General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe USPS is a big joke...
Expected delivery date: February 27, 2015.
On Saturday the 28th, the tracking information shows it in limbo between Charlotte, NC and the final destination.
Now the long wait for Monday begins.
UPS or FedEx would have said the 27th and delivered it on the 26th hours before the independent contractor made it down my street to deliver the regular mail. I know this because the two parts that complemented the one still held hostage by the incompetence of the USPS arrived earlier this week; in one case, two days ahead of scheduled.
From now on, I will not order from anyone who delivers via USPS. It's a relic, a monument to ineptitude, that has long overstayed its welcome.
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hollysmom
(5,946 posts)UPS - guess it is different in different areas -
Arcadiasix
(255 posts)Example last December my wife mailed out light bill out the 26th. I remember I put it in the box. It disappeared. Got a call for them we were past due and paid it with a credit card. I set automatic payment that way from now on. I now hand all my bills this way. This wasn't the first time important letters I've sent have just vanished.
ret5hd
(22,502 posts)I send out hundreds of packages a month. Sometimes 100. Sometimes 300. Today, over 20. And this doesn't include the packages/envelopes/flyers I receive. All 50 states. All territories. More than just occasionally it is foreign: Croatia. Spain. England. Australia. Japan. etc etc etc.
Less than 1% of my outgoing packages have a problem. Day in day out almost absolute perfection.
When I am making a label to send a package, the software notifies me if the address is "undeliverable" (assuming it is domestic mail). I call the people, explain, and usually it is a mistyped zip code, etc.
Your "tons" are a bunch of s***.
Just sayin'.
Stellar
(5,644 posts)I remember complaining to the post office about a package that I didn't receive only to discover that he had left it at my back door. And that was the only problem that I recall ever having a problem with them, if you want to call That a problem. S/he talking small change B.S.
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)I agree wholeheartedly.
Just sayin'. 
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)different competencies just like in business. I was gettng my neighbor's mail and they were getting mine - just called the post office and got a new delivery guy, Of course our route is competed for because although there are a lot of stairs, it is an extremely safe neighborhood with little road traffic, there have two passion deaths killing SO's and one charge of murder because a kid on a skate board accidentally hit an old man who fell down ad died (I think that was over kill) in 30 years.
I've got mail from my neighbors and they've got mine. I'm using USPS as little as possible.
uppityperson
(116,020 posts)Arcadiasix
(255 posts)USPS Sucks!!!
Oh and that is not my next door neighbor but five or six housed down. Every few months someone knocks on my door from down the street with mail for me.
brush
(61,033 posts)arcane1
(38,613 posts)Nice try though! 
Hekate
(100,133 posts)Mostly I just circle the address and name and put it back in my own mailbox. My husband likes to hand-deliver -- it's so tough to see him, envelope in hand, step outside our door with this terrible burden... >sigh<
Half-Century Man
(5,279 posts)In receiving mail for the last 50+years, I had almost no problems that weren't caused by bad handwriting or smeared labels.
MADem
(135,425 posts)I just stick it in the outgoing box on the door with a post-it note on it.
Makes me wonder if anyone gets my mail on occasion...not that I get much mail these days.
ret5hd
(22,502 posts)1) Get your handlers to give you remedial classes in shit stirring/obfuscation.
2) Re-register under another username.
3) try again.
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)I agree what the post office does is way cheaper than the crap from Fed Ex - they claim they delived a package to me and I never received it - I was home that day (I am home most days) there was no package.
Right now it is a three way disagreement between the store, Fed Ex and me. Hate fed ex.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)surprise.
eridani
(51,907 posts)Since the last episode, I always deposit outgoing mail directly in an official box, and have my mail held even if I'm going to be gone for only a couple of days.
brush
(61,033 posts)Last edited Sun Mar 1, 2015, 09:13 AM - Edit history (3)
Wonder if the OP is part of the repugs plan to get rid of the Post Office and give all that business to FEDEX and UPS — like they have the capability to deliver to every address in the country every day like the Post Office.
Just think if the repugs and their paid trolls manage to get rid of the Post Office we'll all be schlepping to some centralized mail pick up depot instead of our mailboxes to cough up five bucks or more for a letter. I'm really looking forward to that. 
The repugs must have launched a new campaign to discredit the Post Office.
Don't fall for it DU.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)I live in a downtown area so all of the problems I see see related to the nonunion UPS and FedEx. I receive about fifty package a week, and it is always the nonuninon grups that scrw us over on puprose. The hate us That ios why di]they do such a oad boje.n That is they way of their kind.
randys1
(16,286 posts)
pinto
(106,886 posts)
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)I have never had issues with UPS or USPS. FedEx is so bad (IMO) that I won't order from anyone who ships that way, so long as I can avoid it.
I just had USPS deliver to me Tuesday, right on time. Maybe where you/we live is a factor. I honestly don't know why but no issues with USPS here.
Agschmid
(28,749 posts)
REPUguy
(96 posts)Most deliveries that show UPS or Fedex as the one that will be making the delivery turn out being delivered by the USPS, for me any way.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)Both use the USPS for packages.
Especially in rural areas.
I've not had problems with any of these carriers.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)for all package shipping and the USPS for 'letters for my business.' I have NEVER received a FEDEX or UPS package through USPS. Also, almost no problems with any of them.. Only thing I do not like about USPS is their tracking system.
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)They constantly cannot find me or "invalid address", or else I get an email saying,"the business was closed" and it is a residence and not a business. UPS and the USPS have no problem at all finding me and I get excellent service from them. Must be regional?
pangaia
(24,324 posts)That can happen with their software, or any software of that type. My business address is something like 234-F Main St. That doesn't exist in ANY software.
I have had it happen a couple times with USPS as well.. invalid address and they will not mail it..
Please press 1 for lost credit card, press 2 for questions about your balance, press 3 for questions about your line of credit, press 4 if you don't know who you are, press 5 if you think our service sucks, press 6 instead of slamming the phone down..... I'm sorry that is an incorrect response...please press 1 if.....
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)that weather had a lot to do with delays. Otherwise, the USPS has always delivered my packages on time or early.
wyldwolf
(43,891 posts)NO late deliveries. NO lost deliveries.
My brother sent my birth certificate to me via Fed Ex last years. It was lost for two days.
MFrohike
(1,980 posts)Though I wonder how great Fed Ex and UPS can be when much of what they do relies on USPS' logistical backbone. One wonders how they can do it faster by using the Post Office's system.
SDjack
(1,448 posts)olddots
(10,237 posts)maybe we can agree ro disagree .
Zorra
(27,670 posts)I love my little post office, and the people who work there.
Shrike47
(6,913 posts)
rickford66
(6,065 posts)I get UPS and FedEx deliveries also, but they don't stop by every day to see if I have any out going mail. And as others here have said, the USPS also delivers a some of my UPS and FedEx packages.
rufus dog
(8,419 posts)I had no idea you posted on DU.
Sancho
(9,205 posts)I've had just as many problems with Fed Ex. Mother Nature is not cooperating with anyone.
raging moderate
(4,624 posts)My package was mailed on Thursday 9/26 at 4:50 pm in Plano IL, and it was delivered today, on Saturday 9/28 at 8:35 am in Oceanside CA. THANKS, USPS!
They sent a package to me Thursday morning, via UPS. It's not here yet!
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Or try shipping something overseas at decent rates compared to Post Office.
Lancero
(3,276 posts)Republicans seeking to kill off the USPS in their push to privatize public services.
You sure you're at the right forum?
CurtEastPoint
(20,025 posts)Lydia Leftcoast
(48,223 posts)and a typical right-wing approach: "I had a bad experience, so it ought to be banned."
