Look what our USPS has done now [Archive]

ddeaton

08-03-2009, 09:44 AM

[QUOTE=trcuda]Here are several pics Danny. I would have to guess that this was dropped in a puddle and then run over by the mail truck! And they wonder why use of USPS keeps declining!
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b70/trcuda/P1010036.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b70/trcuda/P1010035.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b70/trcuda/P1010034.jpg
[QUOTE=trcuda]

Brand new Lyman 4 cavity flat rate shipped in the original plastic box with the original foam packing from Cinci to WA. This is unacceptable and my first sell on this board. I usually dont sell my not needed things online as I dont have much time to deal with it, I usually trade and swap locally at the gun club. How can someone expect this to be ok?

trcuda

08-03-2009, 09:54 AM

This was delivered as shown along with 1/2 mold in a plastic bag. The other 1/2 of the mold was in another plastic bag alone with the bag containing the above "parts". Mold was damaged but possibly salvageable, will know as soon as I can round up some handles.

Tim

Edited to add the the original foam packing from Lyman is there too, I just used it to prop up the box for pics :-).

The Double D

08-03-2009, 10:10 AM

wonder if perhaps the mail truck or mail plane was in an accident and this was salvaged. Happens all the time.

ddeaton

08-03-2009, 10:27 AM

wonder if perhaps the mail truck or mail plane was in an accident and this was salvaged. Happens all the time.

Do you think someone would have let someone know if this was the case. Or just deliver and act like nothing happened? I will start paying extra for UPS, I have had much better luck myself with them. I have a electrical business and use them ALL the time.

redneckdan

08-03-2009, 10:53 AM

I've hand all manner of problems with USPS. Not sure how but they managed to partially crush a lead ingot. Couple years back I sent some range scrap out to people in 25lb ingots, got a partial box back where the ingots had sprocket marks in them like they had gotten caught in a chain drive system. I can only imagine the mess that caused.:holysheep I've had checks get lost between here and where ever they are going. Its gotten worse in the last two years or so.

Now I pad everything, then put a layer or three of tape on the box. Sometimes I feel bad, like I should mail the receiver a razor blade in a seperate envelope just so they can get their package open.[smilie=l:

HeavyMetal

08-03-2009, 11:17 AM

That's the small flate rate box, got to wonder how you got a 4 banger in it!

Besides that once accepted by the USPS it is there duty to get it to you in reasonable condition!

MY suggestion is each party, shipper and reciever, should contact there respective Senators and complain loudly about the condition of this package. Email the photo's as well!

Now expect nothing from your senator! The USPS is a "Stand Alone" orginazation and recieves no funding from the US Government! Therefore they have nothing to "threaten" them with.

However it would not be a bad idea to suggest to your respective senators that if the USPS keeps providing this "Quality" of service it won't be long before they to are on the "Bailout" gravy train!

If your senators are not "anti's" you might also express the thought that this looks like a "Back Door" means of circumventing the 2nd amendment and keeping you from enjoying your rights.

Senators are usually operating on there own "Plane of Existance" but to a man they hate it when some abuse's the power they were given under the constitution!

Matt_G

08-03-2009, 12:16 PM

Senators are usually operating on there own "Plane of Existance" but to a man they hate it when some abuse's the power they were given under the constitution!

Except when they are the ones abusing it. Then it's ok...

leadman

08-03-2009, 06:36 PM

Guess we could insure everything for 4 or 5 times the actual value and hope it ends up in this condition.
Then go buy what you want and ship it UPS.

Could ship boxes of sharp rocks just hoping they will cut the package.

SciFiJim

08-03-2009, 07:43 PM

Guess we could insure everything for 4 or 5 times the actual value and hope it ends up in this condition.
Then go buy what you want and ship it UPS.

