Is something going on with the Post Office? 3 3

[Darwination]

Yeah, FedEx has been doing the air for express and priority, and the USPS was doing the end part of the ground delivery for some of their services.  UPS won the air contract from USPS and will be taking over that part   The USPS will still be doing the end delivery for UPS Surepost, and my understanding is FedEx will be going it alone in terms of their end delivery.  The new and seemingly very able player in delivery has been Amazon but they're only shipping their own customer's stuff -for now-

[Chip Cataldo]

On 5/5/2024 at 4:50 PM, Darwination said:

The common denominator amongst all the packages seem to be a sad state of affairs in the Memphis regional facility. 

Sadly, that's where my package that was lost for over 3 weeks now (supposedly) sits, and is apparently lost again. 

[ADAMANTIUM]

I just bought from a seller in Rome Georgia.....

They haven't updated the listing with shipping, but I bought it Friday..... figured I wouldn't message until tomorrow....

Plus they only have 8 feedback but all positive with comics being sold.

Prayers

And that is me buying something

I can't imagine the stress of having sold, y'all have my prayers too eek.

Again rain in Texas but don't know the area in Georgia very well.

Edited May 6 by ADAMANTIUM

[lizards2]

We have a great post office here, but all mail is shipped to Portland, Oregon now for processing. So even mailing something within town can sometimes take 10 days.

I did a vacation mail hold, and slipped it in the slot on a Saturday, and it was shipped to Portland and never processed. I only found out because I came home mid-vacation for something else and was like WTF. Apparently, no one looked at it, just put it in the shipment to Portland. Now I make sure I personally hand these to someone at a window.

 

[Jesse-Lee]

On 5/6/2024 at 10:47 AM, lizards2 said:

We have a great post office here, but all mail is shipped to Portland, Oregon now for processing. So even mailing something within town can sometimes take 10 days.

I did a vacation mail hold, and slipped it in the slot on a Saturday, and it was shipped to Portland and never processed. I only found out because I came home mid-vacation for something else and was like WTF. Apparently, no one looked at it, just put it in the shipment to Portland. Now I make sure I personally hand these to someone at a window.

 

Two of the packages I'm having issues with were shipped to Portland...

[SpineTic]

[lizards2]

On 5/6/2024 at 9:01 AM, Jesse-Lee said:

Two of the packages I'm having issues with were shipped to Portland...

I'm sure their distribution center is plagued by the same problems of that totally dysfunctional city.

I used to go to Portland all the time, but now, I've pretty much sworn it off.

I have attended the State High School Wrestling Championships there for decades, but I am now skipping them, because of the location and venue.

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 5/6/2024 at 11:04 AM, SpineTic said:

A cutie, I hope it doesn't turn out to be this Hellboy cat! 😺 

My one from Rome Georgia shipped, down to the heart of the matter if the trouble truly originated from there?

Edited May 6 by ADAMANTIUM

[Darwination]

Shipping many parcels out today and going Ground Advantage (my wife says Priority would make no difference in terms of safety of handling, it'll all go through the Memphis center).  Fingers crossed.  Lordy, don't make me upcharge my buyers and go FedEx

Want to talk dysfunctional cities, I have to imagine Memphis would be somewhere near the top of the list, but there's plenty others "down here" like Jackson, MS, or Montgomery, AL.

[royaluglydudes]

On 5/6/2024 at 12:04 PM, SpineTic said:

Now that's a mailman who really has to look out for dogs on his route.

[SpineTic]

On 5/6/2024 at 12:38 PM, royaluglydudes said:

Now that's a mailman who really has to look out for dogs on his route.

[newshane]

On 5/2/2024 at 1:10 PM, TheBigJ said:

Have you ever visited your local PO, or any PO for that matter? Check one out and you won't be surprised by poor service. Not a fan, but what are your options?

Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Unfortunately. 

I firmly believe they are trained to move as slowly as possible. 

I've seen lines of over 20 people, and every clerk in the office is (barely) moving without a care in the world. Everyone in line could be huffing and puffing or threatening violence. It only makes them move even slower. 

I guess I wouldn't be cut out for the job. If I saw a line like that, I would pick up the pace to move them out of there. 

The clerks just look up with a blank stare with no concern whatsoever. 

***This is at EVERY post office (Edit - in the city or large towns). 

I miss living in a rural area. Your best customer service care can be found in the tiny offices manned by a single clerk. In small towns, you can actually form a relationship with the clerks and carriers, which makes it a wonderful experience. 

Big towns or cities? Forget about it. 

 

 

 

Edited May 6 by newshane

[newshane]

On 5/3/2024 at 11:21 AM, CGC Mike said:

I believe so.  However, I have a box at my residence.  If we go away and they hold my  mail, I can't pick it up when I get back.  There have been a few other times when I needed to pick up my mail and was denied by the postal rep.

This is extraordinarily bizarre. 

