What's with the U.S.Post office these days?

[styromaniac]

      With the loss of genuine hobby shops in my area I have relied on online services like eBay to acquire everything from old kits...to paints and modeling tools...and occaisonally magazines like Model Cars, Hot Rod Deluxe or Rodders Journal ( since my Barnes & Noble doesnt carry them anymore ).                     Up till now the post office has been pretty good at getting these things to me quickly...eBay was very efficient at tracking the delivery routes...I could periodically go online and check their progress. But in the last couple of weeks I've noticed that I am getting false delivery dates...claiming my package "will arrive today"...only to be followed by " there is a problem with your delivery ". In one case the package was sent not to Springfield Va zip 22153 but to Springfield Ma zip 01153. In another the package went to one location in Virginia, then to Dulles, then back to the other location. Yesterday I was informed of an imminent delivery of a couple of car magazines...only to be informed this morning " there was a problem with your delivery ", kicking it down the road three days.                   A seller in Florida thinks its related to how the USPS has changed its distribution system...consolidating some zones of delivery. I'm wondering if postal workers are confused...or even slowing down or mucking up distribution in protest. Anybody else experiencing issues like this?

Edited April 11 by styromaniac

[willimo]

We have too much information and none of it is meaningful. If all we got was an email from the vendor that it shipped and would get to us in 3-7 days (or whatever) and then a package in our mail box 3-7 days (or whatever) later, we wouldn't be wondering "What's up with the post office?" We would just be glad it worked. 

[64SS350]

I've been buying and selling on eBay since I think 2007. I've experienced odd shipping snafus all along the way. The most recent issue for me is when a package is picked up, however they scan it, it confirms the pickup, but also shows...item delivered. The first time that happened several weeks ago, no tracking was visible until it arrived at it's destination.

I've also seen those long mysterious journeys. I sent an item to somewhere in Kentucky, watched the tracking to the point of....out for delivery, and then watched it return to my local post office, only to be resent back to it's intended destination.

Agreed, not sure sometimes what is going on.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I have recurring issues with deliveries, similar to what's described above.

Mine have been ongoing for some time, are sporadic, but are worse just recently.

Complex systems can be failure-prone. The more complex the system, the more ways it can fail, and endless tinkering with something that works just fine by adding multiple layers of additional, often unnecessary complication "to make it better" rarely has a totally positive outcome.

Incompetence or laziness on the part of workers in any complex field, whether it be aircraft assembly and maintenance, software development, or package delivery, increases the likelihood of failure of a system at some level.

Edited April 11 by Ace-Garageguy
TYPO

[thatz4u]

Scotty:
The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.

[Repstock]

26 minutes ago, thatz4u said:

Scotty:
The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.

As the crew of the Excelsior found out.

[restoman]

It's not just USPS... Canada Post is the same, and we pay a lot more for the screw-ups!

[Mike 1017]

My guess is all depends on the location of the shipper and delivery point. The weather from Texas to the East coast has been horrendous. Affecting everything not just the P.O

[Ace-Garageguy]

14 minutes ago, Mike 1017 said:

My guess is all depends on the location of the shipper and delivery point. The weather from Texas to the East coast has been horrendous. Affecting everything not just the P.O

The problems have been worsening for years.

Everywhere.

My business is dependent on multiple deliveries every week, and has been for almost a decade.

Service is deteriorating...and anyone who regularly tracks their shipments can see bizarre, nonsensical routing constantly.

 

Edited April 11 by Ace-Garageguy

[styromaniac]

3 hours ago, willimo said:

We have too much information and none of it is meaningful. If all we got was an email from the vendor that it shipped and would get to us in 3-7 days (or whatever) and then a package in our mail box 3-7 days (or whatever) later, we wouldn't be wondering "What's up with the post office?" We would just be glad it worked. 

I'd be O.K. with that... if they simply stated a window of 3-7 days...but when they tell you its "arriving today! "...then its not...then it is...multiple times...it gets annoying. Makes it seem like they dont know what they're doing...or jacking me around.

[styromaniac]

14 minutes ago, styromaniac said:

I'd be O.K. with that... if they simply stated a window of 3-7 days...but when they tell you its "arriving today! "...then its not...then it is...multiple times...it gets annoying. Makes it seem like they dont know what they're doing...or jacking me around.

Speaking of which...it just happened again. The two magazines I purchased last weekend that they said were arriving this Wed...and then revised this morning to arrive Sat. ...now theyre claiming they are arriving on Monday. I suspect by day's end it will be bumped to next Wednesday

[styromaniac]

" There is an issue with your package "...LOL. No S*** Sherlock. As there has been with several others lately.

Edited April 11 by styromaniac

[Ace-Garageguy]

I always have to laugh when people who don't experience this kind of stuff on a regular basis want to say it isn't happening, or it's the weather, or it's some arcane effect of sophisticated "logistics" that mere mortals like me are too dimwitted to understand...like trying to keep every truck "full", no matter how far out of the way a package goes to accomplish that goal.

Whatever.

But the tracking allows those of us who have hundreds of dollars worth of paid for goods in transit at any given time to at least see where a shipment WAS when it went off the radar.

Last month I had two shipments that took over two weeks to get here from one state away, with no inclement weather between...and one of them bounced around between zipcodes in THIS state for several days...going back and forth between two post offices 5 times for no apparent reason.

Edited April 11 by Ace-Garageguy

[styromaniac]

42 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I always have to laugh when people who don't experience this kind of stuff on a regular basis want to say it isn't happening, or it's the weather, or it's some arcane effect of sophisticated "logistics" that mere mortals like me are too dimwitted to understand...like trying to keep every truck "full", no matter how far out of the way a package goes to accomplish that goal.