Except that you have to provide a receipt proving value when you file an insurance claim with the PO.

mooman76

08-03-2009, 08:01 PM

But at least they put it in a "we care" wrapper didn't they. I work in a mail room and hardly a day goes by that we don't get a letter or something in one of those wrappers, and that the stuff that does make it through. What about that that doesn't? I get complaints about mail all the time and of coarse it has to be my fault even though it goes through a lot of hands before it get to where it's going.

stubshaft

08-03-2009, 08:20 PM

troy_mclure

08-04-2009, 04:33 AM

ive had tons of problems with USPS.

ordered some knives($200), the knives never arrived.

i took my printout from the online store to the PO to file an insurance claim. i was told that they only accept cash register receipts, not print outs.

i even went to the regional office, same answer.

i also had a Xmas present from my parents never show up, even with a tracking #. i was told by the PO manager that the USPS makes no guarantees on the delivery of any mail.

i have had good service by ups tho.

Mtman314

08-04-2009, 07:28 AM

Yet the government claims if it was sent in the mail that you recieved it. Had a few Judges from the bench insist on that when I got letters from them asking details. Also had IRS and a few other alphabet organizations insist on the same stance.

cheese1566

08-04-2009, 09:22 AM

I just had a package shipped to me Priority Mail with confirmation. It was received by the local Post Office at 0434 Thursday. I didn't receive it until 1545 Saturday. The Local post Office is less than 400 yds from my apartment building!

Priority Mail confirmation with the USPS is different then the common UPS or FedEX confirmation. USPS confirmation only shows the item arriving at the local post office. It is not a gurantee of the item arriving at the doorstep. If you want that feature, you have to pay extra for the "Return Receipt" feature.

I have to play Devil's Advocate here...my girlfriend has an in home internet based business and ships about 15-20 packages a day. About 99% through the USPS. The occassional other is FedEX or UPS. For about two years, she was sending about half of the goods to New Zealand, Australia, France, Belgium, and Germany, all through the USPS here first.

So far, she has had only two claims of lost or mutilated packages and I think the lost package was fraud by the buyer/recipient.

My other 2 cents is that everone screams against the USPS when this happens and vows for UPS in delivering the goods. Let's face it, the bottom dollar and cheapest way is what we all want to go with. I have done a fair amount of shipping and buying here and don't recall anyone sending me stuff UPS or FedEX, besides, I would ask to send USPS for the cost savings (unless of course it is big and bulky). If someone wants UPS or FedEX, I would oblige and have them pay the difference.

If this happens, take the entire package to the local post office and ask to see the supervisor, just remember- being pleasant, nice, and wearing a smile will get you farther and more satisfaction in the end when making a complaint. If you don't get satisfaction, go to the next supervisor.

Maybe we have been lucky ...and No, I don't work for the USPS!

Echo

08-04-2009, 10:28 AM

I've done a lot of USPS shipping. I don't have an in-home eBay business, but have bought and sold hundreds of items. I have had only one incident. I sold a Wolf .45 spring on eBay, mailed it (admittedly, First Class), and the recipient claimed to have never received it. I offered to refund half of the selling price, but never heard back from him. One time out of hundreds, maybe thousands, of transactions.

DLCTEX

08-04-2009, 10:59 AM

I shipped a deer mount to my DIL in Florida that arrived with the skull plate broken and antlers flopping.I had placed mount in plastic bag and foamed it in the box, very sturdy. Marked the box fragile. The PO said if we collected ins. they would keep mount. After much hassel and trips to PO, they finally agreed to pay for repair if estimate was supplied first and OKed by PO General. In the end we just paid for repairs due to them having to take too much time off from work to jump through all the hoops. Last mount waited until the next visit in person.

dakotashooter2

08-04-2009, 12:36 PM

You really have to wonder what they have to do to destroy some items though. I received a barrel in a tube. The tube was about 4" longer than the barrel and was bent/broke right at the end of the barrel. I tried to dublicate the bend on the other end of the tube and had to put my full weight into it bore it would bend. Another box had the corner completely torn out. Fortunatly the Ziplock held the item in the box. I unloaded grocery trucks for 10 years and didn't see the kind of damage the USPS seems to produce. It makes you wonder if employees don't intentionally beat some of the stuff to see what will fall out or what is in it.

