Ever have problems with lost or really late packages using USPS or other carriers?

[HighlanderNorth]

I ordered a Fenix TK41 2 weeks ago, and it was shipped USPS priority mail and it arrived in 2 days, as it was shipped on Monday 2 weeks ago, and I received it on Wednesday. But I had problems with the switch, so I shipped it back late last week on Friday, via USPS priority mail. So I'm told it will get there on Monday(yesterday), and I cant wait for it to arrive so I can pick its replacement. So yesterday I get home from work a bit early and check the tracking, and it says it left Atlanta Ga processing facility yesterday and was expected to be delivered 7/30, yesterday.

So last night I check the tracking again, and it still says the same thing with no change, still saying it left the Atlanta processing facility some time yesterday and should be delivered yesterday. So I check it this morning figuring it must have finally made it to the local post office in Smyrna Ga where it's final destination is, but the tracking info still says the same thing. So I get home and check it again at 5pm, and it still says it left the processing facility yesterday and delivery is expected yesterday!

So first I call the Smyrna Ga post office, and he looks it up on his system, and tells me its still at the Atlanta processing facility, and he says it doesnt say anything about leaving that facility! So then I call the 1-800 number for USPS and speak with a customer service agent, and she says according to her info it did leave the Atlanta processing facility yesterday(monday) at 10:30 pm en route to the Smyrna Ga post office, but still hasnt gotten to the local Smyrna Ga post office for delivery after 20 hours! But that claim she made doesnt make sense, because when I tracked it yesterday afternoon, it already said it had left the Atlanta processing facility, so how could it now say it didnt leave til last night at 10:30? Their info seems totally inaccurate and screwed up, if not dishonest! So not only will it not be there in 2 days like it was supposed to be, I'll be lucky if it gets there in 5 days, and maybe 6 days, if its not lost!

I did pay for delivery confirmation/tracking, but I didnt pony up the extra $3 for insurance on this package, as I am losing nearly $10 on shipping as it is because I have to return it in the first place. So without insurance, I'll be out like $116 if its lost!

I had a similar problem with another light just about 4-5 weeks ago, when it was being shipped from further northeast, and it ended up getting within 15 miles from my house to that post office, then got sent back to another sorting facility like 70 miles away in another state, then finally delivered to my house.

What do you think, and have you had similar problems with USPS or any other shipper? Have you ever actually had a package get permanently lost?

 

[ElectronGuru]

I've shipped several thousand packages via USPS over the last few years.

US -> US, losses usually happen at the door, with it being 1) to big for the slot box, 2) left at the wrong door/place, 3) picked up by the wrong person or 4) taken. These are rare but as common with all carriers for shipments that do not require signature (i.e., drop and go).

What you have sounds more like a tracking error. The same 2-3 day shipping would 3-5x more money with FedEx. One of the ways the USPS charges so much less is by having less intensive tracking. Items are not always known until they land, and the guy at the delivery end may not have zapped the bar code. Talking to the recipient is the best way to confirm what has or has not happened. In other words, when possible: work backward from the destination instead of forward from the origin.

Extra note: Commercial carriers convert what you give them into some kind of machined label. The flexibility of the USPS to allow hand written labels, slows things down and increases errors. Use a machine label (stamps.com, etc) whenever possible.

 

[scout24]

Earlier this year, I purchased a light from a member here that shipped from the midwest Priority USPS with DC#. Should have been here in three days, but it took eleven. I followed the tracking all over the northeast, from postal hub to postal hub. Never lost it per se, but it went everywhere before arriving here.

 

[precisionworks]

One of the ways the USPS charges so much less is by having less intensive tracking. Items are not always known until they land, and the guy at the delivery end may not have zapped the bar code.

+1 to everything Dan said. If you want real tracking there are (in the USA) two choices - UPS or UPS Alright, FedEx is OK as well.

USPS tracking is deadly accurate as long as you wait until a few days after the package is delivered. I use USPS for almost all outbound, UPS for most inbound, FedEx for the rest.

 

[mattheww50]

I have been an extensive user of USPS delivery confirmation for a long time. Several observations:
1). As others have pointed out, USPS is not as 'religious' about tracking as is Fedex or UPS, so sometimes the package doesn't track reliably between the time it is accepted, and it reaches the delivering Post Office.
2). Mishandlng of USPS parcels is probably more common than FedEx or UPS. Permanent loss is rare, but delays aren't.
3). I have seen long delays at the Post Office responsible for delivery. For whatever reason the package 'checks in', but no effort is made to deliver it (even to a PO Box) for literally days.
When these things all combine, I have seen priority mail take up to 3 weeks door to door.

My FedEx experiences aren't that great. I have had some really ugly FedEx service failures.

 

[precisionworks]

My FedEx experiences aren't that great. I have had some really ugly FedEx service failures.

+1 regarding FedEx. One of the main reasons that UPS is more highly regarded (at least by the business community in this area) is that UPS drivers are employed by UPS. FedEx drivers are employed by the owner of the route that they deliver.

The FedEx business model uses independent contractors to make the actual deliveries and pickups between customers and the local FedEx distribution center. The owner of a FedEx Ground delivery route is an independent business person, responsible for vehicles, employees and all of the usual business owner responsibilities.

Some of the FedEx route owners are surprisingly arrogant. I was Operations Manager for a business that shipped around 100 parcels every day of the week. The route owner was surely making $1/parcel, roughly $25k per year just from our business. Our driver was awesome & life was good. That all changed when our driver was assigned to another route & we were given The Driver From Hell. TDFH was superbly incompetent, rude, early some days & late other days, etc. I started with the field sales rep & tried to get rid of TDFH but to no good. Moved up the chain until I had a sit down meeting with the route owner & the station manager. The route owner blamed all our problems on my shipping manager & took zero responsibility. I switched to UPS within the hour & never looked back.

