USPS... Never Again
 

I'm in the middle of rebuilding my 3.0 liter MFI motor in my '72. Or I was, over a week ago, when I ordered one last little seal that I needed from our host. They got right on it, packing it and getting it to USPS in a day. I ordered it last Thursday, the 11th, and USPS had it the following day. It was supposed to be a three to four day delivery. Here it is Saturday, nine days later, and it is apparently in Denver, according to the USPS.

Their delivery notification said, for an entire week, that it would deliver this last Thursday, the 18th by 9:00 pm. Then, at 9:00, it changed to showing my package in San Antonio. I live just north of Seattle. The first day, it claims the package was in LA, so at least on the right track. But San Antonio? From Carson, CA to Seattle? It sat in San Antonio for two days, until yesterday. Then it went to, of all places, Dallas, where it spent a day before making its way to Denver. That is apparently where it sits right now, nine days later on a 3-4 day delivery. I'll be lucky to see it Monday or Tuesday.

I thought I had ordered it in plenty of time, a full week plus a day or two before I needed it, especially with a promise of three to four day delivery. Apparently not.

I've "learned" this lesson before, but apparently it didn't stick. It was the cheapest shipping by far (one third of the next option), and I figured I had plenty of time. I will never make this mistake again. It certainly "stuck" this time.

Protected jobs held by lazy, incompetent, stupid people who simply feel as though they do not have to care. There are other options. I will use them in the future. I hope enough people give up on the Post Office to send those people all to the unemployment lines, then to the counters of the McDonald's and Burger Kings where they belong.

Nothing to add other than I feel your pain. If a vendor says they only ship via USPS I look for a different vendor.

That’s rough.


I would order another after a day or two. You can always refuse usps and they “return to sender” at no cost if unopened.


Usps is very understaffed. **** job at low pay (compared to private)… but they excel at delivering the package (on a long enough timeline).

If they were up front about the fact that it was going to be darn near two weeks, I would have paid for UPS or Fed Ex up front. The problem was that they promised 3-4 day shipping, and their shipping status consistently said "Thursday before 9:00 pm". Until Thursday at 9:01 pm, when it updated to show the darn thing in San Antonio. Now it's left Denver. I figure Monday or Tuesday at this point, so even if I ordered a new one and picked some form of expedited shipping, the one from Denver would probably still beat it. Unless the next update shows Ulaanbaatar or somewhere like that.

Worldpac? Might be in stock locally.

There is a "rule" that applies to every shipping company, all of them!

If you don't need it for a month, it will get there really fast. The more you need it, the more delays and screw-ups, and unexplained delays. If it is vital, it will be lost.

We have a roll of processed aerial film getting shipped to us via Fed-Ex overnight, first AM as soon as possible as it was a project we flew and out client was jumping up and down wanting it delivered. It was a project we could not refly as the dirt work had begun and the area was changed.

Fed-Ex had not delivered it by even 10:00 AM so we called and asked where is our package. They said it was delivered. I said I got to work at 7:00 AM and they had not been here. They showed it was delivered to the wrong address in a very bad part of town, and we could go get it. I lost it, and explained I could not leave and they needed to bring it to us NOW. Finally a manager got in her personal car, found it on a front porch, with no one home and no signature, and it was shipped signature required. We got it late, and they balked at refunding the shipping cost for failure to deliver on time.

I understand you being upset.

I had a package delivered Friday. Right on time even with the Blue Screen of Death mess. Delivery was a couple of hours later than normal. Mailman said it had been a hell of a day.

I don't order much for delivery. I can't remember ever having a really late package from any service.

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Who you gonna switch to? Do a forum search with FedEx or UPS in the title. They all have problems from time to time.

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Didn't you go through this the other week, too?

USPS used to be as cheap as chips to get stuff from the US to New Zealand. Not anymore so I tend to go DHL.

If it's not here by Tuesday, maybe we can give that a shot. It's the same seal we're talking about on the engine building forum, for the MFI drive.

Kinda sorta, but not quite. That one was entirely on Pelican. They split my order, shipping everything but the cylinder base gaskets, on which they missed their shipping estimate by threefold. Just getting them out of their own warehouse. When I called to inquire, very politely, their "customer service" rep hung up on me. When I called back, the next rep was very helpful, and explained the delay to my satisfaction. The base gaskets arrived in plenty of time to support my build, so that, in the end, was not a big deal. I think they went Fed Ex.

I guess I've been lucky, as USPS service to my rural address is outstanding - notably better than FedEx or UPS.

_

Canada post used to be like this but Amazon has forced them to get their 5hit together. I still have had great luck with USPS. I sent a $1XXXX box of suspension parts to a race school near Monterey from Sweetgrass, MT last year and watched it with tracking all the way to the customer’s door step on a Saturday. I was as nervous because it wasn’t insured for the full value but was happy (and relieved) when it got there and I followed up with a phone call to ensure they had it.

Yep, I'm in the sticks. For me, USPS is very good. UPS is also very good. If one is lagging behind, it's FedEx. And 99% of my deliveries are USPS. Probably .7% of the remaining deliveries are UPS with the last .3% being Fedex. I'd say that Fedex predicts the delivery date incorrectly at least 75% of the time. (all of these numbers have been very scientifically generated by my gut/butt)

I've had issues with all of them, but I don't sweat the 1 issue out of 100 or 200. It sucks, but it can happen with pretty much anyone and any thing.

Occasional screw-ups happen to all of them. FedEx parked a recent shipment of mine in Texas for several days, no idea why.

Let's all go back to when the cheap shipping option was the railroad. That'll teach us.

My experience has been the opposite. USPS outperforms the others by a wide margin. YMMV.

The auto parts distribution industry is mind-blowing. They seem able to deliver anything to John, often same day or, at the very least, next day. I once stood at the counter of my favorite German car shop with a 911 flywheel on the counter and decided to replace it. This was around 5:00 on a Friday. The replacement was on a shelf in California. I held the new one in my hand the following morning.

The last box I shipped back to Virginia via USPS was 25lbs of quilts.
They said it was going to take close to a week. That was on a Tues if I recall.
I was notified by my wife that it arrived that Saturday, three days early.
I'm not going to complain.

Today an Amazon order was supposed to be delivered. USPS said they couldn't access my front door or driveway. Seriously? I expect this is the excuse anytime they don't want to deliver.

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