Problems with USPS...FYI and a little frustration.

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

BSNW

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2017
Messages
982
Reaction score
634
Hey all-

I know there is a lot going on. I would not even bring this up if it were not for it happening on a regular basis before the election stuff (like years) and before the pandemic.

It is very frustrating and I thought I would pass this info on. From now on, I try to request FedEx or UPs when I can, but not all vendors have that option. Below is the latest tracking summary from a recent order from a popular vendor. If anyone doubts this, I can send a screenshot of the actual tracking from USPS. Please also note that this happens when I order from other vendors as well! I have no explanation for this. But I find it a bit nutty. I went into the post office to try and get some help and they literally told me there was nothing they could do (when my shipment was "looping" between Detroit and Pa) and to just wait......nice. Again, this is not a one-off incident. It happens a lot when I have items shipped via USPS. You would think after hundreds of years doing this, they would have their $#@! together. I live in Ohio. You should see some of the (older) trackings when I order from LOC. My stuff crosses through my state (Ohio) a couple of times before it goes to Michigan...then to Ohio! See below: This is my latest order from a nice vendor in Tx.

  • Left TX
  • Passed Ohio went to Pa
  • Left Pa
  • went BACK to TX
  • Left TX
  • Passed Ohio went to Pa (again)
  • Left Pa…passed Ohio (again) then went to Detroit MI
  • Departed Detroit
  • Arrived BACK in Detroit
  • Departed Detroit
  • Arrived BACK in Detroit
  • Finally made it to Toledo
  • Then to my town
  • Out for delivery today….I will believe it when I see it.
 
Similar situation with a priority order, 3-day delivery. Picked up from the supplier and didn’t deliver until 15 days later. Checked tracking daily, the route made no sense. Honestly believe that USPS sends packages on a path through as many states as possible before dropping off. Got the same response from the local PO when I questioned them.

And yeah, don't believe the "out for delivery" until it's in hand.
 
does it contain motors?

No motors, just regular stuff. I get all my BP motors from my local hobby shop. My larger motors are either EX or purchased from a vendor at the field.
 
I also ordered something from AC supply (my Saturn 1b!). I wonder how many states it will visit and how many times it will cross through Ohio before I get it......I truly have lost all confidence in the USPS.
 
I also ordered something from AC supply (my Saturn 1b!). I wonder how many states it will visit and how many times it will cross through Ohio before I get it......I truly have lost all confidence in the USPS.
If it goes through the St. Louis USPS depot, add a week minimum and as much as a month. I just made an order from ACSupply too and I'm not expecting to see it before New Years.
 
I had a similar experience with a recent shipment that was sent to the wrong zip code, but quickly. Took a few days to spiral back to me after that. It was indeed "In Transit, Arriving Late" My wife has a friend in the local P.O., she said they're a couple of days behind right now due to volume. We're getting our deliveries an hour or two later in the day than normal.

But... over the last 10 years or so as a casual ebay seller, I've had better results through USPS. Better pricing, too. Enough of a difference that I eventually dropped the UPS/Fedex option from my listings.
 
I also ordered something from AC supply (my Saturn 1b!). I wonder how many states it will visit and how many times it will cross through Ohio before I get it......I truly have lost all confidence in the USPS.


Same thing happened with me a couple weeks back. Placed two orders with AC Supply. I separated my rockets from my motor order thinking the rockets would get here first. Nope...... Motors arrived in 2 days. Rockets took 14 days. Shipped on the same day.
 
I have slowly learned to pay less attention to the delivery expectations. I received something last week I ordered back in March---Goya dried pinto beans, if anyone is interested.

I was still glad to get it, I guess, and It was somewhat of a surprise.

The key for me is to have so much junk on order in small shipments, that you never really know if your vendors are on time.
 
Less circuitous, but a similar thing happened to me with FedEx last week... Michigan, then Cleveland, then local hub twenty miles away, then "out for delivery," then Cleveland, then "rescheduling" while it seemed missing, then finally delivered.
 
I had a priority mail package from e rockets ( tubes and rings ) set in a town at the most 20 miles from my house for 4 days? I just don't understand it . When I called them out they said priority was not guarantied delivery in 3 days. It is like they want to be put out of business. They ack like they are vested employees without any accountability.
 
Hasn’t happened to me much, but back when I was repairing amps on the side I had a set of tubes take a tour of Missouri. After about a week of going in circles I managed to get them with just enough time to install and re-bias the amp before leaving for a flight. While funny in hindsight, that morning was an interesting one.
 
Not sure if it is still done but it used to be if you paid for Priority postage and it was so many days late you could get a refund. Not sure how many days late that was.
 
