USPS At It Again..

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bluegrassbrian

Your Mom's Favorite Pipe Smoker
Aug 27, 2016
6,672
64,547
41
Louisville
We all love tracking our parcels. It's one of the greatest aspects of our consumer society. To an extent, it can even drive our happiness or despair..

I've been waiting on a lovely new pipe from Greece to wriggle and writhe its way here over the holiday season - it's slow going.
This morning I check the tracking and..
IMG_8207.jpeg



So is it out for delivery or not? 😂
Guess I'll have to wait and see..
 

Sam Gamgee

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 24, 2022
649
1,696
50
DFW, Texas
I just found a new trick on eBay when I got scammed. Some of the sellers have figured out a clever way to update the tracking info without the package having ever been picked up by USPS. They just bump up the "waiting on USPS" to take possession. Scammers! But eBay is all for the buyers and sellers be damned, so I'll be getting a refund.
 

BigEd

Starting to Get Obsessed
Nov 19, 2023
160
476
Franklin, TN
Back in October I ordered some fishing leaders from Idaho. First stop was Boise which made sense. Then it went to Alaska where it stayed for over a week. After I contacted the shipper it got moving again. To somewhere in Southern California. Then Bakersfield. Then LA. It finally started moving east and I got it about a month late. I half expected somebody in Alaska to have tried them out. 😂
 

bullet08

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
10,340
41,835
RTP, NC. USA
I really don't mind USPS. They get things done okay around here. What gets me on the edge is when the shipper uses UPS Innovation or some such crap. The point where the item is handed off from UPS to USPS is always worrying. Typically, an item will just stay inactive for couple of days for no apparent reason. But I understand Amazon can't sell everything under the sun.
 

bluegrassbrian

Your Mom's Favorite Pipe Smoker
Aug 27, 2016
6,672
64,547
41
Louisville
I really don't mind USPS. They get things done okay around here. What gets me on the edge is when the shipper uses UPS Innovation or some such crap. The point where the item is handed off from UPS to USPS is always worrying. Typically, an item will just stay inactive for couple of days for no apparent reason. But I understand Amazon can't sell everything under the sun.
Overall, I've always had good luck with USPS.
Any problems I've experienced have almost always been at the fault of "customs".
 

anantaandroscoggin

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 9, 2017
697
1,114
71
Greene, Maine, USA
I recently had a package arrived at the Southern Maine regional processing center. Instead of just sending it onwards to my local post office in Greene, it went to Witchita KS where it spernt a few days before coming back to Maine. After spending 2-3 days being "processed" again, it finally made the sub 2-hour trip to Greene.
 
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bobomatic

Starting to Get Obsessed
Oct 11, 2023
120
510
Colombia
roberthunt.com
USPS is known for unreliable tracking updates. I read somewhere the USPS even acknowledges that they have no real time tracking like UPS or FedX. Sometimes it gets scanned correctly and properly updated and sometimes it doesn't. If it's something I need tracked or reliably delivered with accurate updates, I work with eBay sellers to have them ship my item with UPS or FedX... and offer to pay them a tad more if needed.
 

bluegrassbrian

Your Mom's Favorite Pipe Smoker
Aug 27, 2016
6,672
64,547
41
Louisville
USPS is known for unreliable tracking updates. I read somewhere the USPS even acknowledges that they have no real time tracking like UPS or FedX. Sometimes it gets scanned correctly and properly updated and sometimes it doesn't. If it's something I need tracked or reliably delivered with accurate updates, I work with eBay sellers to have them ship my item with UPS or FedX... and offer to pay them a tad more if needed.
Absolutely.
I've just never seen a parcel tracking say it's "Out for Delivery", but then return to "Processing" - especially after just two hours.
And of course, no one knows anything.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,960
14,357
Humansville Missouri
Emmit Molder never was able to get the Hamlet Post Office name changed to Bug Tussle, but when Emmit got old enough for Social Security he closed the Bug Tussle store and that caused the neighborhood to have to go about two miles to Dunnegan for the mail.

There’s a young Amish widow with five little children that lives across the road from where I grew up.

I see her oldest sometimes on the short cut through Spout Spring Hollow to Dunnegan on his donkey cart to get the mail for his Mama.

IMG_6341.jpeg

A Post Office keeps a community alive.

The folks that want fewer post offices and slower mail and me don’t get along, you know?
 

bluegrassbrian

Your Mom's Favorite Pipe Smoker
Aug 27, 2016
6,672
64,547
41
Louisville
Emmit Molder never was able to get the Hamlet Post Office name changed to Bug Tussle, but when Emmit got old enough for Social Security he closed the Bug Tussle store and that caused the neighborhood to have to go about two miles to Dunnegan for the mail.

There’s a young Amish widow with five little children that lives across the road from where I grew up.

I see her oldest sometimes on the short cut through Spout Spring Hollow to Dunnegan on his donkey cart to get the mail for his Mama.

View attachment 275270

A Post Office keeps a community alive.

The folks that want fewer post offices and slower mail and me don’t get along, you know?
At 40 years old, I'm certainly not among the eldest members of this forum - BUT - growing up, there were big blue mailboxes on nearly every corner in my neighborhood.
Nowadays, they're so rare, I couldn't tell you where the closest one is (aside from the actual post office).
I miss those.