Getting very frustrated with USPS

[Dave_In_Philly]

For about the last year or so I have noticed a severe drop in the quality of the USPS service. It used to be that if I ordered something from Pipesandcigars or Cup O' Joes (both in upstate New York) on a Monday, it would arrive by Wednesday without fail. A little while back I heard a story about a local postman getting caught with the trunk of his car literally overflowing with undelivered mail. About 6-8 mos ago a local news station caught the postal carriers from in my neighborhood spending the entire afternoon in local bar. One stumbled into his truck obviously drunk. Ever since then things have gotten pretty bad.

I once ordered a pipe from ebay that left the seller in CA and didn't arrive here in Philly for 10 days. Then I sent two tins of tobacco to a guy in Texas. I had a DC number and for nearly three weeks it sat there saying "we have been notified to expect your shipment" or something like that. Then out of the blue it started to move and was delivered a few days later. More recently I sent something to Kyle and again the DC number showed no movement for 5 or 6 days, then all of a sudden listed the package as being delivered.

Most recently I ordered a package of Penzance from Iwan Reis last week. Initially the DC number listed it for delivery on Saturday, then changed it to Monday. On Monday it was listed as out for delivery but didn't show. Then yesterday it said out for delivery again and the delivery date change from 12/19 to 12/20 but still nothing. Now again, it says out for delivery with an anticipated delivery date of 12/21. I'm starting to get pretty darn frustrated. I want my Penzance!

 

[Mr_Jeff]

We had a local mail carrier get caught with a bunch of undelivered mail. She had so much of it that she had to rent a storage unit to keep it all in. It was only discovered when she stopped paying the rent and they opened it up to auction off the contents.

 

[roogles]

We had a local mail carrier get caught with a bunch of undelivered mail. She had so much of it that she had to rent a storage unit to keep it all in. It was only discovered when she stopped paying the rent and they opened it up to auction off the contents.

About 10 years ago we had a very similar thing to this pop up in our small town. The large local storage unit facility was cracking open units which were long overdue and being re-claimed and they discovered a unit of a recently deceases, retired driver for one of the major carriers. The local story was that he had been placing items in the unit which he "didn't get around to delivering in a timely manner" for years while on the job, and then had kept paying the rent on the unit through is retirement until he died.

Apparently no one knew about the unit or its contents, except for the driver - although it's always struck me as suspicious as to how that quantity of "stuff" could go missing over the course of years without anyone pinning it to him.

I wasn't personally the recipient of any of the lost items, but I had one or two co-workers who received years-late packages as the carrier tried to sort-out the contents of the storage unit.

Very very strange, if you ask me...

 

[RDPipes]

From time to time I've had some minor problems with USPS but, for the most part its been pretty good if you compare them to UPS (United Parcel Crushers) and others.
Delivery Confirmation doesn't always get scanned so it may appear to be sitting when its not. As far as getting something from California in a timely manner that's a whole other can of worms there. I am in no way affiliated with USPS.
But if you want to talk about UPS, then I've got some stories for you. And I'm certainly not affiliated with them in anyway.

 

[Airborne]

=

 

[MisterE]

Receiving USPS stuff down here has generally been pretty good. Between 10 to 14 days. Over the holidays it invariably takes longer though. Last year's December order from smokingpipes took almost two MONTHS to get here. :shock:

 

[Doc Manhattan]

If I'm not sure it's going to make its first leg by air, I go with a courier--usually faster at a pretty competitive price. Had pretty good luck so far with USPS for longer-distance shipping, knock on wood.

 

[tiltjlp]

I must be lucky. Since I'm disabled and can't climb stairs while carrying any sort of package, my carriers always hand deliver whatever I order.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

I've heard far more people complaining on the East Coast about package delivery than here in the West. By a long shot. Usually it's outgoing problems, but not always. USPS is in a lot of trouble in a lot of ways.

I worked for UPS for four years. I both loved and loathed that job. The union is a joke, the management is a joke, their services are a joke. I loved the type of work, bonehead-throw-boxes kind of stuff, left me time to think, get dirty, drink like fish at the end of the week and start all over again. Meathead work for the substandard intellectual. :lol: It was cool. Everything else was terrible.

Logistics and parcel work is tough. If it's mismanaged, it's going to go to shit really quickly.

Hey, there's always FedEx:


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PKUDTPbDhnA" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Sending goods anywhere, with anyone, is a prayer and luck at best.

