Warning - USPS sucks

[roweenie]

OK, thank you to all of you that replied to this thread. It is comforting to know that others have been in my same situation, and have still received their merchandise, albeit ridiculously delayed.

From what I've learned here and elsewhere, I can see that all is not lost, at least not yet, even though the people who are paid to deliver my parcel have no idea where it is.

Someone told me once, "if you lower your expectations, you will never be disappointed".

I will be patient and wait a while longer.

Bob

[aqualung]

Combine the USPS with Canada Post and you'll really be disappointed.

I bought two marching baritones from a dealer in London Ontario, only a couple hours over the border and hardly in dogsled territory.

I should have used PayPal, but I sent a check.

That took eight days to arrive. Then the check had to clear through two countries' banking systems. In this electronics age of instant communications, that took another 2 weeks.

The postal service rates were lower than a FedEx quote, but it took another two weeks for the horns to make the <500mi trek across the border.

It's a good thing I didn't need the horns until June.

[Doug Elliott]

A couple of points:

You said it was Registered Mail... Registered Mail always takes a long time, but it should be totally safe. A month or even two months is not unheard of.

The difference in price between USPS international and any other shipper is huge. FedEx and UPS are sometimes 3 or 4 times the cost of USPS.

The only place I've consistently had problems losing packages is South America, specifically Brazil and Argentina.

[roweenie]

Doug,

Thanks for your observations. I have already resigned myself to the fact I'm in this for the long haul.

Unfortunately, had I known how long and uncertain this method of shipping was, or how poor the customer service might be, I would have gladly paid 4x to ship this parcel (it's pretty small), but as I said previously, it wasn't given to me as an option.

And quite frankly, I'm a little embarrassed that my country's post office could possibly take weeks (or months) to deliver a package 75 miles that the German post office could deliver across the Atlantic Ocean in two days, and not even be able to tell me where the package is, let alone when (or if) it might be delivered.

Bob

[arminhachmer]

I've never had a problem shipping internationally with USPS.

+1 Tokyo and Germany, no problem.

[roweenie]

OK - here's an update with some new information I've learned this morning:

1. A postal inspector at USPS Consumer Affairs informed me that once Registered Mail has entered the country via the International Sorting Center (ICS), it is no longer trackable, and that is due to the "class of service" it is.

2. US Customs does not keep a record of every package that passes through their facilities. The only packages they can answer questions about are ones that they have DETAINED.

I thought this information might be helpful to others who are "in my boat".

It doesn't help me find my parcel, but it IS helpful to know definitively how the system works, so I can adjust my expectations.

[bort]

Side question -- what are you going to do with this valve once it shows up?

[roweenie]

Bort,

5th valve project.....

[trnewcomb]

I've not personally had a problem with USPS losing my packages, but for anything that is important, I tend to ship internationally via UPS. My experiences with USPS' 'service' have not impressed me with their competence. Basically what I have found is that most government agencies, like USPS and US Customs, are largely staffed by lazy, arrogant people who have no accountability, no fear of ever being fired or disciplined for any reason and who don't care at all about their supposed customers. In other news, water is wet.

However, most of these taxpayer-paid knaves are ignorant enough that they are unlikely to steal your valve assembly, unless one of them thinks he or she can sell it for the value of the metal. So I think that your odds of eventually having the package arrive are actually pretty good. As others have said, give it time.

[Biggs]

I've not personally had a problem with USPS losing my packages, but for anything that is important, I tend to ship internationally via UPS. My experiences with USPS' 'service' have not impressed me with their competence. Basically what I have found is that most government agencies, like USPS and US Customs, are largely staffed by lazy, arrogant people who have no accountability, no fear of ever being fired or disciplined for any reason and who don't care at all about their supposed customers. In other news, water is wet.

However, most of these taxpayer-paid knaves are ignorant enough that they are unlikely to steal your valve assembly, unless one of them thinks he or she can sell it for the value of the metal. So I think that your odds of eventually having the package arrive are actually pretty good. As others have said, give it time.

Hey grumpykins, the USPS doesn't have any "taxpayer-paid knaves." The government stopped allocating tax dollars to USPS in the '80s. Perhaps you were too "lazy" or "arrogant" to bother looking this information up. Fortunately, as a government employee, I have lots of experience helping obnoxious jerks so it is no trouble for me to step in.

[tofu]

I've not personally had a problem with USPS losing my packages, but for anything that is important, I tend to ship internationally via UPS. My experiences with USPS' 'service' have not impressed me with their competence. Basically what I have found is that most government agencies, like USPS and US Customs, are largely staffed by lazy, arrogant people who have no accountability, no fear of ever being fired or disciplined for any reason and who don't care at all about their supposed customers. In other news, water is wet.

However, most of these taxpayer-paid knaves are ignorant enough that they are unlikely to steal your valve assembly, unless one of them thinks he or she can sell it for the value of the metal. So I think that your odds of eventually having the package arrive are actually pretty good. As others have said, give it time.

Hey grumpykins, the USPS doesn't have any "taxpayer-paid knaves." The government stopped allocating tax dollars to USPS in the '80s. Perhaps you were too "lazy" or "arrogant" to bother looking this information up. Fortunately, as a government employee, I have lots of experience helping obnoxious jerks so it is no trouble for me to step in.

Yes it is true that the USPS has not directly received taxpayer dollars since the early 1980s with the minor exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters. It does however receive many indirect taxpayer subsidies including not paying property taxes and getting taxpayer funded services such as police and fire etc.

