I've been a faithful customer of USPS my entire life. Always thought it was good to support them, they seem like an underdog to me.
No more.
I ordered two tweeters from Madisound on DECEMBER FIRST and they're still in Wisconsin, over two weeks later.
My package has average 0.27 miles per hour over the last 15 days.
No more.
I ordered two tweeters from Madisound on DECEMBER FIRST and they're still in Wisconsin, over two weeks later.
My package has average 0.27 miles per hour over the last 15 days.
Yep.
As I understand it, the USPS is just completely fubar lately.
Even the tracking info is completely bogus.
I received a notification that the package would be arriving six days ago, and I actually canceled some plans hoping to work on the speaker over the weekend. Two days later, I got a notification that completely backtracked on the original delivery date (which was already 4+ days late.)
As I understand it, the USPS is just completely fubar lately.
Even the tracking info is completely bogus.
I received a notification that the package would be arriving six days ago, and I actually canceled some plans hoping to work on the speaker over the weekend. Two days later, I got a notification that completely backtracked on the original delivery date (which was already 4+ days late.)
Could be pandemic too. Over here, Canada Post had big struggles to transform to social distancing protocols. It affected tracking as well; depending on the delivery terms, "delivered" could mean the letter carrier had it in his/her possession. All transparent and written on the website though.
I sold some amplifier parts on eBay. I mailed them November 27th. They still have not been delivered to the buyer. I spoke to the post master at his local post office in North Lima, OH. According to him, USPS is entirely overwhelmed -- inundated nation-wide by unprecedented demand.
He said parcel mail is up 33% from last year, and the processing of "holiday mail" (cards) is blowing away anything he's seen.
The post office he's in charge of gets its mail from a distribution center in Youngstown, OH. Mail is arriving at that center faster than it can be processed. So, according to him, there is a 30+ tractor trailer back-log of mail waiting to be sorted there. The situation is similar or worse elsewhere.
Basically, they are understaffed and facing unprecedented demand do to the pandemic -- people are mailing gifts, cards, etc. instead of visiting.
So yes, avoid USPS for the time being.
He said parcel mail is up 33% from last year, and the processing of "holiday mail" (cards) is blowing away anything he's seen.
The post office he's in charge of gets its mail from a distribution center in Youngstown, OH. Mail is arriving at that center faster than it can be processed. So, according to him, there is a 30+ tractor trailer back-log of mail waiting to be sorted there. The situation is similar or worse elsewhere.
Basically, they are understaffed and facing unprecedented demand do to the pandemic -- people are mailing gifts, cards, etc. instead of visiting.
So yes, avoid USPS for the time being.
It's widespread and not just USPS either. I purchased an extremely rare parts deck to complete the repairs on my Sony TC-KA3ES two weeks ago. It has disappeared somewhere in the UPS system and without it I am stuck. I am looking for a replacement as UPS has already indicated it is unlikely to be found.
In my experience, UPS and FedEx have adapted vastly better than Canada Post / USPS / various European postal systems to the surge of packages resulting from a) the holidays and b) the pandemic. Within this past week, I've shipped two packages to Vaughn, WA (rural area about an hour's drive from Tacoma, WA) via UPS. They both arrived overnight despite UPS's claims that it was a 2-day service. I didn't complain... 
FedEx from Mouser used to arrive overnight. Now it takes an entire day longer... I'll deal.
By contrast I've shipped stuff by Canada Post early this month that still sits in customs in San Francisco. Similarly, my Christmas present sent by my mom from Denmark on December 4th hasn't even registered as entering Canada. Who knows?! Maybe I'll get to celebrate Christmas in July.
I shipped the Christmas presents for my mom via FedEx this past Monday. The package has arrived in Köln, Germany and is scheduled to be delivered on Monday. Thanks to my commercial discount I paid about the same as I would have with Canada Post.
Interestingly, I received an email from OSH Stencils stating that they're moving to Colorado (from Utah). Part of their reason for moving was that they've had issues with their local USPS sorting facility losing their shipments. Apparently they test drove shipping from their new location before signing the lease. Oh, the joys of running a business. That's not a risk I would have factored in or foreseen in my business plan, that's for sure.
Tom
FedEx from Mouser used to arrive overnight. Now it takes an entire day longer... I'll deal.
By contrast I've shipped stuff by Canada Post early this month that still sits in customs in San Francisco. Similarly, my Christmas present sent by my mom from Denmark on December 4th hasn't even registered as entering Canada. Who knows?! Maybe I'll get to celebrate Christmas in July.
I shipped the Christmas presents for my mom via FedEx this past Monday. The package has arrived in Köln, Germany and is scheduled to be delivered on Monday. Thanks to my commercial discount I paid about the same as I would have with Canada Post.