longhorn47

08-04-2009, 12:58 PM

Look what you have working there i mean helllllloooo

SciFiJim

08-04-2009, 01:27 PM

Actually, longhorn, I work there. The people working for the PO are a cross section of society, every color and creed, male and female, 18 to 70. I am a mail carrier so that is what I see the most of. Most are very conscientious of doing their job well. We never hear about those. Instead we hear about the 1%ers that if they drop a letter while delivering can't be bothered to bend over and pick it up. We all complain about the Post Office, but make sure that we get as much lead into a box as we can for the $10.35 flat rate shipping. Then we complain that the occasional box is damaged or destroyed. I have shipped a dozen or more of the boxes of lead that have all gotten to the destination intact. Nor has anything been lost from the boxes. I have also seen boxes like the one ddeaton has a picture of. My fellow coworkers and I will scratch our head and wonder how it was done. Those packages are very much the exception and not the rule. Everyone remembers the bad things that have happened to their mail but never say anything about the thousands of pieces of mail they receive that arrive in perfect condition.
The PO is still the best shipping value out there and I will continue to use it.

20nickels

08-04-2009, 01:49 PM

Do you think someone would have let someone know if this was the case. Or just deliver and act like nothing happened? I will start paying extra for UPS, I have had much better luck myself with them. I have a electrical business and use them ALL the time.

I have a Lyman four cav box that looks just like that from USPS. Mould appears to be fine though, haven't used it yet. Now if they could just find my handles from Red River Rick they have had for 2 wks. :roll:

Frozone

08-04-2009, 02:22 PM

Actually, longhorn, I work there. The people working for the PO are a cross section of society, every color and creed, male and female, 18 to 70. .....
The PO is still the best shipping value out there and I will continue to use it.

And yet here in Alaska it seems the line from "Men in Black 2" is in full force. You know the one? "Most people who work for the post office are aliens".

When I first moved up here I had gotten a mail drop address in the town I left, and set up that as my 'forward to address'. Once a month I'd have the mail drop operator send me a package of mail. After a couple of months My new wife and I got settled and I had the guy close my drop box and I put in a change of address form.

I stopped getting any mail. NOTHING. I finally caught the mail carrier at the box one day. He told me He was refusing to deliver my mail because my name wasn't on the inside of the mailbox. That cost me about $85,000. It seems I was sending the checks for the storage unit I left all my stuff in to the wrong address and they were "being returned", except they weren't, and I never found out until they had sold my stuff.

This is a true story.

ddeaton

08-04-2009, 11:07 PM

I will tell you what I think Jim. You look at those pics I posted and tell me with a straight face that you would have delivered these to the address in this condition without some sort of personal interface or notice. Insurance, or not, this is worse than losing it, to have the nerve to set this on someones doorstep or mailbox. I dont care how many packages make it through without a hitch, this is unacceptable in any business. What if I gave my customers a product that was wet and smashed?. I wouldnt be in business very long at all. All my postman does is gripe when he has to deliver packages to my door. It means he has to actually stop and get out of the truck. He will not deliver 50 lb flat rate boxes of lead, I get a note to come to the PO for pickup. If USPS wont take a better attitude with the package shipments then they need to drop the service. I am sorry, this is how I feel and I have the right to choose shippers, and I do. I travel all over the country, work on electrical systems on industrial equiptment, and ship items all over the country. I WILL NOT use USPS ever for a business shipment.

Actually, longhorn, I work there. The people working for the POare a cross section of society, every color and creed, male and female, 18 to 70. I am a mail carrier so that is what I see the most of. Most are very conscientious of doing their job well. We never hear about those. Instead we hear about the 1%ers that if they drop a letter while delivering can't be bothered to bend over and pick it up. We all complain about the Post Office, but make sure that we get as much lead into a box as we can for the $10.35 flat rate shipping. Then we complain that the occasional box is damaged or destroyed. I have shipped a dozen or more of the boxes of lead that have all gotten to the destination intact. Nor has anything been lost from the boxes. I have also seen boxes like the one ddeaton has a picture of. My fellow coworkers and I will scratch our head and wonder how it was done. Those packages are very much the exception and not the rule. Everyone remembers the bad things that have happened to their mail but never say anything about the thousands of pieces of mail they receive that arrive in perfect condition.
The PO is still the best shipping value out there and I will continue to use it.