I've seen a lot of this lately, especially with shipments with an UN3481 LiPo battery hazard sticker on them. I think USPS is sending them ground-only, even though they can go via cargo air like any other package.

The worst one I ever had was a shipment to Australia, USPS routed it to New York and sent it to Austria instead. It took about 6 weeks to get to Aussie... it literally came back to Los Angeles and was re-routed. Apparently nobody in the shipping chain all the way to Austria could read the address... which was 100% correct on the shipping/customs label.
 
It is like they want to be put out of business. They ack like they are vested employees without any accountability.

There have been multiple threads on this over the past 6+ months.
Eventually, the facts surface about the current USPS administrator, and his numerous conflicts of interests, and political agendas.
Eventually, admins over-react and shut down the thread.

Having said that, this is the busiest time of the year for shopping and shipping, so I would expect a lot of entertaining delays from all shipping vendors.

Case in point - I have an Amazon warehouse ~30 minutes from my house. There is one item (watch batteries) that I ordered the past Monday. At the time of order it was marked as "in stock" in the nearby NJ warehouse. 7 days later, the order status is still showing "Arriving December 2 - December 4".
:rabbitdontknow:
 
Our mail system is pretty good.

Yours does seem to suck in recent months / years. But I must admit, the few items I've received from US persons have made it in fairly decent / expected time.

I know my address can be written 2 different ways (in English or in French) but most "online" shops are now insisting on the "official" address to make a valid cost & ETA (I had this with Wildman this week-end, entered my "English" address, and I got the "can't ship to your location" error. Changed it to the 'offical', and then I got the $202 shipping charge! [Yeah, UPS rapes "international" shipments])

Maybe this is an issue with your address (those who have issues), that you may mean "127 Main Street", but in fact it's 'officially' 127 Mainstreet Avenue, so the sorting machine can't quite locate it, and requires "human intervention". So, it sits in a pile.

And that fact that everything in the US seems to be politically motivated as of late! (That's' just baffling!!)




FYI:
My address is '127 Windward Crescent'. But the official [and French] address is '127 Avenue de la Windward Crescent'. Just so it is recognized as being "French" Gotta love Quebec!
 
I am not surprised so many have had troubles. As I mentioned before, this has been going on for years. It has nothing to do with politics or the pandemic. I belive the other comment above about "no accountability" was spot on.

IMO, the postal service has literally had hundreds of years to perfect their trade. In today's age, there is no real excuse for this. Everything I send (for my job) and have received (personally and for my job) that went FedEx or UPS get there on time. If one is willing to wait months for a can of beans that is cool :). I just hope you don't ever have to wait for medicine, a paycheck, or an important document while trusting the USPS. Then have some snotty counter person tell you to "just wait it out....there is nothing I can do".

The USPS needs a "business reckoning". I simply don't trust them with anything important. Too bad.
 
WELL.....after crossing through my state a number of times, my package indeed arrived.....(see below). One thing I am saddened by is that a number of folks tell me they agree this whole problem is wrong and indeed it is bad.

What is sad, is that I am often told in no uncertain terms to lower my standards/expectations and "get used to it". I guess I grew up in a time when poor performance was NOT rewarded or passed over. Well, we all cannot escape the fact that we (all) reap what we sow. So if this is the USPS way, I have no sympathy for an organization that routinely has delivery problems like this (see tracking in post #1) and does nothing to correct it. I will actively NOT seek their services. As a former business owner, I know very well that people will pay for good service. FedEx and UPs have problems at times....but they do FAR better than the USPS.

IMG_3700.JPG

IMG_3701.JPG
 
My experiences have been similar to the posts that precede this one. Ordered two packages from LA, the same product twice because the first one got lost for 6 to 8 weeks, then it arrived about the same time as the second order. Both boxes damaged heavily and the product inside was not usable in the first box and damaged in the second box as well. There is no accountability in USPS at all. It appears that the routing and loading people take zero pride in their craft.
 
The worst part of this, in my way of thinking, is that USPS still provides a necessary service that is, for many people, a lifeline to the "outside world." UPS, Amazon, and FedEx don't want, nor can they handle, the volume of first class mail that USPS handles daily and, in fact, they still sometimes rely on the USPS for the "last mile" deliveries when addresses are so stinking rural that no one else goes there (and simply *can't* go there profitably). In that sense, USPS isn't just another factory in the buggy whip business whose day has passed and needs to die, it remains a vital utility that needs to be overhauled and fixed but no one in Congress seems to care enough to actually engage with the problem in any meaningful way other than to debate funding levels and pension obligations.
 
USPS is hamstrung by being a private company that is controlled by congress. If it were to be a fully funded government agency, it'd be slow and inefficient but probably much cheaper than now since it would be (partially) tax funded. If it were a full private company, it'd be much more efficient and faster but more expensive and not service locations that aren't profitable like you see with UPS and FedEx.