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Right wing terms and approach.
2naSalit
(102,804 posts)
City Lights
(25,830 posts)
prairierose
(2,147 posts)do these people think we won't recognize the language?
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)Can you image having to rely on "Staples" to send or receive your daily mail?
Pooka Fey
(3,496 posts)HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)because I think a sample of n=1 is really pretty inadequate to argue the validity for terminating the USPS
djean111
(14,255 posts)buyers all happy. If a buyer wanted me to ship via something else - I would do so, but of course charge them more.
Hope your avowed refusal to not order from those who use USPS does not wreck the economy! All this from one package!
Sometimes shit happens, you know, could be weather.
"It's a relic, a monument to ineptitude, that has long overstayed its welcome." - um, no, not really. But this can be applied to Boehner and many of the GOP members of Congress!
gerogie2
(450 posts)They do a very good job and 95% of my items arrive on time and maybe .2% have been lost or misdelivered. I have also used Fedex and UPS and they have the same problems. Weather, accidents and unavoidable delays are a fact of life for any mail or delivery service.
Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)Hmmm....something sure has.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)None too smart either.
NutmegYankee
(16,478 posts)You meant to say "Fedex".
sadoldgirl
(3,431 posts)friendly Congress, which forced the Post office to cut back
tremendously due to its financial obligation put in force
by our lovely Repugs.
Those are waiting for reactions like yours, so that they
can force the USPS to get rid of the union.
They should not be able to get rid of the Post Office
totally, since it is the only enterprise fixed in our
Constitution, but they will try to help the private
companies to make the USPS look bad.
Logical
(22,457 posts)Demit
(11,238 posts)I think we should mark the OP as misdelivered and ship it back to where it came from.
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)send them back via UPS or FEDEX.
No telling where they would wind up.
ScreamingMeemie
(68,918 posts)My son's birthday present from his grandmother was delivered to the wrong house, my brother's Christmas gifts never arrived, and never ending battles when trying to get USPS to right the wrongs. I'm glad other people have great service, but that's not the case in my neighborhood.
SickOfTheOnePct
(8,710 posts)USPS where I live is awful...fine every place else I've lived, but sucks here. When I have something that has to be delivered on time, I use FedEx.
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)since FedEx uses the USPS to get things there on time.
If you don't mind paying a middle man for the service who am I to disagree.
SickOfTheOnePct
(8,710 posts)They rely on USPS for deliveries to some rural areas, so thank you, but no, I'm not paying a middleman for the service.
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)I live in the very urban Dallas, Texas. I have never seen a FedEx truck on my street. I occasionally see an UPS delivery.
If you bothered to ever compare prices for services, you might see how you are being screwed.
Like it or not, you are paying the middleman.
Have you ever thought, why private industry is so eager to get a piece of the USPS?
The USPS, the only industry guaranteed by our constitution.
For somebody so "SickOfTheOnePct" you curiously are advocating for them.
SickOfTheOnePct
(8,710 posts)I'm not advocating getting rid of the USPS, I just don't use them for anything that has to be delivered by a date certain; I've found FedEx to be more reliable in that situation, so I use them for that.
I'm not getting screwed when I get the service I pay for - that wasn't happening for *me* with USPS when it came to guaranteed delivery - YMMV.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)I've had problems with exactly 4 items. One of those was being shipped back from Scotland, so I'm not sure where the damage occurred, really. As to the other 3, they were all problems with liquid contents that somehow managed to escape their packaging. One was in a really tough plastic jug, that I would have thought would have taken a lot of work to puncture, and the other two contained glass jars wrapped in padding that apparently was insufficient to stand up to whatever sort of forces were applied to the boxes.
But I've sent lots of items in jars over the years, and the vast majority made it through just fine.
I would say the USPS is an example of one of the most functional parts of government, and I only wish the rest of the government ran as well as the post office does.
rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)going to a post office is a nightmare, USPS staff are rude as shit to customers, and I get misdelivered mail every single day.
So all you people who think public servants can do no wrong are mistaken for a value of location = America's busiest city.
I avoid the PO like the plague and FedEx has never, ever let me down - and I ship a lot.
I realize the USPS is being drowned in a bathtub by the GOP. But it is also a complacent, stagnant, nightmare federal bureaucracy and the right is not completely wrong that it is bloated relative to its mission in the era of email.
I've been yelled and cursed at for no apparent reason twice by post office employees at my closest local PO. They seemed like they were always mad to see customer waiting (and waiting, and waiting) in line.
When they closed that branch I neither noticed nor cared. In the city their business model is both very profitable (hence competition) and becoming obsolete.
In rural areas it is different in my experience, but I live in a city. And I have little remaining sympathy for the hardened attitudes and incompetence of the USPS employees I have had to deal with.
Email. It's 2015.
Depaysement
(1,835 posts)USPS is horrible in NYC, worst in the boroughs, less well off communities.
The rural areas in the US get a disproportionate amount of the money for operations, we have most of the people and the business and get less service. That makes working there a nightmare.
sendero
(28,552 posts)... and I get a lot of stuff by mail. Overall, I don't find UPS, FedEx or USPS to be very different. Most of them deliver when they say they will most of the time.
DrDan
(20,411 posts)yep - something to be proud of.
door-to-door service for 49 cents - quite a bargain.
They shall continue to get my business.
But . . . there is always someone disgruntled . . .
geomon666
(7,519 posts)The quality of their service is light years ahead of UPS (How much can Brown damage your package) and LostEx.
donco
(1,548 posts)especially in the winter.When you look at the volume of packages that the USPS handles they do a damn good job. 
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)I've had zero problems with their deliveries.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)all the shippers.
quaker bill
(8,264 posts)UPS usually delivers them next door or loses them entirely.
It is USPS for me.
NightWatcher
(39,376 posts)Sorry new dude, we like the USPS here.
Go back to CorporationHuggersUnderground if you like.
We've all had a bumpy delivery here or there, but overall the USPS is solid.
MADem
(135,425 posts)They do mess up occasionally, but that's because they don't have the money to do it right.
I'd like to see them bring back the old Post Office Savings Accounts. They could be a banking service for people who can't afford the usurious costs of American banks, and who don't have access to a credit union.
Post offices could and should have a central role in society, but they need to be properly funded and given a bit of encouragement.
For the second time I agree with you.
MADem
(135,425 posts)People like to paint me in ways that I'm not. Not sure why that is, but I don't/can't worry about it.
I'm a product of the national defense environment over many, many decades, but I am also a Democrat and I dislike wars of choice and I like social safety nets. I like public services like post offices, and transportation networks, that are efficient and affordable. I do think the internet is a utility and I hope that decision holds. I favor a livable minimum wage--some people think that 25 dollars an hour should be the standard, but I don't think that will happen because the corporate/GOP cheapskates will gouge out their eyes and scream bloody murder. That said, if we can get fifteen for starters, that would be a good beginning, and we can push on from there. I like public schools--I think there ought to be more money put into them, public money, and get these profiteering private corporation/test-assholes out of there. Teachers should be paid a decent wage. Free community college is a good idea--if not free, very, very cheap. And why not forgive or at least reduce loans in exchange for salaried national community service in areas where there's extreme need? I'd love to see universal health care, but I don't think that's realistic for at least a decade, yet--and maybe longer. The sooner VT can fire up a "test environment" (rather like MA did for Obamacare) and run their program through its paces, the better.
I think elder services in many parts of this country are a fucking disgrace. Old people shouldn't have to survive on cat food and crackers in a cold house. I also think that "bank deserts" and "food deserts" in underserved, disadvantaged urban environments are a huge impediment for people who live in these places, and they need to be addressed.