Mtman314

08-04-2009, 11:25 PM

well they are talking on closing 700 post offices.

SciFiJim

08-05-2009, 01:08 AM

You look at those pics I posted and tell me with a straight face that you would have delivered these to the address in this condition without some sort of personal interface or notice.

We deliver during the day when most people are not home. It would have been contained in a plastic bag with the "Sorry it was damaged" explanation printed on the side. We call those bags "body bags" for obvious reasons. The other alternatives to delivering a damaged parcel include returning the parcel to the shipper (you would not believe the grief we get for that) or making the package disappear (which I could lose my job and go to jail for). What would you have us do? This happens to a very small percentage of parcels. It also happens to parcels shipped with UPS and FedEx. Do a google search. There are videos of UPS drivers hurling packages from the street to a door. It is a real world we live in, 100% is just not going to happen. The real percentage with the PO is better than 99%. That means that of 1000 packages less than 10 get damaged (most of them from inadequate packaging). The pictures of the one you posted took some doing. Wet I can understand, I have delivered in the pouring rain and I wasn't the only thing that got wet. The broken part would be difficult to do. It does look like someone parked a truck on it. More likely the plastic was broken as it went through some of the automated sorting machinery after the box got wet. When everything was sorted by hand this didn't happen as much. The automation to cut costs HAS decreased the quality of the service that the PO is supposed to provide. Please believe me that most of the employees complain about quality of service issues more than the customers do. Being angry at your carrier for delivering the parcel doesn't help things. He just delivered what he received to deliver. The damage was done before it ever got to him.

Someone suggested contacting your congress person. Congress does have oversight on the PO. It won't help your parcel, but enough calls might eventually get something done about quality of service.

Also, on the carrier not delivering the heavy parcels, its his job to deliver. Call his supervisor, the phone number should be on the notice. The package will be delivered.

HeavyMetal

08-05-2009, 01:17 AM

Both SCiFiJim and DDeaton make good points!

Yes the post office delivers mail and packages in the hundreds of thousands on a yearly basis. The amount of mail they handle is staggering!

I sit here and think of all the mail I recieve and am amazed by two things First: that most of it gets here with no damage what so ever on a regular basis, Second, and this is the odd part, only stuff that is blatantly firearms oriented, or marked NRA, has ever been damaged coming to the address I currently live at ( and have been at for 18 plus years!).

I will admit that I have not had a problem in recent memory but I did complain to the post master, locally, about smashed VCR tapes and other promotional items shipped by the NRA about 5 or 6 years ago.

The problem stopped, why I have no idea, but it did stop.

So talking to the post master can help.

Now lets look at DDeatons beef: His package! He has every right to be miffed and miffed big time! This was his hard earned dollars washed down the drain, maybe he can salvage maybe he can't the real question is how can anyone look at this package and not know it wasn't right?

How can anyone pick up the piece's and continue to pass them along to the next PO without asking why would we do this?

How can anyone put this in someone's mail box and not expect to be asked how the blazing .... did you manage this?

Im my industry this is called letting something "slip through the cracks". My company thinks the more people that handle a problem before it gets fixed the bigger the crack is that it slipped through.

Now I know for a fact that United Parcel Service is no better than USPS. Point in fact no matter how hard you try some packages will get damaged or lost in transit no matter who does the shipping!

What really matters next is how well the shipper handles the destroyed package.

UPS is very good at this! I had a friend deal with a stolen firearm years ago and UPS sent an adjuster to interview him about the work he'd done on the stolen pistol. Both of us were amazed at the firearms knowledge, both in what type gun and custom gunsmithing, that this guy was familiar with!

In my case I bought goods that were only shipped COD. The shipper OK'd the use of Check or money order and I payed with a Wells Fargo money order.

