Shipping delays....things are NOT getting anywhere on time, what you might can do
Locust Fork
Member Posts: 32,088 ✭✭✭✭
I'm getting non stop emails asking for updates on things that are in transit. We can see the same thing that the buyer sees as far as tracking goes, but we try to stress that nothing we have ever sent anywhere has ever been lost. We pay for insurance, signature confirmation, and we have an added business insurance policy on our items....so it is as covered as it can be on our end. We also pack our boxes like they are being delivered by an F5 tornado.
The only thing I have ZERO control over is the amount of time it takes for a box to get from here to where it is going.
The things we are being told is that there are HOARDS of postal employees that are taking advantage of the covid quarantine policy and taking lots of time off, leaving the busiest time of year to be done by a skeleton crew. The fact that nobody can be fired and you just have to "think" you might have it or have been near someone that has it is making this one of the craziest holiday times as far as shipping goes. That is what we have been told by someone in our post office.
They are getting the packages out as they can....but nothing is going as it normally would. A priority package is taking around 14 days from what we see, some get there sooner, but a lot are taking over 10 days.
If you order anything on line and you want it to get there before Christmas TRY to ship UPS or Fed Ex if your seller can manage it. These are private companies and they aren't dealing with the low number of employees like the post office is......another thing we are being told.
I've told our guys here if she they are asked to offer UPS or Fed Ex shipping to our buyers. We hate UPS because of the random upcharges they add to the final cost after things are delivered, but I'll work with people if they desperately need us to go that route.
Comments
Yup I know what you mean.
Yeah, it seems fed ex has been about a day behind on my stuff, ups has been on time, and usps is anyone's guess. I ordered a couple of small items from MIdway a week and a half ago, estimated delivery is tomorrow....I only live two hours from them.
I saw a young man pull up to our house last week with a bunch of boxes on his personal truck. Amazon, etc. All piled in the back of his truck. He said UPS had hired him to deliver packages.
The post office is way behind.
Just had an item that was posted on 11/30/2020 arrive to me today.
Hopefully it will get better.
Ordered ammo from two different places. Tracked it. Fed ex came with a little van , opened the side door and it wasn't in the truck. It was on the big truck running around the route. Man came back a couple hours later with the delivery. Then a Fed X girl delivered another about 8 pm. She said she didn't know the area and hoped she had the right house. I chuckled because the UPS guy knows that ammo is the main thing I have delivered. USPS.. be patient online tracking says delay. How long, well I bought something in Kalifornia on the 23rd of Nov. Shipped on the 27th and I am yet to see it. No use getting upset it will arrive eventually.
I placed 3 different orders in the first week of Dec............thought there might be some delays. Palmetto State, Primary Arms, and O light...........I got shipments from USPS, UPS, and FedEx. I was surprised that I got all of my items within 7-10 days of the orders. The only complaint I have is that my apartment complex has ParcelPending, which is a service where there are secured lockers behind the apt. office for packages. Packages get delivered there and the recipient gets an email notifying them that they have a package. This is to protect against porch pirates.
The only one of the three that just left the package on my front door plant stand was...........................................................UPS. I was kind of peeved, but happy that my stuff was still there when I got home from work.
I bet the next week and a half will be full of delays.........I am glad I ordered my own gifts to myself early enough.
Yep, the last 4 I sent to you all went out the same day, and they arrived on 4 different days with the longest taking 20. Carol and I had some miscommunications about how many you had received from me, but we got it all worked out.
It's a pain but I feel it. I shipped, my FFL, DID A 1250 pistol and it's been 10 days now, USPS priority. It's in his state now. Thing is his payment took 8 days, priority.
Then again, I expressed overnight Fed Ex part for my Corvette, Wednesday, Got here Saturday.🙄
Local news showed a hidden camera video taken inside the Baltimore Main PO. It showed packages piled in tubs, piled on the floor, piled in the halls, piled everywhere. Trucks with drivers were waiting in the yard for up to 18 hours to unload, couldn't get close to the loading dock. Truckers were told they had to unload their own trucks, there were no USPS employees available to do that. To top it off, an entire PO shift has been laid off to balance the budget.
Neal
China Virus, lock downs, masks, Biden getting Elected POTUS, full ICU's 300,000 deaths (claimed), slow shipping, little ammo, no brass, no primers, lack of bullets, air travel at a crawl, businesses going bust, the restaurant industry in free fall, taxes proposed for stay at home workers, business rental turmoil and losses of homes, new cars and trucks in short supply and our government giving out trillions like it was candy.
The Year of Our Lord 2020 can KMA, good riddance.
Got a delivery .. USPS this morning and UPS had two packages.. a scope and ammo. UPS was brought by a car. But the guy did have on UPS brown . Just be patient.. they have a lot of deliveries
I have always wondered why the Post office doesn't do a few things to improve its chance of survival.
