[Dpc2u]

What the heck is going on with USPS the past couple of weeks? It seems like everything I have ordered lately ends up sitting somewhere for days before showing movement again.

I had a package (car part) take over a week to get to Nashville, and then after a few days it ended up in Chattanooga, yet I live just south of Nashville. After sitting there for a few days I filed an inquiry. The local post office called me and said it will get there eventually, we are short handed, so packages are going to other cities to be sorted, sorry, it is Covid. A couple of days later it went back to Nashville and then delivered the next day.

Now I have a laptop I ordered for the wife that went from New York to New Jersey and has been sitting there for days. Also another package that was accepted by USPS in California and has yet to move from there for 4 days.

I get the fact that there are Covid related issues, but it is getting beyond ridiculous!

Rant over.

[2000cs]

Lots of misdelivered mail and lost mail for us. Received a thank you card from my mom but the envelop had been opened and the card wasn’t there.

[Chihuahua]

Originally Posted by 2000cs

Lots of misdelivered mail and lost mail for us. Received a thank you card from my mom but the envelop had been opened and the card wasn’t there.

This happened to me too, twice actually. my friend once sent me a motorcycle magazine in a manila envelope. I received an empty manila envelope. I went to my local post office, was effectively told to pound sand. I've never had this happen with any non-government run mail/package service.

[MKSixer]

They are irradiating/disinfecting mail from certain areas. My sister sent me a package from MSY, 72 miles away, and it took over a week.

[tcphoto]

The USPS should be allowed to die, it is inefficient and propped up only because it's a Government Entity. Notice how the tracking system is vague when you attempt to track a package? I ordered a video mic last week out of NY, it made it's way to LA before finally being delivered in Nashville ten days later. Let it die, let a private company do it better because how much do you use it anyway? I think 2-3 days of service a week is all that's needed, at least for residential service.

[Chihuahua]

Originally Posted by tcphoto

The USPS should be allowed to die, it is inefficient and propped up only because it's a Government Entity.

this.

[vreihen16]

Amazon's logistics where they use the USPS for "last mile" delivery is faring no better. I can't get orders delivered in a week on Prime now, and they seem to be shipping most of my orders in NY State from mid-west and deep south warehouses routed through an Amazon sorting in Hebron, KY. Stuff going through Amazon's usual (for us) sort facility in NJ is taking 2-3 days to get loaded onto the trucks for USPS handoff, when it passed through that facility in 6 hours before COVID-geddon.

I just checked Amazon and USPS tracking for the items that I don't have for my weekend planned project, and the USPS site seems to be lagging behind with package movements from their "shipping partner" (Amazon's own logistics). About half of my packages arrived last night at Amazon's sort facility in NJ for handoff to USPS, and Amazon is promising a Monday delivery now and not the Saturday promised when I placed the orders.

I never in my life thought that I would see the collapse of the Ferengi Great Material Continuum, but here we are.....

[ntg44]

Bought a diffuser from east coast recently. It was stuck in USPS tracking for 3 weeks, to the point where I requested a refund from being tired of waiting. 3 days later it shows up on my door with no tracking updates. I decided to just keep it but very weird.

[dreamingat30fps]

I would say 90% of what I order from Amazon now gets delivered by Amazon and they seem to do a better job than anyone else. Occasionally I will get smaller stuff delivered by USPS which I also haven't really had any issues with recently.

[CTinline-six]

USPS has marginal service at best, and that's without any outside factors like COVID or riots taking place.

[TXSTYLE]

Very rarely have I had issues with them. And I receive on average 3 packages weekly for the past 7 years.

[PYE46M3]

USPS is WORTHLESS. I wish they would let them die. Similar story here too. Had a package sit 10 miles away at their distribution facility for over 14 days. It was a priority service too which is "guaranteed" delivery in 2-3 days. Their excuse is that they're short staffed due to COVID. Ok fine, then stop charging insane prices then or just completly shut down and let fedex/ups/dhl who have been on their A game deliver packages. A lot of people have medicine/ medical supplies shipped through USPS and these bastards act like its normal to leave people hanging because they can't seem to get their crap together. and they recently tweeked their tracking system too so that you now have to pay a fee to figure out when the estimated delivery date is. more money for an already expensive rates and terrible service. LOL /rant

[LogicalApex]

Originally Posted by tcphoto

The USPS should be allowed to die, it is inefficient and propped up only because it's a Government Entity. Notice how the tracking system is vague when you attempt to track a package? I ordered a video mic last week out of NY, it made it's way to LA before finally being delivered in Nashville ten days later. Let it die, let a private company do it better because how much do you use it anyway? I think 2-3 days of service a week is all that's needed, at least for residential service.

I haven't had any issues where I am. TBH for me the Post Office has been far more reliable than UPS or FedEx who have been delivering packages late more often than not and those packages have ransom "delays" thrown into tracking or just plain missed delivery with not tracking updates for a few days.

But I think the part lost on people like you who are hoping the Post Office goes under is not fully appreciating the reality that unless you live very close to a major city deliveries to you are unprofitable. There is nothing that stops UPS or FedEx or any other delivery service from delivering packages to you. Even the UPS and FedEx handover to the USPS is done because they are passing an unprofitable delivery off to the PO. Without the PO they just wouldn't accept that package for delivery.

