USPS At It Again!

[NRLArt]

Oh don't get me started on USPS. I completely avoid them when possible and pay extra to have my items shipped by anything OTHER than USPS. The last straw was when I ordered a barrel from just across town. Due to work schedule I had the shop send the barrel. It typically only takes a day or two. When I tracked it, it showed my Barrel leaving the shop on Friday and on it's way with a delivery date on Monday. Sunday night I looked at the tracking and it said something to the affect that delivery was delayed. I waited almost a week and the status stayed the same. After two weeks I called the shop and told them the barrel must be lost cause there is no way it can take two weeks to get here.

They contacted USPS who said the barrel was delivered to the wrong address, they were trying to get it back and once they do, it has to go to a central sorting facility. USPS told them to give it a little longer. 1.5 weeks later the barrel arrives. The box had been obviously opened in a "rip open" manner. Someone tried to tape it up but did a poor job. All it took was a minor twist of the box and the barrel came falling out. Good thing the shop had put covers on both ends of the barrel.

Now this is the straw that broke the camels back. I get my neighbor mail at least once every couple weeks. And I know it happens to my neighbors as I find some of my mail on my screen door. I also once saw that the Post office did not lock one of those package lockers. I looked at the package and recognized it as one of my neighbors and hand delivered it so it wouldn't get stolen...

So I'm done with the USPS....

 

[BW64]

Whatever you ship through whichever company...

Package it like a gorilla is going to handle it.

Or like they're using it as a football at lunch time!!

 

[Muddyboots]

Maybe soccer? We constantly get neighbor mail and so do neighbors. How hard is it to look at address on label versus address on mailbox?

 

[HunterLV]

 

[epags]

Mailed April 5, priority mail 4 day since it was going to Puerto Rico. Arrived today 30 April in this condition:

Am glad I taped it every way but up (no, I did that too) Believe it or not the buyer checked out the contents and nothing was lost or damaged. I guess the $320 insurance claim I filed with the USPS helped them find it and move it on its way.

 

[FrogFire7]

Whatever you ship through whichever company...

Package it like a gorilla is going to handle it.

I'm pretty sure I've apologized to buyers upon me shipping them their stuff... most of the time they are going to needa chainsaw to get the box open

 

[H82MISS]

Its such a hard call to make anymore. You hear of others who have zero issues using USPS, and others who have nothing but problems with same. I stay away from postal service as much as possible. I only use FedEx. I don't like UPS. I even send a payment in FedEx envelope if seller doesn't like pay pal or some other means of making secure payments. Unfortunately I think depending on the region, postal service will get worse before it gets better. Even some hunting magazines get so tortured coming through mail system, its a shame anymore. I still prefer paper magazines vs reading on line, so I guess I keep praying the postal "gods" will protect my hunting mags until I'm unable to walk to my mailbox and look forward to picking up the only good part of the mail anymore. I still overpack big time, anything I send to the buyer.

 

[Hugnot]

I avoid sending anything heavy via USPS in cardboard. What's the limit for priority mail - 70 lbs?. When I do use the USPS, I encapsulate the entire outside works/cardboard with heavy duty transparent shipping tape and the contents like bullets are in sealed plastic bags, stuck inside box. Some time ago I ordered a box of 100 bullets from a well known bullet/shooting supply source for shipment via USPS priority mail; normally the expected delivery time would be 3 days or less, after 2 weeks no bullets, then on day 15 a small USPS priority mail carboard box is left at my mail box locker - the box looked like it went thru a cement mixer, all scuffed up, dirty gray, with corners smashed flat & about to fall open (not quite).

Some time ago I was helping a gun-smith by performing gofer work. A friend of the smith had a relative who worked for the USPS & one day the friend showed up with a Weatherby MK whatever (multiple locking lugs) bolt that had fallen out of some package.

 

[westcliffe01]

I once was on a flight that made a stop in Lansing. I happened to be seated directly above the cargo door. There i watched an airline worker loading what must have been cargo for the post office. There was a conveyor running the material up to the plane and I presume people moving it inside the cargo hold. But this airline worker would grab a package from the little trailer that they have such stuff in and literally throw the package 10ft onto the conveyor. One of the items that he threw was a large screen LCD TV, clearly could be identified as such from the box. Yep, it got thrown 10 ft too. There was a later scandal with Fedex throwing packages with laptops inside and the HDDs were failing until several customers recorded on home security cameras what was going on and there was a logical explanation for all the recent spate of HDD failures...

 

[Hugnot]

This winter, our nice neighbor shows up at our door holding a wet cardboard box. It was addressed to us but the USPS left it next to the neighbor's garage door and when she backed out of her drive way she almost squashed it, missing it by less than 2 inches.. It contained wifey's $75 sweater wrapped in a plastic bag - clean & dry. No excuse for this, It might have contained my $750 scope I ordered! Pay extra for quicker & better!

While stopping at Juneau AK on a flight to the lower 48, I watched a crew loading USPS cargo. This guy picked up a small package labeled "fragile" studied it intently, turning it over to inspect the bottom then casually tossed the package like a soft ball some 10 feet (underhanded) into a jumble of tangled boxes, and tubes jammed on top of a moving belt. Louis DeJoy faces a big challenge.

 

[sierracharlie338]

Sounds broken.

Most likely sir, I'll bet it was something nice though.

 

[HunterLV]

Hugnot said: While stopping at Juneau AK on a flight to the lower 48, I watched a crew loading USPS cargo. This guy picked up a small package labeled "fragile" studied it intently, turning it over to inspect the bottom then casually tossed the package like a soft ball some 10 feet (underhanded) into a jumble of tangled boxes, and tubes jammed on top of a moving belt. Louis DeJoy faces a big challenge.

 

[L.Sherm]

You should forward this video to somebody at USPS

 

[whirlwindjml]

I ship everything UPS. Never had a problem. I had so many packages sent to me through USPS that were broken/busted open ans contents missing. Yhe USPS delivery person didn't care one bit.

They sent 5 boxes of 6.5 prc to the wrong address (according to there gps and notes) "left at gate" [there was no gate at correct adress]. I insured it for 400 and can't get any help from a fluent English speaking person to get money back. "Well email you within 24 hours sir" That was in January. Just saying my joyous experience.