I don't mind incremental approaches to societal problems if that's all we're gonna get/win...I do think half a loaf is better than none! Some people get mad at me because I won't take my ball and go home if all demands aren't met. I just don't think that's a winning strategy in many cases. Take what you can get and push on for the next piece, I say. I've fought and won many battles that way (metaphorically speaking, mind you--I'm no Audie Murphy).
I like putting people first. I think nice is better than mean, and "the children are our future" (really--they'll be feeding us our oatmeal one day, and helping us find our teeth...).
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)No, in this very thread. I disagree with you.
Mostly I think you are abrasive and self serving.
"I like putting people first. I think nice is better than mean".
Your posts show the opposite. My kids and grandchildren like to point to your posts among others to show how the Democratic Party doesn't give a damn about them and their future.
My grandson, who is a petty officer in the Navy (Bluetails) thinks you should get a clue.
For your information, I work in the Home Healthcare Industry. Few workers are qualified or give a damn. What can you expect with no rights, lousy pay and no respect. I do it by personal request from an old friend. When he is dead, I'm done. I have screwed my own retirement by helping a friend in need.
Whose opinion should I care about?
No MADem, there is little we agree on. A statement here and there is all.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Abrasive and self-serving? Good grief, there's nothing I want, not sure what you think I want to "serve" myself, there...I'm retired and I live simply. My days are spent reading shit on the internet and helping my neighbors. I don't back down from an argument--if that's "abrasive" to you, you need one of those tough internet thick skins, there, sport. I hope you got something out of giving me what-for, there--I get the sense you wanted to tell someone off, might as well be me!
I think home healthcare workers deserve better pay too--but I guess you will disagree with that, as well...? I suppose if I say it, it's 'baaad?' OK, whatever.
Never heard the term "Bluetails" (I know you can't possibly mean Blue Tail as associated with the old A-4), or maybe these guys (?) but I've been out of uniform for a while, now. It's an expression that is news to me.
If you dislike me so much, and apparently you do-- there's a way to avoid me--it's called IGNORE. I won't mind if you put me out of your field of view--certainly don't see any reason for my posts to upset you--and that's one way to calm your obvious agita.
Have a nice life!
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)VAW-121 E2c and E2d Hawkeyes. The prop planes that gather the information and logistics so vital to our military. The fucking backbone of every aircraft carrier in our Navy.
I don't hate you. I just wish you would take a little time to see how some of us live.
You come off with such a superior attitude. Like we are all to blame for our circumstances.
I may avoid but I will never put on ignore any poster. Hence our exchange.
MADem
(135,425 posts)They aren't "the fucking backbone" but they are a key part of an integrated carrier defensive capability. Everyone on the vessel plays a key role--even the guy making the cinnamon rolls for breakfast. No small jobs, only small people, and all that.
You may say you don't hate me, but your words are pretty hateful, I gotta say. Vitriolic. Not sure what you were hoping to achieve when you fired for effect like that. You have a right to your opinion, but I'm sure you won't be surprised when I say I don't agree with your point of view.
I've never said anything rude or nasty to you--I don't even know who you are! Yet you come at me with a rant about how your whole family hates me...? OK, whatever. I think maybe you should think about not taking this internet thing quite so seriously.
Did you have a different user name previously, or something?
I don't know where you get all this "superior attitude...we are all to blame" foolishness. I spend a good part of my time volunteering in places where a lot of keyboard activists wouldn't go. I put my money (what I have, anyway, I'm not rich) --and my time--where my mouth is. As I said, I live simply (and I've lived even more simply in my hardscrabble youth--so I have a feeling I know how most people live, from poor to rich and in-between), I do what I can to help people out, I keep my carbon footprint low, and even recycle aggressively! But hey, haters gonna hate, dislikers gonna dislike--can't please everyone, gotta please yourself!
Some travelling music...
"'I've never said anything rude or nasty to you--I don't even know who you are! Yet you come at me with a rant about how your whole family hates me...? OK, whatever. I think maybe you should think about not taking this internet thing quite so seriously."
1 - Yes you have been very rude and nasty to me. I do not give a damn.
2 - My family could care less about you. We save our hate for those that can directly harm us.
3 - I think you may be the one taking the internet too seriously.
4 - Ask the Navy what they will give up. It will never be the communications and logistics system.
5 - I have never posted on DU under any other name.
6 - I recycle anything I can't compost.
7 - What the hell does Rick Nelson's Garden Party have to do with this conversation?
Maybe you just liked it. I happen to like it too. Thanks for posting it.
7 -
MADem
(135,425 posts)
That's a key lyric in the tune.
You keep saying how "mean" I've been to you...and I still don't even know you. Things that make me go hmmmmmmm.
And you think I take this internet too seriously?
I never said that the Navy would give up any systems--so why even bring that strawman up? I said there are no unimportant jobs in the Navy, or in any other service, for that matter.
No servicemember worth his or her salt thinks he or she is so important that they can't be replaced or that their job is "the" element that makes the mission successful. It's a team effort. Everyone on the ship contributes to the mission--everyone. Even the guy who makes the cinnamon rolls.
Have a nice day, now...
MFM008
(20,042 posts)If they DONT like it, I DO like it.
misterhighwasted
(9,148 posts)They would like to privatize the entire US Government.
For profit & control, of course.
Puglover
(16,380 posts)Maybe next time you might try subtle.
madokie
(51,076 posts)if at all possible I use the USPS and am really happy with them. Bring my mail, packages to my mail box 6 days a week and always between the hours of 9am to 11am. I can count on them
I'd say that anything can happen and you've been misfortunate to be the one it happened to this time.
B Calm
(28,762 posts)of our country. USPS also supplies many Americans working with them with well paid union jobs. Could it be the union jobs thing why you hate the USPS?
AtomicKitten
(46,585 posts)... delivering holiday packages this past Xmas.
So there. 
Chipper Chat
(10,870 posts)The only problem I've had in the past 3 years is a box that took 33 days to get from Indianapolis to New York (it was misdirected to North Carolina 3 times) - probably a bug got squashed on the tracking code). I love the post office.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)Where they sent her package that was supposed to go to Austria to Australia instead. Took quite a while to get it back and to the intended recipient.
eridani
(51,907 posts)Logical
(22,457 posts)Chipper Chat
(10,870 posts)I do not recommend the poster. Only the overwhelming support for the USPS.
elleng
(141,926 posts)which is usually on time, and often unexpectedly quick for me.
giftedgirl77
(4,713 posts)efficient & a hell of a lot cheaper than UPS & Fed Ex. Not to mention if I have to send something to a military base overseas I can still use priority mail at the rate it would cost me to ship it in the states.
So please kindly take your bullshit talking points elsewhere.
Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)Agschmid
(28,749 posts)66 dmhlt
(1,941 posts)hatrack
(64,890 posts)DOWN with the USPS! To the gallows!!!
B Calm
(28,762 posts)you should have been more careful.
Snotcicles
(9,089 posts)that person surely was a troll.
Warpy
(114,616 posts)you can expect a longer delay than that. The southwest finally got clobbered by snow with more coming tonight and they've closed the Interstates, especially in the high passes.
Even UPS and Fed Ex can't do a thing about the weather and closed interstates and grounded aircraft.
However, your hostility to the constitutionally mandated Federal postal service is noted.
B Calm
(28,762 posts)FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)We know this republicans name now and will be watching his idiotic comments.
This way we can take bets on how long he lasts.
B Calm
(28,762 posts)another right wing post. The jury screwed up on this one!
