Has anyone noticed that USPS is getting worse - at least as far as package tracking is concerned ?

Picked up a package at the local Post Office yesterday, surprised me actually, because I had checked the tracking number earlier and it wasn't even 'in transit' yet. Postmaster Bob and I had a chuckle over that as he scanned it out as 'delivered.'

Double checked just now and it shows that as of yesterday it was in a mail center in Illinois - I'm in Massachusetts.

At this point I'd be real concerned about sending anything expensive via USPS. I've got a small item on order now ($15) but if I was ordering a new bow I'd probably request an alternate carrier and pay the extra fee.

I would say that's better. You got your package before you were supposed to. At least according to them. Lol. . I've had a bow and other items take over a month and we only lived three hours apart. I try and ups whenever possible as they have the best tracking and are somewhat reliable.

I received two packages last week , both arrived a day ahead of the initial ETA.

I suppose they have issues with some of the modern technology as well. In order for the item to track, it must be scanned. Every postman, carrier or in the office, has a scanner; whether they use it or not is an individual thing but they are supposed to. When a package is picked up at your house..it's scanned...or should be. That's just the start and if not done then the whole transaction can be befuddled.

Also, sometimes scanners misfire I suppose, so it could also be that, or it could just be a dose of apathetic employees who try to shortcut their day. That said, every now and then I'll have something that won't track at all and shows up at the door. Showing up at the door though is my main concern and at one time you couldn't track anything anytime so I guess that's why I don't fuss about it. Well, don't fuss much anyway. :) Their still batting a dang good average around here. I don't know if that's luck or just the country air and more thoughtful workers. I know some areas are not so fortunate.

Interesting. Folks complain when parcels are late, and people complain when parcels are early.

Easy enough to fix, if you aren't happy with them use another shipper.

Within the last month, USPS anounced that they are going to slow down deliveries, with a corresponding increase in shipping charges. Maybe a helluva questionable "competitive" business plan, but let"s give'm a little credit for honesty. ;(

Nope. Haven’t had a single problem so far.

No problems. Getting about as many a day or two early as on time. Send and receive about 1/2 dozen a week on average. >>>----> Ken

Three priority packages this week; one one time and two were early. Yes,some are late, and sometimes tracking is at a standstill, but all in all, pretty good. Shick

According to what I have read the “slowdown “ will be more for cross country delivery. Local delivery should remain about the same time frame. But holidays are looming on the horizon. I won’t take any bets on any carrier being perfect. Been suggesting to wife to get organized early this year.

Bought a 66" bow, paid Thursday morning, it's arriving today, Saturday. A little over 48 hours from Michigan to sw Pennsylvania via USPS.

Same with another recent bow purchase.

No gripes from me.

No real problems here. But I would not put much faith in shipping during this time. Especially a "government system" as they are all broken.

My meds/inhalers were mailed the 14th of last month and arrived wed of this week after they had been replaced. They traveled 120 miles.

Shipped two bows last week UPS, one to SD and one to MN, both took 3 days.

No problems here. God bless em

Since retirement, I have picked up a part time job delivering 3rd class mail (local "shopper" papers, etc.) to local post offices, who ultimately deliver them to households via carriers. I pick up and/or deliver at five different post offices and one secondary sorting center.

As a former retail manager supervising more than 100 employees, I feel I am a pretty good judge of work habits. If there are problems with USPS, they are not at the local PO's that I work with. Everyone seems competent and interested in doing things well. Postmasters and rank and file employees are working well with each other.

As for at the top of the food chain, I'm not sure the story is the same. Seems a lot of new "directives" in the past year or so have only served to put the local Postal workers in the crosshairs of the public. At least in our area, any problems with USPS are not local. As George D. Stout stated, maybe it's the country air.

Interestingly, I just read an article about the terrific bottleneck at our ports with container ships full of goods unable to get offloaded. I've seen it on TV, but always try to get an unbiased look before I swallow it.

The article warned of even more expected delays for consumers coming before Christmas, as the Postmaster General has just approved new directives that are expected to impact the USPS workforce and it's infrastructure.

