USPS

Bassat wrote in post #17951224
The US Postal Service. They used it in an advertising campaign several years ago. Validity? Unknown, but I believe it. USPS delivers letters. To every address in the country. Every day. Nobody else does that.

Not many things can be had for $0.50 these days. Reliable delivery, everywhere, everyday is brought to you by the USPS. Who gives a FFA how crappy their tracking system is? They deliver, which is what you are paying for.

Have to agree with you. I couldn't give a rat's a** about the tracking. If it gets where it's going within a day or 2 of the expected time, with no damage, I'm good. The lack of tracking is minor issue considering how much less the USPS charge compared to the other options.

Bassat wrote in post #17951224
The US Postal Service. They used it in an advertising campaign several years ago. Validity? Unknown, but I believe it. USPS delivers letters. To every address in the country. Every day. Nobody else does that.

Not many things can be had for $0.50 these days. Reliable delivery, everywhere, everyday is brought to you by the USPS. Who gives a FFA how crappy their tracking system is? They deliver, which is what you are paying for.

I suspected as much. This speaks volumes.

We live in the country. USPS does not deliver a package larger than a small shoe box to our mailboxes and they never come to the house. UPS is always on time and comes to the door. I have to drive 10 miles to the local post office to pick anything up. Their hours are always during working hours so I can't make it if I'm working. Yeah. I never use USPS is I can avoid it. But the packages get to the right place on time usually, either way, just one is more costly in gas and trouble.

I dont care about tracking, but if you are going to offer it, make it work. Otherwise just just do away with the charade.

Bassat wrote in post #17941737
USPS handles more items EVERY DAY than UPS, DHL, FEDEX, combined handle in a year.

saea501 wrote in post #17950415
This doesn't sound at all right to me. Would you please state the source of this information?

Sounds right to me. Consider all of the pieces of junk mail that the USPS delivers to every mailbox and every P.O. box every single day.

Most of the people I know personally don't order things thru the mail at all (not USPS, not UPS, not FedEx). They buy what they need locally at the store. Maybe once a month they will actually have some type of package delivered. Even then, chances are that it is the USPS that is delivering it.

But these same people get about 4 pieces of junk mail each day, Monday thru Saturday. Plus all of the non-junk mail such as bank statements, insurance statements, governmental notices, utility bills, phone bills, etc, etc, etc. Most people still get hard copies of everything delivered to a physical address, despite the ability to receive online statements. So when you add it all up, it really is an astounding amount of individual items that the USPS delivers on a daily basis.

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SuzyView wrote in post #17951564
We live in the country. USPS does not deliver a package larger than a small shoe box to our mailboxes and they never come to the house. UPS is always on time and comes to the door. I have to drive 10 miles to the local post office to pick anything up. Their hours are always during working hours so I can't make it if I'm working. Yeah. I never use USPS is I can avoid it. But the packages get to the right place on time usually, either way, just one is more costly in gas and trouble.

Suzie,

I live 25 miles from everywhere. My USPS carrier puts my mail inside the garage if/when I have a package that doesn't fit in the box. I've even had my USPS carrier put a FEDEX box in my garage that a FEDEX driver left outside the door, while it was raining. I don't care if the Post Office EVER has any hours. Everything they do is available online. I can order stamps online and my carrier delivers them FREE. I can pay for a package and print the postage from online, for a lower price than going to the Post Office. I can schedule a package pickup by my regular carrier, which is free.

Try talking to your carrier. The only thing I had to do to get all this personal service from my carrier was ask for it.

The problem is the community I live in has private roads. UPS has no trouble coming to our home, but the USPS never passes the front entrance, only for packages that need to be signed. We have a community mailbox area before you come into the entrance and the mailboxes are pretty big. Sometimes the USPS delivery person will put your package on top of your box or in the big box on the end. But, if they think it's too obvious that someone will take it and not you, they just take it back to the main building and leave you a note. Our homes are on big lots and some people have very long driveways, lots of dogs. So, I can see why the USPS leaves notes. I have to track if it's a delivery of camera gear or some electronic thing, but other than that, I order craft stuff and cooking things. No need to rush.

We have not had a steady mail carrier in years. The shifts are strange here and we live in a town of no townhouses or apartments. So, mainly houses on big lots, and 2 lane roads with no shoulders. I feel bad for anyone delivering mail when it's one lane each way and people are cursing you out for blocking the road while you are delivering their mail.

SuzyView wrote in post #17953010
The problem is the community I live in has private roads. UPS has no trouble coming to our home, but the USPS never passes the front entrance, only for packages that need to be signed. We have a community mailbox area before you come into the entrance and the mailboxes are pretty big. Sometimes the USPS delivery person will put your package on top of your box or in the big box on the end. But, if they think it's too obvious that someone will take it and not you, they just take it back to the main building and leave you a note. Our homes are on big lots and some people have very long driveways, lots of dogs. So, I can see why the USPS leaves notes. I have to track if it's a delivery of camera gear or some electronic thing, but other than that, I order craft stuff and cooking things. No need to rush.

