Don’t ship with USPS!

[Krooser]

I shipped some quick change gears with USPS two weeks ago...300 miles...still in transit.

Had another box headed to central MO... 16 days.

I use them a lot but rethinking that. I like SpeeDee Delivery here in the northern Midwest...fast, cheap and dependable.

Often overnight if shipped within 300 miles. Otherwise two days to anywhere they cover. Their main hub is St Cloud, MN.

I drove "feeders" for UPS for five years as a temp road driver during Christmas and summer vacations.

The package was the most important thing...a reason to live.

Once my super and I jumped in a package car to receive one package that got detoured at the air hub in Louisville. Got sent to the wrong city. UPS chartered a private plane to deliver that single package so it could deliver by 10am. We met the plane and got it delivered 15 minutes early...

 

[AR67GTX]

I’ve got a part from another Forum member coming through USPS to me and mailed on 4 March. It’s apparently in that stage of sitting somewhere and completely ignored or lost. Tracking shows it as - Apr 9, 2024, Moving thru Network. In transit to next facility. Arriving Late.

No kidding.

 

[Pistol Pete]

Public Service Announcement - I'm not going to defend any missing parcels or what may be their fate, but I will say this : I used to work in a USPS facility that handled nothing but packages. We had miles of conveyor belts and every single night, you would here something come thumping down a belt. Stop the machine and peer over the side and there was an alternator, coil spring, carburetor, you name it. A car part with no requisite box in sight. When you handle several hundred thousand parcels per night, it's virtually impossible to marry the part and the box back together.

If you're going to ship parts (and I don't care with who) attach the recipients name and address to the part itself. Also, double box it with the inner box also having the recipients name and address on it. Give the thing a fighting chance should the outer box be compromised.

Never use a tube by itself. If you want to ship a cam, wrap it in heavy paper or bubble wrap and put it in a pvc pipe, put the pipe in a square or rectangular box.

Keep in mind, your box is traveling on a conveyor with a bunch of other boxes, some weighing up to 70 lb.s. Wrap your **** for impact.

True story - one night a slimy, green bowling ball came down the line followed by a pulverized case of avocados. Fuckin' guacamole everywhere.

 

[moparedtn]

Several threads on this subject, along with several experiences and opinions included therein....
To summarize, all shipping companies have their detractors, albeit justifiably so.
Here, FedEx is a franchise - and the regional holder of said franchise blows dead bear.
YMMV.

 

[hemi71x]

I mean, seriously, how the heck are you going to stop using the USPS, when sending something out?
For lots of things, in their small, medium, large, flat rate box's, it's the only way to go, price wise.
Every shipper out there wither it's the USPS, FEDEX, UPS, DHL, are all going to have something go wrong out there in their shipping world.
One thing that i am happy with is this Pirate Ship company, thru the UPS people, that has been written about extensively, over on the "A" bodies site.

 

[65CopCar]

We accidently sent a check to a physical address instead of PO Box. Got returned to sender.

10 freakin months later!

 

[thehemikid]

Interesting read about Louis DeJoy and the USPS. Future of both looks better, but I didn't see till after I started posting this, that this article was from March 16 2023.

...All the while, DeJoy’s 10-year plan to rescue the USPS is in motion. A new million-sq-ft. regional processing plant near Atlanta, set to open next year, is one of 60 such facilities he aims to launch. And the Postal Service’s financial situation is improving, he stresses, saying the USPS would have broken even in 2022 if not for inflation.

Louis DeJoy on USPS, Trump, and His Surprising Second Act | TIME

 

[Mopar Hunter]

 

[j-c-c-62]

View attachment 1645771

Was there some large human on the other side of the fence catching the hurled box?

 

[j-c-c-62]

Something is up here in last month or so, Everything has slowed to a snails pace.
When online tracking, the delays appear to be centered around in route distribution centers.
Tracking even seems to even more vague, as they seem to not want the customer to record the current shipping morass.
Online tracking seems to be more of a pat on the head of. "don't worry, you will eventually get your package"

 

[Hey-O]

The only one I won't use is FedEx.

Workers attitudes have change. What were once lifetime jobs are now, try it and quit. We have different mail carriers often. I asked and that's what they told me, turn over. They also said that everyone mail orders more now than ever. Brick and mortar stores are more of a showroom to verify what you want, than a destination to buy. Saving money can be a bitch sometimes now with overloaded shipping facilities.

 

[Dave6T4]

Up here in Ontario, I use USPS as much as I can. Since they are a bonded carrier, my stuff arrives without additional brokerage fees for crossing the border.
I have ordered parts that get sent to Chicago International Shipping Centre before going across the border. A package can get bounced around there for a week or so, before being released.

 

[j-c-c-62]

We accidently sent a check to a physical address instead of PO Box. Got returned to sender.

10 freakin months later!

In all fairness, that could because the receiver took months to give it back to USPS? as a wrong address?

 

[65CopCar]

In all fairness, that could because the receiver took months to give it back to USPS? as a wrong address?

It was not a valid address so could not be delivered.

 

[GetX'd]

As I’ve been to many third world countries - and in particular Vietnam where I have friends and family that have mostly now immigrated to the US - The postal system was always the butt of jokes and warnings. Basically never send anything by post - at least not anything worth more than a sheet of paper. It won’t get to its destination on either end because everything gets gone thru and anything of even remote value will be confiscated by the handler in post office. In other words stolen. I’ve sent post cards to my mother from the main facility in Central Saigon that either never got to her or possibly would arrive as much as a year later. But there is another way that I always referred to as “The Vietnamese Connection”. If the receiver lived in the US, France, Australia or any other country where there had been migration after the war you simply just had to send it thru the “Connection” pipeline - via one of many, many travelers. You’re guaranteed to get your package or they will get theirs via air thru one of those travelers and for free. You’re probably laughing and thinking how much can really be sent that way - Ha, don't kid yourself - whenever you’re at an international airport and you see those people checking in w/a cart two ft taller than they are w/stacks of huge boxes - what do you think they’re checking in - their clothes for the journey? I’ve been part of that system for the better part of 30 years and it’s incredible. It doesn’t have to be people you know - just people someone in your universe knows. As efficient as they were during the war, translate that to post war ingenuity.

 

[VANDAN]

You should all cut the USPS some slack. They are probably quite Busy, and Focused on Stockpiling the Ballots They'll Need, for the November (S)election ???

 

[gtx6970]

Purchasing insurance with any of them is a huge waste of money and time.

Refuse to use Fedex.
its USPS or UPS only

 

[fourgearsavoy]

I have always found that if you do ship with UPS make sure you can drop your package from 4 feet to the concrete.
As said above don't even bother with insurance because they rarely cover damages even if you have them package it at the facility.
So far for my money the USPS is still the most reliable.
Gus

 

[GTXDAN]

If you mail anything that has to go through ATL good luck getting it. The USPS has implemented new distribution centers here that are supposed to improve the mail system times. They built a couple of new distribution centers and closed several old ones to simplify things. Now the mail is backed up for days and even weeks. FEDEX is just as bad here too. I had a package that showed it was being delivered on a Sat from the south ATL center. Instead it went to someplace in AL and came back 3 days later to the same center before it came to me finally. I bought an alt off of a guy on Fleebay this winter and all that showed up in the mail was a plastic bag with what was left of his box. He filed a claim with PS and I had to take the bag to the local PO for them to inspect it so he could get his money back. Shipping anything is a crap shoot any more.

 

[Budnicks]

You should all cut the USPS some slack. They are probably quite Busy, and Focused on Stockpiling the Ballots They'll Need, for the November (S)election ???

no doubt