USPS stinks!

[marlinman93]

I purchased an old Wilkinson Ballard powder measure early this month. Seller got my payment fine, and sent me a tracking number the next day. It left Ohio on Dec 9th and has been going from Ohio to Oregon 4 times now! Each time it arrives in a couple day, and then simply leaves and heads back to Ohio!
Well my Wilkinson powder measure left Portland AGAIN yesterday without getting delivered to me! It's back in Cincinnati once AGAIN, and no frigging idea why? I tried to call USPS customer no service and got an automated line directing me multiple directions until I got irritated and just kept pushing zero until it finally asked if I wanted to speak with an agent. Then it said the wait was 36-54 minutes, and would I like to wait (press 1) or get a call back (press 3). I pressed 3 and got "you have picked an unknown option", so pressed 1 and got the same reply. Then finally it just sent me to hold. After 20 minutes of music it stopped, and I got excited my call was being answered. Nope. It simply disconnected me and hung up.
So much for any chance to talk to a real person! USPS has got to be shut down and privatized as soon as possible! They're a real mess and it's no wonder they're failing with such poor service!

[Ray]

Deleted.

[COSteve]

A couple of years ago I sent a birthday card to my sister who lived on the other side of the Denver metro area. Two and a half weeks later it showed up at her house with no explanation of why it took so long. I could have walked to her house in a day and a half to deliver it. Steve of Steve's Gunz sent me a priority mail small package about 8 years ago which took 3 weeks to get here (from a whopping 635 miles away) even though I paid for a 2 day delivery.

The USPS looses billions a year on bureaucracy instead of on building a decent package delivery system like FedEx, UPS, etc. That's why DOGE is looking at recommending privatizing the USPS.

[stretch]

I'll be the dissenter here.

The USPS does a pretty good job around here.
FedEx, not so much.

Privatizing will not help, especially of one lives in a rural area.

-Stretch

[Bronco]

When I had an issue I went down to the local post office and asked for the supervisor! Can't remember if it did any good but it felt nice to blow off the some steam. Was like talking to a rock.

[wvfarrier]

USPS is horrible but UPS is even worse and fedex...
good gravy.....needs shut down

[Ysabel Kid]

Privatization. Government does nothing efficiently. And honestly, the USPS is a, at best, 17th century solution being applied to 21st century society.

[6pt-sika]

I got that same kind of phone BS in 2020/2021/2022 with Delta Airlines after they’d change my flight connections with no chance of making them so I’d have to call them and sometimes you’d wait and be cut off as you say USPS did . Almost five years since the crud and they’re still using that as their patent excuse !

[6pt-sika]

USPS is horrible but UPS is even worse and fedex...
good gravy.....needs shut down

Of the three I’ll take UPS over the other two ! FedEx supposedly delivered a package to me at the shop at 14:30 on this past Tuesday . We looked at surveillance cam footage from 13:00 until 15:00 and never saw anyone with FredEx pull up or enter the building . USPS s..u..c..k..s beyond belief period .

[LeverGunner]

Maybe the big places at USPS suck, but my little post office with the 1 employee there is very nice. The driver, whom I know by name is also very nice. Just the other day he brought me an envelope that didn't have a stamp on it. I asked if I needed to pay the postage and he said nope, it went through the system and is fine. He always brings packages to the house, which I'm told they aren't supposed to do if it's a long drive like mine.

[wvfarrier]

The government could not effectively run an outhouse

[jeepnik]

Here's my take on private shippers UPS , FEDEX, etc are pretty good. But even if you pay for faster delivery it's not assured.

USPS does fine at the local level. The problems all occur when mail is moved from hub to hub. Again even paying for faster delivery assures nothing.

Lastly no service will make any sort of refund if rapid delivery is late.

The reason for bad service among all of them is the poor quality of today's employees. There was a time gaining employment required testing. Today if it breathes it's hired.

[jeepnik]

Double post

[marlinman93]

I got an email reply yesterday from USPS customer service stating they were re-entering the tracking number to get the package back in the system and headed to me. Whatever they did changed the usual back and forth from Cincinnati to Portland. This morning I checked tracking again, and it said, "out for delivery". Unfortunately not to me. It now show it's being delivered back to the sender, and I called him to let him know.
He's going to take it to UPS and try sending it that way, then hopefully get refunded by USPS for his shipping costs.

