The Steel Guitar Forum

I guess they're bogged down from all the activity. The service has been really slow last couple weeks with shipping between a few forum members.

I sent a small pkg. in their Priority box to Balto on Sat. of last week...updates slow to come and still no conf. of delivery.

Other first class mail light, small pkgs. seem to go as fast as Priority mail.

I guess they'll all get there, it just makes one nervous as we're used to getting pretty regualar updates on tracking and reasonably good service with deliveries with USPS.

Just so you know if you're shipping pkgs. this Christmas season. 🎅🎅🎅

From the USPS Tracking site:

ALERT: USPS IS EXPERIENCING UNPRECEDENTED PACKAGE INCREASES AND LIMITED EMPLOYEE AVAILABILITY DUE TO THE IMPACTS OF COVID-19. WE APPRECIATE YOUR PATIENCE AND REMAIN COMMITTED TO DELIVERING THE HOLIDAYS TO YOU.

Attempts by the outgoing administration to emasculate the postal service before last month's election are coming home to roost. Sad.

I have had some real problems, I would avoid any packages that won't fit in a mailbox with any value.

Please, no political inference. The post was just meant to be a heads-up for forum members who are participating in buy and sell activity here.

Budget cuts over the last 4 years have hamstrung the US Postal system and then the effects of the Virus and also catastrophic weather has hit our country to make things with the PO even worse.

However, I don't think any of the private carriers are doing a better job at delivery, doesn't matter who you use it been a crapshot trying to get anything shipped lately.

Well no, I use the USPS quite a lot and I haven't had any problems until the last couple weeks. I think the system is just overloaded here at the holiday season.

I like the post office and the people that work there. However lately have had problems. I bought a monitor on eBay, the seller paid for fragile handling, 68 dollars. The package arrived in my town and then was sent to several other cities. After two weeks it stopped being tracked. We called and asked them to try and find it and they said they never could find it. Immediately after the seller filed a claim it showed up in my house with the package destroyed and wrapped in plastic. That allowed them to close the claim. The monitor had a hole in it. There was no explanation, or a note the package had been damaged. This was after a month and a half. So now we have to file a damage claim and that is going to be an experience.

I quite often have packages marked as delivered and I don't get them and they show up a week later.

Paid $10.89 for 2 day USPS delivery and it's now been 7 and counting.

The one's I have problems with are the one's that start on UPS or FEDEX and then transfer to the post office in my town for delivery. The tracking will show that my package has arrived at the postal facility, but it will take another couple of days to get to me. Twice I have had a package delivered to the wrong apartment in my complex. There are 4 buildings here, with different street addresses, but have apartments numbered from 1 to 21. They deliver it to one of the other buildings. Luckily,the person who lives there is honest. I don't have issues if a package started and ended with USPS. They are still my preferred shipper. UPS here is the absolute worst. Hate them.

Richard Sinkler said "UPS is the absolute worst";

Not my experience but I had problems with them. A package was just traveling around in their trucks for several days. I called them about it. The first time I called they would say, "you need to call back at night when we aren't busy and have time to work on it", and then I called at night and the told me "we don't have many people working at night you need to call during the day". This cycle went on for 3 days until I finally told them they were lying to me.

Darrell Criswell wrote:Richard Sinkler said "UPS is the absolute worst";

Not my experience but I had problems with them. A package was just traveling around in their trucks for several days. I called them about it. The first time I called they would say, "you need to call back at night when we aren't busy and have time to work on it", and then I called at night and the told me "we don't have many people working at night you need to call during the day". This cycle went on for 3 days until I finally told them they were lying to me.

Here in Missoula they are the worst. In California where I lived, they were great. The one thing I have noticed about the people here in Missoula is, a lot of workers take no pride in their work. I've never seen so many morons with jobs. Still like it here though.

Richard Sinkler wrote:The one's I have problems with are the one's that start on UPS or FEDEX and then transfer to the post office in my town for delivery. The tracking will show that my package has arrived at the postal facility, but it will take another couple of days to get to me.

I've had the same thing happen several times too. The shipments that go USPS all the way generally arrive on time. The ones that are handed off from another carrier to USPS make it to a big USPS distribution point and then may or may not ever be seen again. This has all started within the past 6 months or so.

No problems with UPS or Fedex.

Dave

Big USPS supporter here. I always have small packages coming and going. Never an issue, and a bargain, IMO.

These past few weeks have been BRUTAL. I have 7 different packages I'm waiting for, all late.......including one from bOb. I have tracking for all, and basically once they're accepted at the post office, they get lost in the ozone. So far, I've received one, so I figure they'll get here eventually, but it's a drag checking tracking everyday, and nothing changing.

I live in Philly, and the word from some carriers is, here there's a real backlog at the main Philly sorting station, with people down with covid, and some of the policy decisions that were made recently, higher up, that are crippling the service.

It may be hit and miss.
In the past couple of months............

Ordered two hard drives from GoHardDrive dot com.
Got them in TWO days.

Ordered a couple of orders from Antique Electronic Supply.
Got them both in less than a week.

Have placed a couple of other orders with a couple of other vendors that I won't mention (music item related).
Going on two weeks, still haven't heard from them.

Mailed in Cds for copyrights to the copyright office in DC.
Sent them certified mail return receipt.
Got the receipt back in less than a week.
It's been a month, and the check still hasn't been cashed though.

For what it's worth, all of my monthly bills seem to be showing up on time.
Whew, thank God for that.

ajm wrote:all of my monthly bills seem to be showing up on time

That's a persistent problem over here too

An envelope mailed from Dallas to me, at the southern tip of Texas, normally takes three days.
Now it takes seven days.

It took USPS OVRE 1 MONTH to deliver a speaker from ALA to Wisconsin . I mailed it on a Thursday ,delivery the following Tuesday . Tracking kept saying in transit.

Wow my USP service sucks also.

Recently, my wife ordered a medicine refill from a mail order pharmacy in Orlando, FL. We are in Lakeland, about 55 miles to the SW of Orlando. The package bounced all over the place for a week, and was even at my local Post Office in the middle of the journey. Then it went to Sarasota for a couple of days before it made its way back to us. That was the worst we have ever seen. Over the past 6 - 9 months, shipping by Priority Mail has been a waste of money.

It took over two months to
Get some courses ,I ordered
From the USA to Australia.
It's really slow all around the
World.
Sam.

I ordered some strings recently from the US and they miraculously arrived via USPS to the west coast of Australia in five days. I was expecting it to take months.

Benjamin Franz wrote:I ordered some strings recently from the US and they miraculously arrived via USPS to the west coast of Australia in five days. I was expecting it to take months.

That IS a miracle, of Biblical proportions!

I've noticed that things I've ordered from Amazon have been almost always arriving on time. Things from less influential vendors, not so quickly. Maybe it's coincidence that favorable contract terms with carriers lead to better service, maybe not.

Our best local service here has been from UPS, but that's largely due to us having a really good local driver who is conscientious. The dogs in my area go crazy whenever the UPS truck comes by, since the driver always carries treats for them.

USPS and FedEx are also good locally, again due to the local drivers and not so much to the national network. At least around here, it's not the delivery person's fault when things go amok. We're lucky.

Dave

I ordered an item form Boise Id. was shipped 3rd day USPS. It went to Ma. for a 5 day vacation before heading to Alaska.

Jack Hanson - I agree.