Mr. Spadoni 

My Planet Bike light died Monday. Emailed them and they offered me a replacement despite the age of the light. Why sure, why not? ! They sent me a new one Tuesday via USPS. It made it to my door in under 48 hrs.
PB has always had good service, but the PO? And during the week before Christmas? They must be trying to get on Santa’s nice list.

SurferRosa

Depends on where you live. I have great service up here in north Seattle. I love my postal workers! But I do hear negative stories from other parts of the country.

And is @Lascauxcaveman working in this capacity for us this holiday season? What up! Haven't heard from him since my favorite hotel closed.

Lascauxcaveman 

Hey, Bill, thanks for remembering me. It's true I've kind of fallen off the face of the cycling earth. I'm working some insane hours (typically 70-75 hrs/wk as a rural route driver) and somehow managing to stay sane. I doubt I've cycled more than 50 miles this year, much less spent any time online with my cycling friends. But in my old RHD Subaru wagon (bought it just when I started with USPS) I've done over 20,000, so that counts for something? With the mileage allowance, that car has paid for itself, fuel, tires, and all its repairs twice over this year. And the kind of overtime you rake in when you're doing 70+ hrs/wk is substantial. So, at this point, I love my job, if just for mercenary reasons.

I have to admit, it's also kinda fun sometimes too, especially when the weather is nice.



Yes, it's a RHD Subie, made in Lafayette, IN

Lascauxcaveman 

Also, I might add, if you're getting poor service from USPS, it helps to remember that the boys and girls doing the "last mile" stuff are all human and make mistakes, sometimes from carelessness, or a bad attitude/bad day thing. Also possibly from overwork (did I mention that I personally am doing this stuff sometimes 75 hrs/wk? I did mention that, I think.) . My co-workers are not too far behind me, in that respect. But I'm the guy who never says "no," so I'm somewhere near the top earners in our shop.

Also, the last-mile guy is very unlikely to have been the guy who smashed the box or otherwise damaged your shipment. We just deliver what they send us; in whatever condition it is when we get it. A lot of stuff can happen in transit; of course we have no control over that.



"Neither rain, nor.." I forget how the rest of the slogan goes.

SurferRosa

^ You the man!

"Literally"?

robertj298

I delivered mail for 36 years and up until the past couple years the service had been great With new Postmaster
and COVID the service took a big hit. The postmaster trying to cut back on costs at the cost of service along
with COVID. I believe the plan of the last administration was to hamstring the service to make it easier to
privatize .The past few months things are seeming to improve though.

scarlson 

Ah man, three of my things via USPS have been late this past week! Some folks have all the luck. But it's ok, they are presents from me to me (secondhand Ortliebs!!), and it doesn't matter when they arrive.

The packages were held up at the local distribution hub in New Hampshire for a couple days, so of course I don't blame my carrier. The other day, raining cats and dogs, I met him on the street as I was hopping on my bike for the commute, and told him I liked his hat. We had a little chat, but he wouldn't take any of my Christmas cookies.

badger_biker 

I never carried but am retired with 35+ years with USPS and I appreciate the general respect members of this forum have for the USPS. Perhaps it is because cyclists know how much work every extra mile means and understand the effort it takes carriers to make their route every day no matter the conditions. I’m saddened by the drop in the delivery standards under the current PMG but it isn’t the fault of the employees on the front lines.

BTinNYC

In North Queens, NYC, and our USPS is excellent.

CliffordK

nomadmax 

It's easy to be fast when you use EPO

Lascauxcaveman 

If I had any time to ride anymore, I might actually look for one of those in my size. Even if they are super ugly.

cjenrick

i got a tire from the UK in three days, free shipping,

wrong size but it got here quick.

Germany_chris

Working for .mil overseas USPS is my only option for stuff coming from the states and they can get stuff to me from the west coast in 6 days

canklecat

USPS performance is often determined at the most local level, which is why we hear such varying reports of customer satisfaction. Of course I'm biased -- I've had family and neighbors who worked for the post office, starting with my great grandfather who was postmaster of our rural town waaay back when. And a cousin has been with the post office for a few years now.

With the exception of a couple of years, around 2012-2014 in my neighborhood, I've never been dissatisfied with postal service anywhere I've lived in the US.

But around 2012-2014 our service declined dramatically. Best I could gather from veiled comments from the postmaster, substitute letter carriers and the national ombudsman, there was a problem with the permanent letter carrier for our route. Based on a handful of interactions with that letter carrier, I'd guess she was the problem. Terrible attitude, often falsified delivery attempts (witnessed by tenants who waited in the lobby to watch her at the inside mailboxes), and rather than delivering to my door (we're all inside facing apt units) per delivery instructions, she might leave packages in the mailroom for someone else to deliver, might leave it in the office (some apt managers dislike this, some don't mind), might claim we weren't home, might send someone to ask me to come pick up my own package from the back of her truck. We had outdoor locker boxes but she'd never use them. Too much trouble to walk the packages to the locker boxes, remove the key and place it in our regular letter sized boxes.

Eventually she retired, resigned or was reassigned, I don't know which. But after a period of about a year with various temp substitutes (and varying delivery service quality), we got a new permanent carrier who's still with us. And she's an angel. Seriously, she's like a character from a Hallmark holiday movie, the gregarious letter carrier who knows everyone and always has a smile.

A couple of companies I buy supplements from use USPS rather than UPS or FedEx (suits me, FedEx is uniformly awful). One uses first class package shipping, which is their "free" shipping option. It only estimates delivery within 5 business days, but in actual practice it's usually 2-3 days. The other uses priority mail, and also usually arrives within 2-3 days.

Most purchases I've made from BF members for bike components and wheels have arrived promptly via USPS. A couple of wheelsets might have taken 5-7 days. Most arrived in 3-5 days.

gearbasher

Another retired P.O. worker here. 33 yrs. as a mechanic (mostly conveyors) and Electronic Tech.. This was NYC. Believe me, I've seen it all. You won't believe what people throw in the mail.

cranky old road 

The wife is now retired as a Rural Carrier on the sandy cattle trails of South Carolina. Although it attained 500,000 miles on the route, her 1997 RHD Subaru Legacy still travels to the recycling center. every couple of weeks. I kept the Subaru running for the years after it came off warranty.and worked briefly as a Rural Carrier Substitute myself, fully expectng my Postmaster to have someone lashed to a post for whipping when I returned someday..

Mr. Spadoni 

And the USPS ends the year with another win! Bought some cranks from Otto Rax ( more on that at the end) and he put them in the mail Monday afternoon. In Maine.
Tracking number said I’d have it by Thursday evening. Never happen, I thought. Keep watching and while I could see that the package was headed in the direction of the correct Portland, there were no updates for two days. Then this morning, USPS said I’d get it by 4 today. Then between 2 and 3. At 2.30 a box was sitting on my porch. 3 days coast to coast!

and as a bonus..Otto Rax said a gift would be included with purchase. Two gifts came along with the cranks. A rear derailleur that I will soon use and an HCW 11. Never knew that there was such a tool, but it fits the slotted adjustable cups I’ve been working on lately ! A holiday surprise that will save my knuckles!