USPS

[Rand]

I assume most of you are signed up for the "Informed Delivery" email that gives you a picture of all the mail being delivered to you each day. Super handy out here in the middle of nowhere and when you have several different mail boxes sprinkled around the Sierras. Anyway, this is what my "Informed Delivery" mail looked like today:

[conetop62]

I have a few cans that was shipped over 30 days ago and have yet to see them. Tracking shows they usually set a week or so at each stop along the way. I am sure the employees are overwhelmed and doing the best they can. On the flip side my buddy is a UPS driver. He usually stops in to shoot the bull for 15 minutes or so each day. He has been a UPS driver for over 26 years and he says that he has never had it this easy during the “Christmas rush” He says that UPS hands off most of the smaller packages for the Post Office to deliver because it is cheaper that way. Kind of makes you wonder if UPS even cares if you get your packages on time.

[oldindiapaleale]

I assume most of you are signed up for the "Informed Delivery" email that gives you a picture of all the mail being delivered to you each day. Super handy out here in the middle of nowhere and when you have several different mail boxes sprinkled around the Sierras. Anyway, this is what my "Informed Delivery" mail looked like today:

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I got the same notice today, along with 16 inches of snow. Good day to be inside !

[Longhorn Mike]

He says that UPS hands off most of the smaller packages for the Post Office to deliver because it is cheaper that way. Kind of makes you wonder if UPS even cares if you get your packages on time.

I just found out about that a few weeks ago. I ordered a t-shirt shirt last month and when they shipped it, they sent me tracking emails updating me on the status of UPS. It made it to the DFW area in a day or so, but I was surprised when the next email informed me it has been dropped off at the main Dallas USPS distribution center, where it languished for a week before it made it to my local PO, then sat another couple of days before it was delivered.

I had no idea UPS did that.

- Mike

[oldindiapaleale]

I just found out about that a few weeks ago. I ordered a t-shirt shirt last month and when they shipped it, they sent me tracking emails updating me on the status of UPS. It made it to the DFW area in a day or so, but I was surprised when the next email informed me it has been dropped off at the main Dallas USPS distribution center, where it languished for a week before it made it to my local PO, then sat another couple of days before it was delivered.

I had no idea UPS did that.

- Mike
[/quote]

It is called "Last Mile" delivery. USPS has been doing it for many years with UPS, DHL, and Amazon. Not sure about Fedex.

[pinnacle-project]

He says that UPS hands off most of the smaller packages for the Post Office to deliver because it is cheaper that way. Kind of makes you wonder if UPS even cares if you get your packages on time.

I just found out about that a few weeks ago. I ordered a t-shirt shirt last month and when they shipped it, they sent me tracking emails updating me on the status of UPS. It made it to the DFW area in a day or so, but I was surprised when the next email informed me it has been dropped off at the main Dallas USPS distribution center, where it languished for a week before it made it to my local PO, then sat another couple of days before it was delivered.

I had no idea UPS did that.

- Mike

It's a special tier of service below the usual UPS Ground. Not all UPS Ground packages utilize the post office.

[Scott]

I'm sorry many of you are experiencing difficulties. I've been pretty quiet as far as can mailing goes this year so don't have much first hand experience. I did send a flat rate box this Tuesday by priority mail from Portland, Oregon. It arrived in North Carolina yesterday meaning the box made it across the entire country and to my father's semi-rural doorstep in 48 hours during the holiday rush! He lives about 90 minutes from the nearest commercial airport in Raleigh-Durham and I have no idea where the postal distribution center is located. Maybe this is an outlier on the positive side but the system is not entirely broken (yet).

[jacoby4664]

Eureka, Package arrived and the can was a repaint. All that for a "long story". Drat.

[pinnacle-project]

Eureka, Package arrived and the can was a repaint. All that for a "long story". Drat.

That really stinks. I hope you did not pay too much for it.

[Beverlx]

I just sold a little Hummel figure on eBay and dropped it off at the post office (first class, no insurance, I mean it's worth $20) on Tuesday, January 19, about 2 pm in the afternoon. Put it in their premarked packages drop-off area.

Meanwhile I got this antiques guy buyer down in Georgia. On 1/27 we have a totally friendly reasonable conversation and I send him case numbers and the whole deal. On 1/29 he emails me back and is bubbling irate, like we never talked about this just two days previously, like he's never heard of a post office delay. I ignore it and ask the USPO again what's up. Other than a basic auto-reply acknowledgement, USPO doesn't tell me squat.

They did not scan it as received until January 26. Seven days it sat there. But somehow even though they scanned it in on 1/26, it was not in the tracking system on 1/27 or 1/29. It was finally delivered on 2/1.

And that's my story.

[Kevin the Ex-Editor]

I ordered a t-shirt from Florida, one state away. I came to me by way of El Paso.

Figure that one.

[Longhorn Mike]

The USPS is under incredible stress, yet, so far I've been lucky and nothing has been lost (knock on wood).

I sell several low value cans a week. I will put them in the same size box and mail them first class through my local PO drop box all at once. It is amazing to follow their deliveries. Some items are immediately scanned and are quickly moved through the system. Others say they are still waiting for me to drop off the item for days before they show up in the system. Some items that are going to cities in the DFW meteoplex, where I live, are literally delivered in less than 24 hours. Items going out of state can take anywhere from 2 to 25 days.

I've noticed if you have an item that appears to be stuck in transit somewhere and you have hit the 20 day mark, go on the USPS website and open a lost package case. Like a miracle, they seem to find it and it gets delivered in about 3 more days.

You would think that all of the extra items in the system caused by the election, then Christmas would be over and the system would be back to the Covid "normal", but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Rusty Bunch PO Employees keep up the good work!

- Mike

[Conehead]

Hooray!!! I just received an item that I bought on eBay on December 11th. Anybody able to beat that time length?

Here's the tracking.

[OhioCanGuy]

Hooray!!! I just received an item that I bought on eBay on December 11th. Anybody able to beat that time length?

Here's the tracking.

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For domestic shipping, that very well may be a record.

What was going through your head from December 15 to January 23? By third week in January I would have been convinced that NO ONE would ever see that package again.

Good for you on it actually showing up!

[Kevin the Ex-Editor]

I got an email today saying my package had been delivered to my door at 1:06 pm. Now, I was working from home today and the mail hadn't been delivered up to that point. It showed up at 6:00 pm. I guess it was invisible up to that point.