USPS Slow Downs
For all the shipping nerds:
https://www.savethepostoffice.com/the-mail-slows-down-again/
This article gives a run down on a lot of the USPS shipping slow downs the past few years.
It also includes a preview of more slow downs to come as DeJoy's "Delivering For America" plan continues to roll out.
18 comments
sassykzt
·2 years agoI really wish eBay would take a look at the various slow downs around the country and ADJUST those ridiculous expected delivery dates given. For example, I'm in Cleveland, OH my customer is in Los Angeles -- paid 2/22 ( I have a 2 day window for shipping) . I am shipping out on 2/24 and expected delivery is 2/26 - 28. There is NO WAY a ground advantage package is getting from Cleveland to LA in 3 - 4 days. It stops in the Denver facility and usually sits for 2 - 4 days. I checked my last 6 months of deliveries to CA. The average was 6 days with ground advantage. My customers are great and know that eBay's estimates are way off. Can't eBay adjust their estimates to reflect reality?
carlmarxx
·2 years agoFor some reason the USPS trucks show up 2 + days to pickup Ground Advantage containers at the sorting hubs . When they USPS parcel post/Parcel select the trucks & Trainers where right there in the yard to load up and on the road in 1 business day.
ltldpr
·2 years agoNBC (Channel 2 in Houston) did an experiment and shipped 2 packages via Priority Mail that included air tags, to two sister stations. One in San Antonio, and the other in Detroit.
Here's an excerpt of what happened just the first day - READ FROM THE BOTTOM UP to get the proper order of events.
February 3, 2024 @ 9:50 p.m. Thanks to everyone for checking out the interactive map, this blog and commenting below. We’ve also received quite a few emails today, indicating you’ve experienced something similar with your deliveries.
“I do not think this is isolated to one facility in Houston. [I] have tracking history of a package that left Fort Worth for Cypress and went to Georgia, then shuffled back and forth between three different locations in Alabama, then back to Dallas, then to North Houston, then to Cypress, then back to North Houston before I received it.†- Mike G.
Thanks, Mike G., for the email. We’ll continue to track the two packages in our experiment. We still have a couple of days until the scheduled delivery of February 5 by 9:00 p.m.
UPDATE: This is a no-update, update. The two packages have not moved.
February 3, 2024 @ 5:01 p.m. At this point, the packages appear to be night owls. The packages were busy touring greater Houston, late into the night on Friday. But, on Saturday, for the past 17 hours and 45 minutes the packages have not moved since arriving in Missouri City.
UPDATE: Both packages spent the night circling the city, only to return just miles away from the original drop-off.
February 3, 2024 @ 10:30 a.m. - Both packages were dropped off by 5 p.m. at a post office in southwest Houston on Friday, February 2. By 7:30 p.m. both packages were in transit. At 9:30 p.m. the packages were tracked to the USPS facility in North Houston. We thought the journey was finished for the evening. However, by 10:05 p.m. they were on the move, again, headed back south. At 11:15 p.m. the packages were tracked to Missouri City. As of Saturday, February 3, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. the packages have remained at the Missouri City location.
Here's a link to the story.
Again, read from the bottom up in order to get the proper order of events.
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/02/02/putting-houstons-mail-delivery-to-the-test-how-to-track-kprc-2s-postal-service-experiment/
carlmarxx
·2 years agoThe USPS has been and is having issues with the Ground advantage shipping around the U.S. ,That I will be asking sellers about shipping FedEx ,UPS and Priority mail if USPS doesn't screw it up . I did confirm from both in southern Ca. The 6th USPS district office of consumer service agent for my neck of the woods and the USPS DC HQ agent ,That the Ground Advantage shipping container's sit in sorting centers for 2 to 3 days waiting for truck .Also their reliance on sorting machine's to send parcels to correct carts is a joke because the employees aren't required too double check the everything in the carts going to the containers . I have seen large increase of missed sent packages that are shipped to me .
ltldpr
·2 years agoThe story/experiment I linked to and pasted an excerpt from used Priority Mail.
The 2 packages traveled back and forth in the Houston area on the first night, but never got scanned. They didn't even get unloaded from the truck I'm guessing because of how long it takes to drive from one location to the other - North Houston to Missouri City which is southwest of Houston.
I feel really bad for the people who use eBay (or any online platform) as their only means of income.
Based on the article that @wastingtime101 linked to in the original post, this stupidity is coming to a facility near you (and everyone else) in the future. Brace for impact lol!
