How's Your Mail Service?

[Razors Edge ★]

It's hard to judge mine these days as we just get a shit ton of junk and not much else.  However, I know my wife's father's day card arrived to her dad several days later than expected, and she got a few birthday cards recently several days past her birthday.  Since "postmarking" seems like a dying thing (WTF?), it's tough to tell if folks are just "late" mailing stuff and can blame the USPS or if it really is slower than it should be.

I get so much stuff via FedEx and UPS (and Laser) these days, that it is rarer for something to be USPS only.

[bikeman564™]

I don't usually get much, but over the last few weeks I had a few packages coming. Slower than normal. Also, I notice delivery is later than normal too.

[Longjohn ★]

I have no idea. We get 90%junk and 10% kind of junk, I don’t really need. I hate having to open shit to see if it’s safe to throw away.

[Razors Edge ★]

Just now, bikeman564™ said:

I don't usually get much, but over the last few weeks I had a few packages coming. Slower than normal. Also, I notice delivery is later than normal too.

I have two shipments due tomorrow - one via USPS and one UPS - so we'll see if both trackers are correct or not.  I feel like packages aren't slow, but they are becoming expensive. 

[Razors Edge ★]

Just now, Longjohn said:

I have no idea. We get 90%junk and 10% kind of junk, I don’t really need. I hate having to open shit to see if it’s safe to throw away.

I thought we came up with an innovative shredder/burn can mailbox solution for you?  Do you need one of the engineers here to draw up some CAD/CAM/Whatever diagrams?

[JerrySTL ★]

Very good. No complaints. 

[bikeman564™]

2 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

I have two shipments due tomorrow - one via USPS and one UPS - so we'll see if both trackers are correct or not.  I feel like packages aren't slow, but they are becoming expensive. 

Tracking for USPS is not being updated...for me anyway.

[ChrisL]

We get very little other than junk via USPS anymore.  Anymore my wife checks it 3-4 times a week and nearly every time every bit of it goes into the trash.  
 

[jdc2000]

All of the USPS workers in my area are of the disgruntled variety.  I have had packages left in the rain on my neighbor's driveway, mail wadded into a ball and jammed into my mail slot, mail that never gets delivered, a shipment of new blank checks from my bank that went to a completely different address blocks away (I did get them from an honest person at that address), and lots of mail that should have gone to my neighbors by was left at my address instead.

Also, my route never has the same postal carrier for any length of time.  At my previous address, we had the same carrier for many years.  At my current address, we have probably had 400 different carriers.

I went to the main Post Office once and there was no one at the counter.  Someone looked out from behind some shelves, saw customers, and shouted for someone else to go take care of them.  The person being directed to do that shouted back "I took care of the last ones - you get these!".

 

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

Slower. Speaking of which, he just drove up. I ordered an album from a seller in MA July 30. Delivery date was August 11 - 16. Tracking showed it went to MA mail faculty, then Newark NJ, then DC, then Merrifield VA. I received it yesterday. Past deliveries from Amazon using USPS are 2-3 days. 

[jsharr ★]

1 hour ago, Razors Edge said:

It's hard to judge mine these days as we just get a shit ton of junk and not much else.  However, I know my wife's father's day card arrived to her dad several days later than expected, and she got a few birthday cards recently several days past her birthday.  Since "postmarking" seems like a dying thing (WTF?), it's tough to tell if folks are just "late" mailing stuff and can blame the USPS or if it really is slower than it should be.

I get so much stuff via FedEx and UPS (and Laser) these days, that it is rarer for something to be USPS only.

I mailed you a pound of Brandon's best a week or so ago...

[Razors Edge ★]

10 minutes ago, jsharr said:

I mailed you a pound of Brandon's best a week or so ago...

A second batch?!?!?! FedEx was quicker!

[Mr. Silly]

Here's a transcript of an excerpt of an interview

What is different?

