USPS Rant......

[thebirdguy]

So I succumbed to Spring Fever (wishful thinking since it's still snowing here...) and participated in the Crazy Egg Chain swap week before last... I shipped my box of eggs out to Florida last Monday Priority Mail and heard from the recipient yesterday that they still had not arrived...

The tracking website had no information whatsoever on it other than "electronic notification of shipping received". I just checked the site again and found this:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Label/Receipt Number: 9101 1501 3471 1605 9890 18
Class: Priority Mail

Service(s): Delivery Confirmation™
Status: Processed through Sort Facility

Your item was processed through and left our ORLANDO, FL 32899 facility on March 06, 2011 at 5:44 pm. The item is currently in transit to the destination. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later.

Detailed Results:

Processed through Sort Facility, March 06, 2011, 5:44 pm, ORLANDO, FL 32899
Processed through Sort Facility, March 05, 2011, 9:52 pm, DENVER, CO 80266
Electronic Shipping Info Received, February 28, 2011
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now... pray tell... why did it take more than 5 days to get to Denver from Idaho but less than 24 hours from Denver to Florida??? I just hope they didn't play soccer with the box all the way to Colorado!!

Hopefully the box will get delivered tomorrow, all the eggs will be intact and they'll all hatch!!


This was my first time shipping eggs and I was nervous anyway... and to have this happen!! My eggs from the swap are supposed to be sent this Tuesday and I am going to be a nervous wreck until they get here now...

Thanks for letting me vent.... I just needed to get that off my chest so I can sleep tonight...

 

[Katy]

Delivery Confirmation is just that.....they'll scan it when you mail it and when it is delivered. Sometimes it gets scanned along the way, sometimes not. It's not really a tracking number.

 

[thebirdguy]

The individual scans along the way are annoying in their inconsistency... that's not what I am having an issue with.. It's the fact that Priority mail is going to take a full week instead of the 2-3 days promised...

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
This. From experience.

 

[GarlicEater]

I dealt with the USPS almost daily for a period of about 10 years. Before the economy went crash and so did my small business, I was spending on average about $800 a month with them. So I had a LOT of contact with the USPS.

I feel really bad that these days, I mail one letter every other month or so.

They at least were, Excellent.

Sadly my last firm data is from mid 2007, they're 99.9% great people and this recession/depression/green sharts thing we're in has gotta be hitting 'em hard.

 

[elieugene6]

I had a box of eggs that got "forgotten" at the drop off post office just last week. I knew they were supposed to be here on the third and when they weren't at the post office on the fourth I contacted my postmaster (small town so they know me) and told them something was up. She said she would check it out for me and the next day they magically appeared at my post office. Somehow it took them all of March 1st to march fourth to make it from bowden, ga to atlanta, ga but they magically made it from atlanta to buffalo in less than a day. I am thinking they got a boost when the postmaster found them still at the original drop off point. I am just so glad I contacted her or they might still be sitting there.

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
They always apologize when it is late.

BTW, if you're going to rant on here about the USPS, you're mainly preaching to the choir and going to get a lot of horror stories to add to yours.

 

[sweeterdeeter42]

well, its better than UPS at least.

 

[kathyinmo]

The USPS delivers millions and millions of packages. There is bound to be a package here and there misplaced, lost, or delivered late. Personally, I appreciate their service. For the most part they do a great job. I am grateful they even accept "live embryos," and chicks. We would all be pretty sad if they decided to not accept chicks and perishable goods for shipments all together, wouldn't we? I say, give them a break for heaven's sake.

 

[classicsredone]

They definitely have slipped in service since the pre-2001 bubble pop. The amount lost compared to how much they ship is low, but it tends to be the important things that get lost. For example, I purposely asked to hand cancel wedding invitations, and half of the 100 or so invitations were lost and had to be resent.

Don't get me started on how they killed most of my order from McMurray, either. /

I really wish USPS would get a reasonable tracking service. I'd use their service more. I guess we deal with what we get when shipping eggs.