USPS Rant

[dfblack]

I live in Northeastern WI (within an hour of Green Bay) and have a daughter attending school in the Minneapolis area -- prior to that she was on a campus near the Minnesota border but still in Wisconsin. For either location, a simple letter or card mailed from my home town to her would take a MINIMUM of 3 weeks and would frequently arrive with sneaker tread tracks on it or torn/mangled. (Keep in mind that it is a 4 hour drive.)

We now put the date that we are mailing something to her on the envelope for personal tracking and she has counted upwards of 45 days delay. I think the Pony Express might have been faster. I have done some bulk mailings for a non-profit and I think it tracks back to the distribution hub that handles Eastern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin.

Sadly, she was not even able to cast her mail-in ballots for Wisconsin this year because they didn't arrive in time...

 

[Time2]

I went to the local "UPS Store" which I now suspect is not really UPS. I think they add a mark up.

I have a close by UPS Store, but I only used it once when I found out it was extra to ship from there. So I always drove the extra 1-1/2 miles. Last week I went to return an Amazon purchase and found the UPS office and truck loading building permanently closed. I also saw the Fedex office around the corner was also closed. I went to the UPS Store and delivered my package without incident.

 

[rmcelwee]

It is fairly normal for our UPS packages to bounce around for a few days before they get to us. Not sure why.

Two quick USPS stories:

1) We sent four Christmas cards, with money (a check) in each, to our young nieces/nephews at their parents address. Same parents, same address, three got delivered and one came back as address unknown.

2) DM sent me a Christmas card with a check in it. It never got here. It freaked her out so she went to the bank and cancelled the check. A month later she sent another one. It too never got here. Both of us walked around thinking the other had gone insane.

 

[bada bing]

I don't have a good shipping ping pong story, but I renewed my USPS post office box last week. It's gone up to $296 for the year. I kid you not, the smallest personal size box at the post office. Where I live, Alaska, local delivery isn't an option. I've had that box number as my address for 40 years. It started at $15 per year, 40 years ago.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

I sent the local tax authority my income tax return on 4/4 via certified mail.

It was supposed to arrive by 4/7. Maybe 4/9.

It still is “in transit, running late”

Glad I have the receipt.

 

[zinger1457]

I have a close by UPS Store, but I only used it once when I found out it was extra to ship from there. So I always drove the extra 1-1/2 miles.

If I'm shipping UPS I use the UPS web site to create and print a shipping label then drop it off at the UPS Store, no extra shipping costs, should even get a discount if you have a UPS account.

 

[HarveyS]

I don't have a good shipping ping pong story, but I renewed my USPS post office box last week. It's gone up to $296 for the year. I kid you not, the smallest personal size box at the post office. Where I live, Alaska, local delivery isn't an option. I've had that box number as my address for 40 years. It started at $15 per year, 40 years ago.

I thought the USPS mandate was to deliver to every address in USA?

 

[2cheap2eat]

Somewhat related, it’s so annoying to receive UPS packages because they are filthy! By contrast Amazon boxes arrive pristine.

 

[athena53]

I don't have a good shipping ping pong story, but I renewed my USPS post office box last week. It's gone up to $296 for the year. I kid you not, the smallest personal size box at the post office. Where I live, Alaska, local delivery isn't an option. I've had that box number as my address for 40 years. It started at $15 per year, 40 years ago.

Wow. I hope mine doesn't get that bad. It was $200 annually last August, also the smallest box. I know it's more than doubled since I first started renting it 6 or so years ago. I have mine because of mailbox thefts in my area. For the most part it works- Post Office is nearby and lobby is open 24/7- but it's a PITA when I buy on-line. A few reject a PO Box address, which is OK, but others accept it and then UPS or Fedex attempts to deliver to the Post Office at 8 PM when there are no employees there. If I can, I divert it to an Amazon locker or UPS store but UPS has started charging for that. One more annoyance I won't have after I move to a retirement community.