10 or 12 weeks later I was sent a letter, with a phone number and contact name, and asked to contact UPS.

Curious I made the call and was told the cod shipper had never recieved payment for his product! Fortunately I made the call from my office desk and, luckily, had saved the stub for the money order. Once the guy had the money order number in hand he was able to verify that it was ligit and that his UPS guy had recieved it but had somehow misplaced it in his paper work?

He was able to do all this while we were on the phone in less than 3 minutes! I never had another call or letter from him nor any complaint from the seller I bought from!

If the USPS want a piece of UPS's action on package shipments they have a lot to learn about customer relations. Price is not always going to carry the day. I will continue to use USPS for many of my transactions but can plainly see that not all PO's are created equal!

That is the biggest issue the Post Office has and it should be addressed!

Because some day some customer is gonna want to know: how the ... did you manage to do this to my package?

SciFiJim

08-05-2009, 01:38 AM

HeavyMetal, I agree. Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems with the PO is the inability of the worker bees (me) to effect change that will improve service. The bureaucracy is so huge that there are too many levels to get through with ideas that will work. It IS part of the government after all. Alot like congress critters, the higher ups in the post office believe they can do no wrong and refuse to listen to facts that prove otherwise. So, in the mean time, I have a job that pays reasonably well, with decent but not great benefits. The frustration level eventually gets to the point that most no longer try to improve things. We just go in, do our jobs, and go home, leaving the problems of the post office at the back door as we walk out.
I don't see any great future for the post office. It will eventually get privatized (at which point delivery to rural and small town addresses will truly degrade because of lack of profit) or will become the Postal Department again (at which point delivery to everyone will degrade because of increased bureaucracy over what we already have). I have five years until I retire. I hope the postal service lasts that long.

Lunk

08-05-2009, 03:10 AM

I just had a package shipped to me Priority Mail with confirmation. It was received by the local Post Office at 0434 Thursday. I didn't receive it until 1545 Saturday. The Local post Office is less than 400 yds from my apartment building!

This may be but in most areas anymore they ship all the mail to a central sorting location and then back out to be delivered. For me that's a letter I want to send down the block going about 35 miles each way and a day per usually. Fed-Ex and UPS do the same thing. It may seem annoying but it is more efficient.

Jaybird62

08-05-2009, 08:56 AM

All of the shippers have delivery problems. The craziest was a FedEx truck that caught fire and burned $25,000 worth of photography slides. They paid the insurance claim in 4 weeks. My most recent USPS ____ __ was a 50-pound box of lead to a member of this forum. Seems that the postal worker didn't want to deliver the heavy box on the other end.

scrapcan

08-05-2009, 01:52 PM

WE all must also rmember that the USPS uses contract carriers to get our letters and parcels across this fine country. Not every one that handles your mail is wearing the old grey and blue stripe.

I have been on both sides of this as I have worked as a relief driver for a contract carrier and I get my mail just like everyone else. I also live in a rural setting with a small PO and have had my address changed 3 times ( became part of a different town's small PO) by the PO due to cost/workload/etc... We get our important mail at a PO Box and only non critical items at my physical address. That becomse an issue as I don't get my mail form the PO Box everyday (afterall who needs to get mail everyday, ask yourself that question also), so about once ro twice a month we get notices about mail overflow and PO box cancellation.

So to summarize. Pack well. Hope for the best. Complain the loudest. And thank the carrier for brigning that 50 lb box of lead to your doorstep.

Mtman314

08-05-2009, 02:15 PM

Also if they do a good job remember them at christmas

GLL

08-05-2009, 02:40 PM

SciFiJim:

I have a "Priority Mail Delivery Receipt" question for you that I have asked in four different Post Offices here in the Los Angeles area. I asked the guys with the ties on ! :)

Each time I asked "WHERE" the receipt was scanned they all indicated the individual carrier had a hand-held scanner that was used in the individual trucks on the route during delivery. Most answers I see here in the Forum indicate they are scanned in the Post Office itself and not an indication of actual delivery to the address.

What is your experience ?