As a quasi-governmental agency, it has many special privileges, including sovereign immunity, eminent domain powers, powers to negotiate postal treaties with foreign nations, and an exclusive legal right to deliver first-class and third-class mail. Indeed, in 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the USPS was not a government-owned corporation, and therefore could not be sued under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

USPS has a statutory monopoly on access to letter boxes. Which effectively blocks private for profit companies such as UPS or FedEx from being a competitor for that business. Then look how the postal union itself muscled the Postal Service when it tried to cut costs and do away with Sat. delivery - a service that the majority of citizens when polled have said they could live without.

[Biggs]

a lot of true things, without expressing a bizarrely passionate blanket contempt for government employees

[Biggs]

It does however receive many indirect taxpayer subsidies including not paying property taxes and getting taxpayer funded services such as police and fire etc.

Just like churches, private universities, the Boy Scouts, etc. I don't think subsidization causes all that laziness and arrogance though.

[tofu]

It does however receive many indirect taxpayer subsidies including not paying property taxes and getting taxpayer funded services such as police and fire etc.

Just like churches, private universities, the Boy Scouts, etc.

You read into things what you want to. You assume I'm in favor that these organizations should be subsidized. You have nothing upon which to base this assumption.

I don't think subsidization causes all that laziness and arrogance though.

So you do believe there is laziness and arrogance - would that cover all of government or just the USPS? You just don't think it's caused by being subsidized.

a lot of true things, without expressing a bizarrely passionate blanket contempt for government employees

Folks who work in the private sector understand that they must compete and strive to be better to make their business profitable or else they go out of business. Government and quasi-governmental agencies don't have to compete - they just raise taxes/prices with no fear that failure will impact them.

Fortunately, as a government employee, I have lots of experience helping obnoxious jerks so it is no trouble for me to step in.

Of course it bizarrely makes sense that you would have vast experience with obnoxious jerks as you work with lots of governmental employees.

[tbn.al]

The USPS just increased it's postage rate to $.49 for the first ounce of first class. Gotta love it! Since postage is my 2nd highest category of business expense that is a major concern for me. Interestingly, I only have to pay $.48 since I use a postal meter. I wonder when Pitney Bowes will start using that as a selling point? Never mind, I just checked and the adds are already out there. Seriously, the law stipulates that certain insurance related documents must be sent by USPS First Class Mail. It appears to me that one part of the government is propping up the other.

[bbocaner]

49 cents to come to your house or place of business, pick up your mail, take it all the way across the country, and deliver it to its recipient in a few days with astonishing reliability is an absolute bargain. Everyone I have dealt with at the postal service is honest and hard-working. I can't say the same for either UPS or FedEx. At UPS I recently have experienced employees who tried to close the customer counter 20 minutes early and then wouldn't help me because their system was already shut down when I arrived on time to send out an urgent package that needed to go out that night. At FedEx I have more than once had packages get lost and they have refused to cover shipping damage on musical instruments because they claim it is 'impossible to verify the value' despite having paid for a particular level of insurance. Yes, both of those things happen at the postal service, too... but I see absolutely no evidence that they are any worse just because it is a quasi-governmental job.

[tbn.al]

49 cents to come to your house or place of business, pick up your mail, take it all the way across the country, and deliver it to its recipient in a few days with astonishing reliability is an absolute bargain.

If the law would allow, I would just email it, thus saving my business thousands of dollars a year. I do email a lot of stuff, and fax, but when the law specifies that hard copy documents be mailed, I just have to write the check. I would much rather email or fax leaving more to spend on tubas and such.

[Biggs]

Tofu -

I didn't mean to step on your toes and apologize if I came off that way - I just wanted to contrast your polite, correct, and informative statement with trnewcomb's unprovoked attack on all government workers, a group to which I belong. If you took offense, the fault lies with my poor communication and I regret not expressing myself more clearly.

I did not assume you favor government subsidization and I don't care one way or the other if you do. Again, my argument is with trnewcomb and, as his initial attack leads me to think he is uninformed, I did not want him believe the government benefits extended to USPS are not also being extended to a large, diverse group of other organizations.

Of course there are lazy and arrogant government workers - much like there are lazy and arrogant private sector workers. Laziness and arrogance are not endemic to government employees, nor are those traits any more prevalent among government workers. I know you did not state this, but trnewcomb did, and I apologize for roping you into our dispute.

I will take issue with one of your statements, however. You stated:

Folks who work in the private sector understand that they must compete and strive to be better to make their business profitable or else they go out of business. Government and quasi-governmental agencies don't have to compete - they just raise taxes/prices with no fear that failure will impact them.

This is not true - at least not in my governmental agency. I work at a flagship state university and I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that we must constantly compete and strive in order to attract the most desirable students, the most desirable faculty, the most lucrative research grants, and many other organizational assets. We are competing with other governmental agencies (other state universities) and subsidized private organizations (private peer institutions) for the same limited resources. In the last fiscal year, only 18% of our budget was provided by the state (I don't have a figure for any federal help) but rather than 'raise prices' (we're in the second straight year of an undergraduate tuition freeze) to make up the difference, university leadership opted to work toward becoming more efficient (being better, as you said) and this ethos has been adopted at all levels, including even down at my peon level.

Again, I apologize for involving you in my own defense against trnewcomb's blanket assertion that all of us "taxpayer-paid knaves" are lazy, arrogant, and ignorant. Have a great weekend!

[pgym]

At FedEx I have more than once had packages get lost and they have refused to cover shipping damage on musical instruments because they claim it is 'impossible to verify the value' despite having paid for a particular level of insurance.

Perhaps you should actually READ FedEx's Terms and Conditions, in particular the section "Declared Value and Limits of Liability (Not Insurance Coverage)", which explicitly states, in capital letters:

WE DO NOT PROVIDE INSURANCE COVERAGE OF ANY KIND.

[bbocaner]

sorry, paid for a particular level of "declared value." Their terms pretty much make them useless for shipping musical instruments.