USPS puzzlers

[Kev Williams]

If I send mail during the week- priority or first class- it normally takes 2-3 days to get to the east coast. But almost always takes at least 3 days to get to the west coast.
---I'm 800 miles from the west coast...

If I send the same mail on Saturday, it almost always gets to the east coast by Monday. West coast, Tuesday...
:confused:

And if what I'm shippig is less than 13 ounces, I will NOT pay for priority mail, I've come the conclusion priority is NO faster than first class.

And last Tuesday, this one ticked me off...

I sent identical parts, in identical USPS "tubes", to 2 places:
One went to a city in Michigan, 1665 miles from me. I sent it priority mail, it got delivered on Thursday.
The other went to Arkansas, 1313 miles from me. I sent it priority EXPRESS. It got delivered on Friday...
--I (or my customer, rather), paid $25 extra for 3-day 'express' mail...

And with FedUps taking 5-6 days ground to move 2/3 across the country and charge more for it-- There just is no 'good' way to ship these days.

Ya pays ya money, and takes ya chances... http://www.engraver1.com/gifs/rolleyes.gif

[Curt Harms]

Well Kevin, don't feel too bad. I was sending stuff to and from central New Jersey, about 65 miles by road. It took 3 days + for USPS to get first class mail between those two points and that wasn't a one time thing. When I asked I was told "Oh no, that's overnight service". Oh no, it's not. I told the people if they were sending anything time critical, send it via FedEx overnight. That seems stupid but if you want reasonably reliable ........... OTOH I've sent stuff to Phoenix and it took 2 days.

[Tim Hoyt]

Well figure this one out. I'm desperatly awaiting some parts from Atlanta (less than 200 miles from my home in Clyde NC). I checked the tracking from USPS. It left Atlanta and went to Greenville SC, good! From there went to Asheville Nc, good! From there went back to Greenville SC, bad! Package was at Clyde PO this morning, I have my fingers crossed.

[Robert Hartmann]

Not that I'm whining...I'm stationed in the Netherlands. Priority mail takes about 5-7 days from anywhere in the US and ground takes 4-6 weeks. Priority goes primarily to Chicago where it goes by air where ground goes to New Jersey and by boat. I always hate to see New Jersey because not only does it take 4-6 weeks, but the tracking stops at that point.

[Bill McNiel]

Try sending anything, by any means, to Hawaii.

[Rich Riddle]

I am often bewildered by delivery times. I sent a couple watches first-class mail from Cincinnati to Utah. They arrived in two days. I sent a watch by priority mail to a city about 200 miles from Cincinnati (central Illinois). It took three full days. There is little/no logic with the USPS. Tracking doesn't kick in until late in the evening or early the next morning. No business would operate this way.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

A customer and I learned the hard way about USPS Express. Everything indicated it would be delivered the next morning. It didn't. It arrived 2 days later during the normal delivery. When I called USPS about it, I was told that not all destinations do Express deliveries. They arrive in the normal scheduled delivery. There is no way a customer would find out which destinations do not do express delivery until they have already paid for express and discovered it was not delivered according to the schedule. There was no refund available either.

While totally unrelated to Express Delivery, one thing to keep in mind is how many USPS hubs have closed down. If I mail something to someone else in town, it can take up to 5 days before they receive it. It's because even if I drop it off at the PO in town, ALL the mail ships 40-some miles to a mail sorting hub and eventually comes back to town to be sorted again for delivery.

For my shipping, West Coast always seems to take longer - especially CA. East Coast arrives faster - especially FL.

[Bert Kemp]

and we wonder why its broke:confused:


I am often bewildered by delivery times. I sent a couple watches first-class mail from Cincinnati to Utah. They arrived in two days. I sent a watch by priority mail to a city about 200 miles from Cincinnati (central Illinois). It took three full days. There is little/no logic with the USPS. Tracking doesn't kick in until late in the evening or early the next morning. No business would operate this way.

[Bert Kemp]

I live in the last town in the county next to the boarder for Maricopa County in which Phoenix lies. All most all my incoming mail comes to the Phoenix Main PO then is sent out to the county were its has to be delivered. The mail truck drives right past my PO and 75 miles north to my counties PO the put back on a truck and drivin back 75 miles to my PO for delivery all this wasted time and money for what. How hard would it be to sort the mail by PO's and drop it off at the local PO's along the way. A Package from the east coast gets to phoenix in 2 days sometimes one day but take 2 to 3 more days before it gets to me,

[Stephen Tashiro]

And if what I'm shippig is less than 13 ounces, I will NOT pay for priority mail,



I heard a third-hand story , supposedly originating with an employee of the post office, that priority mail and regular mail are shipped together in the same trucks and planes. As far as the employee could discern, there was no difference in how the two types of mail were shipped. Of course, he didn't have an overview of the entire shipping process.

