Our wonderful US Postal System

[epox]

So I have a buddy that sent me 2 boxes of Lead Ingots he got in an estate sale each box weighing about 65 pounds thru the post office. A couple of days later I get 1 box but the other never arrives. Tracking still shows In-transit since March 1st when it was supposed to arrive with the other box. Hoping I get it but beginning to doubt it will ever show up. Buddy and I both put in a track search on it but hopes are running thin. I was going to cast all of this into bullets and send him back half the bullets for him to have to reload. Sucks since he really didn't put insurance on it. I guess somebody working for the post office decided they needed to make some bullets or fishing weights or sell it on ebay.

[Soundguy]

USPS is marginal. Their tracking system doesn't handle as many data points as UPS.

I've had stuff float around 2-3 weeks in limbo before, and it magically start moving again.

However, uninsured, and box mighta broke, someone likely snagged it.

[epox]

He had it double boxed. First one the outer box looked rough but not broke open. Inner box was completely tapped all over which helped keep it from breaking open. Second box was boxed up the same but yeah probably gone.

[leeggen]

Don't give up hope yet. I had one order shipped from Cal. by usps and it coverd more than 3000 miles to get here. went to NY NY and back. Another came from Kan. city and coverd 2500 miles in 3 weeks. It went north and south and finally wound up in Nasville Tn and set there for a week before it got to me in middle Tn.

[melloairman]

A good practice is to address the inter box and or objects as well . In case the outer box is destroyed . Marvin

[bbogue1]

I, too, have seen very long delivery times. I think they just don't want to deal with a heavy box, it gets set in a corner and forgotten then suddenly it is discovered and finally continues moving.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I ordered 2 boxes of alloy from a member here.
One arrived on time, the other seemed to disappear...this was before tracking, I think?
anyway, about 3 weeks later, I received a busted up box (re-taped) with less than half of ingots that should have been in there.

[MUSTANG]

If it was shipped FLAT RATE; good news is that has $50.00 insurance on the package all ready without your having to pay for Insurance.

https://www.usps.com/ship/priority-mail.htm

Features

Free Package Pickup3 service at your home or office
Includes USPS Tracking® when you ship online and at retail4
Delivery in 1 to 3 business days.
Includes up to $50 of insurance5 with most shipments6 (restrictions apply)
No surcharges for fuel or residential, rural, and regular Saturday7 delivery
Flat Rate, regional, and prepaid pricing (retail only) available

[poppy42]

I bought a mold offload fellow member here the post office lost it ! I spent a total of 22 hours on the phone with various supervisors trying to determine where it was! All I kept getting was transferred from one person to another and all of them telling me we don’t exactly know where it is! My question then was well if you don’t know where it is then it’s lost correct? It took them 2 1/2 months for someone to finally admit that it was lost so a claim could be filed. The person I had purchased it from had actually shipped it to an old address of mine. At least it should have been forwarded to my new address as I filled out all the change of address forms when I moved. Fortunately for me I paid for the mold via PayPal and they refunded my money. As for the final outcome with the post office and eventual location of the mold, I left that to the seller to deal with as he was the one that shipped to the wrong address when I gave them all my correct information. I still feel kind of bad I mean none of the **** happened the post office manage to forward all the junk mail it was coming to my house when I moved but they couldn’t forward package that I actually paid for. And that’s not the first issue I’ve had with the US Postal Service. Things delivered to a neighbors house other things not received it all. Years ago when I was in the livestock business I had ordered a shipment of baby chicks . Idiots at the post office open the box up in all the baby chicks got out. The reason I know this for certain is that one of the carriers actually admitted to me that that’s what someone had done. They want to see with the baby chicks look like. It wasn’t until I contacted a postal inspector that I actually got a straight answer as to what happened to the baby chicks and why I received an empty box that had been opened . So you see I have lots of experience with the lovely US Postal Service

[Soundguy]

I, too, have seen very long delivery times. I think they just don't want to deal with a heavy box, it gets set in a corner and forgotten then suddenly it is discovered and finally continues moving.

also possible that it got handed off to UPS for surepost or whatever they call it now.

Better hope it did not go thru california and get confiscated.. because lead is illegal there.

[Soundguy]

all of them telling me we don’t exactly know where it is!

That's one of their big problems. their tracking system is like a paper bag that's missing the bottom.

