Am I the only one with USPS Issues?

[netwizz760]

I had an item ordered November 30th, and the same night I boxed it, labeled it, and put it in my mailbox flag up.

The item was picked up by my mail carrier December 1st @ 1:25 PM EST, yet my mail carrier NEVER scans items when he or she picks them up, and I have had three (3) different mail carriers.

Usually a few hours into the evening the item shows as scanned at the first processing center.  Often times this scan is 1 AM in the morning, and I have seen it as late as 7 AM the next morning!  Only once has my local post office ever scanned the item at the local PO instead of it just being scanned at the sorting facility.

Fast forward to the recent event above... Still no scan, and it has two-day handling meaning I have until 11:59:59 (or fewer than 3 hours) to for USPS to do their job and scan it.  Thus far they have never lost an item or stolen an item, so I am hopeful it will all work out, but is there any fix?

FedEx and UPS ALWAYS manage to do their job right and scan items!

This is the tracking number 9400108205497646427882.

***

I would also like to add that 9 out of 10 items I have been ordering that are going USPS have been late recently.  In fact, I ordered two items on eBay and they went from scans along the way back to pre-shipment USPS awaits item.  In my opinion something very shady is going on with the Post Office.  It sure would be nice if they would at least scan items if then intended to delay.

What I did do is change all of my handling times to 4 days.  I have an item that just sold today.  I intend to take it direct to my Post Office and get it scanned in person.

[dbfolks166mt]

So are you looking at the tracking information through the eBay link or directly through USPS tracking on the USPS site. For some reason the eBay link to the USPS tracking information is really screwed up at the moment. I had the same thing happen with at least two packages I dropped at the post office, and waited for a receipt. One item was actually delivered while the eBay link to the shipping information was sill showing USPS awaiting item. The tracking information in USPS was correct and showed the shipment flow. 

     As a side note I never rely on pickup I drop everything at the post office and stand in-line while they scan each item and hand me a receipt. 

[moparfan2010]

I always use usps.com and track the package from their site...I think its ebay that might be the problem...as usual.

You can go to the post office in person...I know that sounds "old school" or indeed you might not have the time, but they always have helped me at my Post Office.

[dbfolks166mt]

Based on the information in USPS tracker the item has never been scanned. You may want to talk to the postmaster at your local post office. 

[anneecakes · Accepted solution]

Don't know if this helps, but my local PO scans everything  as "accepted" or "Picked up" soon after its dropped through their main lobby chute every day at about 4:55pm --98% of the time.  These are the times that my First Class Parcels don't get a prompt scan:

1) Day after Monday holidays 

2) Day after Veterans Day (whatever day it falls on)

3) Monday/Tuesday after Thanksgiving & Black Friday

4) Most of December (from about 4-21 December)

On those days there is double (or triple) the usual mail and they only cherry-pick Priority parcels out of the hampers and often delay touching/accepting/processing 1st Class for 24-36 hours.

I'm trying to stay out of the lobby and the lobby line because I haven't had Covid yet and it's RAMPANT in my town, so I try to run in to a mail carrier at one of the exterior  blue boxes around 5pm and hand him/her the day's batch of parcels with a SCAN sheet. It's definitely stressful around the holidays and more so this year!

[timzbiz]

If you put it in your mailbox flag up, it may have been stolen.

[netwizz760]

Thus far I do not think it has been stolen.   Nothing yet has been stolen, and my security camera missed the event.  I did see 1:25 a USPS Jeep go by and the flag was up...   about 2 minutes later, UPS brown truck triggered an alert, and flat was down.   Hence, the worker got the item then I am pretty sure.

I messaged the buyer who said basically I am in heaven with USPS that he lives in Mexico...  I am not sure what that means because it was shipped to Texas.   He said not to worry that he isn’t in a rush.

I have seen a time before on a Saturday an item was picked up and not scanned until around midnight at the end of Monday.   Pretty sure that time my carrier was too lazy to drive to the processing center at the end of his shift.  

I did call my local postmaster...  A Mr. Baldwin who said there is a backlog.   Given the email above and that Thanksgiving, BlackFriday, and Cyber Monday hit, USPS is probably just swamped beyond anything normal.

Most likely given this is the craziest year ever with folks shopping from home they probably did 90% of their holiday shopping and dumped it all on USPS who is likely short staffed ... Plus Baldwin said they have a backlog.

I would imagine it will eventually mysteriously appear...

That said, will I get an automatic defect?

[crazybee989]

It's been happening to me too! I sent out 3 packages and dropped them off right after Thanksgiving and they still have not updated the tracking. USPS has been SUPER slow recently and I'm a little worried. Not sure if I should switch to other carrier

[1grandmashope_1]

Leaving it in your mailbox with the flag up is questionable, at the very least. I believe that it is important to bring your items to the post office and have them scanned and get a receipt.

I'm glad that you are doing that. We all need to be thoughtful in how we approach sales and its pitfalls. 

Stay safe and be well,

Grandma 

[netwizz760]

I have not been going to the post office for fear of the COVID...  I would rather stay well.

