TallTayl Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 I have read twitter feeds and news articles about the USPS delays of late, but had not experienced it locally, until just recently. I'm in a somewhat rural area, but a big enough town to usually get speedy, reliable service. Has anyone else spent a greater proportion of time tracking delayed packages lately? My PO used to get packages to the sorting facility the same day as long as it was in their possession by 5:30 pm. One I had to track for a customer today was kept at our local PO for 4 days =( Understandably the customer was a little upset. the tracking info shows the item was packed and delivered to the PO within hours of being ordered. I am super thankful I busted my stuff to get that out same day!! At least the lateness was not my fault *this time*. Mental note: this leaves smaller margins for packing shipping delays on my end. As a small business Indie, shipping is probably the most important aspect of my business. USPS is usually the most affordable shipping method, especially given most of my daily orders are less than 1lb. How are you planning to handle the impending shipping issues? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightLight Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 Been there already on both sides. I do let the customer know due to Covid all shipment from carriers are inaccurate at this time. USPS is doing a wonderful thing where they say delivered then take up to a week longer to actually have packages delivered. You can email customers and let them know, or put announcement on your websites. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted August 3, 2020 Author Share Posted August 3, 2020 Word on the street is that the mail is delayed about 2 days because of no overtime, etc. No end in sight for the delays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YellowButterfly Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 Currently going through this. I shipped a package and it arrived at the destination city's USPS on August 6 at 4:29 am and was "delivered" on August 6 at 3:06 pm. As of today (August 11), the customer hasn't received the item. We've been chatting and I told her I'd ship another with no cost to her, but still. IDK what is going on. Well, I know what's going on, but I don't know. UGH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted August 11, 2020 Author Share Posted August 11, 2020 26 minutes ago, YellowButterfly said: Currently going through this. I shipped a package and it arrived at the destination city's USPS on August 6 at 4:29 am and was "delivered" on August 6 at 3:06 pm. As of today (August 11), the customer hasn't received the item. We've been chatting and I told her I'd ship another with no cost to her, but still. IDK what is going on. Well, I know what's going on, but I don't know. UGH. When I bring the tracking # to the PO and they key it into their super secret back room computer it tends to show up the next day. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YellowButterfly Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 7 minutes ago, TallTayl said: When I bring the tracking # to the PO and they key it into their super secret back room computer it tends to show up the next day. Ooh! Nice to know, @TallTayl! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponiebr Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 If I've said it once in the past decade, I've said it a hundred times. The USPS will be defunct by 2025. They keep limiting services and increasing pricing to the point NOW where even 1st class mail isn't being delivered on time or correctly. I had 2 Netflix movies that were reported as delivered go AWOL for a week. PART of the problem I suspect is that the USPS employees (the regular ones) are taking their free 80 hours of COVID-19 leave. It's a free 2 week vacation ON TOP of their regular leave. Now that's just my suspicion. WHY would I have that as a suspicion, you ask? Well! I happen to KNOW that the leave is available. SECOND I have been told that the USPS regular employees are all out on leave and the USPS is having contractors that DON'T know OR (apparently) CARE about how to properly process and deliver the mail (I was a Postmaster at one time, it AIN'T that hard folks). So... I'm guessing they're burning up their federal COVID leave. Anyway... Whaddya mean by DEFUNCT!!!? It's the USPS!!! It's our NATIONAL POSTAL SERVICE!!! IT WILL NEVER BE DEFUNCT.... Ohhhhhhesssitwilll.... Right now the USPS is and HAS BEEN for a VERY LONG TIME a private enterprise with Federal oversight on price changes. It's a PRIVATE company, just like Fed-Ex or UPS, BUT with the added burden of having to get Congressional approval for price changes. I personally think that the USPS has gone FAR PAST the point-of-no-return on their INSANE routing changes, "streamlined automation", personnel cutbacks, price hikes, and service removals. They CAN'T recover from this SO... My guess is that the USPS will be REABSORBED as a Federal Agency and that is BAD, BAD, BAD, news for everyone. WHY!? It would be more reliable service and lower costs, blah, blah, blah... Oh yes... It would... BUT it would ALSO be a MASSIVE reduction on the types of things you can ship through the mail. More IMPORTANTLY it will change the political scene DRASTICALLY. I'm not going to elaborate any further than to let YOUR OWN PRIVATE