USPS is a mess...

[Steggy]

The USPS is bogged down from the effects of affirmative action, long-term fiscal mismanagement and the unreasonable political expectation that delivering mail should be "profitable." When it comes to shipping anything, USPS is last on my list of choices. I'll willingly pay more to a courier service, such as FedEx or UPS, than deal with a sullen civil servant with a bad attitude at the local post office, who will hand off my package to more sullen civil servants with bad attitudes, one of whom might steal the package's contents or just toss the package into the nearest dumpster.

[NP317]

And in contrast to the above stories, our local USPS service here to our home in the woods is polite, efficient, with delivery people who go out of their way to deliver packages the 1/8th mile to our door, when they won't fit in the box!
In the 6 years we have been here, no lost packages, and consistent on-time delivery.

And on time again this week with a Raritan Book from Joe Tanski, NY to Oregon.
Interesting.
RussN

[Dick_Morris]

I guess this is a case of "your mileage may vary." I don't have the luxury to ship via UPS or Fedex for many items. Although both have major hubs in Anchorage, their rates are several times what USPS charges. It's not infrequent that I want to buy something but the seller has a contract with UPS that doesn't allow them to use other shippers or they don't want the inconvenience of using more than one shipper, resulting in a typical minimum shipping cost of $30 to $35 even for an item weighing only a couple of pounds.

Mailing time from the lower 48 to Anchorage is usually only a few days via priority mail. The service isn't always perfect, but nothing has been lost or excessively delayed for a long time.

I'm a fan of UPS and only hope that the current efforts to kill it off in favor of private firms are stopped.

[Bill Shields]

Frustrating is when the tracking number is stuck for weeks...and when it does respond is when they say "put on your porch today @3PM..."

Naturally box was not at my address...nor any neighbor I could find. .. live in farming area and everyone knows everyone.

Finally a week later it magically appeared on my porch...

[gwrdriver]

Hey Dick (Morris),
Some years ago I heard an interesting story about mail service to Alaska. A general contractor had a project somewhere in Alaska which required several truckloads of common brick and the shipping costs to the site from lower 48 was astronomical and would cause him to have to default on the contract. He discovered that at that time the USPS (or the Govt) subsidized parcel post to Alaska so at a fraction of the cost to truck it he MAILED the brick to the job.

Frankly, I always doubted it this was true, the costs of packing and handling would have been enormous, but it made for an interesting story.

[apm]

Here's a good article on the situation:
https://www.inquirer.com/business/usps- ... 01218.html

I wouldn't bother trying to ship anything I didn't need to right now till February at the soonest.

[Dick_Morris]

GWRdriver, it may be true. I can't speak about bricks, but for groceries there is a system, I think it's called "bypass mail." My understanding is that the groceries, etc., aren't physically processed through the post office. They are delivered on a pallet to the airport and moved as if they were mail. Obviously, it's something the PO loses money on, but they loose less than if the items were physically processed through a post office. Keep in mind that there are many locations in Alaska you can't reach by road, although the population is relatively small in those areas. In those areas summer barge traffic is used for building supplies and fuel. I think there are a few communities where even the fuel and everything else travels solely by air, although not through the post office.

I believe bypass mail has become more restrictive in recent year, but I haven't ever been involved with it and my only knowledge comes from the local news media.

[NP317]

A quick reminder that the USPS was created as the government agency designed to knit our expansive country together.
The value of that result far outweighs the cost.
It can still do that if allowed to.
RussN

[Dick_Morris]

I ordered a couple of blue denim work shirts from Amazon at at 2:09 PM on Wednesday. They shipped from Portland, OR via USPS Priority Mail and were put into my curb side mail box sometime this afternoon. Chalk one up for USPS.

[ALCOSTEAM]

I just received an item today that was ordered on Dec 6th, it was just over 100 miles away to the east, then went 250 miles west, then showed up today. Tracking info still shows its en route.

[Andypullen]

I ordered some parts from Jesse Banning in July. He shipped via Usps. I would expect to receive a package from NW Washington State in about a week. Well, some dolt at USPS dropped the box into a bin going to Guam. I don’t blame Jesse for this. I did finally get the package after about a month.
I bought 7 24” lengths of phosphor bronze from an eBay seller in California in early April. The seller gave me a very good price and he cut them into 12” lengths for shipping. 11 pieces were put into a large flat rate box. 3 were put into a smaller box. Both were double wrapped in bubble envelopes and sealed. I had 2 tracking numbers. Well, the smaller box arrived on time. I immediately checked the tracking and it said “In transit, arriving late.” The next day I checked it again. The tracking had changed to: “Label created, USPS waiting on package.” WTH? I had a bad feeling about that. I contacted the seller and had him take a picture of the receipt and asked that he contact his post office. I filed a claim immediately. After 2 days, the status changed back to “In transit”. The post office then closed my claim. I reopened it because it was $450 that I was out. I had to reopen the claim one more time after that. The package finally arrived in mid June. All of my bronze was there.
Right now I have a number of items missing. The tracking shows no movement on a number of them. Several are bouncing around between various hubs. Several are at or near where they were dropped off with no movement.
I sent 3 packages out on the 14th of December. 1 arrived on 12/31. One arrived yesterday. Both to Ohio. I haven’t heard if the 3rd arrived yet. It was going to Michigan.
Andy Pullen

[hoppercar]

The post office definitely needs a little competition....it's ironic, how the govt can break up a business they see as an unfare monopoly, yet, they can run a monopoly like the post office