 

[user 2031]

I've heard far more people complaining on the East Coast about package delivery than here in the West. By a long shot. Usually it's outgoing problems, but not always. USPS is in a lot of trouble in a lot of ways.

I worked for UPS for four years. I both loved and loathed that job. The union is a joke, the management is a joke, their services are a joke. I loved the type of work, bonehead-throw-boxes kind of stuff, left me time to think, get dirty, drink like fish at the end of the week and start all over again. Meathead work for the substandard intellectual. :lol: It was cool. Everything else was terrible.

Logistics and parcel work is tough. If it's mismanaged, it's going to go to shit really quickly.

Hey, there's always FedEx:


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PKUDTPbDhnA" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Sending goods anywhere, with anyone, is a prayer and luck at best.

Good grief! I can't believe that video. If I saw them do that to my monitor I would have a serious duck-fit! :x

 

[riff raff]

I've only had good experiences so far with pipes. I shipped a Jake Hackert on a Thursday from Maryland to MO, insured First Class ($4.92 cost). The new owner received it on Monday. That same day, I used my Hackert money to buy my Upshall from an Ebay vendor in Washington State. I was shocked to pull that pipe (send Delivery Confirmation) out my my mailbox on Monday. That's insane.
Maybe it's different in larger cities. I spoke to a NYC postal carrier last week. He just retired after 35 years and in the past ten, worked a 120 story office building in Manhattan. When he started that route, there were 10 guys working that building. When he retired this summer, they were down to two. I guess that math just doesn't work.

 

[Dave_In_Philly]

I guess I should count my blessings and keep my mouth shut. As frustrated as I am with USPS, everything has always shown up eventually.

As time goes on my wife and I have found that we do more and more of our shopping online. So before the holidays we decided to sign up for Amazon Prime. Its a service where you a pay an annual fee of $80 and you get free 2nd day shipping on all Amazon purchases. So needless to say we did most of our holiday shopping with Amazon. Most things shipped via UPS and arrived within 2 days, some even arriving after only one day. Unfortunately we decided to splurge a bit on my sister this year and bought her a pricey hand bag. We ordered it on Saturday, leaving plenty of time for it to get here by Christmas. When it didn't show up by Thursday I logged into to Amazon to check the shipping status and found that it was listed as having been delivered on Wednesday. Turns out they used some third-rate shipper called Lasership and no one knows what happened to it. We get a lot of packages delivered and left on our doorstep and have never had a problem with one disappearing and actually on Wednesday we had several other packages (delivered by UPS) waiting for us.

Long story short, Amazon is now out of stock and doesn't expect more in anytime soon. The only thing they can do is refund my money. So now its the day before Christmas and we have to scramble to find a gift for my sister.

 

[mike_68]

You may not have to worry about a postal system soon...

 

[joshoowah]

You may not have to worry about a postal system soon...

Back to the Pony Express!

 

[Doc Manhattan]

I worked for UPS for four years. I both loved and loathed that job. The union is a joke, the management is a joke, their services are a joke. I loved the type of work, bonehead-throw-boxes kind of stuff, left me time to think, get dirty, drink like fish at the end of the week and start all over again. Meathead work for the substandard intellectual. :lol: It was cool. Everything else was terrible.

So UPS is just a bunch of Bukowskis with freight trucks? No wonder their colors are brown and yellow...

 

[puros_bran]

EFFIN USPS is taking the 26th off because Christmas is on a Sunday!!!
What a bunch of low life mother effers!!!
I paid extra to have my packages delivered later. Gotta love it.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

So UPS is just a bunch of Bukowskis with freight trucks? No wonder their colors are brown and yellow...

Strangely true. :shock:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

EFFIN USPS is taking the 26th off because Christmas is on a Sunday!!!
What a bunch of low life mother effers!!!
I paid extra to have my packages delivered later. Gotta love it.

Yikes. I didn't notice that. Arsehats.

 

[Milan]

I think it all depends on where you live to some degree. My post man is a nice old man that lives in my neighborhood. His name is Floyd and he always leaves our dog two treats everyday. Today... Floyd delivered a package for my wife in the morning and two packages for me around 5PM... one of which was a pipe I won off eBay on Tuesday. USPS is on my good side right now, but they've been on my shit list many times throughout the years.
Milan
:rendeer:

 

[riff raff]

USPS delivered a small box to my house yesterday, which looked suspiciously pipe-sized.....quickly whisked away by Mrs. Riff-Raff....