USPS delays, tracking not updated, numerous orders

[gotclubs]

Hello All,

I know the pandemic is messing a bunch of things up lately but I am curious to see if others are noticing longer than normal delays with USPS priority mail. This week I have had (that buyers have brought up to me) 10 packages drop off of tracking. It seems they end up arriving but instead of 2 days it is taking 8-10, with a 4 day drop off in tracking updates.

Is anyone else experiencing this right now or am I somehow getting very unlucky?

[tulipsandteacups]

I have the Nicest Mail Man, He's always on time, Has his tumbler we got him ready for his iced coffee, or a cold water, or Iced Tea. He works with Us, A Very Loyal Man, With a Very Big Heart. I consider myself very fortunate, and blessed. I ship Priority Mail majority of the time, and of course we have to be patient, the whole world is Hurting, If customers do not understand, all we can do is keep in touch with them daily, on the tracking, and ask them to please understand. I have items, I paid for Priority Shipping from 2 states, which now I try to avoid. California items for some reason,  are coming from China, which I am trying to avoid that state. Florida, has always been a slow state to get my merchandise from. It takes a lot of patience, and empathy, and understanding.  We can't change the world, but we can Pray and Have Compassion ... Everyone is walking a different path, daily. Take into consideration, possibly a death in the family, someone hospitalized, the stress it puts on our minds, is just enough. I wish you all Health and Many Blessings, through these days, and take one day at a time. 

[sugey25qjk]

Yes. Same here. Not a case of luck at all. Engineered from the top. All over the news. Workers reporting sorting machines disappearing without explanation so that packages have to be re-routed. I just had a buyer tell me about two packages (not from me) that came close to him according to tracking and then went off to other states before coming back. Took 13 days. People not getting their meds, checks, customers and sellers getting screwed during a pandemic. Really bad.

[sugey25qjk]

I have taken packages myself and had the same thing happen-not marked as accepted. This has happened since the changes in leadership. I do better when a postal worker picks up my click n ships - she marks them accepted in the truck. A buyer who is also a seller suggested I offer the option of priority shipping and give a warning to book buyers. I am doing that so that customers know and then they are CHOOSING the delays to save money. 

[elizabethowen]

Refunded 3 buyers for packages not delivered on time. Only one was a priority package so I filed a claim and was refunded. Does anyone know whether the package will still be delivered? Is the tracking number dead?

USPS is the only "business" that I know of that keeps your money when they fail to do what they were paid for.

[threeinchgoldenlotus]

I had 2 first class packages delivered yesterday after I shipped 53 and 44 days ago. Of course I already refunded that 2 buyers long time ago. I also found if an item is not delivered after 45 days, USPS will erase the old tracking information and replace by new scanning as acceptance with next stop. This is confirmed by my PO postmaster and happened for my 53 days delivery package. I also have one priority package shipped 24 days ago, tracking still shows as delay.

We can not make money by current USPS delay and eBay's refund buyer system.

[theteamsetguy]

After September 11th packages no longer go passenger flights. Wouldn’t want to be on a flight when a package in the cargo hold goes kablooey. Media mail generally goes by truck or rail.

[codered075]

Not so much the virus slowing the mail. Check the news to see how overtime has been cut and mail sitting for days before going out. In the past few days thousands of mail boxes have been removed and destroyed as well as hundreds if not. thousands of mail sorting machines. This is all being done by instructions from the executive branch to cripple the USPS so it will not function for the Nov election. Let your Congressmen and Senators know how your business is effected by this "political" plot.

[drusalina]

Hold on to your shorts!  USPS raising prices temporarily between Oct 18, 2020 and Dec 27th 2020.  

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2020/0814-usps-announces-temporary-price-increase.... 

[na975]

hell yes !

[gotclubs]

Huge uptick again in delayed packages, thanks DeJoy.

I also received my first INR case, decided in buyers favor. I updated the missing mail search I had opened with USPS (not a change of delivery address that you pay $13 for) to deliver package to mailer. Case opened Aug 6th, escalated 12th, refunded 12th by eBay, item delivered 20th. Buyer has been unresponsive.

eBay, please, this nonsense needs to end. If you allow sellers to offer the service, adjust your delivery times accordingly. Do not allow buyers to open these cases and close them while these. We all know about the delivery delays, and we always hear it's the sellers responsibility to deliver the items on time. But we're not the carriers. The buyers also have an obligation of accepting that there may be delays if they choose a certain service, as long as that is EXPRESSED to them during purchase. I do acknowledge that there are increased time frames noted on listings, but they do not account for frequent 2 week plus time frames.

This thread is 4 months old, and not a single eBay mod stepped in to this thread, sad. A thread that led to my interview by the Wall Street Journal on the delays from USPS.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/postal-delivery-delays-trouble-e-commerce-sellers-11597869212

For reference of my numbers in the article, I compiled a list of in transit times since May (all that was available in archived items) and created a pivot table to show days in transit. How eBay allows INR disputes given the current environment is beyond me.

[iamonourside]

@gotclubs Thank you for sharing!! Congratulations on the WSJ interview!

I have done this myself, faced the technical issues, and would like to compare results.  These are technical questions that affect analytics greatly, but would not affect the conclusion that shipping takes longer and eBay was providing wildly optimistic estimated delivery dates.When you have time or interest:

1. Did you compare this table of actual delivery time to delivery times inherent in the eBay estimated delivery date?
   
   
2. Calendar, postal, or business days?
   
   
3. Delivery time calculated as "acceptance date" to "delivery on" date from USPS tracking OR "shipped on" date to "delivery date" in eBay orders file? Did you test for differences according to the data source. (There are differences due to use of label print date as mailing date by eBay, and even then "shipped on" and first scan date due to variation on the extent to which acceptance scans are given.)
   
   
4. What function did you use for delivery time? Simple subtraction of dates, DAYS360 or  NETWORKINGDAYS?
   
   If the later, did you make your own calendar of holidays?
   
   If the later, did you/how did you correct for the function counting both the start and end date unless the start or end are on non-business days? (FYI One can't just subtract 1 as is done in most applications of NETWORKINGDAYS, because the function adjust start and end dates if they are nonbusiness days, thereby NOT double counting (i.e. Saturday acceptance or delivery.) I resolved by using COUNTIFS with a list of dates.)

[iamonourside]

@gotclubs Got so excited by your excel sheet, that I hadn't yet looked at results.

Correction?  Both of your summations are ">=" so "over 1 week" is actually "7 days plus".

Startling result:  Attached table and chart of the delivery time by month from your data. 

Shipping time has steadily improved over the past four months.

[gotclubs]

@iamonyourside

1. I did not compare delivery times to eBay estimates. priority mail is 2-3 days, extended to 3-4 days in April I believe. Just looking at data, the minimum of late shipments is half. \

2. These are listed in calendar days. I ship 5 days a week, next day, but if ordered before 2pmish EST I ship same day, and I ship most Saturday's, probably 85% of them.

3. Delivery time is calculated from the day it was picked up by USPS or dropped off by myself.

4. Function was just b2-a2 (delivered date - picked up date) in excel. To be overly detailed in 750 shipments, I don't have the time for. There were plenty of 1 day shipping that took 3-4 days and are not included in the "late" totals. Law of averages works this out.

[super_flags2020]

I really admire your customers.
Mine are not getting this an "excuse".
They are leaving bad feedbacks and getting refunded by ebay.
Do you have any advise?

[iamonourside]

Perfect! Thank you very much!