Getting very frustrated with USPS

[Airborne]

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

Haha! It's going to be a good one! I received one of those suspicious pipe-sized boxes as well!

Merry Christmas!

 

[Dutch]

If you don't like the current USPS service, be patient. Things are about to change.....


Post Office Lays Out More Details On Service Changes, Closings



Dropping a first-class letter in the mail in the morning and expecting it will get to its destination by the next day would be a thing of the past under changes the U.S. Postal Service is detailing this hour.

But there will be no change in the Post Office's commitment to deliver a first-class letter anywhere in the continental U.S. within three days, spokesman Dave Williams just told reporters on a conference call.

Widely anticipated and laid out in broad terms back in September, the changes are part of a broad restructuring — which includes the anticipated closing of up to 250 or so processing facilities and the elimination of about 28,000 more jobs — as the Post Office looks for ways to stem the billions of dollars in red ink it is accumulating.

Williams said that among the other changes the Post Office wants to institute by next spring is to change "the geographic reach of our current 2-day standard" from about a 12-hour drive from a letter's point of origin to about 4-hours. In other words, the Post Office will guarantee delivery in two days or less within that 4-hour window. Anything beyond that, the guarantee is 3 days or less.

Only commercial, bulk mailers might be able to get their first-class mail delivered the next day — if they get it, properly bundled, to the Post Office early in the morning.

The Post Office estimates it would save $2.1 billion annually thanks to the changes, Williams added. it lost $5.1 billion in the past year, according to The Associated Press.

As for post offices in small towns and the likelihood that many will be closed in coming years, Williams said that is being studied. He also said the Post Office is not now seeking to eliminate Saturday delivery — but is still studying that as well.

We'll add more about today's additional details about the Post Office's plans later.

Update at 12:10 p.m. ET: The USPS statement about the changes is now posted here.

Before today's news conference, The Associated Press put together a video report on the expected changes.


http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/12/05/143138063/post-office-lays-out-more-details-on-service-changes-closings

 

[riff raff]

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

Haha! It's going to be a good one! I received one of those suspicious pipe-sized boxes as well!

Merry Christmas!

My eyes didn't deceive, a fine Cavicchi from a brother on the SmokersForum, a beauty.

 

[LoadedBowls]

Sadly I live in a Town of less then 2000 people and here we don't have any home delivery, If you live in town you want your mail you have to go to the Post Office pay for a BOX and get your mail there, Right now I have a Item setting there the DC says Notice Left yesterday because they don't open the office for us to pick up items. And I guess to lazy to put it in the OVER size box with a Key in my box to pick up the thing. Now they are talking about Closing this Office. Don't understand how they are so far in Debt. I mean we pay for the services they carry out.

Maybe they need to not Pay such high wages. Stop Stealing our packages. :bounce:

Anyway time to smoke some of The Cube to Relax some.

James

 

[DoverPipes]

Part of my duties involve working at a large mail facility searching for narcotics, contraband, WMD / WME, HAZMAT, etc. You'd be shocked at what happens on a daily basis. I've regularly seen old mail under machinery go untouched for weeks at a time. When you tell the employees, they ignore you and go to their Supervisors and say that you are harassing them!!!

It's a miracle that ANYTHING gets delivered on time. I used to tease Winslow (miss you Brother!) about the USPS when he worked for them. Now, much of what I said has actually come true. I still see mail from October at one of the locations. It just sits in "post-cons" and never moves.

One of the largest sorting facilities in the US will be closing down and the operations will be consolidated to another location five states away. So, if you are hoping on getting anything from overseas, be ready for all shipments to become delayed beyond what they already are. You'll pay more and get less in the end.

Once the Government finally wises up and cuts its' ties to the Postal Service, maybe then it will become a competitive entity. Until that happens, you'll still get the same old crappy service that you are used to.

To be honest, how many of us even use the mail for anything other than Christmas cards, packages, and receiving junk mail? I can't even remember the last time I actually sent any letters via USPS. I do 90-95% of everything I do online now. When I go to my local Post Office to check my PO box, I usually end up throwing out almost all of it because it's bulk mailers / fliers and crap that I don't want or need. Cut all of that out, and the Postal Workers won't have to rent storage units to hide the mail that they aren't able to deliver due to the sheer volume of said crap!!!! :roll:

 

[mike_68]

I had the 26th off because Christmas was on a Sunday. Isn't that how it was supposed to work?

