USPS Needs to Go

[Randyrtx]

I've been anxiously awaiting my order, which should have been here today (it wasn't). Just checked the tracking, it arrived in Austin early this morning as it should have, but it went to Cat Spring, TX, NOT Cedar Park! Stupid, stupid, stupid!!! I'm sure it will take them several days to figure this out, so I'll be lucky if my order arrives this week.

I received an order yesterday from a different supplier in a flat rate box... one end had been ripped open! Fortunately my order was still inside.

Over all the orders for supplies I received over the last few months via USPS, far too many have arrived damaged. In one instance, the contents were completely missing (which so happened to be irreplaceable).

I think we should relegate USPS to bulk/junk mail delivery (what they seem to be most capable of handling), and leave the important stuff to UPS or Fedex!

 

[ski]

Compared to USPS, UPS is expensive and slow, unfortunately. Call the post office in Cat Springs and ask for the packages department. I have had good luck in the past talking to USPS workers in packages departments. The general # for a particular post office will usually try to deflect your call, but if you just ask for packages dept and THEN explain the issue to the person in packages dept, typically you get a quick resolution like "What's the tracking number? OK, hold on one minute.......OK I found it and put it on the truck and you should get it in 2 days." Best time to call for this type of thing is usually before 830 AM, at least in my area.

 

[Randyrtx]

Well... good advice, but it appears I don't have to. Tracking status just updated, and now it's flagged as "missent". With any luck it's already back in Austin.

"Your item was misrouted. The error has been corrected and every effort is being made to deliver it as soon as possible. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later."

 

[CDC700]

If you are ever hurting for carts, i can lend a few in a pinch....just down 1431 from you

 

[cassavetes]

USPS annoys me.

Usually I have a package sitting in the next town over for a day or two. Either that or tracking displays my order as delivered yet gets here the day after.

 

[krowten]

Compared to USPS, UPS is expensive and slow, unfortunately.

Very true. Priority Mail is cheaper and faster than UPS, FedEx, or any other ground service for small, light packages. As for damage, they don't 'handle with care' very well at UPS either. It's up to the sender to do a good enough job of packing so the package will survive the tossing around it's likely to get. When I get something that's been damaged during transit, it's almost always due to insufficient or sloppy packing by the sender.

 

[JenJen]

So far the tracking has sucked, but I have gotten my stuff on time so I guess I am a lucky one. Sorry yours was delayed, and hope you get it tomorrow! I know how hard it is to wait!

Ok, so that explains why they shipped my order to San Diego! I jinxed myself by saying mine had all been on time! That will teach me!

 

[HaploVoss]

USPS was just never intitially designed for 'stop by stop' routing updates to the customer... it was originally setup so you had an origin and destination confirmation if you chose those options. THEN somebody had a great idea to just try and "integrate" all those scans to automatically update on a user accessible website.

Well that works out just fine - in theory. But, when you have twice the amount of packages of any other carrier going through your hands every day, the smaller Hubs just don't always get every packages updated into the web servers in between the main stops. There is an extra step involved to update the public access web servers and as we all know - that doesn't always happen :\

I still prefer them over UPS or FedEx simply because I've only ever had one package get to me a little rumpled. Using other carriers - they really just don't seem to give a rip and I've had a good 10 of my stoofs just friggin destroyed by the time it got here

My .02
- Hap

 

[Randyrtx]

Thanks for the moral support, all.. it'll get here soon I think, I'm just anxious.

CDC, thanks for the offer, and likewise. I'm good though, I've learned to plan way ahead!

 

[AZAndy]

One thing the postal service is very good for is shipping small weighty items. I reload ammunition, and frequently receive boxes of bullets in those cheapo flat-rate packages. Works out pretty nicely-- I mean, we're talking 20-25 pounds in the small box. Thus do I exact my revenge on the USPS!

 

[CDC700]

One thing I do like about USPS(and the reason I choose to use them exclusively) Is that they will still ship firearms. Try that with fed-ex or "brown"

 

[AZAndy]

CDC700, sounds like you might be a fellow C&R holder? Dang, we're everywhere nowadays.

 

[lilly1185]

I must say I appreciate the speediness of USPS, however their tracking needs to go; it's certainly ineffective.

I'd ordered an e-cig out of a company based in Hawaii. Ordered on Friday, got here Monday. However, the tracking site didn't give me any information except that it left Honolulu on Friday, and arrived in Saint Lucie (where I am) early Monday.

My brother may have been right when he told me "Sometimes they just pitch stuff out of a plane."
I can't tell if he's being serious or joking.

 

[ski]

My brother may have been right when he told me "Sometimes they just pitch stuff out of a plane."
I can't tell if he's being serious or joking.

dunno about a plane, but I've certainly had better experience w/ USPS NOT damaging packages than some other carriers. Walking from my train stop to my office in NYC I typically see 3-4 Fedex and UPS trucks unloading their packages for various office buildings. The usual method of getting the package from the truck down to the ground is to literally throw it or kick it off the back of the truck. Rain, snow or oil and dog piss on the ground...the boxes come flying out the back of the truck and crash to the ground.

 

[CDC700]

AzAndy- I don't know which addiction is worse!!!

 

[Randyrtx]

An update to be fair... they managed to correct the mistake and get my package to me the next day. And the tracking at the USPS site even stated that it was missent and was being rerouted.

 

[flying low]

One thing the postal service is very good for is shipping small weighty items. I reload ammunition, and frequently receive boxes of bullets in those cheapo flat-rate packages. Works out pretty nicely-- I mean, we're talking 20-25 pounds in the small box. Thus do I exact my revenge on the USPS!

Careful with those little heavy boxes! I've done some of the sort work for USPS (GRUELING WORK) and those little boxes end up getting dropped a lot because people are not expecting them to be so heavy.

 

[flying low]

dunno about a plane, but I've certainly had better experience w/ USPS NOT damaging packages than some other carriers. Walking from my train stop to my office in NYC I typically see 3-4 Fedex and UPS trucks unloading their packages for various office buildings. The usual method of getting the package from the truck down to the ground is to literally throw it or kick it off the back of the truck. Rain, snow or oil and dog piss on the ground...the boxes come flying out the back of the truck and crash to the ground.

Yup, and that's what you see once it leaves the warehouse! You should see what happens when it is being loaded into or off of an aircraft! (Hint: DHL is one of the pickier carriers about handling packages carefully. - but you didn't hear that from me)