I have had three boxes where they were not delivered but the USPS system indicates they were scanned and considered delivered.

Jerry

ddeaton

08-05-2009, 02:45 PM

SciFiJim, sorry, I didn't mean to rant and blame yesterday. I just had a real busy day and went off the deep end. I know what goes on with companies. I work in a different one every week in different states. They all seem to have some problems. We just have to work through them and call every day an adventure. For the most part packages do get through ok, and I wish to thank all involved for that. I cant tell you of a day that comes along when I dont get online to look for something I want to buy. I remember the days when I drove all over looking for something I needed. Now we just put in in our "shopping cart" and go sit on the couch.

Maximilian225

08-05-2009, 02:53 PM

As another employee of Big Blue. The short answer is management at the higher levels has forgot or chose to ignore that service is the only thing we sell. They are so bent on cooking the books to make our delivery numbers look good that things like that come down the line instead of being taken care of. Throughput has become of greater importance than quality of service.

The one that burns my hide and I'm sure Jim's is that we are no longer "allowed" to process Forward requests. It goes to a 3rd party and it is sometimes as long as 2 weeks before we are made aware by Central Forwarding that you have moved and you have an active forward on file. In the mean time your mail is lying in your mailbox, because we the carrier are clueless you have moved. Or better yet the new person that moved in is throwing it away because it's not theirs. One of the many customer service issues we the employees raise constantly that falls on deaf ears with management. Numbers are all that matter.

As for your carrier who leaves notices for your packages. Make noise. He is required to lift 70lbs repeatedly as part of his job. It's what he gets paid to do. Call your postmaster. If you can't get any mileage out of the PM. Call 1-800-ASK-USPS and file a delivery complaint. This forces the PM to file an action taken report with his Boss, and ends the ability to "sequester" the incident.

As for leaving the package that was destroyed. Damaged or not, holding it to confer with you in person is still Delay of the Mail, and a prosecutable breech of duty. I personally would have tried to speak with you immediately before leaving it.

Although the rules of my employer require that I may not espouse responsibility, or claim the Post Office is at fault for the damage.

-Max

klcarroll

08-05-2009, 02:57 PM

For the most part, ....I support "SciFiJim's" point of view.

I accept the fact that I am dealing with the "lowest bidder", .....and that the service is provided by average, everyday people; ...who may not regard their responsibility to be a "life or death" issue.

Consequently, ....I ALWAYS buy the insurance, and accept the fact that I will be using that insurance from time to time.

....But I also acknowledge the point that the current "Flat Rate" offerings from the USPS are probably the VERY BEST shipping deals known to man!!

As long as they keep paying the occasional insurance claim, .....I really can't find anything to complain about.

Kent

Maximilian225

08-05-2009, 03:00 PM

This answer is somewhat office dependent. It is true your carrier has an individual scanner that they use to scan all DC packages.

Some offices scan packages "recieved at facility" on arrival.

Some offices are missing scans on delivery and messing up numbers and are forced by management to scan all packages to see which carriers are missing scans. See previous post on cooking the books.

It is possible in order to alleviate the missed numbers. That your office or possibly your carrier is scanning everything delivered before leaving to serve the route.

The other possibility is the carrier is scanning the item delivered and than delivering it somewhere besides where it goes.

Check the time it shows "Delivered", is it close to the time your mail normally runs? If it's considerably off someone is abusing the system.

They are suppose to be scanned on delivery, No sooner.

-Max

SciFiJim:

I have a "Priority Mail Delivery Receipt" question for you that I have asked in four different Post Offices here in the Los Angeles area. I asked the guys with the ties on ! :)

Each time I asked "WHERE" the receipt was scanned they all indicated the individual carrier had a hand-held scanner that was used in the individual trucks on the route during delivery. Most answers I see here in the Forum indicate they are scanned in the Post Office itself and not an indication of actual delivery to the address.

What is your experience ?

I have had three boxes where they were not delivered but the USPS system indicates they were scanned and considered delivered.

