USPS Tracking...

[s&wchad]

We received an insured package containing a hardcover book about dealing with a rare disease on October 4th. The label listed our street address, city and zip code correctly, but it was addressed to someone we've never heard of and has never lived here. Neither of us have that disease.

It was shipped from a company in Pennsylvania. I gave the package to our mailman a couple days later and the PO has been updating the return status on Informed Delivery ever since. It's still in transit and left San Bernardino yesterday.

Michigan to Pennsylvania, via California??? I probably should have just thrown it in the trash... The tracking history makes an interesting read!

 

[Erich]

I have had two USPS packages recently cross the country, show up in my city, re-cross the country and then show back up here to be delivered a week later - a week behind schedule.

I've been a big defender of USPS (here, I believe), but I'd say they're affected by the same deterioration of efficiency and order that we're seeing in so many aspects of life these days.

 

[Grayfox]

USPS does an amazing job handling millions of pieces of mail every day. But when they screw up, they do so royally.
Not long ago I had a package take 32 days to get from one end of my state to the other. It bounced around through 7 different cities multiple times each until one day it just mysteriously appeared in my mailbox. For 3 months after that tracking showed it "In transit to next facility from Atlanta."

USPS Tracking:
1. We have it
2. Ain't got a clue
3. Delivered!

 

[s&wchad]

USPS Tracking #2...

Another package:

I ordered an item off eBay on Oct. 12th and it arrived on Oct. 15th. Unfortunately, the seller shipped the wrong item. I contacted him and he told me to keep the 1st item and he'd send the correct item ASAP. It was scheduled to arrive on the 18th.

Here's the tracking info so far... So much for 2-3 day delivery!

I wouldn't be surprised if the next stop is Abu Dhabi!

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Well what is the rare disease????

 

[johngalt]

I remember a year or 2 ago reading about the post office removing or replacing some of their sorting equipment. Maybe things aren't working as smoothly as they could?

 

[s&wchad]

Well what is the rare disease????

No idea. I never heard of it before and I didn't snap a photo. The book said it was rare.
It might have been Bronchiectasis or Hockalugie Syndrome...

 

[Muss Muggins]

USPS tracking: Package received. Two days later: package enroute. Next two weeks: We got nuthin’. Tuesday: Delivered Friday . . .

 

[Grayfox]

I remember a year or 2 ago reading about the post office removing or replacing some of their sorting equipment. Maybe things aren't working as smoothly as they could?

I could go into a long discussion of our current Postmaster General. But the last time I did that I got my hand slapped.

 

[BC38]

FWIW, all it takes is for the item to get sorted into the wrong mailbag and it will make a cross-country trip via plane or train.
Logistics is a LOT harder than it sounds when you're dealing with millions of items per day.
Just my 2 cents - and worth every penny it cost ya'

 

[Rustyt1953]

To repeat myself:


"The U.S. Postal Service handles around 500 million pieces of mail every day. UPS and FedEx deliver 34 million packages combined. Those are astounding numbers and their failure rates barely budge the needle.

Gas up your car and try retrieving/delivering your own mail/parcels for the same rates as those three charge and see how that works out.

They do Herculean tasks everyday. If my stuff is late once in a while I cut them slack because they cast huge nets and there are bound to be a few holes here and there."
__________________

 

[rockquarry]

With some exceptions, tracking has become the toy of the impatient, wanted-it-yesterday faction. Tracking won't make your package arrive sooner. Relax. The Post Office does a pretty good job but like every other private or government entity, it isn't perfect.

 

[s&wchad]

With some exceptions, tracking has become the toy of the impatient, wanted-it-yesterday faction. Tracking won't make your package arrive sooner. Relax. The Post Office does a pretty good job but like every other private or government entity, it isn't perfect.

So...
I pay extra for 2-3 day delivery and it hadn't arrived 5 days later. I guess I should be happy....

Their terms aren't worth squat...

 

[rockquarry]

So...
I pay extra for 2-3 day delivery and it hadn't arrived 5 days later. I guess I should be happy....

Their terms aren't worth squat...

I mentioned exceptions - that's one.

 

[SMSgt]

Mailed a letter to the Social Security office in my very own zip code. The time and number of states through which it passed to be delivered to the same zip code was astounding.

 

[venomballistics]

I've observed similar with USPS lately ...
Midway order to Omaha ... probably a 3 hour drive one way so most orders hit my porch the following day if I order early enough.
USPS lately has been a model of inefficiency, sending things to PA and touring the East coast before going dark and magically appearing in Omaha some 2 weeks later.

 

[venomballistics]

With some exceptions, tracking has become the toy of the impatient, wanted-it-yesterday faction. Tracking won't make your package arrive sooner. Relax. The Post Office does a pretty good job but like every other private or government entity, it isn't perfect.

nah .... something has changed ... not sure what, or why. but it did

 

[Skeet 028]

Well I can go the po in my town and send a letter or card to someone and it has to go south 4 1/2 hours to Casper Wy and gets delivered maybe 2 days later or maybe not...even if it is going to someone with a mailbox in this town...Talk about Tupid

 

[wood714]

Amazon has spoiled a lot of people with their fast shipping...sometimes same day.

I remember my mom ordering something for me when I was a kid, and it said allow 10 weeks to ship.

 

[BC38]

Well I can go the po in my town and send a letter or card to someone and it has to go south 4 1/2 hours to Casper Wy and gets delivered maybe 2 days later or maybe not...even if it is going to someone with a mailbox in this town...Talk about Tupid

That is because they don't have a sorting and routing operation in every little podunk post office.

Everything that is picked up or dropped off each day has to be bagged up and sent to the nearest facility with the sorting and routing equipment and personnel to be sorted and routed through the network to its destination.

Do you expect your local carriers and postmaster to read and hand-sort each and every one of the hundreds or thousands of letters and packages they get every day, retain the ones that will be delivered locally, and only send the items that need to be delivered somewhere outside the local area to the sorting facility?

How many man-hours, either OT for the existing employees, or additional people hired, do you think it would take to do that?

Now multiply that by the thousands of other podunk town post offices that exist in a country the size of the USA.

Like I said in my previous post, the logistics of sorting, routing, and delivering MILLIONS of items per day, 6 days a week, is a LOT bigger and more complex job than most people realize.