Are the USPS and Canada Post getting worse?

[Steve F.]

UPS and FEDEX don't deliver to PO boxes.

Fair enough. No, they don't deliver to P.O. Boxes - but you get my point.

[progmatist]

To this day when I receive a DHL package, it isn't delivered directly to my door. It's delivered to my local post office, and from there to my mail box. I hardly live in the middle of nowhere...I live in the largest suburb of the 5th largest city in the US. The USPS is required by law to complete deliveries for their direct competitors.

[Garyhead]

A few months ago....my letter carrier came to my door with a problem. "Your (4" x4") letter is too "Small" to go. It was a birthday card / envelope purchased from a store. It has to be "hand canceled" because it wont go through the sorter. I need $0.75 More to take it." I said it's under an ounce....and a store bought card. He wouldn't mail it for me. I threw it in the trash in front of him and told him to forget it......It was a birthday card to my letter-carrier friend.....he also asked me how I knew her.....I thought it odd.

Today he left me a "postage due" message for a letter from Florida. Stated I Need to give him another $4.00 for postage???? Jeezus what is it???? a lead plate?
It is probably a box of Valentines Candy (2 pieces) from my sis-in-law. Maybe worth $1.00. Gonna ask him why the post office in Florida took it with insufficient postage?

I'm not gonna pay....can be returned to sender. But will this create a brew-ha-ha with the family??

This is also the letter-carrier who didn't deliver last Friday & Saturday......no tire tracks in the snow.

I tell ya....with all the BS going on with the USPS.....this nickel & diming and NOT delivering mail really doesn't help their image.

[JKL2000]

^ Wow!

I was wondering if the USPS is NOT slowing down mail with insurance, or registered parcels (can you register a parcel?). I then remembered that some USPS products include a certain amount of insurance, so maybe insurance doesn't concern them.

Ken, your insight on this would be welcome. Would insurance, or extra insurance help at all? Maybe it would help only after the parcel is lost for a certain amount of time? How about Priority, vs. First Class? I know Priority Mail can get pretty pricy too. Just wondering if any of that stuff can help.

Today I received the package that was for some reason sent by MY post office off to another nearby post office, which had to send it to a Regional facility, which returned it to my post office. So MY post office had it early enough last Friday that it could have been delivered then, and I received it today, Tuesday. An extra four days for no reason.

[LASERCD]

^ Wow!

I was wondering if the USPS is NOT slowing down mail with insurance, or registered parcels (can you register a parcel?). I then remembered that some USPS products include a certain amount of insurance, so maybe insurance doesn't concern them.

Ken, your insight on this would be welcome. Would insurance, or extra insurance help at all? Maybe it would help only after the parcel is lost for a certain amount of time? How about Priority, vs. First Class? I know Priority Mail can get pretty pricy too. Just wondering if any of that stuff can help.

Today I received the package that was for some reason sent by MY post office off to another nearby post office, which had to send it to a Regional facility, which returned it to my post office. So MY post office had it early enough last Friday that it could have been delivered then, and I received it today, Tuesday. An extra four days for no reason.

Please note: I'm not a USPS employee nor do I consider myself an expert but we deal with them everyday. I can only relate our experiences.

Insurance will not speed up delivery. It will allow you to recover $$ if the parcel is lost.

In theory (in normal times) priority should be a very fast service. 1 to 3 days depending on where you live. We ship from NJ. If its an east coast location there probably isn't a significant difference in delivery times between priority and first class. The cut off for first class is 15.9 oz. Above that the rate jumps up to priority and its more expensive.

Media mail is an inexpensive option but that is where we are seeing the most significant delays. Lots of mis-routing or parcels just sitting at a USPS distribution center for an eternity. Priority and first class also sees these issues but it doesn't seem quite as prevalent and typically corrects itself much faster.

[rdclark]

Meanwhile my FedEx package, originally due Tuesday, is apparently now stranded somewhere in West Virginia (after having gotten as close as Maryland) with no projected delivery date. So it's not only USPS.