Here's the travel itinerary for this package:


Out for Delivery

Out for Delivery, Expected Delivery by 9:00pm

WAYNESVILLE, OH 45068

December 21, 2024, 7:09 am


Arrived at Post Office

WAYNESVILLE, OH 45068

December 21, 2024, 6:58 am

Arrived at USPS Facility

WAYNESVILLE, OH 45068

December 21, 2024, 6:47 am

In Transit to Next Facility

December 21, 2024, 6:02 am

Departed USPS Regional Facility

CINCINNATI OH DISTRIBUTION CENTER

December 21, 2024, 5:17 am

Arrived at USPS Regional Facility

CINCINNATI OH DISTRIBUTION CENTER

December 20, 2024, 6:03 am

Departed USPS Regional Facility

CINCINNATI OH DISTRIBUTION CENTER

December 20, 2024, 2:47 am

Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility

CINCINNATI OH DISTRIBUTION CENTER

December 20, 2024, 1:07 am

In Transit to Next Facility

December 19, 2024

Arrived at USPS Destination Facility

PORTLAND, OR 97215

December 18, 2024, 1:54 am

Arrived at USPS Origin Facility

CINCINNATI, OH 45246

December 16, 2024, 10:04 pm

Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility

CINCINNATI OH DISTRIBUTION CENTER

December 14, 2024, 8:12 am

Arrived at USPS Destination Facility

PORTLAND, OR 97215

December 12, 2024, 3:45 am

Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility

CINCINNATI OH DISTRIBUTION CENTER

December 9, 2024, 11:44 pm

Departed Post Office

SPRING VALLEY, OH 45370

December 9, 2024, 4:03 pm

USPS in possession of item

SPRING VALLEY, OH 45370

December 9, 2024, 2:25 pm

[COSteve]

Seems as though there is a wide disparity of performance by USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc., depending upon where you live. Our semi-rural USPS route is constantly maned or womaned by a makeup driver and mail is delivered mostly about 5 pm because they take our route after they've done theirs. It's been that way for at least the 29 years we've lived here.

Deliveries by UPS, FedEx, Amazon, etc. on the other hand have been first rate with no complaints since we moved in. On top of that, the rates that USPS now charges for their 'Priority Mail" (which never gets delivered in the 2 day window it's supposed to) the same as the UPS and FedEx rates we can get locally.

Further, everyone except USPS can do the job and make money at it or they'd be out of business. USPS does the worst job of all and need Billions of taxpayer's dollars on top the the fees they charge.

[765x53]

From my eBay selling, I found that Des Moines is the Sargasso Sea of the USPS. Packages that enter take two too three weeks to leave.

[gcs]

Here we have occasional hiccups, but the norm is decent service from all of them, I did notice lately as the old employees in USPS retire they're replaced with DEI hires, even in our small towns, I imagine in the hubs it's far worse. I find it hard to believe most of them can even just pass a civil service test, yet they get hired.... so you get third world service by third world "people"

[Ysabel Kid]

Maybe the big places at USPS suck, but my little post office with the 1 employee there is very nice. The driver, whom I know by name is also very nice. Just the other day he brought me an envelope that didn't have a stamp on it. I asked if I needed to pay the postage and he said nope, it went through the system and is fine. He always brings packages to the house, which I'm told they aren't supposed to do if it's a long drive like mine.

And that is the quandary, isn't it? The first locations to be closed would be the small town post offices that are often actually efficient. The monster locations would remain open, and continue to provide that 17th century service...

[marlinman93]

Package tracking shows delivered to Spring Valley Post Office, so likely being a package it doesn't get delivered to his rural farm mail box. So he can pick it up Monday, and get it headed back to me then. Just hope UPS does better than USPS, and that it's not destroyed from all the crisscrossing of the US!

[6pt-sika]

Seems as though there is a wide disparity of performance by USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc., depending upon where you live. Our semi-rural USPS route is constantly maned or womaned by a makeup driver and mail is delivered mostly about 5 pm because they take our route after they've done theirs. It's been that way for at least the 29 years we've lived here.

Deliveries by UPS, FedEx, Amazon, etc. on the other hand have been first rate with no complaints since we moved in. On top of that, the rates that USPS now charges for their 'Priority Mail" (which never gets delivered in the 2 day window it's supposed to) the same as the UPS and FedEx rates we can get locally.

