USPS getting brutal with packages

[animal-house-8]

We sell a lot of fragile items so we pack super well, my girl who does all the packing learned from a high end store and she does a great job you can just look at all our feed backs and see the comments that are left for the packing jobs she has done. In the last month we have had 3 items break which is very rare so I asked 2 people one at the post office and one that works in a distribution center if they have heard about a increase in breakage. Both responded with a absolute yes and have said that the new Postmaster General DeJoy has made a lot of people unhappy  and also said that there are people there who back him in trying to make people think that using mail in voting is unsafe and they are beating the **bleep** out of packages, envelopes ect. So I have shifted more to Fedex whenever I can make the cost work out. I did see the note from ebay saying we should seek alternative shipping due to the issues with USPS. I thought it was just delay issues but it's more than that so I suggest to over pack well when shipping USPS. 

[lja440]

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@stuff-from-jewel-and-the-gang wrote:

it took over 2 weeks for a letter to get from my employer to me .....  i live a half mile from work 😄

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It used to be we would come back in and sort the outgoing mail. We would round date local mail (same zip code) and sort it to the correct route for the following day. Mail going to the same first 3 digits went into one tub and the rest in another. This was back when we had small sorting centers. Maybe you remember two blue mailboxes with one for local mail. 

Now there are only a few sorting centers in most states. Everything gets sent there and yeah local mail can actually take longer now.

[lja440]

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@escuintla wrote:

Poor employees. My mail carrier has been working 14-15 hours a day with extra routes added to his daily route. He says he is happy retiring in 2 months because he hasn't seen so much destruction of sorting machines, not hiring people enough for the millions of packages being thrown at the mail carries with no help in sight. He says he in his 30+ hasn't seen so much of a mess from a government administration as this one currently destroying the USPS credibility. 

On my part, first class packages are taking 5+ days instead of 3, Media? Don't even ask me about it! 😫 

Your vote count, don't waste it on this type of governments. 

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I can answer the media question. Most of my packages are media (records). So far not much on the delays but i have one guy I buy from quite often that tens to frankenbox lots using parts of old boxes. He has never been the best packer but as these are lower end lots  it really isn't much of an issue for me. Lately though with more packages these have been arriving with split corners and once with a significant crush. I messaged him that I did not want to claim a SNAD but he should switch to ready made boxes or beef up his packing at least for the time being.

[lja440]

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@shhboom wrote:

If some USPS employees are beating the  bleep out of packages, it's more likely because they're upset at the  reduced hours and are trying to get back at DeJoy so that he will take the heat for all the delays and reduced service at the USPS.

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For the most part our hours are not the issue. My route pays the same (rated at 8.20 hours) if I can run it in 7 hours or it takes me 9 hours). 

The issue is the employees at the sorting centers jobs are based on running those sorting machines. Yes they are prepared to sort by hand if the machine is down for a hour or so. They would probably getovertime in that case because the job isn't done until the days mail is sorted.

DeJoy comes along and rips out the machines totally and they need to sort by hand. It can't be done in the same time frame even if they pull workers from other areas (like package sorting). DeJoy wants NO OVERTIME so everything isn't getting sorted or people are working fast and sloppy , making mistakes. 

All this for love of money. And money that they really don't need to survive. It's only greed and the desire for "you know who" to stay in power so he doesn't end up in prison like all his "best people".

Like I told my "you know who" loving Mother in Law, he only cares about himself, he does not care about America and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he throws one or more of his own kids under the bus before it is all over.  I can here it now "Eric who, oh yeah I knew him years ago, never liked him much, wasn't a fan."

[pennymincher]

I have had 2 damaged claims denied lately from the USPS.  Both the items were damaged in shipping.  I have sold 8,000 items and I ship very well.  The post office is now requiring the damaged items be brought to a post office.  My buyer drove it there and it was still denied!  I am beyond livid right now. Both were priority mail and about 45 dollars each. I use to send the photos in and they would send a check.