Just last Friday

My gut tells me if you plan to vote by mail and you want your vote to count then you better send it in as soon as possible. 

No further comment from me.

[maddmaxx ★]

Mail is sitting around in some postal facilities longer than it used to.  I know when my vendors ship something and then it sits for a number of days in the site to which they deliver it.  Eventually it gets moving but at least one facility in North Carolina is glacially slow.  Some race car tires were put in the postal facility Saturday and they still haven't left that place.

We won't even talk about mail from Asia.  Some countries have shut down their post offices because they don't want lines or crowds.  Consequently something that might have mailed from Hong Kong for $15 arriving in about 2 weeks is now shipping by container for $115 and taking two months.

[Further]

[KrAzY]

I sent a check out on the 6th and it got to the company today. The company is literally a 5 minute drive from my home. 
So 6 days for the mail to get to the same town that has three post offices in it. 

[maddmaxx ★]

There is a significant amount of cost cutting going on in the postal service.  I can say no more about that.

[MickinMD ★]

A lot of the mail that goes to my house and is supposed to be forwarded to me doesn't come based on mail before Mar.3.  It took forever to get them to forward mail.  I'm not getting some magazines: Chess Life, Smithsonian, Scientific American every month.

Sometimes, when I go to do yard work, there's mail in the mailbox on the wall of the house right next to the boarded-up doorway!

Sometimes new credit cards sent through the mail come to me.  At least one was returned to the credit card company by the Post Office as "undeliverable" - clearly they never checked the forwarding address.

My local Post Office branch has a history of being awful even before the pandemic.  If I have to do anything serious at the Post Office like apply for a passport, I drive 20 minutes past my local branch and go to the one near my sister's house in a more upscale location.

 

 

[petitepedal ★]

Ours has been terrible for about 4 years when the made us an auxiliary route..no real regular carrier and often a training route...Hard to believe..but it is getting worse...Found a treasury check for 1 resident in a box where that resident had moved out ...it was for a different resident..granted same last name but WTF..Erickson, Peterson..heck we have 3 Burke's THEY CAN'T READ. Packages..either not put in package lockers, left on the counter or left in the locked mailroom but reported as delivered.

[Razors Edge ★]

If  you've never asked yourself why the US Army isn't making a profit or why the Air Force doesn't "pay for itself" or the Navy isn't figuring out how to work tourism and passengers into their jobs to help offset the expense of running a fleet, then maybe you should wonder why you think the Post Office is different.  Why don't courts charge more for the judges and staff's time? Why doesn't the Patent & Trademark Office take a cut of the revenue from those protected ideas & ideas?

Conceptually, if the the military was just required to kick back maybe 10%-20% of their expenses each year from some sort of revenue sources, that would be HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars a year!  Think of how great that would be! The USPS is able to offset about 90% of their annual cost - bringing in a nice $70+ billion to the show, so if we could get the military, courts, patent office, etc, to do the same, we might be able to really change things up!

[Johnny Come Lately Name]

Mail service is pretty horrid....but then, it has been.

Every time I have an issue and have to go to the Post Orifice, when they realize whose route I'm on, there's always eye rolling.

She's cute, though.

[Razors Edge ★]

11 minutes ago, F_in Ray Of Sunshine said:

She's cute, though.

[maddmaxx ★]

There is intent behind the slowdown.  It's not an accident, a victim of the virus or power outages.

[Razors Edge ★]

1 minute ago, maddmaxx said:

There is intent behind the slowdown.  It's not an accident, a victim of the virus or power outages.

But you agree we could make a LOT of money if we treated other things like the military, courts, and patent office as revenue streams, correct? We could all retire early!

[Razors Edge ★]

20 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

I have two shipments due tomorrow - one via USPS and one UPS - so we'll see if both trackers are correct or not.  I feel like packages aren't slow, but they are becoming expensive. 