Although, honestly. I'm fine with the PO going under. I live in the center of one of the largest cities in the US. I'll never have problems with deliveries to me as density ensures profitability no matter who takes it up. I'm not interested in subsidizing deliveries to rural and lower population centers anymore. They should have to pay the extra charges or have regional pickup centers they have to drive to pick up their stuff. Not my problem

[Poiseuille]

also noticing repeated delays in delivery, an unreliable tracking system and inexplicable routing. regarding routing: i live in a small state but almost every time routing looks like it's tracking a pinball game instead of mail.
all the above is fairly recent as others have suggested but erratic delivery is the least of my problems with USPS.
during the last 20 years USPS quality of service has deteriorated to the point where it is now dangerous to use them for anything important or financially sensitive.
EVERY week i get mail addressed to others, sometimes in different towns. mail i expect never appears. couple times a month i receive mail that has been opened, subscribed magazines that have been read (for example Roundel might arrive without its plastic sleeve) or magazines that never arrive. I have received year-end brokerage statements addressed to some one else. pretty uncomfortable to know that my own financial records sometimes travel the same way because i don't get a choice.
only once i went in person to complain to the local postmaster. it's uncanny how effective civil servants can be at subtlety letting you know that what you're engaged in is a-really-bad-idea. never did that again.
so i'm definitely in the let-them-go-bankrupt camp. fact is the USPS has been chronically bankrupt for at least a decade, probably more.

multi grazie to the OP for providing this opportunity to vent.

[PYE46M3]

Originally Posted by Poiseuille

also noticing repeated delays in delivery, an unreliable tracking system and inexplicable routing. regarding routing: i live in a small state but almost every time routing looks like it's tracking a pinball game instead of mail.
all the above is fairly recent as others have suggested but erratic delivery is the least of my problems with USPS.
during the last 20 years USPS quality of service has deteriorated to the point where it is now dangerous to use them for anything important or financially sensitive.
EVERY week i get mail addressed to others, sometimes in different towns. mail i expect never appears. couple times a month i receive mail that has been opened, subscribed magazines that have been read (for example Roundel might arrive without its plastic sleeve) or magazines that never arrive. I have received year-end brokerage statements addressed to some one else. pretty uncomfortable to know that my own financial records sometimes travel the same way because i don't get a choice.
only once i went in person to complain to the local postmaster. it's uncanny how effective civil servants can be at subtlety letting you know that what you're engaged in is a-really-bad-idea. never did that again.
so i'm definitely in the let-them-go-bankrupt camp. fact is the USPS has been chronically bankrupt for at least a decade, probably more.

multi grazie to the OP for providing this opportunity to vent.

agreed 100%. I get all sorts of sensitive information delivered to my house and its not even my mail. Usually its a neighbor down the street or next street over.

[TXSTYLE]

Originally Posted by TXSTYLE

Very rarely have I had issues with them. And I receive on average 3 packages weekly for the past 7 years.

Oooops.... I thought it read UPS.

Yes... USPS can be very hit or miss unfortunately.

[Maynard]

Originally Posted by tcphoto

The USPS should be allowed to die, it is inefficient and propped up only because it's a Government Entity.....

This is completely false. USPS is the only branch of gov't that is self sufficient, and they are rewarded for it by being forced to subsidize other payrolls, and then to give noncompetitive sweetheart contracts to firms like Amazon and those other delivery services. They are a really important government service, especially in 'red-state America' (rural and central states, away from the cities). Most of the service issues lately are because they have lost a lot of workers between actual death and people forced to quarantine until cleared.

[spazzyfry123]

Yeah... a bit bummed lately. Fortunately our area has seen maybe a day’s delay. But I just shipped my mom a pile of N95 masks as her dental practice is opening up, and I’ve a few to spare for work. Said they’d be there today no issue, and just got updated that she’ll see them by 9pm Monday - well after her day is done.

[Poiseuille]

Originally Posted by Maynard

This is completely false. USPS is the only branch of gov't that is self sufficient, and they are rewarded for it by being forced to subsidize other payrolls, and then to give noncompetitive sweetheart contracts to firms like Amazon and those other delivery services. They are a really important government service, especially in 'red-state America' (rural and central states, away from the cities). Most of the service issues lately are because they have lost a lot of workers between actual death and people forced to quarantine until cleared.

.

[RickFLM4]

UPS and FedEx are equally unreliable these days. Just too much shipping all of a sudden for them to handle.

[ASAP]

I am under the impression that all services affected by Corona will go to shit once this is all over...

Restaurant quality will drop... Airlines; not really even worth talking about... shipping companies / amazon late and unreliable. In addition, everything will go up in price soon... welcome to a different world. It was bad when things where good due to overloading and maximizing every dollar of profit margin; it will now be even worse sadly.

[PYE46M3]

just to show what OP is really talking about... here is a package of mine that took FOREVER to be delivered. This is from NY to MI

april 21-May 2nd is 11 days. UPS/FEDEX would've made a round trip from NY to CA in that amount of time.