Anybody have trouble getting things shipped to you via US Postal Service? I have had some bad experiences. Bad enough that I am thinking of asking for more expensive shipping next time. I am waiting for a vintage crankset I bought off Ebay anxiously wondering if it will make my ride perfect. It started in New York and it was in Des Moines last Friday expecting to see it Saturday as that's a hundred miles south and showed to be headed to my door. I was practically waiting by the window all day. It is now in New Jersey in transit to New York. Are they kidding me?

Disgruntled customer

I'm getting stuff (Ebay) from mid-west to NE, no problem. Better call your local PO. KB

I've seen packages get halfway to my address only to return to their origin city, then after a day ship all the way normal. With how many packages are shipping nowadays there's bound to be a few slip ups, but USPS is by far the most difficult to deal with when trying to locate a missing package, at least in my experience.

FedEx does some strange-looking routings, as well, but I usually get stuff fairly promptly.

A slight deviation, but still on the topic of shipping and delivery:

I have had no problem with USPS, but some of my neighbors have reported problems with FedEx, UPS, USPS, and other shippers because of thieves who follow delivery trucks and grab packages that are left on doorsteps if no one is at home.

All of the shippers do crazy things at times. I recently had something that was sent FedEx Smartpost take 9 days to go the 50 miles from the FedEx location to my Post Office. The tracking showed that it was put on a truck for delivery to the PO 7 of the 9 days...the 2 it wasn't on a truck were a Sat and Sun.

On the other hand, the Friday before Christmas I sent a package to my Mom via USPS, which the PO said would arrive on Tue (I knew it wouldn't get there by Christmas and that was fine, it wasn't a present). It was put on her porch on Christmas morning....it had traveled 2000 miles in 2 days.

I missed a USPS package the other day. Got an email saying it was delivered so I called Amazon, who said be patient, it will show up. The infuriating thing was that I was intentionally working in my open-door garage waiting for the damned thing. And indeed, I was in the garage at the exact time they claimed delivery.

So, coincidentally, two days later I'm unloading some bikes off my car into my garage and saw a package on the floor in a totally random location. It was pure luck that I even saw it. It was the missing package.

Can't imagine what USPS was thinking to place it on the floor of the garage, when I was standing at my workbench, back-turned, four feet away, cleaning bike parts.

But doesn't begin to compare to my mail-hold with redelivery, where they delivered a bundle of mail addressed to seven or eight different destinations. The magnitude of that screwup still amazes me.

I felt bad later driving home after I posted that knowing everybody makes mistakes. I was really looking forward to having it this past weekend and I felt really let down when I tracked it again after not getting it and found it went back east. I ordered quite a bit from RoadID once but the package never came so I tracked it and it showed to be delivered. If my neighbor got it by mistake all the contents have my ID all over them so not much use to anyone else. RoadID reshipped everything again saying "lost in the mail" is common.
It will be interesting watching this package travel. I would copy the tracking here but it would take an entire page. I really want that crankset. 70's Motobecane imprinted.

I ordered some parts from Rivendell for delivery to Berea, KY. For whatever reason, my post office sent it back because they used the County road number instead of the road name. It was in Berea, just a few miles from my house and they sent it back. The very next week a Kentucky college sent something to my daughter (she is a high school senior) and used the county road number and it was delivered. Man, was I frustrated.

Stuff from Europe seems to be taking much longer than usual to get to me.
I'm still waiting for a couple of items fro Austria that were mailed out a couple of weeks before X-Mas. One first went zombie during tracking at the "pre-shipment" stage, and now seems to be stuck somewhere after it went through port of entry in N.Y., right after the New Year and another item is still at "Pre-shipment" stage since January 3......
Same thing happened to a couple of Items I purchase from BF members last month.......
Tracking is useless as it almost seem to just go from pre-shipment to delivered without any info between them.....never mind the long delays lately. Just hoping nothing gets lost for good in the system.
Had much better luck with USPS until this holiday season.......

Of all the common shippers out there, the best service I get by far is USPS. And they have attractive rates. I ship several hundred items per year via USPS, last problem I had was several years ago, and it turned out to be a bad address by the buyer, not USPS. Of course, around Christmas, everything slows down.

As far as tracking, most people who use USPS pay for "delivery confirmation", not tracking. So its really only accurate when the item actually delivers. The in between time information is not that accurate.

I've sold a heap of stuff on eBay and have never had a problem with the USPS and I favor supplier who use USPS. Their on-line calculator is spot on in my experience. The only exception is shipping rims/wheels where I have found FedX to be lower cost than USPS.

Dean

Talk to your post office, and to your vendor. It is possible they decided to have the package returned to sender. Was it damaged in transit? Wrong shipping amount? Bad address?

I think I had a package recently that showed shipped, then immediately back to the sender. Something wrong with the addressing. They corrected it, and re-shipped it, and it actually arrived.

I had some car parts that I was wanting to modify so I wasn't particularly concerned about the condition, but they got halfway to me, considered damaged, and returned to sender and I never saw them. I had an item that UPS brought to my house, decided not to leave it, and sent it return to sender the next day, and I never saw it again, nor could I intercept it and have it routed back to me.

