered something from Russia and I thought it would be here by now but I just checked the tracking and it's now in Wisconsin! 

[sonnymax]

20 hours ago, Brad said:

You think that's bad. I ordered something from Russia and I thought it would be here by now but I just checked the tracking and it's now in Wisconsin! 

Don't worry. I've got my best guy on it.

Edited April 5, 2018 by sonnymax

[Scott Dolan]

Bigly! 

[Dan Gould]

Shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth as it apparently is now at the local PO and I should have it this afternoon, but how the heck does it get scanned for the first time at Ybor City outside Tampa? It never each reached the NYC regional distribution center.

[Brad]

The USPS works in strange and mysterious ways. I find their tracking not to be the most reliable. 

[jlhoots]

I just had an order go from Texas to Albuquerque, then to Florida, back to Albuquerque & then finally to me in Santa Fe. At least it showed up.

[JSngry]

Tanned and refreshed, I hope!

[jlhoots]

USPS at it again - it's been a while. I have a package coming from Amazon. It was in Arizona. I'm in New Mexico. It's now in New Jersey. Supposedly will be delivered to me next Tuesday. Silly!! Maybe they got NEW Jersey & NEW Mexico confused.

[Dan Gould]

Credit where it's due - a Discogs seller shipped on the 22nd from Portland Oregon, Media Mail and it got to central Florida overnight somehow. Arrived today, a Christmas gift to myself, sped along by the Postal Service who must have mistakenly stuck in on a direct flight instead of the next truck out of there.

Of course the dealer put one wrong LP in the box, now I bet the replacement will take three weeks.  But today, I am pleased.

 

 

[Shrdlu]

All American people should rise up and force the Feds to re-introduce outgoing Surface Mail. The export of, say, a vinyl LP, costs over $20, and the thing goes unnecessarily by air. This has severely reduced sales out of America. I once had to mail a tumba from Denver. By airmail!! Ridiculous.

[Brad]

10 minutes ago, Shrdlu said:

All American people should rise up and force the Feds to re-introduce outgoing Surface Mail. The export of, say, a vinyl LP, costs over $20, and the thing goes unnecessarily by air. This has severely reduced sales out of America. I once had to mail a tumba from Denver. By airmail!! Ridiculous.

Due to costs, they eliminated it.  I doubt it will ever be re-introduced. Sea mail is also slow. In this day and age, I doubt people want to wait that long for packages. 

[T.D.]

Oh, BTW, price of a first-class stamp just went up 10%, from 50 cents to 55.

But... "Each additional ounce for a First Class Mail letter will cost an extra $0.15 (a decrease from $0.21 in 2018)."

So you can "make it up on volume" by sending fatter envelopes. 

[Shrdlu]

As far as I know, the U.S. is the only country that did away with surface mail. It is utterly stupid. It has severely limited sales outside the country. A lot of bulky items are not needed before surface mail's one month delivery time. I had to mail a cuica and some other large percussion items from Denver, and it cost me over $300 to mail them all. Nothing was urgent. And who is going to buy one LP or CD when the postage is of the order of $20?

[Big Beat Steve]

1 hour ago, Shrdlu said:

As far as I know, the U.S. is the only country that did away with surface mail. It is utterly stupid. It has severely limited sales outside the country. A lot of bulky items are not needed before surface mail's one month delivery time. I had to mail a cuica and some other large percussion items from Denver, and it cost me over $300 to mail them all. Nothing was urgent. And who is going to buy one LP or CD when the postage is of the order of $20?

Hard to believe, that surface mail thing. The other day I was on the edge about buying a book from abebooks. For ONCE the shipping cost would NOT have doubled the price of the book but the shipping time quoted was 4 to 6 weeks. I find it hard to believe that any air mail shipping rate takes THAT long (particularly since this quote obviously does not take customs clearance times - which may delay things indeed - into account).

 

 

[Rooster_Ties]

I send two CD's overseas back in December (from the US, to the UK), and could not believe that the cheapest shipping rate was over $20 (I think I paid around $23, iirc).

There was no media-mail rate option at all, and what I had to pay was easily double(!) what I was expecting.

I held my nose, and tried to forget what the price-tag was (what I was sending was effectively a gift, on my dime).  Almost $12 per CD, just for shipping alone!!

[Shrdlu]

As The Critic said, "It stinks". But America has had lousy administration for decades. I'm glad the people of America are a separate entity.