I've never complained about the USPS until today. On Monday of this week I ordered the Jimi Hendrix Winterland Orange vinyl LP special edition from Target. Today I found the LP in a "tyvek" style mailer without any padding, bent and shoved in to my mailbox. Both the record jacket and vinyl LP were so severely bent that I'm surprised that the record hadn't cracked.
I see the USPS is a problem. I have my copy of Bruce Spizer's "Beatles for Sale on Parlophone Records" in transit since April 17. I have heard no news from the USPS. Since I'm not from the U.S. I get a little bit anxious something happened to my package.
It has only been 9 days. We often wait that long and more for a package to reach the destination within the USA.
FedEx seems to be giving me some problems lately too. This is the tracking history of a Mofi record I ordered (Illinois to New Jersey). I can't wait to see how banged up this is when it finally arrives to my front door after its 2021 US Summer Tour. I have had other bizarre FedEx shipments in the past few months.
Wonderful. As if it wasn't bad enough already. For all I know first class mail has improved since earlier this year but I stopped using it to pay any of my bills that I have alternative methods of paying. After being late with mortgage payments, credit card bills, utility bills, you name it, despite mailing them more than 2-3 weeks prior (or as soon as I get them, like that very same day) I've had no choice but to pay either on the phone or on-line. Never had these problems until end of last year. It's pathetic. On the plus side I don't need to buy hardly any stamps anymore....
Basically what they are saying is to put everything into Media Mail which is all surface (trucks). Cheaper than air. And the Postmaster has all sorts of connections to surface mail from his past life. Oh and Media Mail rates are going up next week! Imagine that.
I haven't mailed any payments for many years. It's just more convenient to pay online, either manually or as an automatic payment. It isn't like I'm not going to pay my utility bill in full every month, so why not have them automatically deduct my balance from my checking account on the bill due date?
Automatic payment/deductions SUCK! I will never do that again for anything as long as I live. Long stories....send me a bill, then I'll pay it (if it is right). Period.
It's been at least 10 and probably closer to 12 or more years since I last mailed a payment in. Between me and my wife we pay 20 bills a month (mortgage, 2 cars, daycare, utilities, credit card, etc.) and haven't had one problem ever. I have a lot more faith in electronic payments than I do the postal service and it's not even a debate. I work with a guy that refuses to buy a cell phone, get direct deposit, pay bills online, use a credit card. At some point I think it's more of a pain in the ass to keep fighting it than it is to to give in - I think he would consider it losing a battle he's fought for 20 years at this point. He still prints out directions from MapQuest, too - in his mind that's pretty advance use of technology.
Yes, a woman I worked with (who retired several years ago) steadfastly refused to switch to direct deposit because, in her mind, having a paper check in hand meant she actually got paid but having direct deposit didn't. She said she wanted to "see the money," but when I asked her if that meant she cashed her check first and then deposited the cash into an account she said no. Never mind that when payday followed a holiday, those who had direct deposit got their money the previous business day. Never mind that one had to actually be in the office to get the paper check, so if you were on vacation your pay was waiting for your return versus already being delivered to your account. But she wouldn't budge. She also still wrote paper checks at the grocery store versus using a debit or credit card. I guess some people would rather incur costs for paying bills (stamps, buying blank checks) rather getting a bit of a rebate for doing so (1% to 6% cash back depending on one's credit card and whether there's a promotion going on). Back to the subject at hand -- particularly given the unreliability of USPS at this point, I don't know why anyone would pay bills through the mail unless there was no other option.
Can't be. I've had Media Mail packages delivered farther away than I could drive without stopping (or leaving any time for handling) regularly over the past year.
I see loaded contract carriers on the freeway all the time. All sizes of vehicles. You didn't read the article.
No, I didn't - I responded to your comment that all Media Mail is by truck which is obviously not the case. I never said they don't use trucks.
I know they don't all go by truck, but a lot do. The article is about cost reductions that will slow delivery.
Sometimes my item will arrive in my city, then the next thing in tracking it's sent to a different city before it returns.
You guys on the mainland have it easy. My packages go by truck to SF, then by boat to Honolulu. So they're not only subject to USPS slowdowns but backlogs on the dock as well. I've had stuff arrive in Honolulu, then get sent to Guam before returning. BTW, Acoustic Sounds is terrible. They charged me $21.96 to ship 3 SACDs and sent it FedEx SmartPost. 20 days later, the package is still in California. Just needed to vent.
I am currently waiting on a Discogs purchase that was due last Wednesday, 12/29 - (I live in Northern N.J.) The tracking shows that it "ping ponged" between Teterboro and Jersey City N.J. a few times, before inexplicably going to "Opa Locka Distribution Center" in Florida where it currently resides. No new ETA other than "arriving late." The kicker here is - it shipped from a location here in Jersey I could have driven to in 45 minutes. Utter and complete incompetence.
I still really don't know what goes on in Jersey City but the incompetence sure creates a lot more work for them in the end Easily 90% of my delays with the postal service happen in that facility. Here is my latest Jersey City failure I am waiting on. Package got from NC to Jersey City in 2 days and another 10 days later from its arrival to NJ I am still waiting for it to end up in Monmouth County.
you think that's bad? i had something disappear there on 11/6 and finally started moving again on 12/30. store refunded me almost a month ago.
I just moved within the same zip code. I filed a mail-forwarding request and got confirmation from USPS that it would start on a given day. Over a week later stuff still hadn’t arrived, but based on my Informed Delivery e-mails, I knew there was stuff we should have received. Went into the post office to follow-up and the gal said I should give it another week, then added, “... because you know how slow we are.” Wasn’t said as a joke, or in frustration... just matter-of-fact. I appreciated her honesty. I used to be bothered by USPS delays. I’m now reconciled with the fact that that’s who they are and they're unlikely to be anything other than that, even when the pandemic is over. With music-related packages, I’ll always pay more if there’s a non-USPS option. Not that the other carriers are perfect (although DHL comes close) but my chances of getting something on time is better in my experience.
Jersey City just keeps figuring out ways to get worse. I have about 9 items I am awaiting on right now and 5 of them have been "MISSENT" on their departure (next stop from Jersey City is supposed to be my local post office which before 2020 was the next day). The 3 others have been sitting in limbo in Jersey City for over a week. The other one left LA 12 days ago and there is no update. Oddly enough, most of the items I am sending out that go through there are being processed pretty quickly. They really need to stop sending Missending stuff because all it does is end up back in Jersey City for them to sort through again! I can imagine they are short staffed but they are also not doing themselves any favors.