USPS Rant

I ordered a tractor part from a guy in Texas that I have dealt with before on 8-21 and he mailed it the same day. I waited for it for over a week and finally texted him for a tracking number since I didn't have it yet. He sent me the number and I checked online Monday, it said it was in Dallas, I'm in western Illinois. He called me and said I should check the history of the shipment, it had been everywhere and he would keep watching it to see that I got the part. I checked it Wednesday am and it said the package was in Taylor Ridge, Ill(20 miles away) at 5:10am and Illinois City ( where it was supposed to go) at 6:10am scheduled for deliver by 5:30 that day. It never came. I checked this morning and it said it left Illinois City headed for Taylor Texas. I went to the post office to see if they had a package for me and had to wait on a guy ahead of me that didn't get his package either. They didn't have anything, so I gave her the tracking number and she looked it up. It started out in Taylor Texas on 8-21. Then it went to Austin, Tx on 8-22, Des Moines, Ia on 8-23 and bounced back and forth between places in Des Moines until 8-29. St Louis, Mo on 8-31, Springfield, Mo on 9-1, Dallas Tx on 9-2 and then to Austin same day, Taylor Tx on 9-5 and then to Illinois City the same day to be delivered by 9 pm. It never came. She gave me a number for lost packages, so I called while I was there and they said it left Illinois City on 9-5 headed for final destination in Taylor Texas. I suppose now I'll have to pay shipping twice to get it shipped again from where it stared out from. I guess that government employees don't get paid enough to do there jobs right. So I'm setting here wait for it to get back where it started from and for him to resend it. Ya can't make this stuff up! Anymore the phrase Can you screw it up any worse is more of a challenge than an insult!

You shouldn't feel left out, a very similar thing happened to me in Washington state, ordered a part on Ebay, checked the tracking number, after it was shipped to my hometown, the post office folks never brought it to my address, just returned it to sender for no know reason, now the person I purchased it from has it and has to resend it to me, been waiting three weeks for a part that should have been here in five days, so I feel your pain

Just another reason I hate dealing with online orders to get things. Glad I have a few competent parts guys around yet.

be glad you all are not in the kansas city hub. ive had packages that were shipped to n from k.c. kansas to k.c. mo back n fourth so much the package gets torn contents lost. i call my post lady n she calls hq in kc n gets vocal n few days later it shows up usually destroyed.
ordered a box of 100 stainless steel c lock blind hole fasteners. when it arrived lots of tape n 15 fasteners. held up another week but guy shipped em via U.P.S. that time

Its called,, logistics,,

There may be an issue with the Dallas post office. I ordered something online from the east coast and it came across the country to Dallas where it was never seen again. Just 50 miles to go and it evaporated.

If you think the post office is bad, just get DHL involved. I occasionally order parts from Rock Auto. Their standard shipping method they call ''smart mail.'' That amounts to some sort of hand-off between the post office and DHL. I think it starts out with DHL doing the distance and USPS doing the final delivery.

So, if you want it to take a month to go 300 miles, that is the way to go - if it arrives at all! Out of the last 3 items I ordered, one took over a month to get here, one came 3 weeks later, and one never arrived. For a little bit more money, you can specify UPS. If not for that, I would never again order anything from Rock Auto.

Then there is price. I needed an air filter for my car. Auto Zone wanted $17.99 for one. Rock Auto only wanted $4.23 for the same filter. Same number, same brand. With shipping it ended up costing me about $11.00 delivered to my door. I'm not a big fan of shopping online, but it sure does save a lot of money.

You paid the USPS rate and expected UPS service ?????

I can see it being frustrating 99 but I don't think there are many 'perfect world' scenarios and there never have been. In the scheme of things, our everyday complaints (me included) are pretty insignificant and minor when you think of what some people on the planet are experiencing. I'm not preachin', I'm just sayin' ....

Meanwile, I am sure there are ways of shipping things that could almost guarantee delivery and done quickly but most of us (incuding me of course) don't want to spend the money to get that kind of service.

Did it get back to the sender or just Taylor, Texas?

My bet is the box got ripped open and it is now empty.
And they don't want to deliver an empty box.

About a year ago UPS delivered a large box that had been ripped open somewhere. All sloppily taped together again.

Got what was ordered okay, plus a box of about 20 used cellphones from an AT&T phone store to a phone recycling center inside the big box.

I probably could have sold them somewhere instead of flagging the truck down the next day and handing it off.

This post was edited by DoubleO7 on 09/07/2023 at 06:53 am.

A yt member mailed a magneto for me to fix from New York. It got to St Paul which is about 100 miles from me. It never did get here.

there are 3 companies that handle the delivery of packages here - USPS, UPS, and FedEx. in my opinion, FedEx is the worst of the three and it's not even remotely close. FedEx is as likely to be late as on time here - and i mean late as in days, not hours. UPSP and UPS screwing up a delivery to me is a rarity. it's SOP with FedEx.

knowing the shipper is fedex makes me less likely to buy something.

I am probably wrong, many times I am, but, packaging seems to play a big part. To keep the shipping cost down the smallest box possible with some foam peanuts might be used. With some duct tape on the outside. Rather than a plywood box with a screwed on lid. Conveyor belts and slides all kind of mechanical equipment bangs that package around, its no wonder some get torn up and undeliverable, nothing is HANDLED WITH CARE. I lost out on a special part I bought from a seller on ebay. Never arrived went to the dead torn up package center in Knoxville Tenn. I hated to, but had to make a claim against the seller. Don't expect to send an expensive part in a cheap package. my opinion, don't think USPS or its employees bear the burden of fault for poor packaging. gobble

One of my medications from the VA has been missing since the 8th of August. Post office wants me to jump through a bunch of hoops to try to get something done. I am not going to do it (out of hard-headedness I guess), the way I see it, they lost it, they should be the ones trying to find it.

Set my 3/8 battery ratchet in for warranty repairs. They made me send a battery with it. So it contained a hazardous material. Only ground transportation allowed. Needed to travel about 35 miles.
Instead the post office sent it by air to Hawaii. It took a month to reach its destination. Their attitude was certainly as bad as the service.
On the other hand most things I send or receive do come on time.

Typical 3rd World service

Par for the course for Rock Auto. I ordered a part from them..it was In Minneapolis. From there it went to Chicago via DHL truck. In Chicago it was placed in the US mail to near Bismarck ND. Why the truck ride to Chicago when they could have mailed it from Minneapolis and cut out 800 miles of unnecessary travel?

Usps has become only concerned with cramming people onto a government payroll and never firing anybody no matter what. A form of hidden reparations I think.
Fedex almost never leaves a package at my place; I have to go looking for it every time.
I try not to ship anything I can’t afford to lose.

When my packages get to Omaha. They sit there for 7 to 18 days before they come to me. Priority Mail is no longer 2-3 days. Your lucky you have it in 14 days.

^among other things upcoming in a few months.