We have not had a steady mail carrier in years. The shifts are strange here and we live in a town of no townhouses or apartments. So, mainly houses on big lots, and 2 lane roads with no shoulders. I feel bad for anyone delivering mail when it's one lane each way and people are cursing you out for blocking the road while you are delivering their mail.

It's not the private roads. The USPS is not delivering to-the-door to any new developments; they all have to have centralized group boxes.

They're still better than FedEx, who will deliver no package before its time. I'll swear I've watched the tracking report show packages sitting in a FedEx warehouse so they weren't delivered early, unlike UPS, who want to get them out of the system, so they'll deliver early if possible.

Jon wrote in post #17953811
They're still better than FedEx, who will deliver no package before its time. I'll swear I've watched the tracking report show packages sitting in a FedEx warehouse so they weren't delivered early, unlike UPS, who want to get them out of the system, so they'll deliver early if possible.

So it's not just me?!

I have often seen that a FedEx package make its way 3,000 miles across the country in just 3 or 4 days, then it sits at the Kent, WA warehouse (or whatever they call it) for another 3 or 4 days (or even longer) before it goes the last 150 miles to my house. It's like, right down there in Kent - RIGHT THERE - and yet it often takes the better part of a week to go just a few miles to get to me. That has never made sense to me. Does anyone know what their reason is for doing this?

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Bassat wrote in post #17952669
Try talking to your carrier. The only thing I had to do to get all this personal service from my carrier was ask for it.

You got lucky with your carrier. At my old house USPS would throw boxes over our gate all the time, and where they landed, they landed. Rain, shine, fragile, etc., didn't matter, it would get shotputted over the gate. I confronted the carrier about this one day, asking if this was policy. She diverted, first by saying she wasn't the normal carrier who serviced this route. (Although from working at home / taking my dog on walks I saw her all the time on my street / outside my house, so she was lying.) I asked her again about company policy on throwing packages over the gate. She said it wasn't but again quickly diverted to talking trash about FedEx, how it must have been their packages and not USPS (like I can't read labels or packing tape) and how FedEx always throw packages over the gate because they don't have policy against it. I informed her that right after I moved in the FedEx driver (who wasn't even delivering to our house at the time) had come up and asked me for the gate code for the future. UPS also had the gate code, and Amazon has a section in their shipping to enter a gate code. She then said i should write the gate code down and leave it in the outgoing mail box for the "normal" mail carrier. She left, and nothing ever changed while I lived there.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #17953840
So it's not just me?!

I have often seen that a FedEx package make its way 3,000 miles across the country in just 3 or 4 days, then it sits at the Kent, WA warehouse (or whatever they call it) for another 3 or 4 days (or even longer) before it goes the last 150 miles to my house. It's like, right down there in Kent - RIGHT THERE - and yet it often takes the better part of a week to go just a few miles to get to me. That has never made sense to me. Does anyone know what their reason is for doing this?

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Don't get me started on Feudal Express. Our condo high rise is visited daily by one or another FedEx delivery person. I got a warranty return shipping label from SquareTrade and left the package with the concierge (weekend one; regular one was off for Easter) Friday. Today, when it hadn't moved, I asked the regular one. Apparently FedEx Ground, FedEx Home, FedEx Express, . . . won't pick up packages that are supposed to be handled by any of the others. If you want to arrange a pick-up, you can't call - you have to go to their web site, register, create an account(!) and then you can arrange for them to make the pickup (for a fee).

I have two theories:

1. They were bought out by E&J Gallo, and adapted the Gallo slogan
2. They're convinced that as long as they do better than DHL, they're good.

Jon wrote in post #17953811
It's not the private roads. The USPS is not delivering to-the-door to any new developments; they all have to have centralized group boxes.

They're still better than FedEx, who will deliver no package before its time. I'll swear I've watched the tracking report show packages sitting in a FedEx warehouse so they weren't delivered early, unlike UPS, who want to get them out of the system, so they'll deliver early if possible.

In my community there is no home delivery at all. You get a free post box at the office but its tiny. Packages are held at the desk, which open from 10 to 3 daily so if you have a regular job you are pretty much screwed.

I find that Fed Ex will not deliver until the sun goes down. I have really important stuff sent to my school now. Someone can sign for it there, if I'm working. Otherwise, guess who has to stay home all day hoping someone brings me a package before I go to bed? UPS gets here by noon. I know the delivery man now. He's funny. Fed Ex never has the same people delivering. They get lost before they get to my house.

If it is am important delivery, the lady who comes most often will take the package to the local post office and not even try to deliver it. I get a note in my mailbox and know it was always safe and inside.