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)But I'll be watching for this fool again.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)B Calm
(28,762 posts)arcane1
(38,613 posts)I like hiding republican talking points, but sometimes I like seeing them shot down in spectacular fashion. This thread is definitely the latter 
Hekate
(100,133 posts)dgibby
(9,474 posts)
Vinca
(53,994 posts)As an ebay seller I've shipped tens of thousands of packages and had only a handful of problems. Earlier this week I had a very fragile item make it from the east coast to the west coast in 2 days. For about $60 I sent a painting to freaking Morocco and it arrived in perfect condition in about 10 days. On the other hand, I purchased a rather expensive watercolor from an artist in Great Britain and it arrived via private carrier with a big crease in the packaging. The damage was eventually hidden by framing, but I'm no fan of private contractors for shipping.
daredtowork
(3,732 posts)I think we need to shore it up instead.
Possible ways to make USPS CENTRAL to our way of life again:
1) USPS banking. No more extortionate fees for paycheck cashing.
2) USPS to run basic telecommunications. AT&T is always threatening to get out of the landline business. I say we let them! We need to put at least one means of national telecommunications in the public hands. By putting the landline infrastructure in the hands of the USPS we could create a "public option" for both phone service AND DSL to maintain competive prices in both phone and Internet service! We could fully subsidize "lifeline" phone service for the poor instead of that wacky discount service we have going now. ("discounts" for people who have no income? Sense it makes not.). Telecommunications services are a natural partner for mail services. In Europe post offices maintain phone services. I believe post offices used to host telegraph services at the turn of the century.
3) Post offices could co-locate with other public services that travelers need like currency exchange, visitor information centers, hostel reservations, etc.
Over the years our sense of public institutions and public service centers have almost totally collapsed. The post office, like the public library, could play a role in rebuilding local civic spirit by re-asserting itself as a vital public space.
Rybak187
(105 posts)arcane1
(38,613 posts)daredtowork
(3,732 posts)Maybe if I have time tomorrow, I'll repost as an OP then. Your wish is my command. 
Hekate
(100,133 posts) daredtowork
(3,732 posts)Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)Then the line will be even longer everytime I go there.
chowder66
(12,246 posts)The UPS guy never knocks on the door and just leaves the packages outside for anyone to take.
USPS does not. They always knock.
UPS did not or could not update their tracking on their site for 3 days. One package was on schedule and the other one which was shipped from the same company on the same day and tracking with the first package until it somehow got split up.
So one package was on schedule but no updates on the tracker and the other package was delayed due to bad weather, again with no updates on the tracker until a day past the original delivery date.
I got the on schedule on a day late and am still waiting for the other one.
And honestly, I'm not that dissatisfied with UPS because of the weather. It's fully understandable, but I would like UPS to do something about the tracker and the guy leaving stuff without even a knock on the door but my complaints have had no effect.
I used to like both the same but not so much anymore.
Peacetrain
(24,288 posts)I have never ever had a problem with USPS... but UPS and FedEX( FedEX what that rip off that was.. holy cow) have lost my shipments.. granted they paid for them.. but 2 months later and the presents were past the birthdays..
And that was the LAST time I shipped anything other than USPS.
panader0
(25,816 posts)
Xipe Totec
(44,558 posts)I hope they can overcome the loss of such a fine customer.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)over UPS any day.
At least they deliver before dark, where as UPS decides it's okay to come tramping across people's yards in the absolute dark at 8:00pm and then wonder why the dog cuts up and people think their home is being broken into.
I had a delivery at 10pm once. Who delivers packages that late at night?
guillaumeb
(42,649 posts)The USPS has closed 86 processing plants in the past few years. Whenever a processing plant closes the service slows down.
Why did the plants close down, you ask? Because in 2006 a GOP Congress passed the Postal Enhancement and Accountability Act
(Link here)http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/28/330524/postal-non-crisis-post-office-save-itself/
Basically the USPS was mandated to prepay for 75 years of retiree health care benefits in a 10 year period. This mandate of nearly 4.7 billion dollars a year is unique to the USPS. After the law passed and was signed by George Bush, the USPS went from making a profit to running a deficit. The law was a poison pill to kill the USPS.
As to your particular situation, without seeing your tracking info I cannot say why it took as long as it did, but UPS and Fed-Ex both are increasingly relying on the USPS to deliver their packages for the "last mile" portion of delivery service. They know that the USPS is more efficient at residential delivery. But with the largest Federal workforce, unionized by the way, and the largest fleet of trucks, biggest distribution network and most facilities the USPS is uniquely positioned to compete.
The USPS is regularly rated #1 in the world over all private and semi-private postal services.
You are entitled to your opinion, but facts trump opinion.
From a recently retired USPS employee/ Union Officer with 37 years of service.
B Calm
(28,762 posts)pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)
Kali
(56,829 posts)
guillaumeb
(42,649 posts)because the show of support for the USPS is overwhelming. I welcome any opportunity to defend the USPS because I worked for it and
it is a great example of how socialized governmental services are actually more efficient than the private sector. It could also work for healthcare.
guillaumeb
(42,649 posts)what is the MFM lounge?
Kali
(56,829 posts)and he made a name for himself here on DU and by extension a lot of on-line friends as well. He died last year and for 24 hours the admins changed the name of the DU Lounge to the MFM Lounge. It was a special tribute to a special man.
I put that in my sig line last month for the anniversary and haven't thought of changing it yet.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018556192
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018551379
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)idiot.
guillaumeb
(42,649 posts)nice to see all the support for the USPS here
freshwest
(53,661 posts)And we aren't shy about telling every single postal worker we support them!
But during last year's government shutdown, a troll came in as we were waiting in line to taunt them. He yelled about how nice it was 'getting paid vacations when not working.' Which is a lie.
He wasn't there to do business. He was just there to gloat over their victory. Everyone just stared at him, but the postal workers had to look like nothing was wrong. I could see they felt beseiged, like all public workers.
Thanks for being part of one the best public services in the country. You have earned that retirement and from your other posts, you believe in 'paying it forward' for others in the world.
We all should 'pay it forward' for what we've worked on, who we've worked for and for what we've been given.
I ALWAYS make sure my deliveries come from the USPS, if at all possible. They get the job done when no one else can.
But this is the thanks they get from some, but then the Koch Libertarian party declared war on the USPS in 1980. Some people don't realize who they're really sucking up to when they disparage public workers.
locks
(2,012 posts)and have lived in many different places in the US. I can count on one hand the problems I've had with the US mail. That includes literally thousands of packages on top of the 6 day a wk delivery. God help us if it's privatized like the prisons.
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)For the price, service, and way they treat their employees, I'll go with the USPO any day against privatization of these services.
I'm sure there are a lot of people who will agree, but some people who peddle a lot of crap on privatization.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)but, you are entitled to your opinion.
That said you will be surprised by the increasing number of UPS & FedEx shipments that also include the use of the USPS for the final leg. I have had trouble with all three services over the years, because they include human beings and sometimes things just get mucked up.
valerief
(53,235 posts)It's been a horrendous winter.
Of course, your complaining sounds very talking pointy, so you'll be added to my Ignore list.
edhopper
(37,370 posts)that one way to spot a Troll is when someone drops a shit-bomb of a thread and then never replies when people call him on it.
Or so I've heard.
CanonRay
(16,171 posts)I get much better service from the USPS that either UPS or FedEx, especially the latter. All of them are subject to weather delays, especially this year.
shenmue
(38,598 posts)and the private companies can charge whatever they want. I'm sure they'll be good.
katmondoo
(6,524 posts)I send and receive many items from our Post Office with NO problems Sounds like a real Republican, they want to get rid of everything that makes America great.
