Why the Post Office is doomed

[Guest nicemac]

This is just too funny to keep to myself.

On November 9, my wife placed an order with Amazon. We order from Amazon all the time, and the shipping is usually via FedEX or UPS and most packages come from in or around Lexington, KY. We are Amazon Prime customers and most packages arrive the next day.

Occasionally these days, Amazon ships via FedEX SMartPost which means FedEx picks up the package and drops it at the Post Office. The Post Office then delivers the package to my door, supposedly saving everyone money. Packages delivered this way typically take about a week to get from Lexington, KY to Nashville, TN – about a 3-1/2 hour drive.

Back to the story. On 11/9, FedEx picks up our package from Hebron, KY (between Lexington and Cincinnati) and delivers it to a US Postal facility in Martinsburg, WV. From there it goes to Southaven, MS (just outside Memphis) to Atlanta, GA, back to Southaven, to Arrington (where we live), back to Atlanta, back to Southaven, etc… Look at the actual tracking (as of 12/12/11) below. It has been in the care of the Post Office for one month and two days and is still bouncing around, undelivered. What is amazing to me is that the package actually made it to Arrington once.

BTW, Amazon resent the package to us last week via FedEx Ground. It arrived overnight.

No wonder USPS is losing money…

[shaftbass]

That's fantastic.

I love Amazon Prime.

[daddyo]

Did the USPS have anything to say about this absurdity?

[kieefer]

Typical of a government agency, nuff said.

[Guest JMB]

LOL! You are spot on. I've got an order coming from Amazon right now via USPS. It's a small padded envelope size.

Package got to Johnson City in about 24 hours. Been sitting there now for 4 days while I've had flyers from Khols, Pennys etc etc etc filling my mailbox. Would it kill them to throw in the envelope I actually want?

Today was the "at the latest" delivery date. I'm not optimistic.

[kb4ns]

Wow. That's funny. Hope you get your package soon.

[Guest WyattEarp]

Lol. ironically, i've had better success with the post office than UPS or Fedex.

but losing $9 Billion a year in profit, won't be long and the USPS will be a memory just like the Pony Express.

FedEx and UPS and DHL will clamor to pick up their portions of the USPS market, and the mail service will become a commericalized private business entity, as it should.

[Just2Honor]

If they did not have federal law to lock in First Class Mail to them exclusively they would have been out of business a long time ago. As it is, they've "bankrupted" a couple of times and been bailed out by the Feds.

[mikegideon]

Unbelievable! I have had GOOD luck with priority mail over the last year. Depends on the vendor. I have had a couple of two day deliveries from Primary Arms off the top of my head. Looks like they have gone into deficit reduction mode, and maybe moved some TSA employees in.

[kieefer]

If they did not have federal law to lock in First Class Mail to them exclusively they would have been out of business a long time ago. As it is, they've "bankrupted" a couple of times and been bailed out by the Feds.

You mean bailed out by "US" don't you?

[MikeW]

What better way for FedEx to drive the USPS out of Business LOL LOL

[Caster]

Well, I'd hate to see anyone lose their job, but I won't cry over the post office going belly up. Sears and the Post Office, two places even Bill Gates can't get waited on in a timely fashion.

[Guest nicemac]

The Post Office in Arrington put in a new sign last year–an expensive, lighted one. They are only open from 8:30AM until 4:00PM. It is never dark when they are open. Why do they need a lighted sign?

[wjh2657]

I am a big Amazon customer (collect DVDs and I have 120 + books on my Kindle) so I feel your pain. A clue: if it tracks to Southhaven, MS, it has entered a black hole never to return to our universe in your lifetime. I dread that place coming up on a track, because I know I am facing up to two months for the delivery. My postmaster told me that shipments arriving there are treated same as dead mail and put on a pallet/in a bin and held to the bin or pallet is full before transhipping.

[kieefer]

I wonder if and when the USPS folded that the local newspapers could pick up this service?

Considering both are about to go under maybe this ideal, that I pulled out of my butt, might salvage the papers and cut the government strings? FedEx and the rest could handle any packages.

Dreaming aren't I.

[Gun Smith]

I would love to see the USPS go under and take all their feakin' junk mail with them. You know, the junk mail that has been paying their bills and keeping them out of financial trouble. The junk mail that is legalized littering and filling up the landfills.

[Guest Victor9er]

UPS has the same type of program, called "Mail Innovations" where UPS delivers it to the Post Office and they in turn finish the delivery. Same thing, the tracking on the UPS part of the shipment is usually fine, it's the USPS end that screws it up.

I haven't had one that was ever quite that bad, but I did have a package that I ordered get sent through the "mail innovations" and it ended up sitting in Atlanta apparently for almost a month before USPS finally got it here.

Everytime I order something and see that it gets sent through "Mail Innovations" I know I'm not going to see it for at least two weeks.

Edited December 12, 2011 by Victor9er

[enfield]

The Post Office announced $3 Billion in cuts for next year. They're expecting a $14 Billion deficit next year.

Kind of like bailing out the Titanic with a shot glass.

The Gov won't let them fail -- they'll eventually get money from the Gov (as if they aren't now) and we'll foot the bill, one way or another.

[Raoul]

I know this will bite me in the @$$, but I have had absurdly good luck with the USPS regional rate box. Shipping must be handled by UPS with final delivery by USPS.

[kb4ns]

A lot of the Priority Mail is handled by FedEx. They have a contract with the USPS.

[VERO1]

Every company has problems, and it is frustrating as heck when something you are waiting on gets caught in the black hole. I guarantee there are just as many problems with Fed Ex and UPS deliveries.

As a postal employee, I take pride in my job, most of us do. Like any other company there will always be a percentage of employees who really don't give a crap. Sad, but it is a fact.

I also challege you to do a little independent research on the post office finances before jumping on to the "We have to bail them out" train. The post office has been required to prefund retirees health care and benefits since 1970. No other company or government acency has to do this. Currently this account has been over funded by 75 Billion dollars. Since 2006, we have been required by congress to prefund at the rate of 5.6 billion a year! It would seem simple to let us use some of the money in that fund to offset expenses, right? Unfortunately, all that money goes into the governments general fund, and it seems to have been spent by our elected officials!

[tugboat]

holy crap....Thats just crazy! Hope u get your package before the warranty runs out!

[deerslayer]

I just received 2000 bullets I ordered from LA two weeks ago. The freaking lazy-ass mailman left them in the front yard beside the mailbox. I wonder how their claims process would work if I didn't get them, or if they got soaked.

[Guest jackdm3]

Why the Post Office is doomed

Also because of crap like this:

[analog_kidd]

I ordered something from EBay that was shipped Priority Mail. I think it was supposed to arrive in maybe three days. Well, after a week goes by and no package, I go to the Post Office. I give them the tracking number, but that is worthless, they can only see that the delivery was started, but they have no idea where it is along the way. UPS or Fedex can tell me exactly where it is at any moment.

Anyway, I wait another week and still no package, so I go back to the Post Office. The package had insurance on it, and I figure I'd claim it since I'm now almost two weeks past promised delivery date. I find out that "Priority" mail is a goal, not a promise. They will try to get it there in three days, but that is no guarantee. They say I can't file the insurance claim until it is one full month late, and then they will take another month to investigate. The shipper (and ultimitely me) paid extra money to have it shipped "Priority" so I ask if the shipping cost could be refunded. The guy just shrugs his shoulders and says they have no way of doing that.