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Thread: Bragging on USPS

  1. #1

    Bragging on USPS

    Ordered a fuel pump for my 1988 Mitsubishi Mighty Max from Rock Auto Parts on Tuesday afternoon (3:30 PM, EDT.) Shipped USPS. Today (Thursday) at 3:30 PM, fuel pump was delivered. Original shipping warehouse is in CA. Two days from west coast to east coast isn't bad, especially for standard shipping. Now why does my power company say to allow five days for mail between two cities that are 120 miles apart?

  2. #2
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    I actually like the USPS, Most items I've ordered in the USA regardless of location make it to me in three days. I did have one experience where I had something shipped from 35 miles away and it took 5 days. They literally shipped it to my town, the next town over, them to the big city 100 miles north, then back to my town . No one's perfect all the time though. I've also had things arrive from Canada in 3 days and Florida to the west coast in 3 days. So overall I'm pretty happy with them.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bruce Wrenn View Post
    Ordered a fuel pump for my 1988 Mitsubishi Mighty Max from Rock Auto Parts on Tuesday afternoon (3:30 PM, EDT.) Shipped USPS. Today (Thursday) at 3:30 PM, fuel pump was delivered. Original shipping warehouse is in CA. Two days from west coast to east coast isn't bad, especially for standard shipping. Now why does my power company say to allow five days for mail between two cities that are 120 miles apart?
    Did you pay for better than standard shipping? I took the standard shipping option (5-7 days) on a Rockler order recently and it took USPS 16 days for a trip from MN to OH.

    Sorry, just realized you did mention standard shipping..
    Last edited by Brian Tymchak; 08-07-2020 at 8:40 AM. Reason: Oops
    Brian

    "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger or more complicated...it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." - E.F. Schumacher

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Tymchak View Post
    Did you pay for better than standard shipping? I took the standard shipping option (5-7 days) on a Rockler order recently and it took USPS 16 days for a trip from MN to OH.
    I use and always choose the USPS shipping option. I think they do a fabulous job and, unlike other shippers, I’ve never had anything arrive damaged. As for your experience, it might be Rockler. My limited experience with them is they are somewhat slow shippers. Could be they create a shipping label when they receive an order but take a few days or more to actually send the order on its way.

  5. #5
    Package just may have been in tthe right place at the right time to get there so quickly. I'm a fan of USPS and they get it right (for me) most of the time.
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  6. #6
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    Could be they create a shipping label when they receive an order but take a few days or more to actually send the order on its way.
    FWIW, my brother told me the USPS gets touchy about people doing this.

    Also, once a shipper prints the label it is in the tracking system:

    Package Tracking.png

    This will let you know to some extent what is going on.

    A recent package of mine came from Great Britain. It all of a sudden kind of disappeared into limbo. A call to my local Post Office told me it was stalled in customs. It was from a search on ebay and it looked as if it was shipping from the U.S. It took a few extra days from what the tracking indicated.

    An untracked package came from a seed dealer in Canada. That was in the mail for over four weeks. When the vendor was called we agreed to give it a few more days before they would send a replacement. So often it happens, as soon as something like this is addressed, the issue resolves in a day or two. The seeds arrived the next day.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
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  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Tymchak View Post
    Did you pay for better than standard shipping? I took the standard shipping option (5-7 days) on a Rockler order recently and it took USPS 16 days for a trip from MN to OH.
    I live in the Minneapolis area, but in my experience Rockler uses UPS Surepost for small packages. That sometimes takes longer than USPS, but UPS pays the USPS to deliver Surepost on Sunday.

  8. #8
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    It takes two and often three days to get a check from my mailbox to the lumber yard that I can literally see from my pasture hilltop. But I frequently get USPS deliveries from across the country in the same time or less, including next day delivery from metro areas in the Midwest. USPS has stripped local post offices of sorting and handling, so for those of us in outer leaves of the tree, everything has to go all the way to the base of the trunk before getting anywhere. That check I send to the lumber yard is actually sorted 120 miles from here.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stephen Rosenthal View Post
    Could be they create a shipping label when they receive an order but take a few days or more to actually send the order on its way.
    I have had this happen a number of times...and as was already mentioned by Jim K, USPS doesn't like that, although I'm not sure if they police it well.

    I generally have good shipping timing with various types of Priority Mail packages (usually regional flat rate boxes) for the east coast. I have, however, had some slow service to the left coast recently. That could be because of recent changes in overtime and staffing that's being discussed in the news currently. Or it could just have been bad luck.
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Elfert View Post
    I live in the Minneapolis area, but in my experience Rockler uses UPS Surepost for small packages. That sometimes takes longer than USPS, but UPS pays the USPS to deliver Surepost on Sunday.
    It was a small package, a threaded inserts kit. Can't remember what the shipping option was called but the tracking showed Rockler handed off to UPS on the day of my order, UPS handed off to USPS in 2 days, then 16 days later I got the package. At day 11 or 12, the tracking indicated it was at my post office but it didn't get delivered. I went to the post office, showed them the tracking. They checked and said that they had not yet received the package from UPS. When I asked how the tracking showed it had hit their loading dock, they just mumbled they didn't know, but they didn't have it.
    Brian

    "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger or more complicated...it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." - E.F. Schumacher

  11. #11
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    I am very grateful to USPS, they handle all of the instruments I ship and do it very well. Our local carrier is very helpful about picking up packages here any day I have them to send, which saves me a lot of trips to the PO. Back in the spring I shipped two banjos on the same day by Priority Mail 2 Day. The one to Schenectady, about 2.5 hours from here by car, took 4 days. The one to Seattle was delivered in 1 day. I know the shipping centers are overwhelmed with packages and have been for months now.

  12. #12
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    I know the shipping centers are overwhelmed with packages and have been for months now.
    People are shopping from home more now since the coronavirus. That is bound to make for more work at the USPS.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Stephen Rosenthal View Post
    Could be they create a shipping label when they receive an order but take a few days or more to actually send the order on its way.
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    I have had this happen a number of times...and as was already mentioned by Jim K, USPS doesn't like that, although I'm not sure if they police it well.
    USPS tracking has a foolproof way to determine 'early' labeling via 'tracking status'... I just took a screenshot of a few of my Stamps.com entries that just happen to have almost every status category:
    insys.jpg
    all are self-explanatory, but the "printed" category is key, it literally means the label has ONLY been printed. Until the status hits 'in transit' or 'delivered', that package label hasn't been scanned.

    Now, I've had many packages that have been delivered that never got past the 'printed' status. But if tracking shows 'in transit', the post office has it
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  14. #14
    Kev
    That's not the way my Stamps.com tracking (actually USPS) works. I have 4 shipments showing "printed" on my history screen All of the have a tracking number and location. In my view they should show "in transit" but that is not the case. One was delivered but the location was not open. Another was an "Express" shipment but showed as "Priority". I also have a couple of shipments that show "printed" that have been delivered.

    USPS tracking is pretty good but not foolproof.
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  15. #15
    I use USPS shipping fairly often - usually Priority Mail. Never had a problem (yet). They do a good job, and especially now when they are probably short handed because of the virus and distancing.

    Mike
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