I hope they get their bleep together, but I won't hold my breath! The North Houston facility received a brand new sorting machine that was too big to fit into the facility. That machine was part of the USPS's "Delivering for America" program. So, the Missouri City, Tx facility was opened before any sorting machines were installed, to help with the idiocy occurring at the North Houston facility.
As you stated, the GA packages are just sitting for days. You should ask if they're expecting new sorting machines, and tell them to double check the measurements lol, not that they would be able to stop stupidity if they saw it coming ahead of time.
carlmarxx
·2 years agoI got a package today ,it was shipped priority mail . Based on the tracking information it bounced from the main sorting center that handles mail and packages for my neck of woods, was missed send to the wrong P.O. Unit and took 3 hours to return it back to main sorting center . this I expected from Ground Advantage . I have heard and read that USPS has managed to screw Priority mail shipping also.
carlmarxx
·2 years agoFrom what I read and seen , I would not be surprised if eBay get's hip deep in INR's.
iamalwaysright
·2 years agoYippee
7890
fab_finds4u
·2 years agoIt's not okay on my end.
A month ago someone vandalized the cluster boxes where we receive mail. They tore off the back panel and stole everyone's mail and packages. There's a sign taped to the boxes that says we must collect the mail from the post office. Each trip there results in standing in a line 10-12 people deep all waiting for their mail. It takes their slow asses 5 minutes to get each person's mail. You could be in line nearly an hour.
How long does it take to fix our boxes?
wastingtime101
OP2 years agoHave you filed a complaint at USPS.com @fab_finds4u ? And encouraged your neighbors to do the same?
fab_finds4u
·2 years agoThere's no HOA. This is a long story.
I filed a report when my next door neighbor, the one I'm having a problem with because their Chime payment failed for a yard sale item he purchased showed up at my door with my package that he claimed was delivered to him by mistake. I was angry because he had opened my package although it was addressed to me. I did not believe it was misdelivered, and if it was why did he open it? He opened it because he thought there was something valuable inside.
It was a bag of cat food. I put food out for several (4) feral cats. Now get this-the day before this happened this same neighbor asked me if I knew which mailbox was his. He claimed Chime locked him out of his account after the payment to me failed and they sent him a code by mail to verify his account and he needed to know which box was his ASAP.
I explained he needed to go to the Post Office and show them a lease or rental agreement and pay a deposit for the key and they would tell him which box was his. He said he would flag down the mailman and get him to give him his mail. I told him I didn't think the mailman would do that.
It turns out I was right. The mailman knocked on my door early the next morning to inform me the boxes were vandalized and two packages left for me were stolen as well as everyone else's mail.
I said that guy next door bought a package addressed to me and he claimed you delivered it to him. The mailman saw the box was still on my porch and he said I put that package in the parcel locker. He said he suspected my neighbor had been the one to break in the mailboxes because he begged and begged him to give him his mail and he said he couldn't do that, that he had to go to the PO and get a key and they would tell him which box number was assigned to his address. Same thing I already told him.
My dumb criminal neighbor was the one who stole everyone's mail and my package he gave back to me was the proof. The mailman said save the box and an investigator would be in touch.
So I called USPS back and said I wanted to add information to my case number. I updated what I knew and I'm still waiting for this so called investigator to show up.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoMany of those cluster boxes for developments are not owned by USPS and will not be repaired by USPS. If they are not intact, USPS will not deliver to them. Just as they will not deliver to a classic rural mailbox which was damaged or damaged boxes in the lobby of an apartment building.
You may be waiting for someone else to fix them, not USPS. Perhaps a Homeowner's Association.
martin2001
·2 years agoThanks for the link. I really can't complain at all about the deliveries, pick-ups nor lost packages.
yuzuha
·2 years agoI can't either. I can count on one hand the number of delays I've seen in the past few months. Just had two I shipped earlier this week delivered ahead of schedule, in fact.
zgnisaer
·2 years agoMe too, no complaints.
Everything's alright, yes, everything's fine!
ltldpr
·2 years agoHoly cannoli!
Two weeks to go from north of Houston, past the North Houston facility down south to the Missouri City facility and then 166 miles west, to Austin.
You could have walked it to Austin in that amount of time!
I just got off a 1 month "vacation" from eBay yesterday because of all of this, and sold something last night. Now I'm thinking about another vacation!
I seriously thought that a month and congressional reps getting involved would have been enough for them to get their bleep together, but apparently not!
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoGiven the changes which have occurred in the past year, and the changes in goals for the services, most of the prior years data is worthless.
wastingtime101
OP2 years agoThe biggest focus of the article is recent/current/upcoming changes. Reference to past few years is just a blip in the article to kick things off.