US Postal Service Is Horrible

[mordy18]

Never again will I order anything of value that is shipped by USPS. I ordered a pipe from Alex Bondarev in Latvia. It was mailed May 12 by Latvian post, international mail. It arrived in the US on May 28. Fine -- due to current circumstances shipping from abroad is slow, fewer passenger flights to carry cargo so everything goes on dedicated cargo flights.

Then, I wait. June 1 it arrives in a NJ distribution center (I live in northern NJ). Great. Then I see it was sent to a regional facility for distribution today. Fantastic! Um, no. Turns out the regional facility was in kansas, and it is sent for delivery in kansas city.

WTF. Called the local Missouri post office, sure enough they had it, package had my correct NJ address. It just happened to get sent to Kansas bc someone threw it in the wrong bin. Supposedly it is being sent back to NJ. We will see,

Bottom line is usps is completely unreliable. I have had multiple issues with other packages sent domestically. Tracking says it was delivered when it wasn't. Unexplainable delays.

I will never, ever ship anything USPS or order anything via USPS again.

 

[didimauw]

Boycotting USPS is going to make ordering things in the future much more complicated.
I've never had problems with them. Just bad luck I suppose.

 

[canucklehead]

Your package wasn't lost, it merely took a side trip, it would have gotten to you eventually. It hasn't taken very long so far, either. I'm not sure I understand why you are upset.

 

[aquadoc]

I have never had one issue with the USPS. Wait until it is gone and mailing a letter or package is $50-100. Shit happens with a parcel every now and then but in general, if you think of the volume of packages handled daily, the USPS outperforms most organizations!!! 21+ million packages daily. Other mail: 495M daily.

 

[Chasing Embers]

No issues here. Still getting Conus shipments in a few days and international shipments in under a week.

 

[lukasstrifeson]

With no intentions to step on toes, your frustrations are definitely understandable but this feels like much ado about nothing. USPS like many other businesses that are operating during these times are probably filled with temporary or replacement staff, sounds like an honest mistake and a minor inconvenience.

 

[Sonorisis]

I'm not smart enough to tell the USPS how they should run their business. But, I do know that I've never had a problem with them getting things to me. And, I'm amazed at the reasonable prices they charge for getting my stuff to other places.

 

[canucklehead]

I have a package from China that tracking says "arrived in destination country" in Germany. I live in Canada, and have been waiting for 1.5 months now. I still have another 22 days before it's considered late by Ebay.

 

[mordy18]

Like I said, this isnt the first problem I’ve had. Packages have been misplaced multiple times in the past few years. I regularly get mail addressed to someone else. Maybe bad luck? Dont know and dont care. As far as Im concerned it isnt reliable. When shipping a valuable item I’d gladly pay a bit more for reliability and accountability and will do so in the future.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

In my experience, they are do a better job than most services.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

USPS has been very reliable for me up until it goes out for delivery. It never fails to get to the distribution center, but once it gets in my postal lady’s hands, the probability of a mis-delivery goes up.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

USPS has been very reliable for me up until it goes out for delivery. It never fails to get to the distribution center, but once it gets in my postal lady’s hands, the probability of a mis-delivery goes up.

We had a bad carrier a few years ago, twice my packages got sent to a neighbor down the street, and hers got sent to me. But we got it worked out... that was my closest call. The carrier either got her shit together, or she was replaced.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

We had a bad carrier a few years ago, twice my packages got sent to a neighbor down the street, and hers got sent to me. But we got it worked out... that was my closest call. The carrier either got her shit together, or she was replaced.

Every Christmas I play mailman, doing the same thing with everyone’s Amazon packages that get sent to me.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Goddamn Chinaski was probably drunk again.

 

[mso489]

USPS has had pretty good stats for me, with the occasional total frustration, the Christmas box that never got here but eventually surfaced only the tattered tag of the address label. Or the box that arrives, that I tear into, to find it is addressed to a next-door neighbor. I think some of the bad rep is generated when customers make errors. Compared to UPS, and Lord knows FedEx, it is a huge bargain and sometimes much faster. Also, USPS has a social function; when a post office closes in a smaller community, the little town usually soon dies, any retail closes, and houses stand empty, not always but often, and predictably. My wife, from a fairly remote rural community, remembers getting flat boxes of live chicks in the spring, and Sears catalog items that were the cause of huge anticipation.