I'd be more Zen about it if it weren't my new Monolith planar magnetic headphones...

[JKL2000]

Insurance will not speed up delivery. It will allow you to recover $$ if the parcel is lost.

I wasn't thinking that insurance would speed up delivery, but that it might make the USPS more dedicated to eventually delivering the parcel, or at least delivering it before the date when a customer can file a claim (not sure when that is).

Media mail is an inexpensive option but that is where we are seeing the most significant delays. Lots of mis-routing or parcels just sitting at a USPS distribution center for an eternity.

I'd love to know exactly what's going on at this stage. Is it like the last shot in Raiders of the Lost Ark, with large mailrooms packed to the rafters with backed-up parcels, and they're somewhat diligently working their way through them? What is USPS thinking on this? "We'll get to those ones in room A eventually, but just forget about those for now?" "DeJoy said we should sit on every third package for 30 days, so leave those until March?"

I spoke to my main letter-carrier about this briefly, but I didn't ask him any pointed questions, and all he said was that they (the USPS in general) were really backed up. But how much would he even know about the situation or method or lack thereof at the main distribution centers. I wish I knew someone who worked at one of the distribution centers - those are the people who would know what's really happening. It's so frustrating dealing with the USPS, because it's not like a normal company where you have some feeling of possibly being able to get an honest or informed answer from anyone, or that anyone might possibly even know what's going on.

Maybe I'll find a bar near the White Plains, NY distribution center and hang out there for a couple of days around 5pm, buy some people a few drinks, and see what I can learn. It's tempting! If I disappear from PE, someone dredge the Hudson River around Tarrytown!

[Garyhead]

OK. I just listened to this morning's NPR piece regarding USPS. "USPS in largest SLOWDOWN in 30 years." Last President's postmaster general still in charge.....and HE wants a postage increase to restore the system to where it was 2 months ago.

This sounds like a worker slowdown in protest of the postmaster general. The Longshoremen do this quite often. (I'm speaking as a lifelong Union member) The Postal Workers Union is quite powerful....

I believe we citizens are caught up in an internal power struggle. "This popped up out of nowhere 2 months ago." (that was a quote from the segment)

Of course YMMV IMHO and all that.

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/23/97043...raws-criticism

[moecurlythanu]

I had an LP arrive yesterday that I had written off as lost. Sent from Germany on November 15, it made it here 3 months & a week later. Smh. That's a record for me.

[Don Arnold]

I had an LP arrive yesterday that I had written off as lost. Sent from Germany on November 15, it made it here 3 months & a week later. Smh. That's a record for me.

I see what you did there.

[ronmac]

This sounds like a worker slowdown in protest of the postmaster general.

Not to me. It sounds to me like their legs were cut out from underneath them by the pre-election assault on equipment, and they're still trying to get caught up. I'm seeing delivery trucks more often than ever, including Sundays. It doesn't look like a worker slowdown to me.

[moecurlythanu]

^ The Sunday postal deliveries are for Amazon Prime. The 2-day free shipping necessitates it, so Amazon contracted for it.

[Garyhead]

Well yes.....sorting machines were dismantled last summer but there seemed to be no problems sending out / returning record numbers of National voting ballots last October / November. Also, mail overall was delivered in a timely manner BEFORE Christmas. It was right after Christmas folks started speculating that record online sales pre Christmas caused massive backups due to record item returns. It’s now the latter 1/3 of February so Christmas returns can no longer be blamed for the slowdown. From looking at my outstanding USPS parcels, February 13th was the last day Tracking information was available. I think stuff is moving......just not updating the USPS website status. These past two months, my letter carrier shows up at no discernible time frame. He used to be like clockwork; 3:30pm. And we won’t even mention the 20+ weeks it takes for an issue of PROG to get to your door.

[progmatist]

OK. I just listened to this morning's NPR piece regarding USPS. "USPS in largest SLOWDOWN in 30 years." Last President's postmaster general still in charge.....and HE wants a postage increase to restore the system to where it was 2 months ago.

