Why? Everyone knows the USPS is BEYOND screwed up at this point, beyond saving.
Funny you should phrase your opinion in those terms.
I just had a conversation with my elementary school-grader about avoiding logical fallacies that are based on (argumentum ad populum) phrases like:
- "everyone knows"...
- "scientists say"...
- "it doesn't need saying"...
If "everyone knew", and it did not "need saying", there would not be a need to write that out in the first place.
As to USPS being "beyond saving", that's highly unlikely to be true, unless you are in position to share verifiable facts that would support such a conclusion.
I’ll gladly pay more to have a kit shipped UPS or Fedex, especially if it the kit is a few hundred dollars. I ordered a kit from Composite Warehouse back on Black Friday that was “marked” as shipped on 1/8, that was 3 weeks ago. The post office cannot do anything because in their eyes, it was not dropped off by the seller (possible but who knows at this point).
USPS status of "Tracking # provided" but package "not received" is very likely to be accurate. USPS has had challenges updating the status during transit, especially when ground-shipping, especially post last year's "cost saving" measures implemented by the past administrator. But inbound scanning upon taking possession has been 100% accurate and timely.
Virtually every vendor out there, including Amazon, rushes to mark the package as "shipped" long before they actually drop it off to the shipping company. Sometimes the lag extends for days.
In your case, I would cast the suspicion on the seller, not the shipper.
I will no longer order from any company that only uses USPS because I would like to actually get my kit.
That's up to you, and your vendor.
Most people, myself included, are cheap.
There are a bunch of vendors who offer multiple shipping choices, and every time, USPS is much MUCH cheaper than the alternatives. There are also many rural places were FedEx and UPS will not pickup, nor deliver.
My most spectacular recent (Dec'20) shipping fiasco has been with FedEx, which took 12+ days to move a package from VA to NJ. Over the distance that I can cover in ~6 hours of driving.
Interim package status updates were sporadic, misleading, and useless.
If you want to pay 2x-5x more for shipping, that's up to you.
You should be prepared to find yourself in the minority.