A.) Reduce the number of delivery days, six days a week isn't needed. Skip a couple days,
B.) I don't know about nationally but locally we have areas the Post person has to walk up to each house and use the box on the house, other areas require a box at the road and some places nests of boxes. They need to stop hand delivering to house door walking house to house like that, require a street box.
C.) Raise rates on the junk mailers who take advantage of the cheap "last mile" rates. Amazon used to do it I don't think they do as much now that they have their own fleet.
"Signature Required" is useless these days. They don't do it. Some just leave the package then forge a signature. Others just leave a notice saying you have to pick it up. Some don't even leave the notice.
There are different types of signatures now.....and they DO NOT give you free signature confirmation with insurance like they used to. If you just get the standard sig conf service it is useless because the carrier will sign it and leave the box (its happened to two of our boxes this week.) The other types of sig conf are.....Adult Signature and Restricted Delivery. The Restricted delivery means they have to get a signature by a specific person. These cost more than standard signature confirmation.
Being really patient and drinking more has worked for me Kasey.
We've shipped out multiple packages. problems started around Black Friday for us. USPS. Most things we send out are small packages and customers won't spring for UPS/ FEDEX
Looking at 10-12 packages that are running 7-10 days late, beyond normal shipping times.
Some are still missing after 4 weeks. We still have 3 packages stuck in regional hub in Nashville, TN for 8 days. , Another spent 6 days in Nashville and then on to Evansville IN, and still there after 14 days. All are well packed and labeled, nothing to indicate the Store name having to do with Firearms
Sending Requests and missing package claims is getting no where. One claim cancelled and No delivery info available.
USPS is said the Regional Shipping hubs are running 10-14 days behind. Due to Covid restrictions/ lack of workers due to increase in packages 40-50% increase over last year.
#1 is a supervisor at a level 21 post office (a postmaster and two supervisors is management structure). Covid is hitting the staffing a the clerk and carrier level big time. Exposure/contact means quarantine until it can be determined the exposed individual is virus free. They are also an Amazon hub so they are working Sundays to deliver any Amazon packages that come in.
And, the post office is also delivering UPS and FedEx packages that aren't able to be delivered by the respective companies. With the major increase of online shopping this year they are swamped.
My daughter is working six days per week and every other Sunday. The 24th was designated a federal holiday. Guess who will be working that day, yep the post office. Her post office will be open. They will close the lobby at noon. They aren't supposed to be out delivering mail after dark due to an increase in chances of accidents (delivery vehicles stopped at mailboxes create hazards after dark). Here in Missouri, dark happens around 5:30. If mail hasn't been delivered it's supposed to be brought back and sent out again the next day.
" ....Ihave always wondered why the Post office doesn't do a few things to improve its chance of survival...."
Mogley,
2 reasons
The US Postal Service is a government agency.
They have a monopoly on mail. By law, you cannot send a letter by any other carrier, unless you put it in a "package" then ship the package.
This is an interesting, short article about the USPS. There is some misunderstanding about just what part of the government it's supposed to be...
We connect the nation
The U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation: 160 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
With more than 34,000 retail locations and one of the most frequently visited websites in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual operating revenue of more than $71 billion and delivers 48 percent of the world’s mail. With more than 630,000 employees, we are one of the nation’s largest employers. And we have one of the world’s largest computer networks.
Last night I received a photo and some commentary from an associate. He spent yesterday trying to track down a firearm which was stalled at a nearby location. I will not post the photo as it might be untoward. He reported that there were huge piles of boxes, packages and sacks stacked everywhere in the building and the OTR trucks parked, shut off waiting to get into the docks to unload more.
This is what we used to refer to as a Perfect Storm. The end of the year Holidays are meshing with the disastrous effects of the C-19 onslaught. The massive increase in online shopping and shipping is hamstrung by the loss of employees charged with moving all this mail. Every facility is bulging at the seams with undelivered mail and packages, while sellers and shippers, given no other choice, continue to add to the mass.
I am encouraging clients to hold off shipping anything until mid- to late January, probably the end of January. I will be sending 'Holiday' cards instead of Christmas cards mailed in January. The alternative, which I dislike, is to send a Holiday email in a timely fashion followed by physical cards at the beginning of 2021. This may drag on longer.
Best.
The US post office was never intended to be a money making operation, it was a government service. In 1970 it was decided to make it independent and it was expected to make a profit. Will never happen as long as it does not have the air fleet infrastructuer of UPS or Fed Ex. Most of what it delivers is advertising (junk mail) and naturally, that gets a cost break for bulk mail.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
I just keep telling people we have NEVER had a "missing" package....things will eventually get there, but expect two weeks longer than normal or longer for things to get there. Most have been pretty understanding.