The race is on!  Was the USPS warning me with the "arriving late" note or does that just relate to the by 8:00pm time?  And will UPS - with a by 9pm time - get here first? Will the non-stop rain affect either??? Will one be left in the rain, and one in shelter (or in a bag or stuffed into my mailbox) or will both be treated with respect?  Why is one "expected" (very loosy goosy) and one "scheduled" (more firm!)???

[Prophet Zacharia]

43 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

There is intent behind the slowdown.  It's not an accident, a victim of the virus or power outages.

 

[Kzoo]

A couple months ago I ordered one of those consumer items off the internet that was being shipped from China with a 4 week delivery time.  Deliver was via USPS.  The company had a tracking site that was kept up to date.  I understood the delivery was 4 weeks so I was patient but interested in tracking.  It want something like this:

Day 1 - Order received

Day 2 - Order shipped

Day 3 - Left China

Day 5 - Arrived LA, CA

Day 7 - Cleared Customs and handoff to USPS

nothing

nothing

nothin

Day 29 - Delivery notice from USPS - to be delivered tomorrow

Day 30 - no delivery

Day 31 - Delivered

 

5 days from order to Calif. 25 days from Calif to Michigan.  I understand it was a bulk class delivery and I understand the less than optimal status.  No complaints - it was just interesting to track the shipment from China and then no data from USPS until delivery.  We get some inventory delivered here (most it direct shipped to our client) and foe small stuff sometimes USPS is the method shipped.  USPS tracking is no existent.

[Razors Edge ★]

1 hour ago, Kzoo said:

A couple months ago I ordered one of those consumer items off the internet that was being shipped from China with a 4 week delivery time.  Deliver was via USPS.  The company had a tracking site that was kept up to date.  I understood the delivery was 4 weeks so I was patient but interested in tracking.  It want something like this:

Day 1 - Order received

Day 2 - Order shipped

Day 3 - Left China

Day 5 - Arrived LA, CA

Day 7 - Cleared Customs and handoff to USPS

nothing

nothing

nothin

Day 29 - Delivery notice from USPS - to be delivered tomorrow

Day 30 - no delivery

Day 31 - Delivered

 

5 days from order to Calif. 25 days from Calif to Michigan.  I understand it was a bulk class delivery and I understand the less than optimal status.  No complaints - it was just interesting to track the shipment from China and then no data from USPS until delivery.  We get some inventory delivered here (most it direct shipped to our client) and foe small stuff sometimes USPS is the method shipped.  USPS tracking is no existent.

Judging by the UPS tracking I have, a "black hole of info" seems to exist outside USPS as well.  I'd think, with a 9pm delivery expectation, that it would at least be at my local sorting facility or even on a truck and out for delivery by now.

[maddmaxx ★]

I don't think all of tracking is being funded any more.  Many top ranked postal execs have been fired.  The news has told the story many times.  It's true.

[Razors Edge ★]

34 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Judging by the UPS tracking I have, a "black hole of info" seems to exist outside USPS as well.  I'd think, with a 9pm delivery expectation, that it would at least be at my local sorting facility or even on a truck and out for delivery by now.

Came out the other side!

[Randomguy]

Post offices are a mess, I get much of my mail and some of my neighbors, of few of whom are several blocks away and with no common names or numbers.

I have been trying to get into mine for about a week or so to send something, long waits that I couldn't end up waiting for.  At the tail end of a storm, i sprinted there and was in and out!  Yay!

[Razors Edge ★]

And now the USPS is taking the lead!!!  They can still stumble, but WTF UPS????

[Kirby]

They didn't bring me any bills today, so good.

[Razors Edge ★]

Jeebus - it's a battle for mediocrity!

[maddmaxx ★]

Yesterday they delayed an out for delivery because my driveway was blocked.  There was no driveway blockage all day, let alone at the time specified.  I think the package truck driver just got behind or lazy.  It was delivered as one of the first of the day this morning at 8:30

[maddmaxx ★]

I hear rumors that the postal service is in the midst of renovating it's mail sorting machinery.  This covers taking sorting machines out of service till their replacements come on line.