I had a package arrive this week. Tracking said arrived in Denver "missent" What does that mean? 4 days later, not even the automated "your package will arrive late but it is moving within the system" Nothing, no update. Filed the where is my package report. Oh, now updates. Package was scanned into Colorado Springs, then no updates for 3 days. Finally package arrived. Yeah, they suck.

Haven't had any problems shipping or receiving, but USPS tracking sucks.

Ask the Postmaster General Y !

My last USPS shipment was Maryland to Minnesota....3 days. Course who knows from here on out!

re Stix - "I got a package one day early, but no updates to tracking til it was out for delivery. Just sounds like tracking system may have issues."

Hmmm, sounds like maybe the postal employees are all saying 'screw the tracking, just move the dam packages!'

I'm not actually bothered by the time, but I'd gotten used to *reliable* tracking. Maybe that's what slowed the system down?

PS the package I took delivery of yesterday afternoon in Mass. is *still* showing as being somewhere in Illinois ;-)

I guess we traded better service for tracking mysteries.

Tretopper, yes your USPS assessment is for the most part valid. But, in my past experiences with three different local post offices, there seemed to be a significant difference in USPS employee attitude, customer service and in general, dealing with the public. From unbelievably helpful to unbelievably bad and rude. Oftentimes, conduct that would not be tolerated by a nongovernmental employer. As for the "top of the food chain," usually just political appointee/contributers with no knowledge or leadership ability in logistics. JMO

It’s terrible

saw the state police giving my mailman a ticket yesterday

revenge?

I have purchased the advance tracker and for 6 months it keeps updating that they are still searching for the package I sent to a fellow Waller…,

I no longer get my mail daily. Usually no mail on Friday, then a fistful on Monday. This is due to Postmaster General Dejoy. Some States are in the process of suing him for the mail slowdown.

Update - Late evening October 10 and my package - according to the tracking system - is now in Harrisburg PA. It's a book, and I'm 7 chapters deep in it...

MStyles, when they hired this guy he *told them* he would make the system *worse*. Congress should have laughed his idiot a$$ out of the interview process.

Here in northeast Illinois, package delivery times seem to have improved quite a bit over the past 3-4 months and lately some have been arriving ahead of schedule. Or, maybe I've just been lucky? Package tracking could stand a lot of improvement but at least my packages haven't been getting lost within the system for weeks at a time. Now that the holiday shopping season is almost upon us again, let's hope USPS doesn't become overwhelmed again.

The issues with USPS started well before 2021. All ya' gotta' do is search the archives here.

Show me a person who thinks these issues are related to the current administration and I'll show you an uninformed nimrod.

Seems to me the larger insured items I have not had issues with. They are arriving timely. The smaller items however seem to be getting lost for days, with 1 recent item being lost entirely.

Frustrating

We ship tens thousands of items yearly with USPS including bows in excess of $1200. In the last 15 years, we have had less than 5 claims. I'm not saying that everything shows up on time or is scanned properly, but it has ultimately shown up. Our postman is very good generally about scanning, however we know that he doesn't do all of the items all of the time. When he takes time off, it is hit and miss at best.

We don't ship much UPS because most don't want to pay the extra fees. I will say that I don't have any more confidence in UPS or Fedex simply by judging the items that we receive. What good is tracking if the items show up damaged? Left in the rain because the new delivery person doesn't know that cardboard shouldn't be left by the fence? I've got 4 buildings on my property with 9 different doors.. UPS has left packages at all doors except 2 even though the office and address is plainly marked. They left one package at the entrance to my drive in the rain with a bag covering half of the box.. a mere 600 yards from in building.

I'm sure in all of the services there can be found issues in their systems, but all of these rely on people to carry them out. I would wager that's were you will find the weakest link.

BigJim

I think they are pretty awesome, think of the numbers of packages they deliver daily. I got my custom Yellowstone longbow from Wyoming in 3 days and I live in Alabama. I have had a package be a day or so past the “expected “ delivery date but so were my kids.