[Myk Rian]

I can order a cheap item from China, and it takes 5 days to get here, for free. :confused:

[Brad Adams]

I live in a town of about 3900 people. If I send an invoice to someone I worked for that lives two blocks away, it gets sent 40 miles away to get sorted, then comes back to town to get delivered. Must be cheaper than sorting mail in all the small post offices????

[Brian Elfert]

I guess I've had a lot better luck with USPS than many of you. My Priority Mail shipments always show up in two days. Even first class packages are pretty quick.

I hate getting UPS ground or Fedex ground packages from southern California as they generally take five business days or more.

[Brian W Smith]

Small,country PO here...everyone knows your name.Heck I take them a cpl chocolate pies(home made crusts) a year.Anyway,we must be a geographical oddity,2-3 days from every where.

Post master asks the pkg destination,then tells us the best value.As posted above std vs express.We ship by std about half the time,still...2 or 3 days.Dunno,could be the pies?

[Curt Harms]

I live in a town of about 3900 people. If I send an invoice to someone I worked for that lives two blocks away, it gets sent 40 miles away to get sorted, then comes back to town to get delivered. Must be cheaper than sorting mail in all the small post offices????

Some post offices around here have two slots, one for same zip mail, another for non-local. Others have only one slot. I'm sure there's logic in some bureaucrat's mind to this system. I have found that if I hand deliver mail going to a local address at some post offices the person at the counter will stamp it and place it directly in the recipient's box.

[Myk Rian]

Some post offices around here have two slots, one for same zip mail, another for non-local.
Same at our PO. 2 slots. Trouble is, our village/township has 7 zip codes. The PO is in the village, where just a small percentage live.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Try sending anything, by any means, to Hawaii.Friday this week.
Sent our grand daughter a package today. She will get it either Thursday or

[Bruce Wrenn]

Recently ordered a part from Ebay vendor in Fla on Friday right after lunch. Had it Monday before lunch. According to tracking, if USPS ran on Sunday, I would have gotten it then. Send two CC payments to Louisville KY. Third day they are taken out of my checking account. Send power bill to Duke Energy, in Charlotte (120 miles away) and it takes them a week to process it. But I can send letter to friend in Charlotte, and they have it next day, sometimes second day.

[Brian Bres]

I have had good luck with USPS and UPS most times. However, sometimes you get the short end of the stick.

Last week I sent a package to TX from NY. It was never scanned and was lost for 4 days. It finally showed up in NJ 4 days after mailing and then arrived in TX 3 days later. 4 days to the adjoining state and 3 days across half the country. Go figure.

[Martin Shupe]

A lot of priority mail, probably the majority of it, is shipped on FedEx planes during the daytime.
FedEx shipments go overnight, USPS mail shipments go in the daytime.

This has been going on since 2001.

There are fewer planes and cities served on weekends.

Perhaps this helps explain the 2-3 day service.

Ground is ground, you get what you pay for.

[Art Mann]

In my experience, the tracking feature of the USPS is not worth much. Most of the time, the first change in status is posted after I receive the package and it tells me what I already know.

[Curt Harms]

In my experience, the tracking feature of the USPS is not worth much. Most of the time, the first change in status is posted after I receive the package and it tells me what I already know.

It might depend on how most of your stuff is shipped. I think a fair amount of 'free shipping' or '99 cent' shipping is not carried 100% by USPS but rather by a 3rd party part of the way. An example is NewEgg.com. A lot of the stuff I buy from them is shipped via DHL then handed off to USPS at some point. The tracking on those shipments is pretty bad - unless you know to check a little known DHL website. Tracking on shipments carried 100% byUSPS is pretty decent for me though it usually only updates overnight. I used to get cases where the item was delivered then tracking would show it was delivered - a day or two later. I haven't seen that for two years or more.

[John Stankus]

In my experience, the tracking feature of the USPS is not worth much. Most of the time, the first change in status is posted after I receive the package and it tells me what I already know.

We have had one postman who sits and fills in the delivered tracking before he goes through the neighborhood delivering the packages.

Figured that one out after I got into the habit of checking constantly on delivery day after they delivered to a completely wrong house.

I was tracking some package I had ordered and it said delivered...couldn't find it anywhere. So I called the post office, talked to the delivery supervisor who put the delivery postman on. The postman said he put the package behind the third column on our porch... our porch has no columns. We have had several packages delivered to this wrong house (same number ...very different street name).

Understandably, I watch the tracking like a Hawk now.

John

[Brian Elfert]

A lot of priority mail, probably the majority of it, is shipped on FedEx planes during the daytime.
FedEx shipments go overnight, USPS mail shipments go in the daytime.

This has been going on since 2001.

There are fewer planes and cities served on weekends.


