I sent a package to the east coast and sent it three day Priority Mail. It took 8 days! Someone sent me a package from the east coast 3 day Priority Mail and it took over a week. Now I ordered stamps from the USPS and guess what? They sent them Priority Mail and here it is a week later and nothing. From the damned Postal Service no less. They cannot get their own parcels or envelopes in a timely manner!
Okay, what goes on? I heard that because so many commercial flights are cancelled due to COVID-19, there are fewer planes to ship Priority Mail which usually goes via air. So the postal service ships by ground and it then takes at least a week coast to coast, or in the case of the stamps, a week or more from the Midwest to California. Of course you have to pay the same outrageous Priority Mail fee regardless of how they decide to send your package or letter. In contacting the USPS their answer is wait ten more days and then file a claim. Idiots!
UPS and FedEx use their own planes so they don't do this. If you ship two day air it goes by air. Ship ground and it goes ground. They guarantee their services and the post office does not. Unless you use Express Mail they could care less about timely service. And good luck in making a claim for lost or undelivered packages. They take an eternity, IF you ever get reimbursed, and make you think you did something wrong rather than them. And of course, your postage cost is gone forever.
When mailing for the holidays, ship early. I am talking about right after Thanksgiving or even sooner. If their current handling of mail and parcels is any indication of their performance, two weeks or more could become the norm. Maybe if they would get rid of the dead wood at the post offices and distribution centers we could have Amazon like performance for a decent cost. Of course, that will never happen. The unions protect the dead wood and I know from people who are actually good workers how difficult it is to get rid of a poor or non-performing employee in the postal service.
Okay, where does it really end? Frankly, I am now convinced that the U. S. Postal Service does not give a rats ass about their clients in any way shape or form.
If you have read my past posts on this miserable mail service we have, you know the type of disservice we get. It actually has been getting worse. Let me tell you how:
1. I wrote a complaint to the U. S. Postmaster Generals Office of the Inspector General. After several weeks I received an e-mail telling me that it's not their job to follow up on mail handling problems. They are only interested in fraud, abuse, waste, etc. Waste? And what is this about ensuring efficiency and integrity? Good God,this must have been written by the same politico that wrote stuff for the Fast and Furious program and the IRS and NSA abuse programs. Amazing that they turn a blind eye to this and then wonder why they are going bankrupt. What the hell do they think these employees are doing when they don't handle the mail properly? But no, they can't bother dealing with small shippers or clients so screw us. Here's the gist of their response:
"The primary responsibility of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General is to prevent, detect, and report fraud, waste, and misconduct; and to conduct independent audits and investigations of Postal Service programs and operations to ensure their efficiency and integrity.
The issues raised in your correspondence do not fall within the jurisdiction of this office. These matters do appear to be within the jurisdiction of the office listed below. Therefore, we are forwarding your complaint to them for their review and direct response to you.
For further information, please contact:
United States Postal Service
Consumer & Industry Contact Office
2. The above refer us to the local USPS Consumer Affairs office in our area who sends us a wonderful...form letter telling us to use the web site or 1-800 number. Yes, the one with terminal hold or the one that doesn't get you any useful information. Oh and the web site that will get you an e-mail from your local post office with some bull crap saying they are doing all they can to deliver for you.
3. I call the Consumer Affairs office and they try and bullshit you so it appears they actually are doing something and tell you to call the local post office, which doesn't have a phone number. Finally, after 20 minutes or so, the idiot at the consumer affairs office promises to escalate the case "upstairs" to an Area Manager who will call me within two working days. It's now been over a week and no contact. So much for case escalation. Must be to the circular file. Incidentally, the "hard working" Consumer Affairs Office for the San Diego District is only open from 9AM to 3PM 5 days a week. That's just 30 hours those poor people must work their fingers to the bone. Poor postal workers hard at work for the consumers. Right. You have to move off your ass to move the mail or move the dead wood, neither of which seems to be a likelihood. Will I ever hear from the Area Manager? I really doubt it. Chatter has it that he doesn't want to be bothered with complaints, wants consumers to call the worthless 1-800 line or use the USPS web site too. More customer disservice. And they wonder why they lose money?