UPS is far from perfect but FedEx doesn't even come close.

 

[HighlanderNorth]

Well, its another day, its now almost 2pm, and yet the tracking info for my package still says it was sent from the Atlanta Ga sorting facility on Monday, 2 days ago, with delivery expected 2 days ago, but since then its disappeared........

 

[precisionworks]

I had one eBay shipment like that. Went from Northern Illinois to San Francisco, Dallas, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, etc. but eventually got delivered. Had enough flight miles to qualify for two round trip airline tickets. Cannot for the life of me understand how USPS isn't making money

OTOH sometimes a package arrives & they email to tell me it has arrived ... and repeat the same email daily for the next week.

 

[ElectronGuru]

=Cannot for the life of me understand how USPS isn't making money

As part of the license to fly, airlines agree to fill extra space in their holds with postal material. With no dedicated aircraft fleet to pay for, extra trips cost nothing but time. The plus is efficiency (even 1st class goes 2 day when there's room), the downside is lack of control and tracking.

OTOH, if you're talking about their current financial problems, that is mostly artificial:

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?261453-USPS-Price-increases!&p=4607992#post4607992

 

[HighlanderNorth]

Well, my package finally reared its head today! Not where it was supposed to be delivered though..... I fortunately went to the trouble of not only filing a lost mail trace with the main USPS office, but I also called the sorting office in Atlanta where it was last seen, the local post office in Smyrna Ga where it was supposed to be delivered to the final address from, and then I also went to my local post office yesterday and talked with a lady there.

Turns out, going to my local post office was the saving grace! This lady went to the trouble today of tracking it over their website at about 12:49pm today, and she noticed that it had been scanned at the Smyrna Ga post office at 12:32pm, but it was about to be sent to the lost mail center somewhere, and she called me and told me to call the Smyrna PO and tell them NOT to send it to the lost mail center. So I called, and the guy at first told me that they scan these packages right when they are being loaded onto the truck, then the truck leaves. So he said the truck was probably gone, as it had now been about 25 minutes since the scan.

But he decided to go out to the lot, and conveniently for me, the driver of that truck had only made it as far as the end of their lot, and decided to park the truck and run across the street to a fast food place! So the guy I had talked to ran him down and went through his truck, found the package, and discovered that somehow when being shipped from place to place, someone must have dragged a larger, heavier package over my package, which ripped the shipping label right off my package, so they had no idea who it belonged to, where it was going, or who mailed it!

So I gave him the correct address there in Smyrna to ship it to, and my return address, and he said it'll arrive there tomorrow..... Finally!

 

[Bigpal]

My mail carriers are incompetent, to say the least. At least twice a week my neighbors bring me mail. And I am currently tangling with them about international delivery attempts.

They're too lazy to knock for registered mail, so they drop a 'missed you' note. All while I'm right on the other side of the door. Then, I'm chasing it down at the Post Office or with the carrier, because they usually still have it on their truck. Hey Mail Carrier, do your job.

I've never had one permanently lost, but have had several lengthy delays like you're mentioning. They shouldn't be around too much longer anyway; the service is a pretty clear sign of that.

 

[HighlanderNorth]

My mail carriers are incompetent, to say the least. At least twice a week my neighbors bring me mail. And I am currently tangling with them about international delivery attempts.

They're too lazy to knock for registered mail, so they drop a 'missed you' note. All while I'm right on the other side of the door. Then, I'm chasing it down at the Post Office or with the carrier, because they usually still have it on their truck. Hey Mail Carrier, do your job.

I've never had one permanently lost, but have had several lengthy delays like you're mentioning. They shouldn't be around to much longer anyway; the service is a pretty clear sign of that.

The package that prompted this thread was finally delivered last friday, but wouldnt you know it, the very next package I was waiting on, which will contain 2 Redilast batteries to make up for the 3 batteries I used in my Thrunite TN30, was suposed to be delivered today, as on the USPS tracking site it said it had left my local post office this morning and was "out for delivery", but when I got home at 5:30 and went to the mail box, it wasnt there!

It still says "out for delivery today", and they didnt deliver it! I guarantee you the driver forgot to look and see if there was a package he was supposed to deliver here. He just went through his mail tray, and didnt bother looking beside him for the package..... He's an *** too!

Edit: Now that I go and look on the tracking site at USPS, it says it was delivered at 5:13 pm. Thats complete BS! I was out there at about 5:40, and there wasnt anything aside from a large letter for my roomate and some advertisements. Nothing on the porch either. But..... My roomate had a guest at about 5:20, who she found off craigslist who was buying something from her, and if it truly was delivered, then then that girl might have swiped it! No other neighbors on our cul de sac were home from work yet, so.....

I gotta wait til tomorrow and call and see whats up at USPS, cause thats twice in 7 days that USPS has screwed up a package! They are 0 for 2 now in the last week!

 

[stoli67]

USPS is notoriously slow getting packages to Australia ...

Fedex is way faster

 

[Slazmo]

Australia Post - last month alone lost two letters that I sent and this month has lost a returned eBay purchase I sent... Fantastic work Aust Post!

 

[Empath]

The Carrier Rants thread in the MarketPlace Jeers forum is specifically intended to absorb the large number of potential threads likely, due to such concerns as these. Since this thread would constitute an additional thread of the same nature, please continue your concerns there. This thread is closed.