If I remember correctly airlines stopped taking US Mail as cargo on passenger planes after 9/11. I guess they were afraid the mail could have a bomb in it. The USPS then signed a contract with Fedex to haul mail via air. The crazy thing is the USPS put Fedex drop off boxes in most Post Offices after the deal was signed. Maybe the USPS finally realized their Express overnight mail is a joke.

The Postmaster General used to refuse overnight deliveries that came via USPS. I wonder if they take Fedex overnight deliveries now?

[Martin Shupe]

The FedEx drop boxes was a condition of the contract. I am not sure how many are still around. I am also not sure how much business they generated.

The deal was signed before 9-11 and had nothing to do with it.

Before FedEx took over, many smaller carriers hauled the priority mail, and the service was poor.

The USPS has been so happy with FedEx's performance, they keep increasing the amount of freight we carry.

[Dok Yager]

I live in very North Phoenix. Since moving up here from were I was only 6 miles away my USPS service is Horrid!! I have never ever had such terrible mail service. We had all temps to start with, then one guy who seemed to know what he was doing. I have had things come from Vegas priority that took a week. And things that were shipped from Chicago media mail that got here in 3 days.They constantly loose or miss delver my mail to other homes on different streets with the same "number" address.I have had packages sent from Amazon here in Phoenix take 4-5 days to get to me WTF. Priority mail is a complete joke anymore and express is a waste of money. I closed my Fed-Ex account because they went so high in pricing it`s unbelievable.

[Mike Henderson]

USPS service around here is very good. I send out packages via priority mail to all over the USA. Very good service - I can see the delivery process, and the package get to the destination in the time they specify. I can set notifications and they'll update me via text every time there's an update.

And if someone is sending me a package, USPS detects that it's coming to my address and starts sending me texts about the delivery progress. I don't have to go and ask for tracking updates - they simply detect my address and automatically send me updates.

Had much worse service with UPS. Lee Valley, for example, ships via UPS and it takes forever to get a package from them. I wish they would start shipping via USPS priority mail.

And BTW, for smaller packages, Priority Mail is about the same price as USPS ground. It's only when you get to big packages or very heavy packages that there's a significant difference in the prices.

USPS has come a long way in the last 20 years or so.

Mike

[Oh, and when the postal person delivers the mail, I get a text almost immediately if I have a package in the delivery. I really like that because I don't have to go check the mail, I get a notification when the mail was delivered. I wish there was a way to get that notification even when I'm not receiving a package. You know, "You've got mail!"]

[Larry Frank]

I am another one who gets good USPS service. I get Amazon packages via it in two days.

One point to make is the local delivery person. My front door is 100 feet from the street and up a set of steps. My carrier is a great guy and brings stuff to the door every time. Of course, he gets the max Christmas gift every year and I always thank him.

[Howard Garner]

My biggest complaint about the USPS is with UPS/FedEx/DHL and their economy service.
You know, where they drop it off at a nearby post office and the post office then delivers it.
Many companies that use this service will not take an order for delivery to a PO Box, and yet that is the only place I get mail.
Thanks to my regular mail route person, it usually gets identified and correctly delivered.
Then I try to add (mail to PO ox xxx) as part of my address.
Howard

[Bruce Wrenn]

Grand daughter sent wife a birthday package from Hawaii late Tuesday, (Hawaii time,) and it was here on Friday before lunch. Hawaii is 6 hours behind us, so that worked out to about two and one half days

[Bert Kemp]

I never could understand giving a mailman xmas gifts. For one thing their not allowed and number two its their JOB which they get well paid to do. I worked 45 years and never got an xmas present from the people I worked for. You go to a barber get a haircut that cost $15 to $20 and takes all of 15mins or less then you give him a tip on top of that. yikes are you rich have money to burn. That guy probably make more then you and lots don't pay taxes they don't claim the people who pay cash or the tips. If you figure a 40 hr week a barber makes over a 100k a year.


I am another one who gets good USPS service. I get Amazon packages via it in two days.

One point to make is the local delivery person. My front door is 100 feet from the street and up a set of steps. My carrier is a great guy and brings stuff to the door every time. Of course, he gets the max Christmas gift every year and I always thank him.

[Brian Elfert]

I never could understand giving a mailman xmas gifts. For one thing their not allowed and number two its their JOB which they get well paid to do. I worked 45 years and never got an xmas present from the people I worked for. You go to a barber get a haircut that cost $15 to $20 and takes all of 15mins or less then you give him a tip on top of that. yikes are you rich have money to burn. That guy probably make more then you and lots don't pay taxes they don't claim the people who pay cash or the tips. If you figure a 40 hr week a barber makes over a 100k a year.

Barbers usually make between $35,000 and $50,000 a year. The barber certainly isn't getting that entire $15 to $20 and they likely aren't doing four haircuts an hour for 40 hours a week. It is just like getting a car repaired for $100 an hour. The mechanic's pay and benefits are likely no more than $40 an hour of that $100 an hour.