Further, everyone except USPS can do the job and make money at it or they'd be out of business. USPS does the worst job of all and need Billions of taxpayer's dollars on top the the fees they charge.

Ten or so years ago I bought a Contemporary Longrifle from someone on this forum in AK . Unknown to me the gun was sent to me the same day my check was sent to him in Fairbanks . The gun was in my hands in four days I think and the check sent Priority Mail with tracking took almost three weeks ! That’s a far F’ing site from three days !

[LeverGunner]

Maybe the big places at USPS suck, but my little post office with the 1 employee there is very nice. The driver, whom I know by name is also very nice. Just the other day he brought me an envelope that didn't have a stamp on it. I asked if I needed to pay the postage and he said nope, it went through the system and is fine. He always brings packages to the house, which I'm told they aren't supposed to do if it's a long drive like mine.

And that is the quandary, isn't it? The first locations to be closed would be the small town post offices that are often actually efficient. The monster locations would remain open, and continue to provide that 17th century service...

Yep. They actually have talked about closing the small one here and making everyone go to the larger one in Elizabethtown. It's world's different. The postmaster in mine tries to help people. Lots of old folks coming in and she helps them package stuff and cut shipping costs.

She told me they wrote her up for not having the packaging materials displayed correctly.

[Ysabel Kid]

She told me they wrote her up for not having the packaging materials displayed correctly.

[Old No7]

The government could not effectively run an outhouse

Oh yes they could!!!

BUT it would be a 2-story outhouse -- and WE would be on the ground floor!!!

Old No7

[marlinman93]

I still hate USPS, but got a surprise this morning!
I got home from our Monday car club breakfast and did another search of tracking number, which revealed the powder measure was still sitting in Waynesville, Ohio PO Box. I called the seller and asked if he had checked his PO Box, and he said he didn't have one! He told me he'd go to USPS tomorrow and see what's up.
I hung up and two minutes later there's a knock on my door, and it's my postman with a box in his hands and he says, "I bet you've been waiting for this awhile now?"
It's my Wilkinson powder measure that tracking says is in Ohio!! I asked him what happened, and he told me his boss told him "We need to find this tracking number before you leave today, as this package has been back and forth for weeks, and needs too got to your customer!"
I asked why it was so messed up, and he said it's the small tracking labels that rural post offices use. They're 2/3rds the size of normal tracking labels and the big distribution center equipment can't read them properly. Of course I asked why they haven't eliminated those labels if they don't work well, and he couldn't tell me why. But at least it's finally here, and the package was in perfect condition too!






Case closed, but now I'll worry about my next big item that should ship USPS in January! I'm already scared.

[GunnyMack]

Glad it got there!
Let's blame the fiasco on the Christmas rush and by January you'll get your package lickety split!

[Lassiter]

I worked for the postal service as a rural mail carrieer for 30 years. The last 15 years I hated the job a little bit more every day. It got to the point that they were intensionaly misrouting packages to check and see if they were being handled properly by the individual post offices. I sent a guy in northern IL.some money for some .338 bullets he had for sale. It took the letter 30 days to get there from central Arkansas. In the mean while I went ahead and paid him through paypal. (not my favorite way) When he got my original letter he put it in another envelope and sent it back. (honest guy!) It took 3 days for his letter to get to me. I currently have a package that has spent the last 6 days going back and forth between Dallas and Ft. Worth.
I don't expect the post office laast much longer in it's current form...

[marlinman93]

Some history on the Wilkinson powder measures. They were the first powder measure ever designed and built in the US, and were recommended for the Marlin Ballard rifles. This measure was marked on the side of the body in both grains of powder, and drams of shot, and could be used to measure either.
The hoppers and spouts are almost always missing from these, and this hopper is a replacement. There was a retired judge in Montana who for whatever reason felt if he had some nice copies made he could sell them. As few of these as have survived, he surprisingly sold out all he had made, and never made anymore.

[LeverGunner]

Glad you got it after all of that. Thanks for the history.

[marlinman93]

Thanks! This has been a gut wrenching ordeal, and not just because of the high monetary value of this measure, but also because I wanted this rare measure so badly. I went from ecstatic about locating it to depressed that it might be lost. Almost as depressed as I was when my previous Wilkinson was stolen off my display at one of our gun shows.