Skittles
(171,717 posts)I love the US post office, have used them for DECADES with NO PROBLEMS
one issue for you does NOT "A BIG JOKE" make, but I suspect I know what your REAL issue is
SalviaBlue
(3,109 posts)I do not.
Welcome to DU. Enjoy your stay.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)You didn't fill out your name completely.
I did it for you.
steve2470
(37,481 posts)Any entity can make the occasional screwup. USPS has always done me right, for a good price.
I've had problems with Fedex. So far I've had no problems with UPS, knock on wood.
Strelnikov_
(8,170 posts)Only shipping outfit I have had consistent problems with.
steve2470
(37,481 posts)
jmowreader
(53,194 posts)I ordered the item on a Saturday from Georgia. On Monday they came to work and processed the order. On Monday night, FedEx stated their delivery date would be the following Friday.
On Thursday, FedEx changed the "expected delivery date" to Saturday.
When I order things to be delivered USPS, they arrive when they're supposed to, most of the time.
I don't think you can call it "incompetence." The reality is, you can't miracle packages from one place to another and it's foolish to expect them to.
Kali
(56,829 posts)yay! 
they all screw up, but I prefer the USPS because for me, as a rural citizen I know I can get my mail from the local Post Office any time I get there. I don't have to meet a driver, or worry about a box sitting out in the elements where anybody can take it, or setting up pick up for something I want to send.
the local drivers of the corporate services are good guys and they go out of their way for me sometimes but I still prefer the Post Office.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)
bob4460
(391 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)I still haven't got a package that UPS said delivery date was the 25th. Then tracking said weather caused rescheduling.
mountain grammy
(29,035 posts)that was some 62 years ago. Only the post office then. In 62 years, I've had one payment that didn't get to the payee and one letter that never made it to me. I never lost a package either way. I pretty sure most people can say the same. For the volume it handles the US Postal Service is excellent and the cost is small compared to UPS or FedEx.
It's conservative to bash the post office, you know, all those good paying union jobs.
MADem
(135,425 posts)A package I needed to sign for was supposed to arrive yesterday. The postman pushed one of those pink slips through the door, pre-filled out, without even ringing the door bell. I was TEN FEET from the damn door.
Now I have to go get it on Monday, or wait until Tuesday.
I called to gripe, and got "Oh, well." They need to do better.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)SickOfTheOnePct
(8,710 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)malokvale77
(4,879 posts)Maybe you were in the midst of a big shit and didn't hear the bell.
Have you thought about soliciting Congress to undo the stupid rule they have strapped the USPS with?
MADem
(135,425 posts)I had "a" bad experience, and it was inconvenient.
I wasn't in the midst of a big shit, either--I was ten feet from the door and heard the mail come through the slot. I didn't leap up to check it straight away, woe is me, otherwise I would have caught the mail carrier before he got too far away.
My point is, the guy didn't even ring the bell. He might not have even bothered to bring the package.
TheCowsCameHome
(40,270 posts)anything large: no freakin' way, FedEx is the way to.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)So, no, it may not have been any faster.
TheCowsCameHome
(40,270 posts)n/t
bravenak
(34,648 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)Bad weather was the reason.
For me the USPS has been good to excellent.
Ino
(3,366 posts)but it's not on MY porch. Post office called my carrier. He said he didn't think he had mis-delivered it, but he'd doublecheck. Post office said they'd call me back as soon as they heard from him. I'm still waiting 
UPS gave it to the post office to deliver.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)I want to hand them an envelope, and whatever the current first class postage is, and say, "Now get this to West Bumfuck, Montana, or Scary Inner City, Illinois, or to someone who lives in a trailer miles from anyone else." Which is what the Post Office does every single day of the year. Well, okay, not on Sundays or Federal holidays, but still.
Oh, and what independent contractor delivers the regular mail?
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Personally, I think getting a birthday card delivered door-to-door cross-country in 3 days, for 45 cents, is pretty damn good service! UPS will NEVER match that!
pansypoo53219
(23,034 posts)there fast. BUT I AM AN ANAL WRAPPER. of course, i expect things going to texas to be slower. but that was parcel. + i do not ship week before xmas.
the GOP HAS HOBBLED the USPS.
tenderfoot
(8,982 posts)eom
City Lights
(25,830 posts)I love the USPS. None of them are perfect.
pnwmom
(110,261 posts)It used to be that UPS's strategy was to cherrypick the most profitable routes between major cities, which meant it cost a lot more for me to send a package to relatives in a rural area in Nevada than to NYC.
Now, the same large package from Seattle to San Francisco will cost twice as much via UPS as it does through the Post Office. (This happened to me at Christmas. I was shocked to have UPS quote a price of $150, so I drove a couple miles to the Post Office, where they charged $74 -- and the delivery date was the same.)
If you want to send a letter or package to anywhere in the country for the same cost, then the USPS is the way to go. If you only ever send mail to major cities, then UPS or Fedex might be a reasonable alternative. Or it might cost twice as much.
But hey, if you're made of money, then don't ever send packages through USPS.
wendylaroux
(2,925 posts)hope they are around forever.
spanone
(141,628 posts) 
Kingofalldems
(40,279 posts)flying rabbit
(4,970 posts)Try harder next time.
DiverDave
(5,245 posts)uses the post office to move packages?
One letter late is not an indictment of the whole system.
Unless, of course, you want to pay 5 bucks to send a letter when fedex takes over the USPS.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)and raise prices.
The PO is being milked for private gain already.
DiverDave
(5,245 posts)in fedex and ups pieces. I've seen it
stillwaiting
(3,795 posts)for my business.
You sound like a lot of the Republicans that I live around.
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)I have had far better service from USPS than from UPS or Fedex over the years. Sure, again, the plural of anecdote is not data, but I didn't start on OP to complain about the others.
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)Including packages I may have paid UPS or FedEx to deliver. The latter two (I don't know which as I was not home) delivered twice to me packages intended for my neighbors. Two different neighbors, and we all have our addresses clearly on our front doors!
So, I guess you can find complaints for anything....
still_one
(98,883 posts)Both ups and FedEx
Does that mean they are bad?
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)99Forever
(14,524 posts)... is that why UPS and Fedex BOTH use the USPS to subcontract their difficult deliveries to?
Enjoy your stay.
frazzled
(18,402 posts)If I have something to send I don't want delayed or lost, I take it to the good ole P.O. Most reliable thing out there.
stage left
(3,307 posts)It was pretty good size, a fry pan. I took it to the UPS store and they told me the price. Too much. So I took it out to the USPS. Four dollars less to mail the same thing at the post office. The only timeI've had a letter with a check disappear is when some thieves stole it out of the mailbox and washed it. They then changed the amount from $ 11 to $300 and cashed it. Fortunately I had a duplicate check with the original amount on it and my signature, which was vastly different from the forger's signature. However, as a result of that experience, I don't leave mail with checks in the mailbox. I take it to the UPS store where an employee of the USPS picks it up every day at 2PM.
hunter
(40,691 posts)
Omaha Steve
(109,234 posts)Agency Stretches to Handle Business From Express Couriers; Is the Price Right?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-mail-does-the-trick-for-fedex-ups-1407182247
By LAURA STEVENS
Updated Aug. 4, 2014 6:58 p.m. ET
98 COMMENTS
FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. increasingly are moving their own packages through the U.S. Postal Service, putting pressure on the quasigovernmental agency and raising questions about whether the USPS is charging enough for the service.
