The Post Office is Crazy!!!

[theposhmermaids]

I sold a phone yesterday, and it turns out the buyer lives about 4 blocks from me---in the same zip code.  I thought about contacting them and just dropping it off at their house, but I didn't want to have to deal with ebay and the item not showing up as delivered, plus some people would rather just have it mailed.

So, I take it to the post office and joke with the clerk about how easy this one will be for them to deliver.  I went on the PO site today to check on some other deliveries and see that instead of taking the package and putting it on the shelf one aisle over from mine, they sent it all the way to the distribution center in downtown Portland.  **bleep**?  I've had packages go across the country faster than this one going only 4 blocks!

Just though you might need a good laugh! 

[kensgiftshop]

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@theposhmermaids wrote:

I sold a phone yesterday, and it turns out the buyer lives about 4 blocks from me---in the same zip code.  I thought about contacting them and just dropping it off at their house, but I didn't want to have to deal with ebay and the item not showing up as delivered, plus some people would rather just have it mailed.

So, I take it to the post office and joke with the clerk about how easy this one will be for them to deliver.  I went on the PO site today to check on some other deliveries and see that instead of taking the package and putting it on the shelf one aisle over from mine, they sent it all the way to the distribution center in downtown Portland.  **bleep**?  I've had packages go across the country faster than this one going only 4 blocks!

Just though you might need a good laugh! 

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They do the same thing here.

Mail a letter going across town and they send it to Tulsa (70 miles), then send it back here.

If it's in town, looks like they would put it with the mail going out the next day and deliver it, but no, they want to put some miles on it first.

[divwido]

That's standard.  Packages and mail go from the post office, to the distribution center and then back out where they are heading. 

[theposhmermaids]

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@divwido wrote:

That's standard.  Packages and mail go from the post office, to the distribution center and then back out where they are heading. 

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No wonder the PO is loosing money!

[variety_nook]

@divwido How true. Most people just don't understand how the shipping industry works, regardless of the Carrier.

@theposhmermaids All Carriers deal with thousands of parcels each and every day. No Carriers babysit any one single particular parcel despite what many may think. Your parcel is treated no differently than any others. It's a process that keeps "ALL" parcels flowing through the system as efficiently as possible. You should try that job sometime.

You were only 4 blocks away from the buyer!? REALLY!? I would've hand delivered that. Yet now you're here trying to joke/ridicule about the USPS delivery time? How far away was the Post Office that you traveled to in order to ship the item?

Sorry, but the good laugh is on you  

[7606dennis]

If memory serves, there use to be a drop in the PO lobby to deposit letters that were going to recipients in the same city, but I believe that has long ago disappeared.  I suppose progress has made many things that seemed so logical, obsolete.

[theposhmermaids]

No, I'm not making fun of the post office---ok, maybe a little.  I would have hand-delivered it, but I was afraid of it getting messed up with ebay.   I tried to do this a few years ago, and ebay would never show that it had been delivered, even after the buyer contacted them and told them so!  I know it will eventually get there.  I've never had a lost package with USPS.  The people in my post office are great, and I would never use another service.  I just remember when they used to keep the local zip code in the office without going to a distribution center.  Lighten up!

[packratville]

I've done the same thing when my buyer turned out to be close by. It might be different if you were acquainted with the person but if not, mailing is better and safer. Each seller has to do what works best for them and what makes them comfortable.

What if the buyer wasn't home when the seller went to drop it off? Do they have to keep running back to check until the buyer is there so they can hand the package off to them. Or does the seller leave it unattended on the buyer's porch? Or maybe it was a gift and they didn't want another member of the household to see it (for example if the buyer knows when the mail typically arrives or a kid in the house won't check the mailbox). The recipient could be someone who makes the seller uncomfortable, and now they know the seller lives nearby and sells on eBay. If they paid separate postage for the item, do they now think they're entitled to a partial refund? I can think of a lot of reasons to just mail it.

[lja440]

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@7606dennis wrote:

If memory serves, there use to be a drop in the PO lobby to deposit letters that were going to recipients in the same city, but I believe that has long ago disappeared.  I suppose progress has made many things that seemed so logical, obsolete.

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Yes, all PO's used to have a local mail drop. But now there is very little local sorting. This really matters little with untracked mail. But if tracked mail just showed accepted and delivered it might raise some red flags.

[rolenboy01]

That's how it usually works if I ship a package in town it has to go the 80+ miles to sacramento first then back.

[johnrj1226]

You  local  USPS retail office does  little to  sort mail or deliver mail  they primarily collect mail and hand it over to  a local  USPS processing center,.

Here are the  SOP USPS procedures:

  https://about.usps.com/publications/pub100/pub100_078.htm

[lovingroger2020]

Need a funny story? I'm waiting for a very important package. It arrived to USA like five days ago, already to Chicago, so it was like ten miles from me. In this time it was in one distribution center, it was in second distribution center and came to third distribution center, two miles from me. Today it arrived to my post office. It should be out for delivery. 

Nope. From my post office my package has been shipped to a city, like 100 miles from me. Why there? No idea. I love USPS. 

[southern*sweet*tea]

With increased automation and the closing of so many small local sorting centers,  local mail IS slower than mail sent further distances now.

I mail my water bill. It's a small rural water company, they only accept mailed payments.  It goes from my house to my local PO, where it hops on a truck to Memphis to the main mail hub. It's sorted there, then it goes to another (regional?) hub. Then it comes back to town where it then gets delivered.  The process takes three days from the time I mail it to the time they receive it.

Before they closed the local sort center in Tupelo, my payment would go to Tupelo, then back to town and most times they would receive the payment the next day.

My grandson lives in Hesperia, CA, almost 1900 miles from me. On many occasions I've mailed him a gift and he's received it in less than 48 hours from the time I mailed it. A couple of times he received it the next day.  Most times he gets it in three days, the same amount of time it takes to send my water bill five miles.

All major mail/package carriers operate this way.

[adrianv_dg]

You can always put manually that the item was delivered and you won't have any problem as long as you actually delivered it.

[dougsue123b]

I still have the local box in my town, very small town though. A letter can be sent and delivered on the same day.