[newshane]

On 5/3/2024 at 12:01 PM, trademarkcomics said:

They tell you not to tape over the barcodes, but ever since we started taping over just the very bottom of the barcode(so they can still scan if the laser printed barcode gets rubbed off), we haven't had anything go off tracking or get "lost". We used to use USPS insurance, and high value items invariably got delayed. Once we started using ShipCover insurance, packages seem to go right through. 

Yes. This is a "best practice" and it's what I've always done. 

[newshane]

On 5/6/2024 at 11:29 AM, Darwination said:

Want to talk dysfunctional cities, I have to imagine Memphis would be somewhere near the top of the list...

Pretty much any large city in the United States is now a toilet bowl. 

As a Tennessean, I advise people to avoid Memphis altogether if possible. 

If you are heading west on 1-40, it's best to fuel up before Jackson and pray you can make it past Little Rock before having to stop again. 

You know all those "best of" lists that rank each state according to crime, education, property value, physical fitness, etc? Well, Tennessee would shoot up 15 or 20 places on each list if we could give Memphis to Arkansas or Mississippi.  

 

 

 

Edited May 6 by newshane

[Stefan_W]

I just had a package take 3 weeks to get to a buyer instead of the usual 5 days, and all the delays happened once it hit the USPS side. This is unusual though and all of my other packages went through at the normal rate. 

I am trying to avoid using FedEx whenever possible now. Years back they were my default when shipping higher value things, but now they just charge much more than other options without providing anything to justify that cost. Their fee for cross border customs forms is an absolute joke. I also find FedEx is always late, and they are at least as likely as anyone else to damage packages. 

[Tnexus]

On 5/6/2024 at 10:16 AM, newshane said:

Unfortunately. 

I firmly believe they are trained to move as slowly as possible. 

I've seen lines of over 20 people, and every clerk in the office is (barely) moving without a care in the world. Everyone in line could be huffing and puffing or threatening violence. It only makes them move even slower. 

I guess I wouldn't be cut out for the job. If I saw a line like that, I would pick up the pace to move them out of there. 

The clerks just look up with a blank stare with no concern whatsoever. 

***This is at EVERY post office. 

I miss living in a rural area. Your best customer service care can be found in the tiny offices manned by a single clerk. In small towns, you can actually form a relationship with the clerks and carriers, which makes it a wonderful experience. 

Big towns or cities? Forget about it. 

 

 

 

Having been a post office clerk years ago, I can guarantee you the problem with long lines is 70% the customers. The sheer amount of people who come in, expect a post office member to package their stuff, then argue at every step up is insane. It clogs up the lines quickly. You're also the closest representative to a government employee they know so a lot of that ire gets directed to you. I understood real quickly why post office works develop the attitude they do.

There's also times in the day when people come in mass, usually 3pm onward. You will be waiting longer these periods. I go before or after the lunch hours and it's usually dead.

[namisgr]

On 5/6/2024 at 1:16 PM, newshane said:

Unfortunately. 

I firmly believe they are trained to move as slowly as possible. 

I've seen lines of over 20 people, and every clerk in the office is (barely) moving without a care in the world. Everyone in line could be huffing and puffing or threatening violence. It only makes them move even slower. 

I guess I wouldn't be cut out for the job. If I saw a line like that, I would pick up the pace to move them out of there. 

The clerks just look up with a blank stare with no concern whatsoever. 

***This is at EVERY post office. 

I miss living in a rural area. Your best customer service care can be found in the tiny offices manned by a single clerk. In small towns, you can actually form a relationship with the clerks and carriers, which makes it a wonderful experience. 

Big towns or cities? Forget about it. 

My experience indicates it's neither every post office nor every city.  Our local US postal service is generally excellent.  From the delivery truck, to the local office, to our regional distribution center.  It's easy to have the local office hold mail when we go on vacation.  Shipping packages has been and continues to be  consistently reliable.  The only problem I've experienced in the past few years has been purchases being shipped to us from distant locations have sometimes shown up via tracking in unexpected and out of the way places.  An example is an E-Bay purchase from a seller in Pennsylvania (a neighboring state) that first went to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

So I think that USPS services around the country are more of a mixed bag.  They get lots of things right, but have a few problem locations, too.

[newshane]

On 5/6/2024 at 3:28 PM, namisgr said:

My experience indicates it's neither every post office nor every city.  

Very true. 

Like I said, I've had awesome experiences with rural post offices. 

But the city stinks. 

I've also had generally excellent luck, and they are still my top choice for shipping anything. 

[ttfitz]

On 5/6/2024 at 11:47 AM, lizards2 said:

We have a great post office here, but all mail is shipped to Portland, Oregon now for processing. So even mailing something within town can sometimes take 10 days.

I did a vacation mail hold, and slipped it in the slot on a Saturday, and it was shipped to Portland and never processed.

I usually do vacation holds on the USPS website, pretty quick and easy