Whatever.

But the tracking at least allows those of us who have hundreds of dollars worth of goods in transit at any given time to al least see where a shipment WAS when it went off the radar.

Last month I had two shipments that took over two weeks to get here from one state away, with no inclement weather between...and one of them bounced around between zipcodes in THIS state for several days...going back and forth between two post offices 5 times for no apparent reason.

Geeez Bill...having a business tied into crappy mail service makes my complaints seem trivial indeed. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

22 minutes ago, styromaniac said:

Geeez Bill...having a business tied into crappy mail service makes my complaints seem trivial indeed. 

That's nothing. Read this post by Superdan, one of our moderators.

The USPS isn't the only shipper who's a little, let's say, "logistically challenged".

QUOTE:

"I have 32 brand new 2025 Ford E-450 cutaway now in transit to me. Should be here next week.

These are all sold, and customer is super excited because their previous dealer couldn't get them any chassis over the past couple of years.

However, these are supposed to be dropshipped to a body build in New Paris, Indiana.

Even though I received confirmation that the vehicles would be dropshipped at the vendor, all 32 of these units are coming directly here instead.

Ford's response?

Ooopsie. Our bad. Nothing we can do to help.

So now we need to ship 32 of these things back down to Indiana."

So...if Dan's dealership gets stuck with the transportation cost to correct Ford's "oopsie", I imagine that will pretty well wipe out most of the profit on the deal.

I'm impressed.

Edited April 11 by Ace-Garageguy

[TonyK]

And it's not just package delivery problems. I've had regular mail problems off and on for the last few years. Magazines that disappeared, mail I sent that never got to the destination, mail that I sent 5 miles from me that took more than a month to get there. I get someone else's mail about once a month. I'm nice enough to write on the envelope and put it back in the mail. Sometimes its one of my neighbors so I can just walk it over to them.

[willimo]

I had a package that was supposed to arrive today, not. Still stuck in the sorting center of the slightly bigger city I live near. This actually happens a lot to me.

Guess what? No big deal. I'll get it tomorrow.

I'm not going to sit here and say that the workers are lazy or incompetent though. I know they are working just as hard as I am, and in a system that they understand better than I do, just like I'm doing a job they know nothing about. I'm not saying I've never had a package lost, or sometimes they don't come later than was predicted. I'm saying I don't care. It's irrelevant. That a package goes from one point to another, and back to the first point, before getting to the final point... What's the point? It got there. Yay!

Edited April 11 by willimo

[Ace-Garageguy]

  Low standards everywhere today, and it's just the way it is.

But before anything gets fixed, somebody has to acknowledge that it's broken.

Driving a car with the engine clattering because there's no oil in it, because there's a small oil leak that nobody ever cared enough to fix, and nobody bothered to add oil as it dripped out because the car always got us there up 'til now, ultimately results in a very large BANG...and the engine stops permanently.

Edited April 12 by Ace-Garageguy

[bobthehobbyguy]

Unfortunately a major part of the problem is management and they are the ones that can mandate the changes that are necessary to fix the problem.

[bobss396]

I have things going and coming in the mail all the time, mainly model stuff and 1:1 car parts, some tools as well. This is since around 1998, I have never lost a package either way. I have had some delays, but very few, like 3 total. I have had damaged 1:1 car parts arrive at my house due to poor packaging by the seller. My eBay activity is close to 1800 transactions.

Maybe I am lucky, maybe it is the shipping route to Long Island. I worked with a guy that sold guitars, guitar parts and amps, effect pedals, etc. He was 3 for 3 with the USPS losing things on him. He swore by FEDEX.

I had a Summit order arrive via UPS a couple of years ago, someone there opened the box and swapped my car parts for plastic pipe elbows. Summit made good on it.

[Dave Van]

Of late delivery has been REALLY slow. Add to it tracking not working make it very frustrating at best. I do get my package in the end.....but what is going on???

[Miatatom]

The deterioration of the USPS is by design. The goal is to privatize it eventually. Mr. Dejoy is the point man for this effort.

[John M.]

The trailer that I got from E Bay last month bounced between post offices around the Boston Metro area for a few days like a rubber ball before the USPS finally got it's act right and sent it to my address. I kept the seller in the loop until I could leave him a positive feedback. He said he's never heard anything like before as an E Bay vendor. 

[NitroMarty]

On 4/12/2024 at 6:13 AM, bobss396 said:

I have things going and coming in the mail all the time, mainly model stuff and 1:1 car parts, some tools as well. This is since around 1998, I have never lost a package either way. I have had some delays, but very few, like 3 total. I have had damaged 1:1 car parts arrive at my house due to poor packaging by the seller. My eBay activity is close to 1800 transactions.

Maybe I am lucky, maybe it is the shipping route to Long Island. I worked with a guy that sold guitars, guitar parts and amps, effect pedals, etc. He was 3 for 3 with the USPS losing things on him. He swore by FEDEX.

I had a Summit order arrive via UPS a couple of years ago, someone there opened the box and swapped my car parts for plastic pipe elbows. Summit made good on it.

My experiences are similar to yours... Have had 99.999% success both receiving and shipping. The only failure I recall was a decal set that appeared to have been damaged (envelope and contents both torn) in a postal sorting machine. Fortunately the seller had insured the shipment and was able to send a replacement. 

[89AKurt]

Wuhan Red Death screwed everything up with humanity.  It's across the board, the health "care" industry is a really sad example.  Just be glad you can order stuff from around the world, back in the old days with paper magazines, sending checks in the mail, paying for long distance phone, that was fun.  This is just a hobby.