USPS package sent to me, went 21 days/950 miles without a single scan.

[mrsilv04]

First of all, I had written this package off, and so had the eBay seller.

From what I can see, the seller created a USPS label on December 8. Then, there was no pickup scan, no scans in transit, no nothing. I contacted the seller for information on December 17th, asking if they had either forgotten to mail it, or if it had been mailed under a different tracking number, since there was no activity on the tracking number that I had been given. I would have thought that I'd have seen something by that point.

I didn't get a response at all from the seller, only a refund a few days later. Well, OK.

Fast forward to just now. I get an email notification from USPS this morning, telling me that I will have a package delivered today. Package? What package???

What is shown below, is the entirety of the USPS's history on this delivery.

How many sets of hands and how many locations did it pass through, and not a single scan until it finally arrived at my local post office... two weeks late? And, we won't mention on how it took 3 weeks to cover 950 miles from Colorado to Illinois.

What a sad, sad joke. Thankfully, when I mail in my oil samples concealed in the Amazon bubble bags, they sail right through. But that's about it anymore. I haven't bought any first class stamps in years (and yes, this is part of the reason why they are in this mess). Speaking of oil samples, I can start sending them UPS Ground for less than $2 more.

 

[JavierH19]

It's usps alright.

 

[Zee09]

I have been getting the same wonderful service

 

[Nessism1]

Maybe just bad luck, but I've had a LOT of USPS letter/package issues the last couple of years.

In my experience, in my local area, the PO does not scan packages when they bring them into their system. It's normal to see tracking highlighting when I printed the label, but no tracking shows up until the package hits either the delivery PO, or maybe some intermediate relay location. It's frustrating to send something, and have the receiving party pinging me for a tracking update, thinking I never got the package to the PO. I'm using UPS most times now. Fedex is also okay. Just stay away from USPS most times. Priority seems to get better support, but that's gotten quite expensive, so I don't use it much anymore.

 

[PF52]

I just had a Rock Auto item come from Rochester NY, arriving here in suburban Chicago via Indianapolis, Lexington KY, Louisville KY, Indianapolis (again), the main Chicago hub, the large Carol Stream processing center and eventually to my local post office. That's seven stopovers after leaving Rochester. Certainly the circuitous route.

 

[Nukeman7]

I just had a Rock Auto item come from Rochester NY, arriving here in suburban Chicago via Indianapolis, Lexington KY, Louisville KY, Indianapolis (again), the main Chicago hub, the large Carol Stream processing center and eventually to my local post office. That's seven stopovers after leaving Rochester. Certainly the circuitous route.

I got you beat by a lot on USPS circuitous routing (see linked BITOG thread):

USPS Nearing Bankruptcy?

 

[Hall]

Had a similar situation with our daughter's passport. Turns out the address label barcode was damaged so it had to be "manually" routed, so no scans after it started on the way except for maybe 1-2 at the very start. Then it fell into never-never land until it arrived at our local post office. We had went on vacation and had our mail held and I found it when I picked it all up and saw it. I told the worker we thought it was lost and she pointed out the damaged barcode as well as some stamped info on it, indicating manual processing.

 

[Mechanician]

Our postal service has taken the same nose dive in the last few years.
When the wife sent out invitations to a shower, many didn't get to their destination for a long time, or at all. When we inquired what the problem was, we were told it was because printer put the return address on the back of the envelope.
It seems the latest generation of postal workers in general, don't take much pride in their work.

 

[PF52]

I got you beat by a lot on USPS circuitous routing (see linked BITOG thread):

USPS Nearing Bankruptcy?

That's a good one! It takes some real determined planning to get it out of the Lower 48 and back.

 

[skyactiv]

UPS /thread

 

[Boomer]

My wife ordered something for Christmas at the beginning of December. We live in central PA. It was shipped from Colorado. Slowly made its way to Indianapolis. NEXT DAY it had been shipped to MInnesota where it stayed for a few days. Then it came back to Indy, on to Pittsburgh and then here. All in all, it took almost three weeks to get here. This was USPS. What a joke for packager handling. However, I did mail two checks, one for an insurance bill and one for estimated taxes. They went right through.