Jerry

SciFiJim

08-05-2009, 05:30 PM

Thanks Max, you said everything I would have said. On the note of scanning, I try to scan everything with a bar code as "Arrived at station" when I get it and then scan it again on delivery or attempt to deliver. This is part of the extra service I try to provide. It provides more information on what is going on to the customer. A lot of time the only time the package is scanned is on delivery, if that. I shipped some solder with delivery confirmation to another member on this forum and the only way that I know it was delivered was because he PMed me to let me know it arrived. It was never scanned by the post office anywhere in process of shipping. So, as a customer myself, I have issues with the way things are done.

GLL

08-05-2009, 05:33 PM

Jim:

Thank you !

Jerry

lathesmith

08-05-2009, 07:49 PM

Considering the fact that the number of pieces that the Post Office handles in a year is in the billions--that's NOT a typo, that's billions, with a B--things actually get to where they are going pretty well most of the time. The PO handles more pieces in a few weeks than UPS or FedEX handles in a year. Yes, sometimes things get lost, and destroyed, and yes, it is annoying, and no, it's not acceptable. But it DOES happen from time to time, we just have to learn to live with it and deal with it the best we can.
And before the privatiz-ation fanatics get all excited, and try and tell me how much BETTER and MORE EFFICIENT the Postal Service would be, if only we would Privat-ize it, I simply remind them: Yea, AIG, CIT, Bank of America, they're all privat-ized, and look what great a job they do!
I know, I know, it's still stinks to have a package disappear or get mangled. But, 99 per cent of the stuff I ship and get shipped makes it through, whether USPS, UPS, or Fed EX. They all have their quirks and annoyances, and failings,but still... I think on the whole they do a pretty decent job most of the time. And I'd like to say "thanks" to those guys whose job it is to get most of this stuff to my doorstep, I know from experience it can be a thankless job. But, believe me, there are people out there who appreciate what you do.
lathesmith

dominicfortune00

08-05-2009, 08:31 PM

I have no problem with the USPS.

It's UPS that I don't like.

How can you pick up a package, scan it to indicate that you picked it up, and that is the last record that is available for the package; which is never seen again.

I have heard that UPS has a wharehouse in Texas somewhere where they sell all the packages they steal and don't deliver.

Type 'UPS sucks' into the search engine of your choice and see the horror stories that you get.

Slow Elk 45/70

08-05-2009, 10:31 PM

I have relatives that have worked for the USPS and retired, and it only gets worse, This is MY OPINION, this is one of the most miss managed, inefficient organizations in the U.S. with more lazy SOB's that have to be coddled to do their work than Congress...and that is bad, but we must raise cost .2 cents every couple of months to pay for their inability to perform.

So now those that luv Socialism should take a look at this bunch and get ready...IMHO..:twisted:

Marlin Hunter

08-06-2009, 01:06 AM

I

Now I pad everything, then put a layer or three of tape on the box. Sometimes I feel bad, like I should mail the receiver a razor blade in a seperate envelope just so they can get their package open.[smilie=l:

Try a hot glue gun.

Costs more, but it works!

NoZombies

08-06-2009, 01:30 AM

At one point I was shipping 25-30 of the flat rate boxes with 65 pounds in each, 4 days a week.

99% delivery is about accurate, but there were some interesting things that I saw happen in the year or so that I was doing that.

I had two customers (who happened to know each other, randomly) who both ordered the same thing on the same day, and their boxes were shipped in the same trip to the PO.

The addresses were in Hawaii and California. My customer in California received both boxes, the one addressed to him, and the one addressed to my Hawaiian customer. He sent an email to me, and one to my Hawaiian customer, and dropped the box at his local PO to have them deliver it to the correct address. How does that happen? I dunno, but it did, and thank heavens my Californian customer was honest!

That said, I've been immensely happy with USPS on a whole, as apposed to "the other guys"

I had a friend who worked for UPS as a driver in his summers in college, and the stories he told about package treatment are horrific.

As for the driver not wanting to deliver packages over a certain weight, Call the postmaster, it has worked for me at both addresses that it was a problem for me.