USPS puzzlers

[Kev Williams]

If I send mail during the week- priority or first class- it normally takes 2-3 days to get to the east coast. But almost always takes at least 3 days to get to the west coast.
---I'm 800 miles from the west coast...

If I send the same mail on Saturday, it almost always gets to the east coast by Monday. West coast, Tuesday...


And if what I'm shippig is less than 13 ounces, I will NOT pay for priority mail, I've come the conclusion priority is NO faster than first class.

And last Tuesday, this one ticked me off...

I sent identical parts, in identical USPS "tubes", to 2 places:
One went to a city in Michigan, 1665 miles from me. I sent it priority mail, it got delivered on Thursday.
The other went to Arkansas, 1313 miles from me. I sent it priority EXPRESS. It got delivered on Friday...
--I (or my customer, rather), paid $25 extra for 3-day 'express' mail...

And with FedUps taking 5-6 days ground to move 2/3 across the country and charge more for it-- There just is no 'good' way to ship these days.

Ya pays ya money, and takes ya chances...

[Curt Harms]

Well Kevin, don't feel too bad. I was sending stuff to and from central New Jersey, about 65 miles by road. It took 3 days + for USPS to get first class mail between those two points and that wasn't a one time thing. When I asked I was told "Oh no, that's overnight service". Oh no, it's not. I told the people if they were sending anything time critical, send it via FedEx overnight. That seems stupid but if you want reasonably reliable ........... OTOH I've sent stuff to Phoenix and it took 2 days.

[Tim Hoyt]

Well figure this one out. I'm desperatly awaiting some parts from Atlanta (less than 200 miles from my home in Clyde NC). I checked the tracking from USPS. It left Atlanta and went to Greenville SC, good! From there went to Asheville Nc, good! From there went back to Greenville SC, bad! Package was at Clyde PO this morning, I have my fingers crossed.

[Robert Hartmann]

Not that I'm whining...I'm stationed in the Netherlands. Priority mail takes about 5-7 days from anywhere in the US and ground takes 4-6 weeks. Priority goes primarily to Chicago where it goes by air where ground goes to New Jersey and by boat. I always hate to see New Jersey because not only does it take 4-6 weeks, but the tracking stops at that point.

[Bill McNiel]

Try sending anything, by any means, to Hawaii.

[Rich Riddle]

I am often bewildered by delivery times. I sent a couple watches first-class mail from Cincinnati to Utah. They arrived in two days. I sent a watch by priority mail to a city about 200 miles from Cincinnati (central Illinois). It took three full days. There is little/no logic with the USPS. Tracking doesn't kick in until late in the evening or early the next morning. No business would operate this way.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

A customer and I learned the hard way about USPS Express. Everything indicated it would be delivered the next morning. It didn't. It arrived 2 days later during the normal delivery. When I called USPS about it, I was told that not all destinations do Express deliveries. They arrive in the normal scheduled delivery. There is no way a customer would find out which destinations do not do express delivery until they have already paid for express and discovered it was not delivered according to the schedule. There was no refund available either.

While totally unrelated to Express Delivery, one thing to keep in mind is how many USPS hubs have closed down. If I mail something to someone else in town, it can take up to 5 days before they receive it. It's because even if I drop it off at the PO in town, ALL the mail ships 40-some miles to a mail sorting hub and eventually comes back to town to be sorted again for delivery.

For my shipping, West Coast always seems to take longer - especially CA. East Coast arrives faster - especially FL.

[Bert Kemp]

and we wonder why its broke

I am often bewildered by delivery times. I sent a couple watches first-class mail from Cincinnati to Utah. They arrived in two days. I sent a watch by priority mail to a city about 200 miles from Cincinnati (central Illinois). It took three full days. There is little/no logic with the USPS. Tracking doesn't kick in until late in the evening or early the next morning. No business would operate this way.

[Bert Kemp]

I live in the last town in the county next to the boarder for Maricopa County in which Phoenix lies. All most all my incoming mail comes to the Phoenix Main PO then is sent out to the county were its has to be delivered. The mail truck drives right past my PO and 75 miles north to my counties PO the put back on a truck and drivin back 75 miles to my PO for delivery all this wasted time and money for what. How hard would it be to sort the mail by PO's and drop it off at the local PO's along the way. A Package from the east coast gets to phoenix in 2 days sometimes one day but take 2 to 3 more days before it gets to me,

[Stephen Tashiro]

And if what I'm shippig is less than 13 ounces, I will NOT pay for priority mail,

I heard a third-hand story , supposedly originating with an employee of the post office, that priority mail and regular mail are shipped together in the same trucks and planes. As far as the employee could discern, there was no difference in how the two types of mail were shipped. Of course, he didn't have an overview of the entire shipping process.

[Myk Rian]

I can order a cheap item from China, and it takes 5 days to get here, for free.

[Brad Adams]

I live in a town of about 3900 people. If I send an invoice to someone I worked for that lives two blocks away, it gets sent 40 miles away to get sorted, then comes back to town to get delivered. Must be cheaper than sorting mail in all the small post offices????

[Brian Elfert]

I guess I've had a lot better luck with USPS than many of you. My Priority Mail shipments always show up in two days. Even first class packages are pretty quick.

I hate getting UPS ground or Fedex ground packages from southern California as they generally take five business days or more.

[Brian W Smith]

Small,country PO here...everyone knows your name.Heck I take them a cpl chocolate pies(home made crusts) a year.Anyway,we must be a geographical oddity,2-3 days from every where.

Post master asks the pkg destination,then tells us the best value.As posted above std vs express.We ship by std about half the time,still...2 or 3 days.Dunno,could be the pies?

[Curt Harms]

I live in a town of about 3900 people. If I send an invoice to someone I worked for that lives two blocks away, it gets sent 40 miles away to get sorted, then comes back to town to get delivered. Must be cheaper than sorting mail in all the small post offices????

Some post offices around here have two slots, one for same zip mail, another for non-local. Others have only one slot. I'm sure there's logic in some bureaucrat's mind to this system. I have found that if I hand deliver mail going to a local address at some post offices the person at the counter will stamp it and place it directly in the recipient's box.