Not sure I see the problem with that...

 

[Boxerbuddy]

I have had trouble with USPS in the past...but strangely none with UPS. I know you said that the union and management is a joke there Kyle, and you know better than me having worked there, but my experience is that the packages get delivered on time and intact.

USPS on the other hand...late packages, crushed packages.....I ordered a very expensive fishing reel that came with the bail completely crushed and bent. The box had obviously been crushed by something. I don't think the seller would have sent it this way...he was an ebay seller with a 100% rating. Talked to USPS they blamed it on the seller. The seller was good enough to send me a new one, I hope he got reimbursed by USPS but I doubt it.

Lol Kyle if you think the management and union of a private company is a joke...which it very well could be...imagine what the management and union of a government entity must be like....disaster.

 

[Brewdude]

FWIW I've read horror stories about both USPS and UPS.

My experience with both has been 99% positive. Only once in all the years I've been trading did UPS somehow lose a package, and the seller replaced it.

USPS so far has always delivered according to the d/c. Once or twice a day or so later than stated, yet it always got there.

That said, I'm wary of the USPS cuts to services. In my area they are apparently closing down a major sorting facility sometime soon. This does not bode well....

:|


Cheers,

RR

 

[Kyle Weiss]

I have had trouble with USPS in the past...but strangely none with UPS. I know you said that the union and management is a joke there Kyle, and you know better than me having worked there, but my experience is that the packages get delivered on time and intact.

USPS on the other hand...late packages, crushed packages.....I ordered a very expensive fishing reel that came with the bail completely crushed and bent. The box had obviously been crushed by something. I don't think the seller would have sent it this way...he was an ebay seller with a 100% rating. Talked to USPS they blamed it on the seller. The seller was good enough to send me a new one, I hope he got reimbursed by USPS but I doubt it.

Lol Kyle if you think the management and union of a private company is a joke...which it very well could be...imagine what the management and union of a government entity must be like....disaster.

I can only imagine (in agony, mind you) what a government/union/private company hybrid must be like. I'd rather saw off my own feet with a metal ruler than work in a place like that.

UPS hubs, workers and union representation varies with many locations, but here in my area, which covers everywhere between Utah, me, and then Northern California, it's a damn nightmare. It's why I don't work there anymore.

This is the drawbacks I see with each package company:

FedEx: Might get there on time, might be broken, but it's cheap.

UPS: Gets there on time, if it's intact, thank your lucky stars.

USPS: Gets lost, but usually stays intact--where ever it might be.

:lol:

 

[Hermit]

I've had good luck with the USPS.
They know me by name and face.
Once my daughter sent a post card while on vacation.
She forgot to write the address; just the name and city.
I got it. If I'm signing for a package, she asks me,
"Another pipe?" And I always got my packages with
all the pretty stamps from Hong Kong or Swiss Post. :twisted:
I also get great service from UPS and FedEx.
Small town Louisiana. :lol:

 

[szyzk]

I send and receive a LOT of packages and it wasn't too long ago that Priority meant a very consistent 2 days for me. Any more, it's very consistently 3 days.

I don't mind because, let's face it, I can't drive a package across the country for $5, but I have noticed a slight decline in speediness.

 

[calipuffer]

At the end of last year (2011) I bulked up my cellar while I had some funds available. I made probably 20 purchases, and the ones that came USPS (like 4noggins.com) all arrived within 3 days (I'm in CA). The speed of USPS from east coast based shops was consistently speedy. I had one issue where Delivery Confirmation said "Delivery Attempt - Not at Home" but I was at home that day. I got the package first thing the next morning (I think the driver was running late and had to close out his delivery sheet??). UPS is the slowest, 7-8 days from east coast. Seems like this will all change soon enough with the changes to USPS, but my experience was very good.

 

[Zeno Marx]

Delivery Confirmation and Signature Confirmation are pretty much a postal scam. They're a false sense of security, which is smart to offer for a seller and hollow hope for buyers. The chances of you ever getting a claim out of them is nil. There are so many hidden and buried rules to these things that its practically dumb luck to have met them all and have the ability to file a claim. I think those dates on the tracking option are mostly worthless. Back when they actually logged and scanned the numbers at every stage, they meant something. I haven't seen my local carrier handle a scanner in a really, really long time.