Yet they keep increasing their rates. Incredible. I had a package leave my post office in NJ and go to Georgia. But first, it had to have a taste of Los Angeles, then somewhere in the Carolina before it arrived at my friends home in GA. ETA was 3 days took 5. I think part of the problem is that the USPS does not pick up and deliver all of their mail from post offices to regional distribution points. They outsource their pickups and deliveries to third parties, so you’re at the mercy of a trucking company. They may have loads for multiple distribution centers on one truck and they all wind up at one facility, then have to go through the cycle…again!
Amazon is no better, especially on their deliveries with their own trucks. Two deliveries to my house the same day. One left at the front door, which is fine. The second larger package was left at the front of my garage in plain site to be picked up and stolen. Telling them this was unaccpetable is a waste as I spent 15 minutes on a chat with someone who is basically reading from a script, told what to say and can’t think for themselves.
I regularly send packages to Ohio, to a small town there. I send them in a Flat Rate box, as I usually do and they get to that small town post office within 3 business days. The entity that I send those packages to picks them up at the local post office. There was one occasion when I sent a package and I waited a week to see if they received it - - they hadn’t. Turns out it sat in the local post office for about 5 days until they made the package available for pick up. I know that because USPS tracking had verified that it had been received by that local post office on the expected date of delivery.
I’ve often wondered that myself. About a month ago, I ordered a pair of new motors for my Athearn DDA40X from HobbyTown USA and they took two weeks to get here from Illinois because they bypassed my home in Colorado Springs, and instead went to California before coming back to Colorado. I also wondered if I was actually going to get them as my mail carrier regularly miss-delivers my mail to a house the next street over. It’s a totally different street name and recipient name. The only common factor is the house number is the same and both streets begin with a “C”. It happens on an almost weekly basis. The Post Office must’ve dropped the reading requirement.[%-)]
I just ordered some detail parts off of eBay, and we’ll see if they make it here. [(-D] In addition to the “in transit to the next facility” is the equally terrible “your package is moving within the USPS network”. [xx(] I once had a package move within the USPS network from SC to the distribution center in Warrendale, PA, right near the OH border which is the normal route. Instead of going west into OH and then to my town, the package went east into PA, fizzled out, and eventually marked as delivered. [banghead] Another time my package got stuck in Myrtle Beach post office and was there for days. What was it doing? Playing golf? [|(] On these two occasions, I had to call USPS and I found their customer service reps to be very helpful in finding out the problem and getting it fixed almost immediately. For real, no joke! [(-D]
Lord help you if you have both a physical address and PO Box. Our PO says to use the physical address followed by #PO Box Number. Our small, rural PO has had their hours severly reduced to the point where the UPS Sure Post shipments often cannot be delivered to them for consecutive days…they are not open to receive them. When they do come in, if there are not enough package lockers, you get a notice in your mailbox to pick up at the window which is only open a few hours a day…in the middle of the day, when most are at work. Our once efficient and convenient postal service, the best in the world, is slowly being privatized ande starved to death.
On one of my two missing packages, I have noticed that every day, the Tracking History is changed by advancing the “In Transit To Next Facility” date by one day.
In other words, it now reads February 17, 2019 - In Transit To Next Facility. Yesterday, it read, February 16, 2019 - In Transit To Next Facility. The day before that it read, February 15, 2019 - In Transit To Next Facility. So, these are not cumulative entries, it is simply one entry with the date changed every day. If this keeps up, a week from today it will read, February 24, 2019 - In Transit To Next Facility.
Meanwhile, my other missing package remains unchanged. It continues to read, February 11, 2019 - In Transit To Next Facility. That’s 6 days and counting since it left the “USPS Regional Facility - Chicago IL Network Distribution Center”, and 10 days since it arrived there.
OK, I have a new story to add. Yesterday the DCC dummy plug I ordered for my Bachmann 2-8-4 Berkshire got here in a thick plastic bag that was in an envelope lined with bubble wrap, and when I opened it the pins were poking through the thick plastic bag and they were bent to one side. Fortunately I was able to straighten them with fine needlenose pliers and it works fine now. So my question is how was this accomplished in a padded envelope? Did they drop a cinderblock on it?[*-)]
1st the local rural carrier decided to purposely deliver our mail to our neighbor, luckily said neighbor was a relative so it wasn’t too bad.
2nd once the distribution center that handles all the mail for out here refused an entire pallet of packages from UPS one of the packages was a time sensitive item that was bound for us.
3rd whenever we order something via UPS ghe package will sit in Zachary (the aforementioned distribution center) for at least 3 days before making it to our P.O. Box in Slaughter, we usually will just go to the Zachary PO and pick up the package because they have lost things before.
Well thats about all, I once had a package be “in transit to next facility” for 2 weeks after I had gotten it in the mail.
The USPS has something called INFORMED DELIVERY. They send you a daily email with pictures, often of all you junk mail you will receive, every day. What a waste of time and money.
Sometimes you don’t get some of that mail for two days, sometimes the pictures are of yesterday’s mail.
My father in law died 16 years before I met my wife. Now, 49 years after he passed away, we still get his junk mail.
Here is my latest update on the two missing packages.
The item that I purchased on February 5th was mailed on February 6th and will finally be delivered today.
The item that was mailed on February 11th finally arrived yesterday after spending 7 days in nowhere land.
Both of these items were 2-Day Priority Mail, but took 15 and 9 days to receive their destination.
In conclusion, I can only say that the USPS Priority Mail wording “In Transit To Next Faciity” on its website are the most dreaded words in postal mailings.
My favorite story is the shipper who claimed on-line that the package had been delivered at such and such a time. Except that the package was not on my doorstep and the time was 30 minutes into the future.
I admit that I am surprised that USPS priority mail may be an issue. I have never had any problems with priority mail.
I have a package that was sent via regular mail from NY to OH on the 14th, took a tour of ME and then NH. It’s been a week now and I’ve been assured by the USPS that it’s really, really on its way:
“Your package will arrive later than expected, but is still on its way. It is currently in transit to the next facility.”
Hmmm…wonder if the package will take some time off to spend in PA? [(-D]
I agree with you I don’t need or want to know in advance all the junk that the government sponsored ad agency known as the USPS deliveres to my door everyday.
Junk mail, in the grand scheme of things, is only a minor annoyance. Yeah, I’ve gotten junk mail for people who were probably previous residents as well.
But I look at it this way, the Post Office is underwater financially and takes in less than it costs to run it. The junk mail helps to prop the USPS up and keep the fee’s from going even higher than they are. USPS parcel shipping costs less than UPS or other services as well.
So all in all, while I have had a few odd problems now and then, overall the USPS is pretty good. My wife is from England and she is impressed with the USPS over the UK postal service, which is worse she says. Stuff happens and I guess it gives people something to whine about over their morning coffee clutch.
I just drove 120 miles(RT) to my old address to pick up an eBay item. The eBay receipt had my new address, the package had my new address on it. It sat in the St Paul facility for 4 days, had a ‘new’ sticker applied and was shipped to an address that was 2 years old!
I most definitely agree with riogrande. The USPS has impressive service and still manages to keep the rates down. I sent a really long package wieghing around 3 pounds through them once, and it was less than $20. UPS is just ripoff. I bet Scaletrains could lower their prices even more if they shipped through USPS instead. Just wait this out. Hopefully this craziness will be resolved. Just think. It could be as bad as some of the issues at MRR…