USPS Ground Advantage

[timbbuc2]

I was wondering if anyone else are having problems with USPS Ground Advantage.  Recently it seems to be longer delivery time than normal. I ship same day unless it is purchased after normal shipping hours. My margins are tight on some items, and I have to ship the most cost-effective carrier.  So, I had two items that I shipped to "repair shops" and they contacted me saying they had not received their item and their customers were upset.  I tracked the items and saying in transit. I shipped a replacement to both buyers Priority Mail and they got it in 2 days. Now for the original packages still have not been delivered (shipped 3/18). Any ideas or help would be appreciated. BTW , that is 5 shipments since 3/18/24 And yes I did contact USPS with no help. I filed a claim on one of them. 

[dirk12955]

The answer is in your post.

Ship everything Priority.  If the buyers are in that big of rush,  They'd have 

no reason to complain about paying more.

Give them a choice.    GA by wagon train  or Priority by Jet

[tinsoldierunderground]

+1 to dirk12955.  My experience on the receiving end of GA, is that packages initially track with a delivery date on par with priority, but a few days,  tracking comes up "in transit, arriving late".

[yng1998]

I shipped something "priority express" and it arrived a week later not in 2 days so shipping priority should not make a difference.  I have also had a couple other issues.  The slow down has been in the news with governors of certain states looking into what is going on with people not receiving their mail in a timely manner.  I have heard that if you are reusing boxes make sure all codes and upcs are blackened out.  The newer machinery scans everything and may be redirecting packages because of it.  If I am sending items to certain areas, I plan on being proactive and checking tracking after a couple days to see if it is traveling through the system the way it should.  If it isn't I may do a missing mail search through the usps and possibly letting my buyer know.

[loft_km]

Yes - having the same problems since beginning of this year.  Have been using USPS for 4 years now and switched to Ground Advantage when First Class package service was discontinued.  Over the last 3 months the delays have increased, the lost items have increased, and the service have declined.  In the last month 2 packages completely lost and they don't know what happened to them and 2 more haven't had an update in over a week which is a sure sign they are lost as well.  Significant number misrouted - and I don't mean a town away or a 100 miles, I mean going from AZ to Alaska and no update for a week on a package heading from AZ to PA. Another going from AZ to OR that's in Puerto Rico today.  Several others have been cycling in and out of distribution centers without making forward progress in 5-6 days.  Something's going on at USPS and we have to hope they will figure it out soon or they won't be doing much business with anyone.  My late delivery rate last month with 92% with most package arriving 3-5 later than the projected latest delivery date.  All I can say is be sure to submit the help request form as soon as the package is eligible, then do the same with the missing mail search and be ready with your claim paperwork as soon as the 15 day window has passed. They'll refund the purchase price plus what you paid for shipping for each lost item.  Doesn't help with unhappy customers and that's a real issue for sellers on a platform like eBay.

[quanfo]

The "Ground Advantage" is horrible; it should be called "Ground Disadvantage" as packages sit days between hubs. Blame Louis DeJoy 

[selsa84]

Just wondering if you have issues with the 85043 sorting facility. I'm in Phx and my packages sit here for weeks

[selsa84]

You betcha. I have 15 open missing mail cases as of this morning, got to open 2 more today. 

[deserdog]

Many of my GA packages are arriving in the same time frame that priority would. Not all, but some.

[gravitat]

Same thing is happening with me as well. Shipped on 3/31 to Chicago IL area and month later package still shows late "moving through network" with no updates since 4/9. I sent a replacement on 4/23 and now it is stuck as well with same messages, no delivery so far. I will submit claims to usps ground advantage but i'm now concerned on the reliability of usps.

[dolcetreasures]

More than half of my packages are late or extremely late. 

[mbksys2]

Ebay's ground advantage option SUCKS!!!!! They list one delivery date on the listing, and then after you purchase they change that date by at times 10 days longer!!! And ebay doesn't give a crap how much longer the buyer ends up waiting!!

[notanothercamera]

Initially, it was a good, reasonable cost option. Lately it's been horrible. I have two packages incoming to the Charlotte, NC area. One from Wisconsin was due Monday, still in transit. Another from Florida was due today, it's now in Sacramento, CA!! From Florida!!?? An outgoing package I sent to the Lockport NY area was dropped at the PO on Tuesday. It has yet to show up on USPS tracking. What is going on??

[kalyoth]

Specifically with Ground Advantage - No. With the USPS in general - depends upon where its going or coming from. Certain parts of the USPS network are horribly mismanaged or subject to intense criminal activity. Two large examples are USPS volumes moving by train car in California region - Los Angeles & also in Georgia.

It is known limitedly in the public plus in US Congress. USPS is working VERY HARD to hide this as much as possible. The service in certain areas is VERY unstable or dependable. Multiple issues people have named are changes made by current postmaster, apathy by workers, lack of workers, equipment failure, replacement equipment coming on line with issues, failure to receive residential delivery for weeks, failure to follow established postal law in regards to receipt handling / scanning of postal volume, etc. etc.

The train car theft is related but separate in that outside of law enforcement agents, theft is not a carriage  failure.

[notanothercamera]

This is causing buyers and sellers on eBay a lot of grief. USPS should be working very hard to correct these issues, not hide them. Don't they realize that they may start losing a lot of business to UPS, FedEx and other more reliable carriers? Sure it may cost more, but I for one am willing to pay a premium for better service!