May I Vent? A Complaint About Mail Delivery.............

Hi,
Over the last three months I've won 8 ebay auctions for Scotts International albums. As you know, these are big,heavy books and not the easiest things to work with.

Well, all of the 8 were shipped USPS, from various east coast cities - all with tracking numbers. Much to my dismay, 4 of the 8 were mis-routed. One went from New Jersey to Dallas and back to New Jersey and finally came to Houston (where I am). Another was stalled for two weeks in New York. Two of them went from New York to Dallas to south Texas (where they reside today).

Now I can recognize that problems happen, but 4 in 3 months seems a bit much. Have I just been "lucky", or have others shared this situation.

OH, please note.... I am NOT knocking the USPS or their workers, for they are good, hardworking folks in a difficult job in a difficult time.....

Sign of the times maybe? I had just completed a deal and it took 37 days for the letter to go from Canada to Mississippi. Set a personal record, stuck in customs probably.

There are a lot of stories on the internet about USPS delivery problems, one in particular went cross-country three times before it got to its destination. Often, there's no rhyme or reason to why it happens, but it does. Certainly a frustration for those involved, but the USPS will never admit there's a problem, so we either learn to live with it ... or seek out UPS or FedEx as an alternative.

Personally, I think some of the problem may have to do with the USPS closing some mailing centers as a cost-cutting measure. As a result they are now in more disarray than they care to admit.

On a lighter note, this cartoon seems appropriate for the thread:

I live in the UK and get stuff sent to me from the US via USPS fairly often. I have not had a problem so far. Everything gets to me without mishap and In one noteable instance a small packet arrived from the US faster than a letter posted to me from the UK.

Terry

It's been four weeks since I purchased an ebay lot from Germany. I will give it another two weeks until I start to sweat it and contact the seller. Seller specified airmail but could still be in a bin somewhere.
Dan

I get mail from the UK and France to Canada in 3-5 days...from Calif. USA..13 days!..and i'm talking about a regular envelope not a package!

I absolutely think it's a result of consolidating mailing centers. I think that certain cities must automatically feed into specific processing centers, regardless of the ultimate destination of the item being mailed.

For example, one of my recent ebay purchases started in Boise then went to San Francisco then Omaha before it was delivered to me in Grand Island, NE. I understand and accept that packages generally will not travel directly from point A to point B, but I thought that surely something from Boise to Nebraska would have been routed east, toward the destination, rather than heading 600-700 miles west to start with. (For the record, it took 8 days to arrive, which isn't too bad in my book.)

Reminds me.......... I sold a "cowboy hat" on ebay a few years ago, and mailed in in a large box. Bulky, but extremely light. The buyer waited and waited (he in Seattle, me in Houston)and finally he went to his local PO to do a trace. Well, the box was sitting it the corner, and had been there for 3 weeks. Apparently, it was ignored as too big to easily handle.

OK, those are my complaints...... but on the other side of the coin I've never had a check or cash sent or received that didn't make it to the proper person......

Personally, I think that it is because the USPS is dramatically understaffed due to the USPS being severely insolvent. But the amount of package shipping hasn't changed much. Too many fewer workers to do the work can't possibly keep up with volume. Mistakes are inevitable and probably frequent. Like Mobilman says tho, it obviously isn't the worker's fault. I can juggle 3 tennis balls, but not 20.


-IBFS

I've had many letters and parcels delivered by USPS lately (mostly stamps and supplies to get me back into the hobby ). I've not had many problems to speak of. I even got a packet of stamps posted from Germany in 3 days!

To update........ The erratically shipped Big Blue albums arrived yesterday after coming from New Jersey, to Dallas, and then to south Texas and put on a delivery truck - only to be determined they belonged in north Houston. The box was beat up, with a corner opened. The albums had a bit of scuffing but nothing really serious. Mistakes do happen in shipping, but bad handling has no excuse.

Well I live exactly 3 traffic lights from a big nationally well known calender place. I share their zip code. You'd think it takes 1 day to deliver right?
They DHL all of their stuff. Goes from Austin to Dallas. At Dallas they drop it off to USPS, who them mails it to Austin, back to OUR post office and to me. Takes over a week.

It's not just USPS. There are morons everywhere with inefficient automation and employees who have no authority or are discouraged from going the extra mile.
It took almost a year for me to get my address corrected with an employer(gov't as well), finally got self-service access, and to update mine with Sears for the rewards card? Forget about it. Our brains are outsourced to automation.