4. Mail does not get scanned when it's outgoing. We have packages that leave Carlsbad 92011 and never get scanned until they reach an East Coast destination. Lately, we have had mail for other people placed in our mail box and packages for other people placed in a hold box and the key left in our mail box. We hand delivered the box to the right person. A high value parcel was left 4 blocks away at another address in front of a gate for at least a day before a neighbor noticed it and asked the resident if she knew it was there. The elderly person never opens that gate, and luckily the sprinklers did not come on or the contents would have been ruined. Is the freaking mail person dyslexic or what?
5. The local post office takes no accountability for their screw-ups. The supervisors say they will talk to the carriers or will fix the issues but the issues simply continue. And when packages are not scanned at the post office after being sorted there, how is that the carriers fault? It's an epidemic of slovenly labor that is perpetuated by a postal labor system that allows dead wood employees to remain on the job for years long after their efficiency should have been rated incompetent. Just go to the post office on a busy day and watch a clerk suddenly close his or her window and walk away because it's their break time, no matter how long the line is, thus prolonging your wait time. It happens all the time. Because that's how the system works. Snails pace, unlikely to be fired or disciplined and screw the customers. That's unless you are one of the few route carriers that actually work their butts off and deliver the mail and provide great customer service. We know one or two and they are few and far between.
6. Carrier Pickup is a hit and miss proposition. When the carrier doesn't get the pickup order from the post office, of course they do not know to pick up your waiting packages. So later in the day you have to call the post office and ask why your priority mail was not picked up. This is a case where one blames the other. The post office makes it seem like the carrier is the idiot who forgot to pick up your package when in reality, the supervisor or whoever handles the pickup notices at the post office never gives the carrier the pickup notice, so how would the carrier know to pick up the package? We have actually had the carrier come the next day with the notice to show us she never received the notice until a day late. WE are considering changing to FedEx and UPS if this continues. Just not worth the hassle as you never know if your packages will be picked up or not. And you have to laugh at their $20 pickup charge outside your normal pickup hours. They don't guarantee they will pickup at any special time for that $20...maybe not at all. Read the fine print and then DO NOT USE IT!
7. Wait...you just needed the Spiderman boxes? How about delivering the freaking mail, eejits and forget the stupid boxes. You aren't Super Heroes by a long shot. Your performance is more like Super Zeros.....00000000000..absolutely nothing to brag about at all.
I'll be laughing with every package that I ship by FedEx because it's another ten or twenty bucks that the USPS won't get in their coffers. Multiply me by thousands and then tens of thousands, they will soon be bankrupt. And I'll be telling my Congressman and Senator just exactly why not to support these eejits in the future.
The U.S. Postal Service spends what appears to be millions of dollars on commercials telling us how much better their service is now, with more frequent scanning of packages and the new two and three day Priority Mail service. It's so good, the two and three day service is printed right there on your label for all to see. Plus they now have spent untold dollars more to use Spiderman as a mascot in their website. Must be because his hands stick to the mail and slow it down, just like the slowness of many real USPS employees.
Well, hold on a moment. First of all, I have been informed that the two and three days labeling is no more than hype by the Postal Service. I guess something to soothe the public as they once again raised rates on their lackadaisical and lackluster service. The two and three day statement only means that they will attempt to get the package there in two or three days but it could take longer and there is absolutely no guarantee how long. Nor is there any recourse if the package take a week or more to arrive. The only guaranteed service is Express Mail which is now called Priority Mail Express, where it's delivered the next day overnight or you can fight to get your postage fees back.
Two or three days can mean 8 days as we found out in early December. Not wanting to chance late delivery, we shipped very early via Priority Mail with the "two day" statement on the labels. two packages to the same address. One arrived 4 business days later and one 8 days later. What happened to the two days? And why didn't they arrive the same day? First Class mail, which used to take one day within a city now takes two or three many times, and cross country flat envelopes can take several weeks, depending on the post office. I've had flats to New Hampshire swirling around and around for up to two weeks and finally had to call the local New Hampshire post office to see what was going on and have them track the piece of mail. No help but a few days later it was delivered.
Scanning is terrible. Mail is often picked up and never scanned until late in the day at the post office. The carrier is supposed to scan the packages at pickup but they often do not. Must we post a note on all packages to please scan at pickup to assure the packages get scanned? Interim scanning is spotty at best. We have had packages that were never scanned at all until they were delivered. Sometimes they are not even scanned at delivery, and in the case of an item of value, have to rely on the recipients honesty, as if they state they never received it, we have no way to prove it was received. We're then out the money and the Postal Service can't track it either. Oh, did I mention the Postal Service doesn't consider anything "lost" until 30 days have passed?