 

December?

[Airehead]

I sent a box to a SW cafe member on Monday.  It was supposed to go to the west coast.  I paid extra for rapid delivery.  HE still doesnt have it.

[Prophet Zacharia]

9 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

I hear rumors that the postal service is in the midst of renovating it's mail sorting machinery.  This covers taking sorting machines out of service till their replacements come on line.

 

December?

I heard a rumor mailboxes were being removed from the streets.

 

[Randomguy]

2 hours ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

I heard a rumor mailboxes were being removed from the streets.

 

More depressing (and plausible) accusations from the swamp that gets deeper, murkier, and increasingly toxic every time you examine it.

[jdc2000]

https://localnews8.com/politics/2020/08/14/usps-removes-mail-collection-boxes-and-reduces-post-office-hours-as-critics-accuse-trump-administration-of-voter-suppression/

https://localnews8.com/politics/2020/08/14/exclusive-postal-service-inspector-general-reviewing-dejoys-policy-changes-and-potential-ethics-conflicts/

 

[Green Grass]

Well, the PO looses 5 to 10 billion per year delivering junk.  But it's ok cuz the government pays the short fall.  RIght?  Right?

[Randomguy]

48 minutes ago, Goat Geddah said:

Well, the PO looses 5 to 10 billion per year delivering junk.  But it's ok cuz the government pays the short fall.  RIght?  Right?

Do you think the timing for removing sorting machines and other critical infrastructure, as well as reducing hours, staffing, and overtime is suspicious at all?   The timing of the turnover to yes-men at the top is suspicious, too, yes?  You would also have to be pretty damn dim to misinterpret the direct statements from the top, too, wouldn't you?

So my question would be, if  what you say is true, why wasn't this addressed much earlier?  I mean, seeing how this is such a glaring problem and all, why wasn't this addressed in the  preceding 3 1/2 years?  Can't focus on suppressing a virus, but you have the time, resources, and manpower to attempt to suppress the voting process, does that sit well at all?  

[maddmaxx ★]

4 hours ago, Goat Geddah said:

Well, the PO looses 5 to 10 billion per year delivering junk.  But it's ok cuz the government pays the short fall.  RIght?  Right?

Actually the junk mail is one of the things the post office makes a profit on.  Right right is wrong wrong.  

https://stateimpact.npr.org/new-hampshire/2011/09/27/how-junk-mail-is-helping-to-prop-up-the-postal-service/

[Mr. Silly]

 

[Razors Edge ★]

15 hours ago, Goat Geddah said:

Well, the PO looses 5 to 10 billion per year delivering junk.  But it's ok cuz the government pays the short fall.  RIght?  Right?

Always a"tired" argument about USPS shortfalls, but I get folks don't read whole threads anymore. Seems, of the Article 1 Section 8 CONSTITUTIONAL powers, the Post Office gets a real screwing compared to the Army, Navy, Patent Office*, Courts, etc..

If  you've never asked yourself why the US Army isn't making a profit or why the Air Force doesn't "pay for itself" or the Navy isn't figuring out how to work tourism and passengers into their jobs to help offset the expense of running a fleet, then maybe you should wonder why you think the Post Office is different.  Why don't courts charge more for the judges and staff's time? Why doesn't the Patent & Trademark Office take a cut of the revenue from those protected ideas & ideas?

Conceptually, if the the military was just required to kick back maybe 10%-20% of their expenses each year from some sort of revenue sources, that would be HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars a year!  Think of how great that would be! The USPS is able to offset about 90% of their annual cost - bringing in a nice $70+ billion to the show, so if we could get the military, courts, patent office, etc, to do the same, we might be able to really change things up!

*The USPTO is often screwed with as well - especially when fees drop precipitously.