USPS

JanJ

I live in Western North Carolina, West of Asheville..
Ordered a Rackmount ventilated blank panel from company in Jackson, MO.
It is a week late in arrival... Here is the path it has taken (So Far!):

Jackson, MO
St. Louis, MO
missing 2 days
Atlanta, GA
Palmeto, GA
missing 3 days
Spokane Washington !!
Been there 2 days.......

Can't wait to see where it goes next! Hope it has a passport!!

px_eliezer_

JanJ

Sounds inefficient, there's a guy you can call about that. 😃

JRB-Ware

Were you offered a choice of delivery methods or carriers?

AMDUSER

JanJ That stinks. Yes, the Post Office is taking much longer. The Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is retiring shortly.

Blackbird

There's something seriously wrong with the USPS package routing system. I have an acquaintance whose incoming package, mailed in mid-February from eastern VA to northern IN, has been bouncing between Indianapolis and Washington DC for the past three (3) weeks. He's been in contact with USPS reps, and they've been able to track it but not intercept it yet. The story in the Indy USPS distribution center is that "they have no record of his (destination) address there" so their system rejects it back to the sending post office's distribution center (DC), but that makes no sense - a preserved scanning record of the mailing label shows proper addressing and ZIP code, and other mail and packages have been routed successfully to his address for years. In any case, INDY keeps auto-sending it back to DC, who scans it and again auto-sends it to Indy... who in turn keeps rejecting it back to DC... back and forth. The USPS has now assigned a specific person to try to intercept the package and pull it out of the stupid loop, both to figure out what's really going on and hopefully get it finally to its correct destination.

HooRU

DeJoy can't leave soon enough.

takeahike

JanJ

Poor post office. Not unusual. I recently had a package I sent to Ohio that while not as bad as yours first went to Indiana then Michigan the back to Indiana again and then back to Michigan again before finally winding up near its destination and was ultimately delivered (despite all the chaos lately it always seems to get to the destination in the end--I can't recall one actually ever getting lost). Now when I ship something it seems to often takes days before even a receipt scan. All this seems fairly recent, as even as recently as a few months back I would consistently receive packages here in So. Cal. originating on the East coast within 2-3 days and vice versa. DeJoy is an ass among asses but the only downside about him retiring soon is that if possible it is likely that someone even worse will take his place under the current administration. Ben Franklin, who was appointed the first Postmaster General when the post office was created by the Continental Congress actually a year before the Declaration of Independence, must be turning over in his grave.

My father retired from there with a 30-year pension after working 26 years because he got four years credit toward his pension for his service in the Army during WWII. I actually worked there briefly myself, but much to my father's chagrin left to go back to school and eventually was admitted to the State Bar of California, so presumably that was a good move in the end. I had a career appointment so I could have followed in my father's footsteps and retired around 2003, 11 years before I actually did with my other work. Actually while my father worked there and before under Nixon the name was changed to the United States Postal Service it was call the Post Office Department, like the State, Defense Department, etc. I always liked the old arrangement better and to commemorate that personally I recently got one of the patches that my father always had on his shirts to sew on something of mine (I wish I had one of his actual shirts but don't despite having some of his other stuff from his moonlighting occupation fixing televisions and radios that he retired from when he was old enough and when solid state replaced vacuum tubes).

Astyanax

AMDUSER That stinks. Yes, the Post Office is taking much longer. The Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is retiring shortly.

About a month or so ago I saw C-SPAN replay DeJoy testifying before a Senate oversight committee from December. It wasn't the famous one where he held his hands over his ears but still after hearing his testimony it sounds like DeJoy has an impossible job. There's no solution to fix the problem of making the USPS more efficient and profitable without curtailing service which will enrage constituents of these congresspeople who are literally yelling at him from both sides. I remember him saying there are some post offices that are so far from their hubs and unpopulated that they might get 5 envelopes of mail and there's just no way you can make delivering that small amount of mail efficient. So these people living that far away from mail hubs are the ones squaking to their congresspeople about slow mail.

I'm not surprised he stayed on as long as he has and didn't decide to quit long ago. No one's really tried to fire him because I don't think anyone's crazy enough to want his job.

He also said he has to deal with such an ingrained bureaucracy there that it would be easier to just build a new postal system from scratch than trying to fix this current one.

https://www.c-span.org/program/senate-committee/us-postal-service-oversight-hearing/652863

jjprevost

Not intending to vouch for USPS (except I suppose anecdotally) but my wife recently mailed five very large boxes from SoCal to daughter in the Atlanta area, and all arrived within four days. Expense, though, was pretty high.

takeahike

jjprevost

jjprevost Expense, though, was pretty high.

