U.S. Postal Service: salvageable or doomed?

I've had a couple of packages from Japan (to MN) get stuck at the International Service Center in Chicago. This site is apparently a bit of a black hole right now. One has been waiting there a week, which based on what I read elsewhere could end up being months. It made it most of the way surprisingly quickly (two days!) and now it's just sitting there.

Yeah, I've not had anything international shipped to me lately, but I've heard that the ISC in Chicago is a horrific for being a black hole for months on end. I hope yours doesn't end up sitting there too long.

FWIW, there's been a significant improvement in mail delivery here lately. Thank you, USPS, I take it all back.

Yeah, Chicago customs has held up some international packages (via DHL) - they never get scanned out, they just sit there for 2-3 weeks then show up at my door one day.

They, uh, do hope to keep existing as an entity, right?

You should demand to speak to the Post Office's manager.

I had a package sent to me July 17 from Chicago, and it's taken the following route:

Chicago -> Des Moines -> Jersey City -> Memphis, TN -> Jersey City

I'm hoping to have it by the weekend.

Oh damn. I just ordered something off of discogs and it turns out the seller was from Chicago. I guess that explains why it's been sitting in limbo for 4 days.

Re: Chicago, orders from Dusty Groove to me on the East Coast do okay?

On the "salvageable" side, no mail disruptions in Wisconsin as far as I can see. USPS just keeps chugging along doing the things I need it to do.

xpost If they don't hit the Chicago black hole distribution center, they might be okay. And even then they're sometimes fine, but I did have a package sit there for about a month and a half once.

yesterday a parcel sent from alabama in jan arrived at my flat in east london (UK), six months almost to the day

given up as fully lost months ago: enquires in april to postal services on both sides of the atlantic got nowhere (i mean ppl were friendly and helpful but said "we have no idea where it's got to") (tbf adding "that's doesn't mean there's no hope")

so that was a nice surprise

I had an issue last week (well, I guess I still have an issue) that was like a three-way fuck-up, of which I was one of the guilty parties. I should've been more vigilant about okaying their update, but eBay 'helpfully' 'corrected' my address on two packages such that they were delivered to a similar street address the next town over. Except that my address has an apartment number and this other address is just a house. I contacted that town's post office to see if they could maybe retrieve these things but they seemed disinterested at best. So I assume they're just gone forever.

I'll take the brunt of the blame on this one. But it's still frustrating that they are (or were) somewhere a couple miles away and are apparently irretrievable.

Ebay did that to me 20 years ago, so I wrote a letter to the address begging them to send me my stuff and included some cash for postage, and they actually sent me my stuff!

iirc it was a massive Soviet-style "great coat" that I never wore once and gave to goodwill a decade later

I'm wondering if COVID is hitting again or what, but we're back to mail delivery maybe twice a week, if we're lucky. Got mail last week Tuesday, then again today, nothing in between at all.

I took advantage of the erratic mail delivery by painting my front steps.

I’m not in Chicago but just when I thought things were returning to normal I have an important first class mail piece MIA that was mailed just 50 miles away from me. In the past there really wasn’t a thing as “lost in the mail” but now…

Oh damn. I just ordered something off of discogs and it turns out the seller was from Chicago. I guess that explains why it's been sitting in limbo for 4 days.

― peace, man, Friday, July 30, 2021 6:47 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

This took over two weeks to arrive. Around the same time, it took an equal length to receive a package from Greece.

I’ve recently sent things via media mail from upstate NY to Maine, and they arrived the next day — would normally take 2-3 days at least. A friend wondered if deliberate slowdowns only happen with first class mail, figuring not enough people use media mail so why bother slowing that down?

yeah i sell a book on ebay about 1x/month and routinely get things across the country in 2 days

^ ^ ^ This is demonstrably true, from my experience using media mail to send out publications and such. Everything I send first class takes a week or two, and media mail takes three days max, even when going to places across the country. It doesn't make much sense, in some way, but my main use of the USPS is sending publications, so I'm okay with it on my end.

At the same time, I ordered a t-shirt three weeks ago from an acquaintance, and it hasn't arrived yet. I'm out twenty bucks, so not a huge deal, but I also don't want to ask him to send another because a) he can't as it was a limited edition shirt, and b) his dad just passed away.

my last book was just delivered in michigan 46 hours after i mailed it from MD! if anything it's improved. i thought media mail was supposed to be slow. it's weird.

That's very weird. I currently mail CDs first class with a tracking number, because I can print the shipping labels at home; if I want to use media mail, I have to get in line. But if the time difference is that substantial, I may have to start using media mail.

i have printed media mail labels from ebay but the issue with that is you have to rely on USPS to actually pick up from the blue boxes every day, which they don't always do now. i just try to get to the p.o. around 10 am when there's no line.

harbl, if you already have the labels printed and postage is paid for, you should be able to just run up to a window and give them the mail. that's what i do.