I think they are pretty awesome, think of the numbers of packages they deliver daily. I got my custom Yellowstone longbow from Wyoming in 3 days and I live in Alabama. I have had a package be a day or so past the “expected “ delivery date but so were my kids.

They no longer actively scan transfers I’m convinced.

They no longer actively scan transfers I’m convinced.

USPS is delivering seven days a week now where I live. I just think that so many more people are buying on line these days that they are just swamped right now. I have had packages arrive on time and also a set of limbs that I sold take three weeks to be delivered. Thank goodness the guy I sold it to on this site was extremely understanding.

Yea I think their tracking stinks. Also have had a few packages damaged lately including a new whip that was drove over. My biggest issue is they don’t want to take responsibility for damaged items. They damage stuff then you need to jump through hoops when they should just take responsibility. Nope they just drop it at your door. I guess they can’t find help now either. Who would have ever thought we would have seen the day the post office can’t find employees.

It doesn't matter how much USPS raises prices because Congress steals the profits and spends the funds to fund stupid things. But if the prices get too high then private enterprises will take over. I still use USPS, the last time I received something from UPS it arrived broken.

We just sent a small package to my daughter who lives in San Antonio, and we live in Wisconsin. We sent UPS and paid $60 for 3 day delivery. It took 6 days when we went to UPS for a refund because the package was not delivered in 3 days, their answer even if we paid $60 for three days they do not guarantee the 3 day delivery, so we got no refund. So beware!

I don't do a lot of shipping like some of you guys. That considered, I can't remember a single instance of a shipping issue with USPS. I don't instantly resort to 'gov't disrespect' drama. The PO is phenomenally busy nowadays. People make mistakes. Always have and always will.

We HAVE mistakenly received the neighbors mail in our box on a few rare occasions, but so what. We get it to them. No big deal.

I cut the USPS and ALL these shipping companies slack given the mind blowing amount of shipping in todays world.

The plot thickens! Tracking the package - which I took delivery of back on the 8th - shows that it left the regional distribution hub for my local PO early this morning.

I also have a separate package that is showing the same. Really wondering what Postmaster Bob is gonna hand me later today ;-)

Did the shipper double-ship the item? Curiouser and curiouser.

Our FedEx center makes USPS look like expedient geniuses that know their business. The FedEx morons sent me "out for delivery" texts for two weeks. When I called I talked to a foreign correspondent who had no clue and offered to expedicate, escalate, put a tracer on, etc with no follow up calls as promised. I finally cancelled my order with the company and let them deal with the FedEx idiots.

Covid disrupted the entire worldwide economy. The slack in being able to go buy widgets in person lead to an increase in shipping and mail industries. With the tsunami of orders, shipping and mail companies are probably hiring anyone applying for work now. I'll bet they take what they can get and that there is very minimal training. Short staff in all businesses that don't require a college degree is the new 2021 norm. There are 'Now Hiring' placards all over this city.

Mailed from AZ last Friday. Arrived and was being shot in rural MN on Tuesday. Delivered on time and intact. It does look like the package had a touch of stringfollow, or backset :) No complaints here. I never looked at tracking.

New to me Treadway Black Swamp. Yup no complaints about USPS

that happened to me to badger. If I did that in my business I would get locked up for fraud

that happened to me to badger. If I did that in my business I would get locked up for fraud

One bad idea is to use round tubes to ship stuff in. Packages are transported on conveyors and also through curves. The faster the conveyor runs, the easier it will roll off in a curve. Another issue is, that sometimes addresses/routing labels get damaged. If the package leaves the conveyor accidentally, a human needs to find it first and put it back en route. With damaged labels, that can even take longer if not impossible. If a unique number cannot be identified. With the great "pandemic", I assume that package shipping probably double to tripled with severe issues on the worker site. I assume in some areas of the country this did not get back to normal yet.

Final report - the seller double shipped ! - So I have two copies of the same book.

This covid crap for an excuse is really getting old!

It is. If we did not depend so much on foreign stuff it would not be sitting in the ocean. LOl

You folks understand the USPS contracts with UPS for some deliveries. So who's fault is it?

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