 

[jadmt]

my daughter is a silversmith and uses usps priority and depending on value of items she will over insure on some stuff..she sent my wife a birthday present and it was insured in a small flatrate box. package was scanned as she drops off at the post office where her business is...shows the package was scanned in...then nada...not another scan..she uses that same post office all the time so they know her well...apparently it takes a get to get your insurance payment from USPS but eventually they do pay but it takes a couple months as she has been thru the process several times over the years...almost a year later the package appears on our doorstep and it looked beat to hell...it literally looked like it had laid next to the road for a year and we live in montana..it was not put in our mailbox which is a locked cluster box for our street...we think someone found it in the ditch somewhere and dropped it off. there was no note or anything and the contents were all there about $500 worth of jewelry.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

This year since July 4th weekend I have placed two orders from a company in Illinois that is know for fast, great order filling and shipping.

The mistake I made both times without realizing it until too late was to select the USPS option for handling my shipping. Ugh. Both times this very real efficient gov working system put the screws to me and proved why they can not even come close to turning a profit for US. The USA citizens who pay them. Both times , this is their genius route to get me my delivery. I used their wonderful tracking system to verify the stupidity and wasteful spending we allow them to do.
First time I get the updates and in a matter of JUST two days my package has travelled about 700 or more miles to get to the distribution center less than 25 miles from my home with a note saying delivery expected tomorrow. WELL..... No package. So I look up the tracking to find that now my package that was sitting only 20 miles away is going to NEW JERSEY!!! WHY? NEW JERSEY just happens to be only 1250 miles away. MEANING my package got sent from right near me on a cross the USA tour of over 4500 miles in total. REAL Efficient.

Now if that is not foolish enough. Months later, about 3 months , I place another order from this real dependable company ONLY to mess up and select USPS again. My second package got the privilege of taking the very same (after arriving just 20 miles from my house) detour to end up having to go on a 3500 mile round trip after it came from 700 miles away to near my house, before they sent it on the same scenic trip across the USA as package number one. Even without computer systems etc.... if we expect normal , capable workers to have the use of their eyes and brains, one would expect someone to go "wait, this is to be delivered right down the road (20mi) so WHY are we to send it there via New Jersey to have to turn around and come back another 1250 miles? I GIVE UP on USPS.

I tried their website to make an inquiry / complaint and after one goes from page to page filling out your info, they system kicks one out and you lose all the stuff one has typed in as if they rather not even receive inquiries or complaints. I really lost all faith when in the last 2 months I have see several stories of mail employees (totally different cities) being arrested / caught stealing and throwing boxes of mail away instead of doing what they are paid to do, DELIVER people's mail....

 

[Ranger83]

A friend’s son is stationed at Norfolk. He asked if I could pick up four tuna rods and ship them to him in Virginia Beach.

Made a package out of Coro-plast 17 lbs, 68” long. FedEx and UPS charge a huge premium for long packages,

USPS only $17. So shipping with insurance was $51. Bonus, the Boston Postal Annex is open nearly 24-7 so I got it in the mail right away on a Friday night 12/19. Expected delivery 12/23.

It’s about 500 miles Boston -> Virginia Beach. The route: Boston to

Nashua NH (40 miles N) then
Atlanta GA (950 miles S) then
Phillipsburg, NJ (700 miles N) then
Richmond, VA (250 miles S)

He finally got it today in Virginia Beach VA (80 miles SE) one week after shipment.

Total trip: approximately 2,000 miles….

 

[pudge]

i know what you mean. sent payment for an item Dec 4th ..seller is still waiting for payment to arrive. I'm pretty sure it doesn't take almost a month for a letter to go from the Pittsburgh Pa area to Minnesota. when i went to the post office to inquire what could be done about my apparently lost letter, they said i would have to pay 21.00 dollars for them to try and find it..yeah right, I'm going to pay for usps screw up so i guess I'm probably out my money. USPS is getting worse all the time but not any cheaper

 

[GMFan]

I ordered stamps from USPS on December 6. Still waiting for them to ship. In the past even during busy Christmas season they would ship in 2-3 days after ordering and arrive a few days later.

 

[Mainia]

What,.......it looks like USPS is going bankrupt? Hey, we in Minnesota will pay to make it solvent for another 5+ years. We can pay 10 billion dollars to USPS and stop that bankruptcy in it's tracks. No worries, Minnesota is here for you.

 

[Nessism1]

The head PO in my town of 100k residents shut down earlier in the year. They hired some construction contractor that hit asbestos in the building somewhere. Said contractor didn't put up plastic screening barriers, so a lot of mail was "contaminated" and had to be destroyed.

 

[Hall]

we were told it was because printer put the return address on the back of the envelope.

Another postal worker that doesn't think their response through ? How does the placement of the return address affect getting the items delivered ?

 

[Zee09]

In all fairness UPS has been its own cluster you know what. Foreign express has been i think I can and then no I can't.....lousy Xmas service