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Desperation: "Priority" Mail

edited December 2011 in Off-Topic
Needed to send some documents off to Oakmark in KC last week. Paid about $8 at local MIch PO on Thursday morning, the 15th, for "priority mail" so could track them. As of today, 20th, still ain't reached destination. Last tracking shows them being sorted at a KC facility. And ya wonder why the PO is desperate. Poor rank & file employees suffer while whoever's running the outfit obviously got their heads in the sand. #?%*@!

BTW: We got Amazon Prime @ $79 a year and love it. Stuff from anywhere in the country at your doorstep in 2 days for no additional charge, unless they run into supplier problems, which is rare. Strongly recommend it. And use your MFO link for purchases. Maybe Bezos for postal commissioner?

Comments

  • edited December 2011
    One time I used priority to send something about 30 minutes away and it proceeded to go about A THOUSAND MILES IN THE WRONG DIRECTION, wander around for a while, then eventually make its way back over a week later. I tend to wonder if the postal service will be privatized at some point - how likely that is and the reality of that I don't know, but...you have all of these little services (Smartpost from Fedex which only uses the postal service for end delivery and it seems like there's others) that are moving in.

    I'm almost at the end of a free Prime trial and may renew.
  • I sympathize, believe me, hank. But I've also encountered another sort of snafu: the special, super-dooper, high-cost-postal-rate package gets QUICKLY to its destination, as we are led to expect. But once there, there is no expedited treatment given to the thing. And the P.O. will accept any janitor's or receptionist's signature and consider the matter concluded, for their part. From there, the item stands in a queue like every other damn thing.
  • hank, sorry to hear that. In my experience, some shippers are behind in recording where the package actually is, and I think this affects the PO more than others. I.e., that package could in fact be on its way, while its last tracked destination shows it sitting somewhere, going nowhere. Just to track with PO, you can get a tracking no. for a little extra. I think "priority" mail is hogwash.
    When I worked for an institution, I used to call other likely recipients from time to time to see if any packages for us were sitting in their shipping depts. LOL!
  • Priority Mail claims 2-3 days delivery. If they guaranteed that they would be giving refunds to 99% of their customers. Last year we got a package from Kentucky, priority mail to Massachusetts. It was postmarked 12/15 and we got it 12/28. Same thing the year before. This year we sent a package to Kentucky using regular parcel post, it took only 5 days and was a fraction of the cost. Parcel post claims 2 - 8 days delivery. If it's important, Express Mail® ›
    Overnight delivery to most US addresses or your money back.
    Yes, it's more expensive.


  • Most of our experiences with Priority delivery have been horrible, I feel your pain.
  • edited December 2011
    I guess I've been lucky. I send priority mail occasionally and receive it and it always seems to come in within scheduled time. hope they don't turn the Post Office into what happened to the railroads - no tracks and freight priority over passengers.

    USPS privatized to run under other well-run schemes.....

    Airline option:
    Perhaps the Post Office should be privatized and run by the airlines. The airlines do such a good thing with luggage. and once the airlines have the mail supremely optimized and fully assimilated- you could all go down to the lost mail depot for the weekly auctions on all the lost mail the airlines lost.


  • USPS needs an incentive program, also and needs to fire 4 out of 10 people that do not touch the mail. Too many people doing survays just to justify their job. This is just MHO!!
  • Reply to @Anonymous: UPS Ground and Fedex Ground are also really not that terrible when compared to priority mail and are more consistent in terms of delivery speed.
  • Gary,
    I was reading your reply and for a second I thought you were talking about the health care industry. Ah, but no such luck.
  • I guess I'm lucky too; only one mail snafu in the last year - regular mail that took a month to get to its destination about 500 miles away.

    My postal carrier says, and I've read this a couple of places besides, that Congress required that USPS pre-fund many billions in retirement benefits, a requirement to a degree that no other entity, private or public, has to follow. That, the story goes, is where the recent budget shortfalls and the cut-cut-cut proposals are coming from, from closing P.O.s and processing centers (the last ending next-day delivery in many places) to eliminating Sat. delivery.