Interestingly, I received an email from OSH Stencils stating that they're moving to Colorado (from Utah). Part of their reason for moving was that they've had issues with their local USPS sorting facility losing their shipments. Apparently they test drove shipping from their new location before signing the lease. Oh, the joys of running a business. That's not a risk I would have factored in or foreseen in my business plan, that's for sure.
Tom
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The USA is not alone in this.
Australia Post is also overwhelmed. Also too much internal political interference and some very dodgy staff/theft at the moment. Inside each state is much better than interstate.
Also some digital scanning issues and without staff to sight read addresses and redirect some mail is being sent to place other than the sorting office closest to the address, like a parcel of mine that got sent to Townsville in Queensland rather than Geelong in Victoria, machine "apparently" misread the first digit in the postcode [ A likely story to cover up incompetence locally] Sent North instead of South.
Good luck with the next 3 months fellers
Australia Post is also overwhelmed. Also too much internal political interference and some very dodgy staff/theft at the moment. Inside each state is much better than interstate.
Also some digital scanning issues and without staff to sight read addresses and redirect some mail is being sent to place other than the sorting office closest to the address, like a parcel of mine that got sent to Townsville in Queensland rather than Geelong in Victoria, machine "apparently" misread the first digit in the postcode [ A likely story to cover up incompetence locally] Sent North instead of South.
Good luck with the next 3 months fellers
At my office we overnight stuff from Mouser all the time, haven't had a problem, but we typically use FedEx.
They (snail mail) are outperforming themselves by a wide margin: a normal snail does about 0.03 miles/hour.
The pandemic has changed the shopping habits of much of the world. Black Friday, the traditional feeding frenzy at the malls in the US, was essentially canceled and driven online this year. The virus is running rampant here, and has now found it's way into rural America where it was mostly a non-event until October. The infection rate in the small county where I live is now about 5% of the population and much of that is in nursing homes and retirement centers.
All of this has driven a lot of commerce online causing a serious overload on all of the shipping systems. Here in rural America both Fedex and UPS use the USPS for "last mile" delivery, but the real killer of the USPS goes to ONE company, Amazon. There is so much Amazon traffic that it is overloading the USPS and UPS. In big cities Amazon is also using their own on-demand delivery service similar to UBER for packages.
Our mail is delivered by a contractor from Ohio in her personal car, a Honda CRV. A few days ago I saw her pull into my driveway, so I went out to claim my small box from Digikey. Her car was stuffed to the roof with boxes, and at least 75% of them had the Amazon smile on the side. She said that it takes her 3 trips back to the post office to deliver her route which can be delivered in one trip in a normal non pandemic, non holiday day.
To add to the mess, the northern US just got belted with a huge storm causing accidents on the interstate roads, so that many USPS semi trucks did not run their scheduled routes. I was expecting another parts delivery yesterday. The mail girl went past our house early yesterday as I was out shoveling snow. I stopped her on the way back out of our road. She told me that the overnight truck from Pittsburgh did not come that night due to the weather, so there was very little mail to deliver. She still had to run her complete route to pick up any outgoing mail. That means the local post office will get a huge pile of mail today.
I send all of my boards by USPS mail, and they have been more reliable than UPS over 15 years (3 packages lost, two of them in foreign countries, and two destroyed out of about 2000). I can't say much about the last few months, since board sales have gone to near zero. There were two orders for all of November, usually one of the busiest months.
A couple of weeks ago I ordered something off ebay. The seller didn't provide a tracking # but low and behold the item arrived at my front door 3 days ago in a plain Walmart plastic bag no address label just the item. Now things get interesting as now Ebay has a tracking # for this package . When I look at the tracking it reports the item is out for delivery but may be delayed because of the bad weather in Pennsylvania but the thing is I live in Tyrone Ga. not Tyrone Pa.
There is always a huge increase in USPS shipping for at least 2 weeks prior to Christmas, and often takes a week or more after that for them to catch up.
Reduced workforce and other constraints due to COVID contribute to the delays now. I suspect the impact is greater at some locations than others.
And, as others mentioned, increases in on-line buying only add to the workload.
USPS estimated that a package shipped from Illinois would be here (Washington state) by yesterday, but that was missed. However, the tracking shows that it made it to the main distribution center in Seattle. It will likely be here in the next day or so. Luckily the delivery time is not critical for this shipment.
My wife prodded me to get all of my Christmas packages in the mail during the first week of December. Thankfully, all of those beat the rush. And now for those 3 difficult words, "She was right!"
Reduced workforce and other constraints due to COVID contribute to the delays now. I suspect the impact is greater at some locations than others.
And, as others mentioned, increases in on-line buying only add to the workload.
USPS estimated that a package shipped from Illinois would be here (Washington state) by yesterday, but that was missed. However, the tracking shows that it made it to the main distribution center in Seattle. It will likely be here in the next day or so. Luckily the delivery time is not critical for this shipment.
My wife prodded me to get all of my Christmas packages in the mail during the first week of December. Thankfully, all of those beat the rush. And now for those 3 difficult words, "She was right!"