This sounds like a worker slowdown in protest of the postmaster general. The Longshoremen do this quite often. (I'm speaking as a lifelong Union member) The Postal Workers Union is quite powerful....

I believe we citizens are caught up in an internal power struggle. "This popped up out of nowhere 2 months ago." (that was a quote from the segment)

Of course YMMV IMHO and all that.

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/23/97043...raws-criticism

Worst of all, President Biden doesn't have the power to fire DeJoy. He was appointed by the USPS board of directors, and can only be fired by the same.

[Plasmatopia]

I had an LP arrive yesterday that I had written off as lost. Sent from Germany on November 15, it made it here 3 months & a week later. Smh. That's a record for me.

This gives me hope for the CD I ordered back around that time.

[JKL2000]

From looking at my outstanding USPS parcels, February 13th was the last day Tracking information was available. I think stuff is moving......just not updating the USPS website status. These past two months, my letter carrier shows up at no discernible time frame. He used to be like clockwork; 3:30pm.

This is exactly what's been happening with me. Also, packages being sent from New Jersey to Jacksonville, Florida back to New Jersey, then to me in New York, etc.

[JKL2000]

Worst of all, President Biden doesn't have the power to fire DeJoy. He was appointed by the USPS board of directors, and can only be fired by the same.

But he can appoint new members to the board of directors. I forget now why he's hesitating to do that, but he's getting a lot of pressure to do that.

I guess now we've all read the articles. It's f'd up!

[ronmac]

But he can appoint new members to the board of directors. I forget now why he's hesitating to do that, but he's getting a lot of pressure to do that.

I guess now we've all read the articles. It's f'd up!

Indeed. I believe there are currently three vacancies. Is he hesitating or prioritizing? He has a steaming pile of shit on his plate.

[moecurlythanu]

He has a steaming pile of shit on his plate.

Room service from Mar-A-Lago?

[JKL2000]

Indeed. I believe there are currently three vacancies. Is he hesitating or prioritizing? He has a steaming pile of shit on his plate.

I'm not sure, but I like that the people who are nudging him to act on this are pointing out how "the people" are getting pretty pissed off! We're only complaining about delayed CDs and stuff, which is bad enough, but it's affecting people's prescription deliveries and such.

Let's take to the streets! And I'm telling you, we have to be strong, or we won't have a USPS anymore! Let's have trial by combat!

[progmatist]

But he can appoint new members to the board of directors. I forget now why he's hesitating to do that, but he's getting a lot of pressure to do that.

I guess now we've all read the articles. It's f'd up!

The 4 open Board of Governors seats will have to wait for all the other Senate confirmations, like Biden's cabinet picks.

[Plasmatopia]

Let's take to the streets! And I'm telling you, we have to be strong, or we won't have a USPS anymore! Let's have trial by combat!

Arm everyone with a letter opener!

[rdclark]

I'm starting to reconsider my regular deliveries of freshly-roasted coffee beans. Not so fresh, sometimes, by the time they get here, and sitting in storage or on a truck in freezing weather can't help. Typically four days from Topeka to here in eastern PA, each of the last three deliveries has taken 8-10 days, and the current one is "arriving late" with no current location listed, which usually means it's gone for a ride.

I wonder if there's a movement afoot amongst small businesses like my coffee roaster who rely so heavily on USPS for their very existence. I wonder too if consistently poor performance is somehow actionable. It sure seems like it's anti-business, not your typical Republican policy.

[Scott Bails]

I wonder if there's a movement afoot amongst small businesses like my coffee roaster who rely so heavily on USPS for their very existence. I wonder too if consistently poor performance is somehow actionable. It sure seems like it's anti-business, not your typical Republican policy.

No, it's pro-business, as the USPS is a government (aka evil) entity and must be sacrificed to the private sector. Social Security is next.

[Steve F.]

It sure seems like it's anti-business, not your typical Republican policy.

It's extremely typical GOP:

Take a government sector that works reasonably well, sabotage it and say 'the free market will do it better' and then privatize it and get campaign contributions from that sector of big business that got to take it over.