Yeah, when I ship on eBay's system with high weight USPS Ground Advantage can be pricey but they also have the "envelope option" that is way cheaper, going for about $7-$9. Although it says something about a USPS supplied envelope with a certain size, it also says up to 70 lbs., so I've always used that and never had anything kicked back or had postage due invoked. So, it works for me consistently. How can an "envelope" maybe 7" x 12" ever weigh 70 lbs?

px_eliezer_

Astyanax I'm not surprised he stayed on as long as he has and didn't decide to quit long ago. No one's really tried to fire him because I don't think anyone's crazy enough to want his job.

He also said he has to deal with such an ingrained bureaucracy there that it would be easier to just build a new postal system from scratch than trying to fix this current one.

I don't like him but I agree with many of your points.

One basic need is AT A MINIMUM to stop routine Saturday delivery, as Canada did long ago.

With 5-day instead of 6-day delivery, it would greatly reduce the need for "floaters" and make the whole system more efficient (the "floaters" can't possibly know the routes as well as each regular carrier) and it would cut down on all the Saturday gas abd vehicle use (and salaries of course).

But Congress has always stopped that, due to complaints from mass mailers.

Likewise, although I am NOT in favor of massive numbers of post office closings, there are still MANY scattered about that could be consolidated. Some are downright tiny, and do not provide local delivery but only sell stamps and have some PO boxes.

takeahike

px_eliezer_ Likewise, although I am NOT in favor of massive numbers of post office closings, there are still MANY scattered about that could be consolidated. Some are downright tiny, and do not provide local delivery but only sell stamps and have some PO boxes.

When we travel to places like Big Bear here in So. Cal. you always pass these post offices in the middle of nowhere with no other buildings in site for miles around, like this one in Llano, CA. Not sure that I'd want to see them closed, however, as though maybe just sentimental they are certainly relics of a cherished past.

HooRU

What about that retirement funding nightmare from years ago?

broknsymetry

px_eliezer_ Likewise, although I am NOT in favor of massive numbers of post office closings, there are still MANY scattered about that could be consolidated. Some are downright tiny, and do not provide local delivery but only sell stamps and have some PO boxes.

Must be a Class 3ND Post Office...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZk8e95TA4g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xM1WenDPvk

real_aurgathor

px_eliezer_ One basic need is AT A MINIMUM to stop routine Saturday delivery, as Canada did long ago.

With 5-day instead of 6-day delivery, it would greatly reduce the need for "floaters" and make the whole system more efficient (the "floaters" can't possibly know the routes as well as each regular carrier) and it would cut down on all the Saturday gas abd vehicle use (and salaries of course).

Highly disagree for 3 reasons.

it is beneficial to recipients
without it, Monday's volumes would be significantly higher -- maybe not 2x, but at least 1.5x
they deliver packages and other material on Sunday anyhow

#3 is based on regularly seeing USPS vehicles on Sundays.

I do not know if #3 applies to rural areas, but I live in the greater Seattle metropolitan area with slightly over 50% of WA's population.

DrStrange

JanJ

real_aurgathor It was USPS practice to have substitute rural carriers work Saturdays and any weekday when the regular carrier was unable to do so. Getting rid of the regular subs would mean you would have floaters who don't know the route.

JanJ

I did not have a shipping option. I didn’t believe it was anything that complicated that I should be concerned about! Missouri to North Carolina!
Shipping info says It has left Spokane Washington.
Any bets on where next? Hawaii, England?

It is one 1/2 RU ventilated rack blank, for use As a cosmetic cable organizer.

takeahike

JanJ Any bets on where next? Hawaii, England?

Shanghai. In NYC they use to say when you were lost that you went to the Bronx by way of Brooklyn. Maybe that's what they're following. Just hope adding a little humor to the situation is ok. Again, it will arrive eventually I'm virtually certain, but just a little late. They usually put an "arriving late" notation in situations like this--does it say that?

Shanghai Noodle Factory

px_eliezer_

takeahike When we travel to places like Big Bear here in So. Cal. you always pass these post offices in the middle of nowhere with no other buildings in site for miles around, like this one in Llano, CA. Not sure that I'd want to see them closed, however, as though maybe just sentimental they are certainly relics of a cherished past.

The ones I'm talking about are in the middle of well-populated suburban areas, and usually just a couple of miles from a "real" post office.

I could give at least 3 examples but to be honest, I don't personally want to inflict any bad karma on anyone.

takeahike

px_eliezer_

We used to have one very close to us that was called an annex. It's no longer there but was very convenient because the closest "real" post office was several miles away, often with substantial traffic and/or a lot of traffic lights to wait out to get there.