For FedEx alone, the post office delivers an average of 2.2 million packages a day, or about 30% of the express-mail company's total U.S. ground segment.
UPS won't specify how much of its shipments go through the post office, but a regulatory filing indicates those types of lightweight shipments accounted for 40%—or about 37 million packages—of its total increase in ground shipments in 2012.
The post office is lapping up the extra package-delivery business from its private-sector rivals because it badly needs growth. In the past decade, it has lost more than 30% of its most profitable product—first-class mail—to the Internet.
FULL story at link.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Omaha Steve
(109,234 posts)
Carolina
(6,960 posts)but can't say the same for the UPS.
My cousin and I had to send some important documents to each other on opposite sides of the continent over the Presidents' Day weekend (Monday, Feb 12th being the holiday). I mailed mine priority from the USPS on Friday morning and was promised a Tuesday delivery. Sure enough, my cousin got the original, legal papers (she already had facsimiles) on Tuesday, in time for court on Wednesday AM.
She, on the other hand used UPS also with a Tuesday delivery date for the documents she sent me. I received them on Thursday!
That's not the first time UPS didn't deliver as promised and paid for. My son has had problems with FedEx; so I'll stick with the US Postal Service for as long as it exists.
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)and think the USPS does a great job in spite of the very unfair rules Congress has forced upon them.
I'm sorry your privileged self is so butt-hurt.
LiberalAndProud
(12,799 posts)You're just wrong.
Response to DescendantOfMany (Original post)
riqster This message was self-deleted by its author.
MineralMan
(151,269 posts)Where are you? Where was the mail sent from? Maybe that has something to do with it. Ya think?
mnhtnbb
(33,349 posts)The Charlotte airport had a lot of delays, cancellations due to the storm that came through on the 25th-26th. I know, because
I got caught in the mess. I'm sure it put a wrench in the works for any packages coming through Charlotte as well--whether by plane or truck.
Why don't you go join Teabaggers Underground? I think you'll find a more sympathetic crowd for your complaints.
Drahthaardogs
(6,843 posts)I think I smell pizza too!
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Shut the door. 
We could also be like a developing nation with no postal service. Make lots of wingers happy. Have Fedex quadruple their prices.
Zambero
(9,990 posts)Cost-wise it beats the competition handily. And the packages I have sent and received in recent years all arrived safely and within a reasonable time frame. No organization is perfect, but some are closer to it than others.
matt819
(10,749 posts)I ship using ups, usps, and sometimes fedex. Maybe 1000 packages a year. I've had problems with all three for a host of reasons. To single one out fir invective for one incident is silly.
lpbk2713
(43,273 posts)Even in spite of the GOP trying to hobble them for decades.
They have been making rules and regs with the only object being to slow them
down and to bust the union but the USPS keeps on doing a great job.
xmas74
(30,058 posts)it arrived exactly when they said it would, two days later. OTOH, I received a package that was shipped via FedEx. It took two weeks to get it from one state over. No, it wasn't a delivery issue either, since | have a post office box. USPS allows use of their physical address for package deliveries. I also received a notice when it arrived-from USPS. I always receive a notice via text every time mail is delivered to my po box.
I love my post office.
android fan
(214 posts)I actualliy think USPS is excellent. Shipped a watch to New York from Denver. Arrived in two days. Tracked it down to the front desk, and got the buyer to release my money after I prompted him to leave a feedback.
I just took an unopened box over to UPS and got a $33 hit to return a headlight that cost me $44 to buy. I bet if I unpacked the damn thing and repackaged this thing and send it by USPS, it'd save me even more dollars by sending it back to California via USPS parcel post, and it would have saved me a bundle and I'd trust them to deliver within a few days.
ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)And I'm sure you do....
cwydro
(51,308 posts)I've never had problems with the USPS.
And I've been using it for over 50 years.
UPS and FedEx utilize the USPS regularly to deliver packages in rural areas. It's all intertwined.
Sorry you've had bad experiences.
salib
(2,116 posts)Enough of the right-wing, Willie Horton type, dog whistle BS. OK?
notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)I once had a mail person tell me that he delayed delivering checks to people he did not like on his route. Perhaps your mail person senses your hostility?
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)I've found that FedEx is ALWAYS a nightmare, that UPS drivers stick a "sorry we missed you" sticker on my door without knocking about half of the time, and that USPS consistently gets me my packages on time or a day early.
You're on the east coast, has it occurred to you that the weather being utter shit might be a factor?
Lochloosa
(16,735 posts)You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Sat Feb 28, 2015, 10:49 PM, and the Jury voted 3-4 to LEAVE IT.
Juror #1 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Why the heck did somebody alert on that? Its an opinion and not offensive. If you dont agree with this person, debate them, thats what a discussion board is for. Alerts are not meant to be used to show your disagreement.
Juror #5 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: take this crap elsewhere
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: I'm going to leave it. It was a toss up. Let's see where the discussion goes.
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Could be, but jurors aren't (necessarily) in the troll-hunting business. I mean, the guy is entitled to rage at Big Mail or whatever, if he turns out to bear a clear conservative agenda then, well, he'll still probably be a DUer in good standing for years.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)
Iris
(16,875 posts)n/t
atreides1
(16,799 posts)There are times when both UPS and FedEx will deliver to the USPS to complete the delivery! And, the vendor will tell that they use UPS or FedEx...but how the item gets to its final destination is a decision made by UPS and FedEx, not the vendor!
And just in case...shipping and receiving is my job and I use all three to ship.
longship
(40,416 posts)There can be feet of snow on the ground and the USPS delivers. The only problem is that I have to trudge through the snow to the road to pick up my mail. But it is there six days a week, no matter what.
So you can shove your USPS bashing up your ass.
Have a nice day.
malokvale77
(4,879 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)Too many people do not know just what USPS does in rural areas. We have no broadband Internet, no cable TV, no paved roads out here. But mail deliveries are as reliable as clockwork.
I appreciate your support.
Hekate
(100,133 posts)...and I do mean destroy. They want to prove it doesn't work and sell off all the buildings and trucks, and privatize the whole shebang that was first created by Benjamin Franklin.
How, you ask? First, by requiring the institution that had been living quite well on stamp money and no taxes for 200+ years to prepay their retirement fund by SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS.
Please do some research for yourself, and please print a retraction of your OP.
Thank you.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)We've sent thousands of packages via usps and never had a single one fail to arrive. Take your story to fox nation
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)whenever possible.
Can't say the same for FedEx.
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,847 posts)Oop, I mean 'poster.'
nolabels
(13,133 posts)It could be a 186 if they don't lock it up soon
On edit: looks like we got to 190 at least, so far
Capt.Rocky300
(1,005 posts)priority mail rides on FedEx airplanes thanks to a $10.5B contract between the two parties? The deal is, Fedex has dropboxes at most USPS offices and the post office delivers FedEx letters/parcels to rural areas that seldom use FedEx services. And, in return FedEx transports USPS priority mail rides on the afternoon flights. The USPS does a great job but so does FedEx. When most airlines have parked their airplanes in lousy weather, FedEx is flying theirs to get the job done.
kentauros
(29,414 posts)0 rebuttal replies from DescendantOfMany.
Hmm, now where have I seen that tactic used, and by what kind of poster.....?
Perhaps MIRT will give you a USPS-inspired Sunday Delivery
eridani
(51,907 posts)--for the final legs of many of their deliveries.
Capt.Rocky300
(1,005 posts)ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)Capt.Rocky300
(1,005 posts)a $10.8 Billion multi-year contract. The USPS pays FedEX to fly the mail and in return deliver packages to rural areas.
See my post #273.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)some documentation for your claim.