One of the most bizarre packages went to Alaska. I presume a small air-only accessible town with weekly air service. So it headed up to Alaska. Stopped for a week, then was routed back to me. I never figured out what had happened. The address on the package seemed fine. Perhaps someone transcribed the zip code incorrectly.

I once USPS shipped a gem to NYC Gem cutter to be re polished. It went registered, insured- the full monte. The Cutter returned it in the same way, fully insured and registered. The package got lost in a distribution center in a town a couple of miles away from me.
When I went to collect the insurance, the USPS was horrible. They demanded explanatory letters from me and the Gem Cutter and then demanded an official appraisal on the letterhead of a prominent, unassailable appraiser.
I provided everything they asked for in triplicate. They sent me a check for the value of the work performed by the cutter in NYC. When I balked at accepting this in lieu of the original insured amount, I had to fight with the Local Postmaster for resolution. For nine long months, I called the Postmaster every week and argued with him for at least an hour at a time. He eventually relented and issued the check for the original insured amount. I have learned that smaller high value items are best shipped via FedEx or UPS. I still use the USPS to send documents or low value packages, but avoid using them otherwise.

Deal with it. It'll get there when it gets there not when you want it to get there.

Who's to say a more expensive option would be any better? FedEx ships some of their packages via USPS so......

Had a small package of special double stick tape (highest adhesion rating in the industry) shipped to me from Asia. Got all the way to port of entry in SF and it just disappeared in their system talked to a USPS rep to file a case to find it and he was supposed to call me back....that was over a year ago now, never heard back from the Dufus..... gave up...... only cost me 15 bucks.....not worth my time and I guess USPS feels the same....
Only thing I lost at USPS.....so far.
Don't get me started with UPS though, they already tried to destroy two wheelsets sent to me in the last few years!

Not really had any issues thus far in either shipping or receiving.

I've been having issues with packages coming from FL, I'm an hour from Philly and it takes 8 to 10 days for a package to get here from FL but only 4 or 5 for a similar package to get from CA to here.
I had one take almost two full weeks from FL. Its gotten so bad that I avoid buying items from FL.
The first time I thought it was just a one time deal but its been the same deal now for dozens of items.

Tracking is often worthless too, I ordered a part off eBay from a seller in Michigan, it took 9 days, the tracking showed it as in transit from the day after I paid, and still does even though the item was delivered yesterday. It shows the ETA as being 10 days from now. It was sent Priority Mail in an envelope.
I also found I've gotten a few overseas items faster than many bought from right here in the USA. It seems they can get an item from Hong Kong or Taiwan here faster than they can an item bought and shipped from FL. (The items from Hong Kong came showing all the marks, postage and forms for customs so they didn't ship from a local warehouse, yet the items bought in north FL floundered in the system for two weeks???

Have had a LOT of trouble with USPS past 3 years but UPS and FedEx aren't any better these days. I could go on for pages about the lost and damaged packages but I'll spare you all....
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I used to, but the problems -- for me -- seem resolved for the moment. My wife went to the local post office and complained to the manager when we had repeated "lost, but shown to be delivered" packages. I thought perhaps these were stolen off our porch after delivery but in the same time window we also had UPS and FedEx packages arrive with no problems. I wonder who got "chewed out" over this.

USPS is clearly, however, the slowest method.

Only significant issue with USPS is claims. Had a $900 insured item vanish, logged into system with tracking but vanished. Took months, sending documents, refusing to accept less, they actually sent a $750 check, phone calls to finally get my $900 but would not refund the $40 shipping even though there is no record it went anywhere.

Alaska for me too this past Christmas. Came all the way to Florida first, then a spent a week via Anchorage before finding its way back to Florida. It was an alloy chainring and surprisingly made it in great shape.

i have had great luck with usps. actually my only issue is when folks want a signature because i am almost never here when mail is delivered.

I called the local post office, no answer. I let it ring about five hundred times. I tracked it online and on the phone both tell me it's delayed and to keep my shirt on. I just hope it doesn't end up lost. I guess as long as it's still being tracked it isn't lost. I got my stuff from China that I ordered after the delayed part though!

I have had problems with both USPS & UPS getting stuff to me & found that it's the mail man or UPS driver that left packages at other addresses most of the time. I really despise my Mail Man and complaining to the PO has got me nowhere , delivering packages to the wrong address, leaving packages in the rain uncovered ( this is my biggest problem with him ). I like the manager of our PO, she has found a bunch of stuff that was said to be delivered but wasn't for me in the past.
I once had a package sent UPS that said it was delivered when it wasn't, I called to find out what I could do about it and got a huge run around, then about a week later I found it. Driver put it in a Car that I had for sale ( which normally was locked ) on my property, I didn't think to look there lol.

Glenn

I think half the issues with USPS shipping through ebay is the way they notify the buyer. It gets listed as shipped as soon as a shipping label is created, and that has absolutely nothing to do with when it was actually shipped out. They have it setup so the seller gets credit for 1 or 2 days shipping just by printing the label out within that time limit. I'm not sure they actually care about the delivery date at all.