[Jeff H]

Thanks! This has been a gut wrenching ordeal, and not just because of the high monetary value of this measure, but also because I wanted this rare measure so badly. I went from ecstatic about locating it to depressed that it might be lost. Almost as depressed as I was when my previous Wilkinson was stolen off my display at one of our gun shows.

It's not just whining. You're paying for a service, but are treated as if you're getting an unearned entitlement.

I live in Ohio and everything I get goes through Cleveland - eventually. I won't go on about the hassles, but it's as often as not that something falls through the cracks. I've never had a job where I could get away with saying I did pretty good by most of my customers. It was always all or nothing - nothing meaning don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out to the unemployment line.

I'll stop there, or I'll be typing until next week relating the horror stories. "Service," in general these days is sort of a you-get-what-you-get deal these days. I'm lucky that my USPS carrier, my UPS carrier and the current FedEx carrier I have are decent people. What happens before it gets to them is beyond their control and from within a very scary realm.

[Pat C]

I guess there was nothing ever found of that single shot rifle tgat was lost ?

I saw where four employees of UPS were arrested re routing firearms

[marlinman93]

You guys might find this interesting, or just plain hilarious! My Ballard scheutzen should be returning next month.
I had mentioned to the customer service manager that I hope they'll get things straightened out before my expensive shipment heads back to me in January, or I might have to make a 13 hour drive to Montana to pick it up! His reply was, "I don't blame you, I don't think I'd chance a very valuable item through the system either."
Brutally honest, but also unsettling to hear a manager at USPS send the comment!

[marlinman93]

USPS is hilarious! Got an email this morning asking me to take a survey to tell them how they did on this issue!

[6pt-sika]

Glad it got there!
Let's blame the fiasco on the Christmas rush and by January you'll get your package lickety split!

No it wasn’t Christmas it’s still the crud (Covid)

[6pt-sika]

USPS is hilarious! Got an email this morning asking me to take a survey to tell them how they did on this issue!

About once every two weeks I order a pizza from Pizza Hut delivered to my home . Last couple times they were nowhere near meeting their projected time and each time I’d did the email survey . So after the last fiasco I get an email saying free any large pizza . I thought cool so I ordered the other day of course delivered well to get it delivered I needed to order $15 worth of something besides the pizza and with delivery charge and a tip it ended up being over $25 .

[marlinman93]

USPS is hilarious! Got an email this morning asking me to take a survey to tell them how they did on this issue!

About once every two weeks I order a pizza from Pizza Hut delivered to my home . Last couple times they were nowhere near meeting their projected time and each time I’d did the email survey . So after the last fiasco I get an email saying free any large pizza . I thought cool so I ordered the other day of course delivered well to get it delivered I needed to order $15 worth of something besides the pizza and with delivery charge and a tip it ended up being over $25 .

USPS didn't offer me any free delivery or pizza! I got gypted!

[piller]

My son works for Usually Parts Shattered. He used to work for FedUp. Both are a joke from an insiders point of view. Since the woman who was CEO of the downfall of Home Depot took over at Usually Parts Shattered, it has become horrible. She has a habit of making Joe Biden look competent. Home Depot actually is stocking decent lumber now. She had ordered the buyers to purchase the leftover seconds that no one else would purchase. The Usually Parts Shattered semi-trailers are all rusted with star charts for roofs.

[Old No7]

My son works for Usually Parts Shattered. He used to work for FedUp. Both are a joke from an insiders point of view. Since the woman who was CEO of the downfall of Home Depot took over at Usually Parts Shattered, it has become horrible. She has a habit of making Joe Biden look competent. Home Depot actually is stocking decent lumber now. She had ordered the buyers to purchase the leftover seconds that no one else would purchase. The Usually Parts Shattered semi-trailers are all rusted with star charts for roofs.

That would be "funny" -- if it wasn't true!!!

Old No7

[GunnyMack]

It's UPS too!
I ordered something from Orvis on 12/17, shipped on the 19th. It then spent 3 days going from one location to another and back to the first twice a day for all 3 days! It finally showed up today!
11 days from NC to NJ. I could have driven there and back before it left NC!