Capt.Rocky300
(1,005 posts)Let me restate my point. USPS pays FedEx to fly US Mail around the country. As part of the contract, the USPS delivers FedEx packages on behalf of FedEx to rural areas along with US mail.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)Per Robinson, "Most of this revenue comes from flying mail and parcels during the day when FedEx airplanes would be otherwise parked." Thus, if FedEx were to lose this contract, it "would reduce the utilization of its aircraft possibly putting pressure on FedEx's margins on its other air freight and Express business."
"For FedEx and UPS, the costs are lower to deliver in urban areas, and higher in rural ones," Del Polito says. "For the Postal Service, that cost structure is the exact opposite. So FedEx and UPS use the Postal Service for 'last-mile' delivery in many areas where it would cost them too much to deliver that mail -- they prepare it for re-entry via the Postal Service which then walks it out for final delivery." (To put a number on this, Alan Robinson determined in 2011 that "30.4% of FedEx Ground shipments are delivered by the United States Postal Service."
Read more: http://www.minyanville.com/business-news/editors-pick/articles/postal-service-usps-post-office-post/8/3/2012/id/42951#ixzz3TBlvWBYd
Another case of a private for profit entity sucking off the government teat.
Capt.Rocky300
(1,005 posts)I said "The USPS pays FedEx to fly the mail and in return deliver packages to rural areas." That isn't clear? US Mail rides on FedEx airplanes, and as part of the contract, the USPS delivers packages to rural areas for FedEX. That means FedEx packages!
I never said FedEx delivers mail for the USPS. It only transports it in their airplanes. No FedEx employee touches any US Mail. It is delivered to the airport, sometimes to the airplane, by the USPS already loaded in containers and put on the airplane by the FedEx ramp crew. Then at the destination is unloaded by FedEx ramp personnel from the airplane directly onto a US Mail flatbed semi and is driven away to the post office.
Is that more clear now?
While I am not a fan of privatization, in this case, it works well for USPS. It doesn't want to be in the airline business nor does the US Air Force want to be the post office's airline other than for service members stationed outside the States. The same applies to the railroad business.
Having said that, I want very much for the USPS to survive and its unionized workers to do well. I think it is a outstanding organization and does a great job.
wilt the stilt
(4,528 posts)
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)I think it's interesting that you are new and decide to dive right in with some language that is often used by right wingers who trash the USPS every chance they get. Highly suspicious. Perhaps you need to lurk a bit more and learn something.
But, suppose you are sincere....here is my reply. I'm a Canadian who often orders from the US. Let's just say I've had so many bad experiences with UPS and DHL that I specifically avoid merchants who use them (and I'm always certain to drop them an email to let them know why). And I've never had a bad experience with the USPS/Canada post combination. The worst was recently, just before Christmas (of course) I bought some hair styling equipment for one of my daughters and they shipped UPS. I had bought some toys for another daughter from a merchant that also shipped UPS. One day I had a notification on my door that they had attempted delivery. The next day I made sure someone was home and got my package. Then I started to wonder where my other package was, and tracked it online (even though I had never received a shipping notification). Turns out it has been sitting at the local depot (which is actually quite far from my house) scheduled to be shipped back the next day. Luckily I had time that day to stop by on my way home from work (and it was lucky I was driving, usually I carpool and wouldn't have been able to). I complained when I picked up my package. The counter clerk said driver insisted he left a notice on my door, and said they called me 3 times. All lies. The notice was for the other package. I have call display and there were no calls from unrecognized phone numbers any time during the week they said they called.
I won't even get into the time I was 10 feet from my front door...TWICE they neglected to knock and I ended up having to drive over an hour to pick up my package because they insisted they couldn't deliver it. All lies.
I have never had anything like that with USPS/Canada Post. We aren't even supposed to get door service for parcels, but our local Canada post person will sometimes deliver parcels around Christmas to make it easier for our local depot when the boxes pile up. And they always ring the doorbell and WAIT until you answer it.
So anyway, I avoid merchants that ship with anyone but USPS or sometimes Fed Ex (because I have an account and they leave it at the door). So do most people I know around here that online shop. They are just too unreliable.
fishwax
(29,346 posts)
tkmorris
(11,138 posts)Edited to add: Your post was almost a complete waste of time but I see you DID garner a couple of recs. It is interesting to see who agrees with the drivel you posted before fleeing, so I guess you served a purpose after all. Thanks!
HERVEPA
(6,107 posts)And very poorly done at that.
Is this the new replacement for the RT posters?
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)angstlessk
(11,862 posts)get over it
Capt.Rocky300
(1,005 posts)that FedEx or UPS handles are delivered by the USPS?
Vinca
(53,994 posts)I always see them down at the post office when I go to mail things. Both UPS and FedEx bring packages in by the cart load for the post office to deliver. In fact, I recently bought something from L.L. Bean and it came via the post office but had stickers for a private carrier on the box.
Capt.Rocky300
(1,005 posts)the freight containers full of USPS orange mail sacks that have been sorted and loaded into the containers at a central post office then trucked to the local airport's FedEx ramp. It's then loaded onto the FedEx airplanes. In Memphis, that amounts to many hundreds of containers each weekday.
I have to laugh when folks praise the USPS for reliability then criticize FedEx for a service failure. They just don't know that part of the USPS reliability is due to the fact it moves mail via FedEx flights.
Vinca
(53,994 posts)I'm not surprised the post office contracts with private carriers for shipping by plane. They also contract with airlines. The key word is "contract." FedEx probably has a sweetheart deal and if they don't live up to it they lose it. Of course they'll meet the deadline.
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)United States Postal workers work in our neighborhoods every day. They are often the first to know if a wellness check should be called for. They can often spot unusual activity in a neighborhood. They keep us all connected to each other and have done so ever since the first kid got up on a pony and traveled across treacherous country to deliver important packages from one family member to another.
SickOfTheOnePct
(8,710 posts)Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)I live in a medium sized urban area. So, postal workers really do make things work around here.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)guy.
Greybnk48
(10,724 posts)without any problems in decades. We only use UPS or Fedex when they are the only option. And I have complained to online sellers for not having the USPS as an option, which is B.S.
TDale313
(7,822 posts)ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)specified in the Constitution?
Seriously?
DonCoquixote
(13,961 posts)I do not know which is more disgusting, the idea that some paid troll could be here to sow dissent and make us attack each other (which, let's face it, works well) or that this person believes they are liberal, and yet is in perfect tune with the Tea Party. Both would be perfect examples of how much damage the Right wing has done to the mind of this nation, to say nothing of shrinking brains.
Dyedinthewoolliberal
(16,211 posts)enjoy your stay. Your experience is certainly not mine when it comes to the PO..........
One of the 99
(2,280 posts)I had a scheduled delivery for a monday a few months back. After waiting home all day they called and said the package wasn't loaded on the truck in the morning and the delivery would be rescheduled. They didn't reschedule it until Wednesday and again I waited home all day and again they never showed up. The package was finally delivered on Thursday, 3 days late.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)
senseandsensibility
(24,978 posts)Of course no entity is perfect. But any poster on DU who tries to smear the entire USPS is suspect IMO. I have never had an issue with it. I think the service is great. Their employees are unionized, however, as are public school teachers. That makes them a target.
denbot
(9,950 posts)As a trucker I always use the U.S. Mail to get my trip documents to my boss so I can get paid. Not once have my priority envelopes took longer than three working days to get from the Los Angeles area to the Indianapolis area.
In my nearly 60 years of life I have never had, or have directly known of anyone, who had a package or letter lost in the U.S. Mail.