I currently mail CDs first class with a tracking number,

Media mail has tracking. All of the records I sent in the last couple of years had tracking numbers on the receipt.

xp i know but i don't actually have a printer at home, i used to steal office resources to do it when i had an office

Oh! I see. Yeah, I need a printer for work and I've always done a fair amount of working from home (teacher, etc), but since the pandemic started, I've been putting my home printer through some serious jobs lol.

i bought a $100 brother laser printer in february 2020 when i felt ill winds blowing and it has been a lifesaver for discogs shipping.

in my neighborhood in queens the USPS "schedule a pickup" feature works near-flawlessly and i haven't been to the post office in a year and a half, i think people don't bother trying but it's super effective (ime)!

Media mail has tracking. All of the records I sent in the last couple of years had tracking numbers on the receipt.

Yeah, but I can't select media mail as an option from my usps.com business account, only first class or Priority. And I don't have time to stand in line. I print the labels and package everything at home and just run inside, drop all the envelopes down the chute, and go.

I...would strongly suggest changing to an Endicia account. It's what everyone I know who does a lot of mailing of books and records uses. And you can do media mail on it.

Thanks for the tip; I'll check it out!

Of course! One of my dearest friends is an antiquarian book and rare record dealer, so he's filled me in on his processes.

Ordered a t-shirt. Got a notification that it was delivered in our mailbox Thursday at 6:08pm, but there was no mail at all that day. Got a second notification from the shipper that night at 10pm or so that it had been delivered, but still nothing in the box. The next day, Friday, we got two small packages via USPS, left on the porch, but nothing in the mailbox. I know that mail carriers sometimes scan things before they actually drop them off, so that they may show as "delivered" an hour or so before they show up, but to scan anything as delivered *days* before it's actually delivered (assuming the package is ever delivered)? That's just not cool.

re: the media mail discussion above, if you don't want to create an account with another service, and you already have a Paypal account, you can print labels here (and media rate is one of the options).

https://www.paypal.com/shiplabel/create/

Xpost that happened to me once but with an entire order of contact lenses that I desperately needed. I raised a big fuss as I thought they were lost for a day

Monday I went to the post office to tell them I got a delivery confirmation Thursday night for a package I never received. The worker (mask on chin, eating from a bag of candy at 10:45 in the morning) asked for my ID and went in the back for five minutes. She came back to tell me there was nothing there for me. I told her I was home and waiting for the package when it was supposedly delivered, and would have heard it delivered. She suggested it was stolen from our porch. I told her that we not only never received it, we received *no* mail that day. She just shrugged. Meanwhile, the place I ordered from told me they were not responsible for lost or stolen items, and that the only information they have is what the post office tells them.

Oh, well. I hope the mail carrier opens my package before they set it all on fire somewhere. They'll get a cool Low t-shirt.

:(

Sounds like you have a shitty local office. The few times something like this has happened to me, I'll complain to USPS Help on Twitter and I'm getting a phone call from the local office manager within hours. Just saying try Twitter if you're not ready to give up.

Yeah, I'll try that. My wife suggested I even consider just asking a different person at the post office, one who maybe gives slightly more of a shit.

esp best to get nipped in the bud now cos wait til it's something like medication that doesn't show up (which happened to my mother not long ago)

I received a note from our letter carrier late last week that they tried to deliver a package and we weren't there, but they couldn't leave it because $5 in postage was due so I had to pick it up. I've never encountered this.

Based on the address, I realized that my sister mailed me a birthday present and contacted her. She had delivery tracking on the package, contacted the PO, and determined that the postage had fallen off the package! They were able to honor the postage based on the delivery tracking and the package was delivered this week, but that's a new one for me.

My old (and more reliable) mail delivery person once asked me for a dime so that he could hand me an envelope that had insufficient postage on it lol

Still waiting on that t-shirt, assuming it's lost forever. Also still waiting on a very expensive book order from the UK that was mailed 2+ weeks ago.

My friend the rare record and book dealer told me a story just yesterday— he had some original 1971 Allman Brothers Band posters in mint condition. They go for ~$750+ a piece. So he packaged them expertly, and sent them off 2-3 day priority with insurance.

Two of the posters took 13 days, and the other took 9— and that latter one was traveling from Philadelphia, PA, to Red Bank, NJ, which is a two hour drive.

Those are the ones that get me, where I would have had time to walk to the postal facility in question and back a few dozen times before the package ever arrived.

My shirt showed up on my front steps today, almost a full week after I was notified it was delivered. Best case scenario, I've got to assume it got misdelivered and finally made its way back to me.

Had a package of Canadian eye medicine left on my porch, meant for someone with same house number but completely different street. The package had the correct recipient's phone number, so called her a few times and she came by to grab it, two days after it'd been delivered. A day after that, I was luckily home when PO delivery guy rang bell looking to track it down. He was happy it'd made its way to the right person. Gave me a little more faith that they're aware of and trying to rectify any errors.

Fucking great. Why the fuck can't the board just oust this waste of human skin.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/usps-advances-dejoy-s-plan-make-mail-delivery-permanently-slower-n1280337

At this point I can only assume the board has no desire to oust him and he's here for the long haul.

Tbh it's these sorts of things even more than the "more visible" stuff that has convinced me that this country is utterly fucked. The one thing we did well, gone to shit so some absolutely craven Mr. Clean looking motherfucker can line his pockets. Sickening.

My cynicism tells me the rest of the board figured out how to also line their pockets with him running things, so they don't gaf.