You are completely right about it being questionable to send packages from my mailbox, but thus far in the past few months I have sent about 20 items that way no issues.  I do have a reasonable cut-off point, and that is at or about $50, I take an item in to be scanned.

The item I am having an issue with USPS on sold for $21.  I wish I had got a scan on it simply because it would be defect-proof.  In the meantime, I doubled my handling time to 4 business days to hopefully work through the USPS issues.  If they don't get it scanned in 120 hours, I won't even be able to cancel.

Pretty sure I am going to be switching to Pirate Ship, so at least if USPS messes up, I will get a Postage Refund, too.  In the meantime if I do not see it by the end of the day Friday, I am going to request my postage refunded such that if in the two to three weeks USPS takes to investigate they suddenly scan it... great... they can reject the claim.  Otherwise they can refund.

The buyer thankfully is not in a rush, but I still would like it to get to the buyer right away.

I have an item I am waiting to receive, which was supposed to be delivered November 30th, but it is NOT the seller's fault.  I will be leaving 5 stars saying, arrived on-time even through it is late.  I am waiting for 9405508205497634368251

Regardless, I think there has been a lot of issues with USPS  in the past week.  That said, they could vastly improve their service simply by scanning items upon pick-up like FedEX and UPS.  It is meant to be end to end tracking not a delivery confirmation service.  They have the delivery scans down to a science... and the scans through processing centers are reasonable, too.  I only wish they would get their act together and scan items upon pick-up.  If they did that, it would increase the value of their service to be on par with FedEx and UPS.

Regardless, please stay safe and well.

Best regards,

Justin

[netwizz760]

Still no progress.  Looks like USPS lost it, has a bigger backlog than is reasonable, or did not bother scanning it at the processing center in which case in a few days it will mysteriously appear in another State.

None the less, after checking, looks like this one eBay gave my buyer a Guaranteed delivery of Friday... something even USPS cannot guarantee!  Let's see... 2 days handling time bought Sunday means USPS MUST have it Tuesday, so eBay now guarantees it takes USPS only three (3) days to deliver a first-class package from South Carolina to Texas right after Black Friday during a national Pandemic.

I don't know how that guarantee works.  I doubt my buyer knows how it works either, which might be my saving grace.

I see no reason the item would be stolen though it is possible.  I doubt a thief wants a three-phase, phase-loss, phase-reversal protection module.

[netwizz760]

Fixed...

The carrier remembered seeing the package and also that there was a problem with the Internet back to the Post Office systems causing an a lost regional system glitch where scanners were unable to sync.   The supervisor got ahold of me.   USPS did fix the issue. 🙂   Thankfully the data was still on their barcode scanner, and they were manually able to re-run the sync, so other sellers are now fixed as well.

Just like that it’s fixed and now shows that they had it December 1st at 5:50 PM and scanned it as it departing to the processing/sort facility, which is backlogged like never before.   There was no brick and mortar Black Friday or Cyber Monday, so instead everybody stayed home and Primed at that Site named after a river and countless others.   They told me they received up to 14 times the daily average and over three (3) times the holiday packages with only 60% the staff on site due to COVID distancing and staff safety.  Freight trucks only hold so much, and staff from other post offices are helping out 24 hours even on Sunday they worked late into the early morning hours ...  but the US Post Master is not paying over-time, so they have to do a lot of staff rotations.  They do not even have storage bins for the quantity of overflow, but to rest assured nothing is lost and everything is being watched by security to ensure the overflow is safe.   They said this is the first time even Priority Mail even ended up backlogged into overflow.  That has never happened in past years...   The reason is due to agreements with Amazon their packages are treated the same as Priority-Mail Express, and they are guaranteed scans within hours!  Not to mention they are the now the largest shipper by far!

Despite all this, most items will still be delivered on-time, and even items that are not they are trying to at least get them scanned at the processing facility and out the door headed toward their destination.

9400108205497646427882

[tarb6838]

I have been listing for years and it has been a nightmare this year in december 2020. I have someone who purchased an item on november 30th and I listed it as economy shipping shipping with an extended ship date because I n knew that shipping would be a nightmare to allow more time. I actually paid to have it shipped priority which gave a date for 12/4. The customer filed a dispute on 12/3. I inform the buyer buy email that package is delayed. I am left with a nasty review because Ebay's tracking system changed the delivery date when I uploaded the receipt. I call ebay to have negative review removed and they turn their back and refuse to remove negative review when I dropped off package next day to post office and uploaded review. Ebay does not care about sellers they create the buyers to behave like this.

[tarb6838]

In regards to your post usps is not doing there job..

Due to covid and holiday rush..packages are being bounced around everwhere...same tracking remarks for days on their tracking system and ebay just does not care if customers complain or leave bad remarks they are still getting paid. My solution I shut down all of my listings not worth the aggravation.  

[threshold.sales.group]

IMO, this is by far the worst delays we've ever seen. Even during the early stages of COVID in March and April delays were mainly in the Northeast, but this a total system melt down.  Had some supplies inbound from NJ that went dark for 2-1/2 weeks and just now reappeared and moved again. Seen bunches of outbound packages get accepted then go in the opposite direction from their destination to a far off sort center.  It's a disaster.