[pennymincher]

I do write FRAGILE on my items because if i file a claim i want them to see that I wrote it, but it doesn't seem to matter...

[bartuned]

Is there a way to get reimbursed for the damaged or lost items from eBay? I bought my shipping label through eBay and thought I was covered up to $50 for damage. I had a buyer send me a picture of an envelope opened and most of the items were gone. I reimbursed him right away to make it right for him, but now I am out the product. Any advice?

[1grandmashope_1]

I want to personally thank you for the work you and all the postal workers do. It is a job that most don't understand the work involved.  I thank you all for coming in during these very hard times and working hard for all of us. 

Please stay safe and be well.

Grandma 

[north40sales]

I'm sure he was vetted.....but the massive budget shortfalls in the USPS have been building for decades and the new postmaster was told to solve it without raising postage rates which is pretty much impossible without causing major disruptions within the USPS like elimination of Overtime and closing inefficient locations.  

The overall problem with the USPS has been brewing for decades.  Congress continually bails them out with billions of taxpayer dollars to keep them solvent and kicking the can down the road for the next administration.  It needs to be addressed yes, but I don't think that its possible to do it all at once. 

Rates will have to go up to cover the expenses or service levels will have to be reduced to not exceed revenues.  Its truly a simple business operations 101 type of problem.  

[north40sales]

Lol...I see what you did there.  

[vintagecraze50]

Hired several of his old cronies from his other compan to work with him now at USPS, Overcharged USPS with his other company somewhere in the millions of dollars, forced OR coerced his workers at his other companies to contribute to the republican campaign, Screwed his own brother by forging his signature on a business deal they had together. I AM SURE THERE IS A lot more they will dig up. CORRUPT.

[vintagecraze50]

I was thinking that he was either incompetent or stupid, but CORRUPT, better described the current situation with what is happening with USPS. The hearing is an hour long on YouTube if any want to see it. Former lawyer from the Bush Administration Ethics Committee did a fine job discussing this at the hearing. 

[maros9416]

They Sure do! I think out of all of this, the letter carriers by far have the biggest burden. The point the other poster made about the 50lb dog food and such are definitely above and beyond the job description and they should be paid for each package over what is reasonable. I'm sure they are prepared to take 1 or 2 50lb+ packages a day, but a full truck of this is unhealthy. It would take a team of 2-3 workers to accomplish that with great risk of injury.

[maros9416]

I was saying that perhaps a large mail-order type company had completed the packing and labels of these packages and being that they never got mailed as they should, they just dumped them. It's difficult to make sense of a situation that doesn't make any sense at all! Being that we didn't hear anything so far with all of the attached paper trail to the packages and the rental truck, I would assume that it is not a government conspiracy. This seems like an easy thing to get to the bottom of...Even if they can't get it all delivered in a day, that never stopped them from delivering something late. It has been going on for 7 months now. More and More, this seems like a staged event with fake packages.

[maros9416]

I understand your thinking, but this is a monopoly field due to the amount of infrastructure needed to compete. If you looked hard enough at any big executive, you will find conflicts in their portfolio's.  The USPS needs a leader who is a logistics expert that is accustomed to running large scale operations.  So they will have come from another large competitor. Their bonuses and incentives are mainly in stock options. If everyone had to divest their entire savings to take another job, no one would do it...You can make the same argument if someone is largely invested in a mutual fund that has 50 companies in it. You will find conflicts everywhere.   

[maros9416]

I don't see that here in NYC. They use large step type box trucks, not the jeep type as the other poster was referring to. None the less, if you could only fill 1/2, why would it be a random 1/2? In any business, coming back to the same block multiple times would only prolong the process...I see FedEx, UPS, and even Amazon guys park the truck on a corner, unload a hand truck full of packages and distribute to the entire block, both sides of the street in one run. I wonder which package truck delivers more packages in the same amount of time? I am not referring at all to letter carriers.