UPS scans at label generation, at pickup, at dropoff at the depot, when it leaves the depot, when it enters a sorting facility, when it leaves a sorting facility, when it goes in transit to the next facility, etc. when it arrives at it's destination facility, when it goes out for delivery, when it is signed for or dropped off.

In other words, it gets a scan in, and out at each location. By doing that, if a package is lost.. they know WHERE it was lost.

If it scans in and out of florida, then scans in at atlanta, but not out... then they KNOW it is in atlanta. At USPS.. it scans in only, and doesn't scan in everywhere.. so they don't know if it left a location got left in a truck, etc. Almost designed to be insecure and allow theft.

Registered mail is about the only exception. There is a chain of handoff custody. if something goes missing.. the last person that signed for it is 'holding the bag'

[KCSO]

UPS and Fed Ex do most of the USPS transport. Fed Ex drops your package off at the P/O and then they give it to you. USPS has zip for planes and trucks any more. The old story of too many cooks. I usually specify UPS as there is no sense having UPS drp it off at the P/O so I can drive in to get it when the same day UPS drops off the package to my door.

[runfiverun]

usually the flat rate boxes have 50$ insurance automatically, you gotta pay for more.
start a claim I bet they don't really care and just give you the 50.

[Scorpion8]

USPS is marginal. Their tracking system doesn't handle as many data points as UPS.

I've had stuff float around 2-3 weeks in limbo before, and it magically start moving again.....

USPS is fantastic in getting things to my area. Depends on the method of posting, but some freight just sits until there is room or priority for it. Not everything gets 2-3 day instant delivery. A dose of reality is to ship something somewhere remote where it waits for a barge where transit takes 2 weeks or more with no instant tracking update every 10 minutes. I'll take USPS over FedEx or UPS any day.

[Outer Rondacker]

Ordered ar500 steel targets two years ago. Box came in at 68 pounds. After a week of calling local postal office asking where it was they broke down and told me. Look man this is just to heavy to pick up. Its been sitting over in the corner for a week. I had to drive 40 mins to the post office and demand my package. I got it.

Dont give up you never know. It might just be to heavy for the lazy worker.

[Scorpion8]

Oh, and as a postscript, since a lot of mail gets sent around in container shipments.... so if your USPS tracking shows no change for awhile, it may be time to go snorkeling for your stuff.

A Maersk containership lost about 70 containers overboard on Saturday night while about 17 miles off Oregon Inlet, North Carolina. The U.S. Coast Guard is warning mariners of navigation hazards. The 324-meter MAERSK SHANGHAI on Saturday night contacted USCG watchstanders at Sector North Carolina’s command center via VHF-FM marine radio channel 16, notifying them that they lost approximately 70 to 73 cargo containers due to high winds and heavy seas. The ship is sailing from Norfolk, Virginia to Charleston, South Carolina, according to AIS data. The incident comes as a powerful nor’easter slammed the East Coast over the weekend, producing hurricane force winds and significant wave heights up in excess of 40 feet. The Coast Guard urges all mariners to transit this area with caution.

[Soundguy]

USPS is fantastic in getting things to my area. Depends on the method of posting, but some freight just sits until there is room or priority for it. Not everything gets 2-3 day instant delivery. A dose of reality is to ship something somewhere remote where it waits for a barge where transit takes 2 weeks or more with no instant tracking update every 10 minutes. I'll take USPS over FedEx or UPS any day.

It may be all unicorns for you, but when I send a money order priority mail, from central Florida to central Georgia, there is no excuse for 3 weeks, and no excuse for it to drop off tracking between Jacksonville and Atlanta. There's your ' dose of reality'. :/

[salpal48]

I was in the printing and fulfillment business for 35 years.One of the first things i learned and was told. never ship any package Post office . they are only good for delivering mail. No large company uses post office for there shipments It is always UPS or Fedex.
Yes sometimes Ups and fedex gets messed up . the post is pure Incompetence . next time a PO truck comes to you look in the back. most if not all Packages are just dumped in the back just a pile of Boxes. Yours was tossed in that pile. Fedex and UPS are on Racks

[Soundguy]

At my local post office, if you ship a box, anything other than a flat envelope, it gets tossed thru a window into a bin. Good underhand softball toss. I once inquired about how that looks to us customers, and the clerk said that if the item was packaged correctly it would be ok. While that's probably true.. Shows a general lack of respect and also a big hint of what they do to your stuff when you aren't looking.

[salpal48]

Just remember The Post Office Moto "Do not Throw packages Over 30 Feet. Fragile item 20 feet".