That doesn't mean a mail truck won't get delayed for weather, or destroyed in a wreck, but I can count on one hand how many U.S. Mail loads I've seen spewn across a highway, and can personally attest to seeing a hundred plus FED-Ex and UPS double and triple "wiggle wagons" smashed, losing their loads, and too often killing the drivers trying keep thier multi-trailer riggs under control.
The U.S. Mail is the most cost effective, and reliable way to get a letter or package from point A to point B in the U.S. since it was established in 1788.
greyl
(23,024 posts)
JustAnotherGen
(38,054 posts)Fed Ex drivers in Killeen Texas and La Porte Indiana - yes. And we are talking cases of 2.7 million in merchandise and 1.3 million.
And that's as the single largest customer of Fed Ex. If USPS would expand I would give them the Fed Ex and Fed Ex would get the USPS loads. UPS it's more their distribution center folks I've got to worry about.
USPS is also good with intercepting shit stolen then trying to ship out of the US. They have that special relationship with CBP.
Come to think of it - I couldn't imagine CBP having to deal with a company like Fed Ex that when their employees get caught are just out for themselves.
Jamastiene
(38,206 posts)Then, I remember the hundreds, thousands if you count all the weekly Wednesday junk mail, of other pieces of mail they deliver successfully every other day of the year. I wish I was good enough at anything to NOT fuck up 364 times out of 365. I am not, though.
yourpicturehere
(54 posts)It never ceases to amaze me that if someone has a complaint, the knives come out. "You must be a troll". You're on the wrong forum." Well, I have a complaint and I am neither.
Down here in Jesusland, the USPS is staffed by local people that don't give a shit, and that includes the postmaster. I USED to do eBay. When the USPS started package pickup, I was thrilled. THAT lasted about 1 month, then one day, my batch of packages was NOT picked up. Nothing was heavy and nothing very big. I went to the PO to mail them and the post master told me that the carrier wasn't going to pick up any more packages. I wouldn't imagine that it was because her extremely large ass could hardly get out of the car, would you? I started giving the packages to my husband to mail at a tiny PO in another town where he works. They were VERY happy cos the volume of mail helps the PO it goes through. (THEY told my husband this).
And, yes, you are right, FedEx and UPS DO use the USPS, and even though the mail isn't that bad most of the time, this package exchange is a disaster. If UPS or FedEx deliver on a holiday, it sits at the PO where they left it. I ordered some plants and they disappeared for 10 days and when the package got here it looked like they had sat out in the rain for 10 days. The plants were pale and died and I had to have them replaced. There have been a couple of other times when this happened (the packages took forever to get here), but that is the one that sticks out in my mind.
I have loved the USPS most of the time, but this bunch in this little bitty town gives it a black eye.
Whip out the knives!
Tommy_Carcetti
(44,499 posts)
Major Nikon
(36,925 posts)I've received several UPS and FedEx packages later than the "expected" delivery date. This is nothing new. Such is the nature of ground delivery which is no different regardless of carrier. It's pretty silly to assume that UPS or FedEx is immune to the exact same road delays that the USPS is subject when all three use the exact same roads. If you want guaranteed delivery, pay extra for it. All three of those carriers offer that service at an additional charge.
Tommy_Carcetti
(44,499 posts)Contrary to the false stereotype, my local USPS office had quick service, cheerful employees and have always delivered my packages on time. And close by.
Contrast that to the time where I was forced to send something via UPS.....the UPS office was several miles out of my way, the office was dark and dirty and employees were less than friendly.
If I have to send a package, I almost always go USPS.
thucythucy
(9,103 posts)These are the same folks that make a fetish of "original intent" and "strict construction" of the US Constitution.
And yet, the USPS is explicitly mentioned by the founders as a service absolutely essential to the running of a democratic republic.
"UPS or FedEx would have said...."
Amazing ability to jump into and out of alternate universes, that.
Thomas Jefferson would have said "Descendent of Many" is no true American.
See how that works?
yuiyoshida
(45,415 posts)FED X AND UPS has refused. For me to get an item that I ordered, I Have TO TAKE A CAB down to SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, a trip by CAB that costs 40 DOLLARS round trip.
No thank you.. AND BESIDES.. DO you know what a LETTER would cost to mail it, if it were sent by FEDX OR UPS? Far, far more than it would if it went by US Mail.
Wishes I could unrec this post.
Capt.Rocky300
(1,005 posts)Glitterati
(3,182 posts)Last week, we were experiencing several ice/snow storms back to back.
Do you know what I saw? I saw my mailperson make her Monday run on SUNDAY because the roads were predicted to be unpassable on Monday.
Funny, I didn't see a Sunday FedEX truck. Just my mailwoman.
lame54
(39,771 posts)Was from UPS
The post office has always done right by me
DemocratSinceBirth
(101,853 posts)I must be unlucky.
I will say they all tried to fix their mistakes , were apologetic, and gave me a refund when there was a delay.
Atman
(31,464 posts)It is delivered via USPS.
FedEx and UPS get it as far as your local post office, which then delivers it to your house.
The GOP wants you to believe the USPS is a mess so it can shut them down and collect donations from for-profit package delivery companies. Privatize everything, collect a buck. Meanwhile, here's 47 cents...would you deliver this document to my friend in California, please?
BubbaFett
(361 posts)What you describe happens with every carrier.
It isn't unique to the USPS.
Ilsa
(64,377 posts)Let's see, you hate unions, too, right? Hoping a private corp that you have stock in will buy usps and its $60 bil in saved pension money to cheap employees? Screw that and fuck your post.
Sheelanagig
(62 posts)
QC
(26,371 posts)Sometimes it takes a while to distinguish between the two.
we can do it
(13,024 posts)wilsonbooks
(972 posts)and have only had a handful of issues. I will only ship UPS if the customer demands it as have had so many issues with them. USPS is a wonderful service and we will really learn to regret it if we allow republicans to kill it.
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)I use them whenever possible. You need to learn more about their service. Pretty clear you don't know them well.
Owl
(3,768 posts)B Calm
(28,762 posts)Kingofalldems
(40,279 posts)Orrex
(67,112 posts)Bettie
(19,704 posts)which moves the package by Fed Ex and then hands it off to the post office after it has traveled the country, apparently, sightseeing.
If I order something to be delivered by the regular USPS, I get it in a day or two. Via "Fast post", it always takes at least a week, usually more.
RedCappedBandit
(5,514 posts) 
Stellar
(5,644 posts)things a Republic0n would say.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)Hmmmf.
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)ann---
(1,933 posts)any business that uses FedEx. They are the worst. USPS even sends texts now and tracking
tells exactly where the package was left.
Response to DescendantOfMany (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)... but I've had problems as bad or worse with UPS. Once I had a UPS package make it all the way to my town, before it was sent to some facility 1000 miles away for some reason. The package was 4 days late.
It happens. Frankly, I'm stunned how well all these logistics firms do in delivering packages as quickly as they do with relatively few errors.
Marr
(20,317 posts)A postal service is one of the most basic functions of a civilization. Private companies like FedEx simply do not fit the same role as the post office-- they don't have the reach to act as much more than couriers for the more populated parts of the country, and cost a lot more.
They have enough money to pay politicians to sabotage this basic national service, but they cannot, and do not intend to, actually replace it.
rurallib
(64,688 posts)tags from UPS or FedEx and then having to drive to their nearest office 25 miles away during their business hours or they will send it back.
Or to come home and see something very stealable sitting on my front steps. Nope - I use the post office only, even though congress has done all it could to demolish our local station.
I am sure hoping restoring the post office is one of the first things democrats fix when they get back in power.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)
buh bye.