    The USPS is apparently in the unenviable position of getting no fed $ but having to live with management requirements heaped on it by Congress.

  • edited December 2011
    Thanks for all the suggestions. The papers did get to my fund company after 6 days travel. Tracking data shows 3 to get from Michigan to KC. Another 3 spent at different "sort facilities" in KC area. Priority Mail? Holy *#!%#*!
  • Howdy hank,

    Keep in mind the nasty snow storms in the area for the past several days.
    Not many folks traveling by any means, except a snow sled.

    Catch
  • Never thought of that. Might explain it. Take care Catch.
  • Hey hank,

    You may have already seen this really new one....one presumes this fella is now an ex-employee; and not having a merry holiday.



    Take care,
    Catch
  • I've generally had good experience with USPS Priority service and it is one of the most economical and especially with Flat rate boxes available to you free of charge which is convenient and if you print label online, you get free delivery confirmation feature as well.

    It typically arrives in 3 days but sometimes it does not. USPS Priority does not frequently update tracking info. In fact, unlike competing services like UPS and Fedex, USPS does not update status at way-points. I've seen packages deliver and the status update next day.

    I've seen similar delays on USPS Ground or Fedex Ground services as well. It happens. If you have something more critical, you will need to ship with a 2-day, 1-day or overnight service but it costs more. It's a fact of life.

    USPS is an unfortunate bind. The politicians do not allow it to transform itself to a company like UPS or Fedex. It is losing money but it is not allowed to make changes to the business. Even increasing the cost of postage stamps is rejected. Their downsizing requests to save money by not delivering on Saturday is rejected. Even closing post-offices are too difficult. Given these conditions, it is no wonder it is not operating profitably.
  • edited December 2011
    Reply to @catch22: LOL Looks like a possible "return" back to Amazon. Maybe somebody's new flat screen?
  • Always liked Amazon until I bought one of these:
    http://www.amazon.com/Oreck-XL-Air-Purifer-Tower-Black/dp/B0024J5X1G/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1324578476&sr=8-17
    It was a different 3rd party seller than the one shown here. I got it and it didn't work out of the box. They suggested calling Oreck. I did, only to find out that they weren't authorized sellers and I bought the product without a warrant. I returned it at my expense and was charged a 15% restocking fee. I complained and got no satisfaction.
    They told me that the only way that I could avoid the 15% fee was to let them send me another one. I said they weren't authorized sellers and I wouldn't have any warranty. They wouldn't budge. I haven't bought anything from them since and I won't.
  • edited December 2011
    Reply to @Anonymous Ed: Sorry to hear that. I "walk" too when get p/o'd at a business. The old "fool me once ..." thing. However, I've found Amazon very easy to deal with. Have had to return just 1 item which was a $60 clock that had different finish than shown. Filed a claim on their website and immediately got authorization to return for full refund. They e-mailed a prepaid shipping label too. Full amount refunded to CC in less than a week. I'm surprised at your experience as they seem to lean over backward to keep customers happy. I don't know how long ago your problem occurred, but a "certified" letter to their corporate office might get you better results. The customer reps try their best, but probably don't have much latitude in such matters. Also, thanks for the imput on my original post. I have used overnight mail when really critical. In this case, moving some funds to Oakmark and extra few days not likely to make much difference.
  • Reply to @Anonymous: Ed, the way to deal with 3rd party is to return the product to Amazon (not to the seller directly) using the standard Amazon return processing.

    Amazon provides prepaid return labels and will work for you to refund. If you interact with 3rd party yourself, it is a hit and miss.
  • My recent USPS experience is it took them 12 days to deliver two 1st Class Certified mailings (return receipt requested) - both destinations less than 12 miles away from origin, or about 1 mile per day.
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