Thread: The *&%$@# USPS fails again.

I shipped all over the world with USPS for the last 7+ years and have had only two things go wrong. One, the box got caught in the mechanisms; I got the invoice and the customer got the box remains, and the janitor got the parts. I also got an envelope with the hole in the end and no razor. That is not to say things do not go wrong but those often are caused by poor quality help. Compared to thousands of dollars in damaged goods sent by UPS...it is now USPS all the way. There are a few countries, of course, that I would not ship to. Some times for heavy/ bulky shipping, I use the national bus companies package service.
YMMV and probably does!
~Richard

Try this one out.

I work for a sewage treatment plant. We have a billing P.O. Box and a separate shipping address, and of course there is no mail box at the shipping address. Most of the time we order something it 99.9% of the time it is UPS, FedEx, or hauled directly to the plant. Many times the usps catches it if for some reason an item goes through their office labeled with the shipping address to place it with the P.O. Box. But one time I ordered something, a book of federal regulations, and had it shipped like normal expecting to see it in a couple of weeks. After a month I looked at the tracking and noticed it made it to my post office but because we do not have a mail box at the shipping address it was sent back to the west coast. A year laterand and few phone calls to the company I still have never seen it. The company I ordered from was just so bad when it comes to cust service I just decided to not deal with them and call it a lost cause. To make matters worse the company a year later called me and asked if there is anything I would like to order. but like I said normally my post office is good at catching when this happens, but that must have been an off day.

Originally Posted by Wirm

I live in a rural area,and your experiences may differ.

Your delivery is being subsidized by those who live in urban areas where the large volume in dense locations makes it far cheaper. If you get your wish for USPS to be privatized you'll likely have to pay higher fees commensurate with the real cost of service to your door.
Plus the carriers are usually local, so your problem isn't a big corporate entity but one of your 'neighbors' who dropped the ball. After all the rest of the system up to that last leg seem to have carried your package quite successfully.

Some day in the future this will be done with even more robots, it will be even more reliable, the rates will be comparatively lower and those current middle class jobs will be gone as well.

In any case I'm pretty sure if you'd asked the seller to use UPS or Fedex at your expense they'd have probably done that.

Correct.But that last leg is crucial. And I would gladly pay a rate commensurate to UPS or Fedex for comparable service.

If I were you I'd simply ask the sellers I buy from to use UPS or Fedex and pay for whatever extra it costs. The best part of having choice is using it

To get UPS or Fedex to do the job the USPS does with the crazy rural routes, every house, every day...you would pay far more than their current rates! I read somewhere that a first class #10 business envelope, 1 oz would cost about $5...

Sometimes the choice is not ours.But I like your suggestion.

o i thought of one other issue .. i sold a goose call to a guy 1hr from me , we could never meet up but anyway it has been the only package i didnt ship with insurance and tracking .. a lot of calls , and post office visits , it showed up 5 weeks after i sent it ..lol..

it is a terrible feeling , but i imagine the percentage of lost or stolen goods is slim compared to how much is shipped and received .. i feel for ya though and hope eveything turns out ok ..

Originally Posted by Wirm

Sometimes the choice is not ours.But I like your suggestion.

Nah, it always is. When one agrees to part with their your money it means they are content with what they're supposed to get in exchange for it. If shipping by USPS is unacceptable to me I simply won't buy from entities that refuse to use an alternative to my liking.

Originally Posted by Splashone

To get UPS or Fedex to do the job the USPS does with the crazy rural routes, every house, every day...you would pay far more than their current rates! I read somewhere that a first class #10 business envelope, 1 oz would cost about $5...

But USPS has monopoly on first class mail. Even with USPS if you ship that same business envelope as package it'll cost you about $5 or more.
UPS and Fedex compete with USPS in the packaging services so those rates are not that far off from each other, but usually you need volume discount to make UPS/Fedex cheaper.

Usually it's the rural customers who insist on USPS for the simple economic reason that they essentially get free money at the expense of the urban customers. But back in late 18th century government control over postal service was deemed important enough to put it in the constitution and it's stuck so far.

I know how you feel mate
Not good