Can we revive the Pony Express?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

My wife and I desire little. So when she told me to order an automatic dust level sensor kit from Oneida for my 3 HP Super Gorilla as a Christmas present I jumped on it.

They shipped it on November 30, 2015....3-Day Priority Express via USPS. Earlier this week I contacted Oneida and they provided a tracking number.

According to the research I could find, the Pony Express operated 18 months in 1860-1861. It reduced the delivery time for small packages, letters and newspapers to about 10 days coast to coast.

Tracking my kit, it took 9 days to get to Aurora, CO from Syracuse, NY.

It arrived and departed today from near Seattle. I hope to have it by Christmas......

[David Helm]

Wow! That seems like an overly long time. My experience with priority package mail is an average of three days.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

We normally have pretty good luck with Priority Mail too. But earlier this year, I had another package via Priority Express do the same thing.

[Larry Frank]

That is a shame having to wait for it. I have had good luck with priority mail. I really like my mailman and make certain he gets a nice cash Christmas present....it really help getting my packages and not having them left in the weeds.

[Matt Day]

I've had a dozen or so packages get delayed over the years through USPS. Many times it gets stuck (lost I think) at a sorting facility for days or even weeks until they find it. It's frustrating that you cant do anything about it and recieve no sort of compensation for their delay and errors.

But with every package I seem to forget about it once it's finally in my hands! Human nature I think.

10 days coast to coast on horseback? That's impressive.

[Howard Garner]

10 days coast to coast on horseback? That's impressive.

I believe that was the Missouri river to Sacramento at the start. And the distance got shorter the further the railroads built (UP & CP)

[Greg R Bradley]

Missouri River to Sacramento in 10 days on horseback sounds pretty wimpy. In the Race Across America, they do the actual Pacific Ocean (or very close) to the Atlantic Ocean (or very close) on a bicycle in 8-9 days. Typically about 3,000 miles. That is total elapsed time including any stops.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Greg.....I am not sure they are Federal employees.

[Greg R Bradley]

Its just amazing. The best of the four mailmen that deliver to one of my businesses is unbelievably lazy but at least delivers the mail to the correct business and is friendly. He goofs off about one third of the day and keeps going back to the businesses that have attractive receptionists. He wastes close to an hour a day at just one nearby business. And that is the best of them.

In the last year I have had to struggle over and over just to get mail delivered correctly to a business that has been at the same location for 36 years. Just last month the mail person returned all mail addressed to one business as "not at this address" for most of a month. Same location, same business for 36 years. We even added labels to the mailboxes with each person's name and the business name a few years ago. Imagine a business that has to endure all legitimate business mail including statements, invoices, and checks all returned to the sender for about 3 weeks. Many thousand of dollars wasted sending people to physically retrieving checks addressed to us and improperly returned to sender. Hours wasted getting vendors to fax us invoices that were improperly returned.

We have to watch for the mailman each day because we have to try to prevent them from hiding important mail in the wrong places. They will leave mail in boxes that have no tenants and then nobody can get it as they are locked. Employees have to drop what the are doing when the mail person is in the area to try to keep them from destroying that business through their incompetence. I have four different buildings in that business complex but have all mail delivered to one address. The other boxes have Post Office official "do not deliver to this address" cards inside. We have to regularly check those other three boxes because the will leave mail in them several time per month.

One day a few months ago, I recognized the labeling on a box that we were expecting when the mailman parked in between my front door and the next business. She went to the next business. I stopped her before she finished opening the door and said "that is mine". She argued with me, looked at the address on the box, which was my business name and my address. She then looked at the door in front of her that had a different business name and their address and insisted on delivering it to them. They signed for it and handed it to me. It was a critical item and fortunately they are my customer so I was able to retrieve my property.

UPS and Fedex have their problems but we just don't dare use USPS for anything worth much and would have to make sure that is replaceable.

Its just incredible. The pleasant one that actually gets the mail to the correct places is about to retire............ It's going to get worse.

[Curt Harms]

SWMBO bought something on Ebay from a seller in Oklahoma. We live in S.E. PA. The package had a nice stay in Puerto Rico for a few days enroute . Another package from Texas took 2 weeks+ to arrive. It spent several days in a Dallas sort facility - had to go to some sort of address correction unit. When we finally received it - seemingly with the original Ebay/Pitney Bowes generated label - the address looked 100% correct. In fairness USPS handles a LOT of packages and deliver the vast majority without incident. Those few exceptions sure do make for LOLs though. If I ship something where I need to be sure of the delivery schedule I use FedEX or UPS.

[Rick Moyer]

I sometimes order cigars (in-state, 2 hrs. away) and they ship UPS, I get them the next day. This time I also ordered a "grab bag" of four lighters along with my cigars. Well apparently these grab bag lighters may or may not contain some fuel so they have to ship USPS. I ordered Saturday (one week) and they apparently are on some post office loading dock somewhere yet, tracking only shows initial "pre-shipment info sent to USPS". I was told they can take up to three weeks! Have to be hand-sorted by PO.
I don't care when the lighters get here, but I don't appreciate my fine cigars sitting somewhere for over a week (so far) under who-knows-what conditions. I mostly blame the shipper for sending this in one shipment, knowing the situation. I had no idea these lighter "might" contain fuel or I would have placed two separate orders. We'll see how the cigars are when they get here. Bottom line: if you want something quickly you're better off specifying the carrier.

[Mike Henderson]

I've gotten a lot of stuff through USPS and never had a problem. Priority mail packages (sent and received) seem to get to the destination in the proper amount of time. Don't know how it will be for the holidays, however. I avoid shipping at this time of year.

Mike

[Dennis Peacock]

General Reminder:
This is not a thread to bash delivery services. I'm sure that none of us would want to get out there and handle accurately and without mistake millions of packages at this time of year. Let's try and give a little grace and understanding to people. Please?

[Matt Day]

Greg.....I am not sure they are Federal employees.

Good point! Lol

[Jim Koepke]

One day a few months ago, I recognized the labeling on a box that we were expecting when the mailman parked in between my front door and the next business. She went to the next business. I stopped her before she finished opening the door and said "that is mine". She argued with me, looked at the address on the box, which was my business name and my address. She then looked at the door in front of her that had a different business name and their address and insisted on delivering it to them. They signed for it and handed it to me. It was a critical item and fortunately they are my customer so I was able to retrieve my property.

If this happened to me, I would start the journey up the chain of command at the USPS.

It is against federal law to intentionally or knowingly divert mail. Maybe a criminal investigation by postal inspectors would tick off your carrier, but then again, it might get them disciplined or eliminated from the union of carriers.

There are too many people looking for jobs for letter carriers to be this disrespectful of postal customers.

jtk