Think back 5/10 years ago and remember that for less than $0.50, you could get a letter anywhere in the country in about 2 to 3 days. That's very hard to compete with.
 
I have a problem with USPS ever being considered for even partial funding by the taxpayer. USPS is a service that should be paid for by the users and user fees. To fund it through taxes only forces those who seldom if ever use the service to pay for those who do.
 
I have a problem with USPS ever being considered for even partial funding by the taxpayer. USPS is a service that should be paid for by the users and user fees. To fund it through taxes only forces those who seldom if ever use the service to pay for those who do.
At issue here is that the service provided by the USPS actually *does* provide a benefit to almost everyone, even if they don't specifically *purchase* that service directly, similar to the way that we all benefit from the existence of national railroads (which receive some of our tax dollars even if we don't personally ship anything by rail), or the construction and maintenance of the interstate highway system even if you don't personally own a car. If UPS, FedEx and Amazon were compelled to deliver to every address in the United States, then their increased shipping costs would be passed on to their other customers. If USPS didn't exist, rural customers would either be unconnected or would scream for Congress to require other shippers to provide first class mail service which again would dramatically increase the costs, to everyone, to cover the increased costs of doing so. Other businesses, and utilities, and legal entities, that rely upon USPS to deliver mail would, by necessity, have to pay increased costs to have their products delivered. Those costs would get passed on to their other customers, and some services would cease or, would suffer business losses. While we might bemoan the piles of "junk mail" that we receive, we look forward to some of those catalogs and those businesses might well not be profitable if they lost the ability to cheaply reach their customers. All kinds of grocery stores, hobby suppliers, and other businesses as well as the electric, phone, and other utilities, rely on the USPS and many would not survive without it. And this just touches the surface. The loss of the USPS would have enormous ripples throughout our entire economy.

I do mission work in a country that has zero mail service of any kind, and it is an enormous handicap that constrains the entire economy in so many everyday and ordinary ways that it is difficult to image if you haven't experienced it.
 
I have a problem with USPS ever being considered for even partial funding by the taxpayer. USPS is a service that should be paid for by the users and user fees. To fund it through taxes only forces those who seldom if ever use the service to pay for those who do.
Personally, I’m sick of paying for all the roads I don’t drive on... even if the UPS guy takes one of them to deliver my things. ;)
 
I shipped 3 packages Wednesday, all priority mail to Tacoma, L.A. & some place I never heard of in Iowa. All were supposed to arrive Monday. First 2 made it on time. Third one has slipped through their hands and am told it’ll be arriving late but no ETA.
 
At issue here is that the service provided by the USPS actually *does* provide a benefit to almost everyone, even if they don't specifically *purchase* that service directly, similar to the way that we all benefit from the existence of national railroads (which receive some of our tax dollars even if we don't personally ship anything by rail), or the construction and maintenance of the interstate highway system even if you don't personally own a car. If UPS, FedEx and Amazon were compelled to deliver to every address in the United States, then their increased shipping costs would be passed on to their other customers. If USPS didn't exist, rural customers would either be unconnected or would scream for Congress to require other shippers to provide first class mail service which again would dramatically increase the costs, to everyone, to cover the increased costs of doing so. Other businesses, and utilities, and legal entities, that rely upon USPS to deliver mail would, by necessity, have to pay increased costs to have their products delivered. Those costs would get passed on to their other customers, and some services would cease or, would suffer business losses. While we might bemoan the piles of "junk mail" that we receive, we look forward to some of those catalogs and those businesses might well not be profitable if they lost the ability to cheaply reach their customers. All kinds of grocery stores, hobby suppliers, and other businesses as well as the electric, phone, and other utilities, rely on the USPS and many would not survive without it. And this just touches the surface. The loss of the USPS would have enormous ripples throughout our entire economy.

I do mission work in a country that has zero mail service of any kind, and it is an enormous handicap that constrains the entire economy in so many everyday and ordinary ways that it is difficult to image if you haven't experienced it.

I have no issue with how the USPS is funded or what it does. What they do is an important and necessary service.

My whole and only problem from the original post is HOW they do it. The quality of what they do has gone down over the years. Their service is poor and there is no recourse for their customers. This was my sole point. I am fortunate that my box, which traveled all over the place before it made it to my home....damaged, was not my medication, an important document, or my paycheck. If this was an isolated incident, I would have never posted this thread. I am saddened to see so many people who have had the same problem as I did.

Anyway, I don't want to beat this dead horse. I just hope that more of our vendors offer UPS or FedEx as an option. I will gladly pay extra for that Ya sure Ya Betcha!!!
 
Back
Top