 

[Misanthrope]

I usually have decent luck with USPS for domestic shipments. I've only had a few misdelivered letters and one misdelivered package (all brought over by neighbors) over the past few months, but for international, it's a different story due to cootievirus impact.

I have a package from CigarWorld in Germany that's been stuck in "Origin Post Is Preparing Shipment" status since May 3, and that one was ordered sometime in April. Packages from the UK have been taking an extra week or so to arrive. I've stopped ordering anything internationally that isn't coming by FedEx or DHL Express.

 

[cigrmaster]

USPS is a model of efficiency,always being right, never loosing a package and the money they make, wow. Ever see a balance sheet like they have? I wish I could run up billions in debt and never pay it back?
My cousin worked her whole career for them, has a real nice pension , good health care, and lives a very nice comfortable life . She owns her own home in Florida, and it is all due to the greatest, most well run company on the planet.

 

[bnichols23]

I've normally had pretty good luck with USPS. Did have one occurrence a couple of months ago where the package went from CA to NC, back to CA back to NC & then here to me in SC. It arrived only one day late, though, over a holiday weekend, so I wasn't too put out about it.

I do have one package of two pipes ordered from Russia well over a month ago that was last processed through Russian Post at St. Petersburg a month & several days ago, with nothing since. I figured it was sent by ship. I'll be glad to get it when (presumably) it gets here. I do know that USPS hasn't been involved in it yet.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

Never again will I order anything of value that is shipped by USPS. I ordered a pipe from Alex Bondarev in Latvia. It was mailed May 12 by Latvian post, international mail. It arrived in the US on May 28. Fine -- due to current circumstances shipping from abroad is slow, fewer passenger flights to carry cargo so everything goes on dedicated cargo flights.

Then, I wait. June 1 it arrives in a NJ distribution center (I live in northern NJ). Great. Then I see it was sent to a regional facility for distribution today. Fantastic! Um, no. Turns out the regional facility was in kansas, and it is sent for delivery in kansas city.

WTF. Called the local Missouri post office, sure enough they had it, package had my correct NJ address. It just happened to get sent to Kansas bc someone threw it in the wrong bin. Supposedly it is being sent back to NJ. We will see,

Bottom line is usps is completely unreliable. I have had multiple issues with other packages sent domestically. Tracking says it was delivered when it wasn't. Unexplainable delays.

I will never, ever ship anything USPS or order anything via USPS again.

I have, on maybe five occasions in the last few years, had packages go from the shipper to the correct Distribution Center for my address, then take a side trip elsewhere. A few weeks ago one went from JR to the right Center, then to Fox Valley Illinois, then to Chicago, then to Pittsburgh, then back to the correct center, then to me. On that one, thanks to a tip by @BROBS, I filled out an on line form. A few days later, after the package had already been delivered, I got a call from a supervisor to apologize.

I get packages incoming several days a week since I now get several things from on line sellers that I can’t buy at a drive through. Over the last few months, I have averaged sending out maybe 8-10 First Class and Priority Mail boxes a week. I haven’t had a lost item in 20 years plus, and over the last four years since I started using on line tracking, I have had exactly one shipment that was delayed by as much as a week in getting to a recipient of some tobacco.

If the tracking # is in the system, it ain’t lost. When I am on the receiving end of something that is taking the great circle route to get to me, I just relax and smoke a pipe.

 

[olkofri]

Even FedEx or DHL aren't entirely reliable. I've had the latter schedule a delivery for a given day and they don't shew up till the next or the day after the next.

Lately, the post is all ahoo, which I think is due to the present, ongoing chaos. I was at my B&M on Monday and the tobacconist was telling me that parcels from the US are taking way too long to arrive, that parcels from Germany are getting here faster. I've experienced the same problem with my non-tobacco-related parcels. Even my suppliers are warning that shipping times are likely to be longer than expected.

Even domestic post is problematic now: CanadaPost took over a week to have a parcel delivered here from Vancouver.

All in all, I still prefer the post for most things. They post guys here are very nice and I wanna keep them employed (one reason I refuse 'go paperless' offers from utilities/CRA/&c). And if courier companies can no longer guarantee timely delivery, there's no point in paying extra on freight, duties, and brokerage just to have the parcel arriving late anyway.