THOUGHTS on the matter run wild with the idea of voting by a mail service RUN and OWNED by the Government. The Federal Government has CLEARLY already taken over some of the USPS services like the "Informed Delivery". Let me tell ya what that is called: Automated Electronic Archiving of Mail Covers. For you gamers this is basically "Big Brothering GOD MODE". When I was a Postmaster it was a FELONY to make mail covers (a mail cover is a photograph or reproduction of the mail face of a mail article) without an OFFICIAL investigation going on. Now the USPS is now offering this electronically as "a service", and "Oh, NO!!!!" THEY don't keep any records of the mail covers.... Which is correct. ANOTHER US agency is keeping the records. It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine. I guess... Meh... Not really too plussed about it, honestly. Sponiebr The Executor of Bad Ideas and Sundry Services Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerven Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 I'm just amazed at their shoddy and shady tracking system. How could a tracking number possibly show that a package is either on the truck for delivery or already delivered when it's still sitting in a pile at the main branch? Are they not scanned at each waypoint? Is the system spitting out guesstimated locations without anyone actually checking in the packages? Are employees being told to just scan the items to make it appear as though something is happening when it isn't? It's hardly reliable. This has been going on, for me, at least, since after the holiday season of 2019. Finally had a package go missing, waited to submit what needed submitting. Business submitted stuff on their end. After I had finally given up and the business wrote it off, I get an email nearly a month later that the USPS has received my missing package report. Wait... what.. A month later? Are the service requests sitting in an inbox and someone finally had the time to go through them or are they inundated with requests due to severely lacking performance? That package, if it was delivered to the wrong address, is loooong gone. Seems to me that the issues we're hearing about in the news are far worse than they're being made out to be. Too bad for those sending perishables. I wonder if the loading bays have started to stink. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponiebr Posted August 16, 2020 Share Posted August 16, 2020 On 8/12/2020 at 4:06 PM, Kerven said: I'm just amazed at their shoddy and shady tracking system. How could a tracking number possibly show that a package is either on the truck for delivery or already delivered when it's still sitting in a pile at the main branch? Are they not scanned at each waypoint? Is the system spitting out guesstimated locations without anyone actually checking in the packages? Are employees being told to just scan the items to make it appear as though something is happening when it isn't? It's hardly reliable. This has been going on, for me, at least, since after the holiday season of 2019. Finally had a package go missing, waited to submit what needed submitting. Business submitted stuff on their end. After I had finally given up and the business wrote it off, I get an email nearly a month later that the USPS has received my missing package report. Wait... what.. A month later? Are the service requests sitting in an inbox and someone finally had the time to go through them or are they inundated with requests due to severely lacking performance? That package, if it was delivered to the wrong address, is loooong gone. Seems to me that the issues we're hearing about in the news are far worse than they're being made out to be. Too bad for those sending perishables. I wonder if the loading bays have started to stink. They have lost ALL control of ALL classes of mail. I've had things delivered and then get an update from the tracking "system" that shows it 2 states away... They're not TRACKING anything anymore. They notify you of a tracking number and then based off a predetermined calculation plot the tracking notifications to where it SHOULD be based on the time since the tracking number was created... It's not even a reasonable prediction "service". They know what the route from point A to point B is and they plot it along THAT route. It's like those math word problems in school: 2 cars heading to Topeka one at 70 mph and the other at 66 kph where is the blue bus at 4 pm and is Chuck's wife having a boy or a girl? Who is the father? (Hint: A feather from the breast of a titmouse weighs .02 grams in Des Moines but .021 grams in Colfax...) See my diatribe above your comment on USPS and their "service". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CandleRush Posted August 16, 2020 Share Posted August 16, 2020 They have struggled for a long time! 🌸I think if they want to exist they need to revamp and modernize their system. With lost pkgs and delays and Not to get too political here, how do people think mailing in a ballot come November is secure? 🌸 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightLight Posted August 16, 2020 Share Posted August 16, 2020 Here. https://fortune.com/2020/07/24/usps-mail-delivery-postmaster-general-louis-dejoy-us-postal-service/ Trump-backed postmaster general plans to slow mail delivery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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