Rant: I think I’m done with USPS for a while

gryphon1911

Hall of Famer
Location
Central Ohio, USA
Name
Andrew
/RANT ON

Here recently, service has been beyond horrible.

Boxes have been more damaged, items getting delivered to wrong addresses.

On the plus side, I’ve gotten to know some neighbors of mine better having delivered mail/packages to them the postman left at my house by mistake.

The worst though is the last 3 items I ordered. Coming from California, I had a lens that took 2 weeks to arrive. I have another package that was to arrive this past Monday, but has been sitting in CA postal hub for the last 5 days.

The absolute worst though...I shipped out a film camera to Retrospekt for refurbishing. They are in Wisconsin. I shipped it out to them on Dec9. It just arrived today. It sat at the Wisconsin hub for 2 weeks. It has arrived so late that I missed true window at Retrospekt to have it returned before Christmas. They are shut down for the holidays until January 7, 2021.

In comparison, I shipped with UPS to my mom last Friday, and she received the package the following Monday. I shipped a camera to Idaho Monday and they received it today.

And allow me to further rant about the costs.
USPS price for shipping a camera to California with $1000 insurance and they wanted me to pay $170.

Same package, same address, same insurance with UPS was $65.

I don’t know what in the name of <insert favorite higher power here> has happened to the USPS system, but it is broken as all hell and I’m going to be abandoning their services for the foreseeable future.

So if I plan on buying / selling / trading anything with anyone you’ll be getting it from me via UPS or FedEx and I’ll be demanding shipping to me via the same.

/RANT OVER
 
It’s been going down hill from various locations since the summer. It seems northern Midwest and west coast are the biggest issues.

Anything going out of Ohio seems fine until it gets to those areas and then it stalls, as well as stalling in those locations at the start.
 
I have a lens I ordered from a seller(FM) on 12-06. He allegedly shipped on the 07 priority.
Finally showed up in the system 12-21 in Massachusetts.
Shipped from Michigan, I'm in L.A.
It may be on it's way here.

Anyway, I ordered another(BH) and it arrived today so I asked the seller if I could return to him on my dime.
He said no, not my problem.
I'm glad I'm not in his shoes. I think he has a lot going on right now.
 
It puts the seller in a real bind when the shipper is the REASON for the return. The USPS needs to get blown up and start from scratch.

Or just stick to delivering mail and leave package delivery to the ones that can do it properly. The problem is all the money is in packages. They need to figure it out AND quickly.
 
It puts the seller in a real bind when the shipper is the REASON for the return. The USPS needs to get blown up and start from scratch.
Another reason I won't deal with USPS. When they have lost items. The USPS made me jump through a lot of hoops to get paid the insurance I paid extra for.
 
I've never had a problem with the USPS this time of year until this year. But with a Postmaster General trying to kill it, I'm not surprised. When a merchant did not include my unit number Fed-X picked one out of nowhere and delivered it.
 
USPS has been really inconsistent. Local guys are OK most of the time. I've twice ordered a bike part from the UK, and it was delivered to my door by USPS within a week. On the other hand, I'm still waiting on a very small parcel to arrive from Cincinnati, which is a 4 hour drive from my house. Tracking says it was handed to USPS 10 days ago. I've had several small parcels sent by Amazon that just found a black hole somewhere after shipping and never arrived.
 
I'm glad that the USPS maladies I'm, experiencing are not a widespread, systemic issue.
I do think it's regional. Even in Los Angeles, some zip codes are better than others. For example I love my current neighborhood USPS. My postman won't leave big packages on the doorstep even if signature confirmation isn't required, just to protect from package thieves. Though at my last neighborhood, USPS was the worst not even bothering to deliver packages even if I was home waiting for the doorbell to ring!
 
I do think it's regional. Even in Los Angeles, some zip codes are better than others. For example I love my current neighborhood USPS. My postman won't leave big packages on the doorstep even if signature confirmation isn't required, just to protect from package thieves. Though at my last neighborhood, USPS was the worst not even bothering to deliver packages even if I was home waiting for the doorbell to ring!


I agree. Our central Ohio postal service is good, but once it gets out of state it is a crap shoot.
 
I’ve read some articles, with statements given from postal employees. Which reminds me of my time on the package side of UPs. Sadly, that was in the 90s. UPS and FedEx both have grown and adapted to keep pace with the industry. USPS it seems is still roughly the same as it was two decades ago. And really wearing out it’s workforce while simultaneously damaging its reputation. I hope they can recover from this and someone makes the changes needed.
 
I’ve read some articles, with statements given from postal employees. Which reminds me of my time on the package side of UPs. Sadly, that was in the 90s. UPS and FedEx both have grown and adapted to keep pace with the industry. USPS it seems is still roughly the same as it was two decades ago. And really wearing out it’s workforce while simultaneously damaging its reputation. I hope they can recover from this and someone makes the changes needed.
The problem is Congress, where a number of lawmakers have been trying to put the USPS out of business for many years.
 
The best thing that could happen would be to let either UPS or FedEx absorb the USPS. Then it would be properly managed. Then the USPS could get modernized and better able to handle the high volume.
 
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