USPS SUCKS. Sometimes

[psychic vampire.]

I lived in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The latter's post office was much better, but man... the Wburg office was down in the hasidic neighborhood and was utter pandemonium.

USPS pretty much won't leave a package anywhere in NY without a signature, so it's basically tons of people trying to pick up their packages, and a bunch of guys banging on closed service windows, trying to order passports in Yiddish. Constant insanity.

I was in Bushwick, it was always so crowded.

[lost in music]

Have an incoming pedal via priority mail. Got the shipped notification on Friday letting me know that the expected delivery day was Monday July 24. Monday morning I check the tracking and it says "On its way to [my town, my zip]". Which is unusual because usually the tracking will state something like "Arrived at major airport 5:00 a.m. Departed major airport 6:00 a.m. Arrived at local post office 7:00 a.m." It never showed up by the end of the day, but when I've had that happen previously, there's always been an updated delivery day on the tracking. I've been refreshing it all morning this morning and it kept saying Expected Delivery Day: Monday July 24.

WHILE typing out this post, it finally switched over and notified me that the pedal is at my local post office and updated the expected delivery day. So while I'm tempted to just delete this whole entitled screed, I'm just gonna leave it here as a personal reminder of the day that the good times were officially over.

[rfurtkamp]

Yea, if it doesn't follow the expected pattern and says "in transit" when it's supposed to have been checked in, especially on a Monday or Tuesday (the busy days, according to a friend who works for them)......


You ain't getting it until Wed or Thurs!

[comesect2.0]

entitled screed....I like that.
hang in there!

[lost in music]

Departed Shipping Partner Facility, USPS Awaiting Item

[repoman]

I recently had them notify me they tried to deliver a package (a guitar) when I was home all day and know they never attempted, so I had to go to the post office to pick it up which I thought was shitty of them. Mail woman most likely didn't want to have to deliver it so just made up an attempted delivery note. But whatever, I think they get overworked with how much more commerce is done by mail these days.
But besides that USPS is pretty amazing imo. They are cheaper and deliver faster than UPS or Fedex, and they seem to have less propensity for damaging things during shipping.

[BetterOffShred]

I recently had them notify me they tried to deliver a package (a guitar) when I was home all day and know they never attempted, so I had to go to the post office to pick it up which I thought was shitty of them. Mail woman most likely didn't want to have to deliver it so just made up an attempted delivery note. But whatever, I think they get overworked with how much more commerce is done by mail these days.
But besides that USPS is pretty amazing imo. They are cheaper and deliver faster than UPS or Fedex, and they seem to have less propensity for damaging things during shipping.

Totally Agree. When I can choose USPS as a service, I do.

I got home yesterday and the UPS dude had left my bigass box of parts from Mouser sitting on the porch.. not like behind the planter, or next to the step out of sight.. Nah, In the direct middle of the porch, which is only like 4 feet wide. I'm lucky nobody stole it. I mean some poor meth head steals it.. opens it up.. and it's just little potentiometers and aluminum boxes and bipolar capacitors. All my shit would end up in the dumpster by Jack in The Box.

[rfurtkamp]

I only really have problems with the local USPS dude when it's seasonal help around Christmas.

Then I get the classic dipshittery of notes left on the tracking number like "receptacle blocked" - even though it's a locked mailbox that only the postal dudes and I have a key to....in a grid of 70 or so of them.

I called and screamed to the postmaster (small town does wonders) and it was hand-delivered with an apology.

[Olin]

I recently had them notify me they tried to deliver a package (a guitar) when I was home all day and know they never attempted, so I had to go to the post office to pick it up which I thought was shitty of them. Mail woman most likely didn't want to have to deliver it so just made up an attempted delivery note. But whatever, I think they get overworked with how much more commerce is done by mail these days.
But besides that USPS is pretty amazing imo. They are cheaper and deliver faster than UPS or Fedex, and they seem to have less propensity for damaging things during shipping.

If it's any consolation, Canada Post do this 100% of the time to me. I've watched them come in with a pre-written slip saying I wasn't home and then dawdle off. Their response to complaints is pretty much "You have no other options, suck it".

[benjuro]

Hope that stuff shows up, Cas. I usually have decent luck with USPS, but there's been a few glaring exceptions.

I've had a few things marked as delivered and then not show up for another day or two. When I went down to the PO, "well, it's not here, it must be on the truck." I had a messenger bag marked "out for delivery," not arrive, then marked as back to the PO, then back to the regional processing center, back into town, out to me again, and again back to the local, then back out to the processing center...and finally back to the sender.

It was short like 50 cents shipping.

So, did the mail carrier decide "hmmm, this feels too heavy to have only cost $12.50, should've been $13"???

[rfurtkamp]

The machine tells them and it's flagged postage due when it hits the local dude, according to a friend who works in distribution

[benjuro]

Ok great, but still doesn't explain why it went through that whole process twice before being returned to the sender.

[rfurtkamp]

Stupid happens, and the tracking system is ass.

[lost in music]

Departed Shipping Partner Facility, USPS Awaiting Item

This thing actually got delivered yesterday, but tracking didn't give me any indication that it was near me until I was on my way home from work. The "Departed Shipping Partner Facility, USPS Awaiting Item" message had been static for several days. Shipping partner was DHL and I guess that the USPS number doesn't transfer to the other company. Fortunately wasn't a piece of musical equipment or anything expensive like that, so I was more just annoyed than worried, but fuck this shit forever.

[rfurtkamp]

The DHL/FedEx handoff to USPS sucks, I pay extra to not go "SmartPost" whenever possible.