Packages that end up on the wrong truck or in the wrong bin for delivery and re held up for days require a call to the Post Office as they will not find their mistake. We had a package that was out for delivery for two days and finally called to see what was going on. A supervisor stated it was in the wrong "bin" and we could come in and get it or he would place it in the correct bin for next day delivery. If we hadn't called, I wonder how many days it would have gone along on that cycle?
Sort Centers are another problem where mail can sit for days unless it is handled properly. But again, adequate supervision and getting rid of the dead wood at these stations would go a long way towards moving the mail more efficiently.
The first class postage rate increase to 49 cents was noted to be temporary an is supposed to be reduced to 47 cents as soon as the Postal Service bails itself out of the current mess it is in. Fat chance! With the type service we are getting, we're starting to rely more heavily on other services that have more time defined delivery and better customer services,
Speaking of customer services, the USPS really sucks at that. They have a toll-free line that lets you sit on hold eternally because either they have so many complaints they can't handle them or they really don't want to know what you have to say. Send in a written or e-mail complaint and you get a response from your local post office even if the issue is not with them. Then they want all the specifics, so you need to scan and cut and paste and send it to the original place where you couldn't send it to in the first place. You know you don't get an e-mail for your local PO to do so.
So, when the Postal Service wonders why they're going bankrupt, it's simple. The service is really bad and getting worse. And customer service is bad. Been to a Post Office with 30 people in line and watched a clerk close his window because it's his time to go on break? While you stand in line even longer as nobody comes to open his window? That's difficult to explain to the customers who have businesses of their own or children crying or taking time from their jobs. I was informed that's the way it's run and the union rules. Break time comes and all else stops...screw the customers. If you ran your business they way, you wouldn't survive either.
So, people turn to e-mail, texting, paperless banking, paperless bill paying, FedEx, UPS, OnTrac, and all sorts of other alternatives to the Postal Service. For years, it was not cost effective to use FedEx for consumers shipping packages, but with the new ground services available, in many cases it's less costly than the Postal Service. With 5 day delivery, $100 of insurance included too.
April 24, 2014:
Here's yet another view of the stellar service I receive. A package with "2 Day" service gets to San Diego, CA yesterday. Leaves that facility last night yet doesn't make it to my post office less than 35 miles away to be delivered today. Thus two day turns into three day at best. Why?
Postal Product: Priority Mail 2-Day™
Features: $100 insurance included USPS Tracking™
Date & Time
Status of Item
Location
April 23, 2014
Depart USPS Sort Facility
SAN DIEGO, CA 92199
April 23, 2014 , 10:39 pm
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
SAN DIEGO, CA 92199
April 22, 2014
Depart USPS Sort Facility
LOUISVILLE, KY 40231
April 22, 2014 , 4:13 pm
Processed at USPS Origin Sort Facility
LOUISVILLE, KY 40231
April 22, 2014 , 2:58 pm
Accepted at USPS Origin Sort Facility
SHEPHERDSVILLE, KY 40165
April 22, 2014
Electronic Shipping Info Received
NOTE: The $100 Insurance you actually pay for. I shipped three articles out Priority Mail and wanted to insure them for $100 and the USPS wanted me to pay an additional $2+ for the insurance over $50 which was free. So the "included" is a bunch of bull in my opinion.
Speaking of scanning, a piece of mail that required scanning went from my box with a NOTE on it requesting it be scanned (never was) to the Carlsbad 92011 Post Office (Never Scanned) to the San Diego Sort Center (Never Scanned) and God knows where else. The FIRST SCAN was 4 days later in Indianapolis where some conscientious person actually did their job and scanned it. Half way across the country and 4 days later before anyone scanned it. We presumed it may have been lost. Great service, eh?
Yet the Postal Service continues to advertise their wonderful services with pricey television commercials and thtat costly Spiderman theme. Why not spend that money on actually doing the job we pay them for. Privatize the whole damned thing and let the chips fall where they may. Dump the Postal Unions so they can get rid of the useless slackers who don't do their jobs. We must have a bunch of them locally because why else would the mail be in such a mess?
