USPS Help does work!

Had ordered some batteries on ebay(special 1.3V mercury replacements), usps lost them. Week later from the estimated delivery date they still hadn't showed up.

Took a chance and reached out to the usps help twitter account. They messaged me that they were gonna contact the last post office that had it. Sure enough couple hours later it started moving again and it is set to be delivered in the next day or so.

Or course they shouldn't have lost it in the first place but I was amazed their help account actually helped.

My local office would just give me the normal have to wait 30 days BS. If you ever have a snafu with them try reaching out to their twitter account. (Email on their website won't work, they still haven't replied to one I sent a week ago.)

I had a certified mail notice delivered a few weeks ago; after 5 trips to the local post office and 5-6 hours wasted and numerous employees wgho promised to call back and never did, I called their CS and within a few hours my mail was delivered to my house around 9 pm!
One of the worst institutions on this planet!
Glad your issue was resolved!

Glad it worked out for you. I had a cross-border shipment lost on the USPS side. The receiver opened up a case with the USPS and was told that the tracking system for lost packages was either developed or owned (I forget) by the US military. True or not the package was found and delivered about 40 days later.

Heya,

You'd have to pay me to go into the USPS and stand there to do a shipment or receive. Sometimes I have to go there, to pick up an item because someone sent it via USPS to me, and needs signature. Every. Single. Time. I have to go to the USPS to get it, because they never show up and then I see a "wasn't home" tag in the tracking, yet I was home and they didn't show up. I go there, have to stand in line for 15 minutes or more, just to flash my ID and get the package and be on my way.

I pay a little more, if necessary, to use UPS or Fedex. I prefer UPS for dealing with what I ship (high end audio gear, camera gear, etc).

I've sold an amplifier to a guy from Germany before, while he was visiting to USA a few states away from me in the holidays and we arranged for me to ship the amp to him while he was here on holiday, to his address at a hotel. So the delivery courier would have to be able to deliver to an address like that, on a specific day, not just when ever. I went to UPS for that. They made it happen. Dude got his amp from UPS the day it was supposed to be there (insured, sig required, yadda yadda). Worked out wonderful (wasn't a scam, I know that sounded like one, but when you trade in high end audio, it's not uncommon for people from non-USA to visit USA and buy expensive electronics 2nd hand here).

I can't even get USPS to deliver a normal package within a few days reliably.

And I still get someone else's mail.

I'm glad it worked out for you, sorry to hear about your hassle.

Then again, I don't know why we expect competitive service from a federal funded system. They have no drive to provide high quality service. It's sad.

Very best,

USPS horror stories? I mailed a package "REGISTERED" (most secure) one time. It got scanned into Chicago the day after I mailed it. Sixteen days later it was still in (not scanned out?) Chicago. I had to drive 30 miles to see the closest Registered Mail Clerk. She called Chicago. Sure enough, an entire container of registered mail had been put in the EMPTY equipment area.

I live on a rural route in BFE, Indiana. Several times I've put a outgoing letter in my box, only to have it still there, with the flag up, when I get home at 8:00 PM. The carried never even went down my street. Regularly.

I still think there should be an "opt out" option for Standard Mail. Every piece I get goes right in the trash.

The USPS does at least one thing very well. I've gotten my retirement check every month since 9/2013. Oh, wait, that is direct deposit.

One thing to keep in mind. The USPS is primarily a letter deliver service. The USPS still delivers more pieces every day than FEDEX, UPS and DHL combined do in a year. Everything else they do is patchwork of half-steps and mis-steps. Want a package delivered for nothing? Mail it "Next day (10:00 AM) EXPRESS". On time or no charge. That service fails more than any other. Funny story. Some Express to SOUTH BEND goes through Chicago. It used to fly to SOUTH BEND. Some postal whizkid decided the USPS could save money by trucking the mail from Chicago to SOUTH BEND. Flight time: 22 minutes (direct). Drive time: almost 3 hours (several stops). Our 10:00 AM EXPRESS MAIL didn't even get to SOUTH BEND until after 10. We refunded every piece, every day. Your tax dollars hard at work.

The Post Office is dead. Nothing they do can't be done better, cheaper, faster some other way. Someone should put it out of its own misery. It is only a matter of time.

MalVeauX wrote in post #17837040
...

I can't even get USPS to deliver a normal package within a few days reliably.

And I still get someone else's mail.

...

Then again, I don't know why we expect competitive service from a federal funded system. They have no drive to provide high quality service. It's sad.

Agree. Mail from my neighbors regularly takes 5 days to get delivered.

Yep. That happens regularly, too.

Sorry, you are barking up the wrong tree on this one. The US Military is a federally funded system. I think they do a damn fine job. And the USPS does have a huge incentive to provide high quality service. Their future, their jobs depend on it. Incentive they have. Ability, not so much. The Peter Principle has officially killed the Post Office.

Usps is generally slow but they have been scrutinized so much they have picked up service 2 notches.....my wife worked for the PO for 13 years it used to be so horrible and was controlled by Mofia and Union, the level of higherarchy is infamous and well into the billions, my wife's regional was well into 335, 000 and his boss was 4th to the postmaster General and at his level was 1, 00354.00. Its ridicules. And all GOVERNMENT and funded by Government

I have bad luck with everyone, USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL. Have horror stories with all of them.

Batteries came in today so my cameras are happy! Especially my QL17


In the past I emailed them and went to the post office(it's like 4 block from me) and always got no help. I'm glad they were able to finally find it. I've had two packages this year get lost and still haven't shown up. Both were UPS and they just paid after making me wait a while.

itsallart wrote in post #17836978
I had a certified mail notice delivered a few weeks ago; after 5 trips to the local post office and 5-6 hours wasted and numerous employees wgho promised to call back and never did, I called their CS and within a few hours my mail was delivered to my house around 9 pm!
One of the worst institutions on this planet!
Glad your issue was resolved!

I am confused. Why would you subject yourself to that? There is no requirement to pick up Certified (or any other) Mail. I did that exactly once, about 40 years ago. I've never been back to pick up another one. I've missed perhaps 5 pieces of Certified in my life. Worse things have happened.

Bassat wrote in post #17839914
I am confused. Why would you subject yourself to that? There is no requirement to pick up Certified (or any other) Mail. I did that exactly once, about 40 years ago. I've never been back to pick up another one. I've missed perhaps 5 pieces of Certified in my life. Worse things have happened.

I knew what was in it, some important documents I needed and a timely delivery was of great importance