Siu Blue Wind

There is so much mail and package theft around here its not even funny. Some dude tried to steal the package right in front of me.

FBOATSB 

ONLY ON 2: Postal Worker Says Many Staffers Are Coming Down With COVID-19, And It’s To Blame For Mail Delays

FBOATSB 

This report was published 12/20/20

indyfabz

Ben Franklin is turning over is his grave.

ARider2

I'm still waiting for the refurbished brake/shifter set for my old bike that was sent to me 2 weeks ago. It was due to arrive last week but I have other bikes to fix and ride so I do not mind waiting for them to arrive. I do not blame the USPS for the present situation as they are operating under circumstances that have never existed in the past. I expect the package will arrive in the next couple of weeks after the holiday shipping rush is over. In the long run the USPS will need help if it is to keep operating as we know it today.

FBOATSB 

I've sort of made the decision to put a pause on online ordering of consumer goods with the exception of food and meds. Tough when you're on "lockdown".
YMMV

coffeesnob

I guess in all fairness to the USPS Fed EX and UPS are not as stellar as they once were. They all need to step up because Amazon could start their own service outside of delivering their own Amazon parcels,

vespasianus

I believe it might be 20-50%. Not 10X.

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/23/94982...-postal-servic

horatio 

These days, I'm amazed anything is working at all.

FBOATSB 

Sure. That anecdotal 10X came from a poster above that I was responding to.
Still, 20%-50% with regional spikes much greater is still huge and has brought gridlock to the USPS.
This little tidbit is from your link:
""Compounding the Postal Service's problems is the extra burden of having to pick up the slack for private carriers — for example, when UPS stopped taking certain packages."The private carriers got overwhelmed and had a safety valve, which is to tell customers to get lost," says Mark Diamondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. "The Postal Service does not have that safety valve. The post office will never say no."

In fact, by law, the Postal Service is not allowed to do that kind of "cherry-picking," as Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., calls it.""

FBOATSB 

Porch piracy is going nuts around here as well. Probably everywhere. A lot are caught by the local gendarmerie, but it's still growing.

Marylander

Yeah, I shouldn't have mentioned it at all as I couldn't remember the exact context...

FBOATSB 

No worries here! Nitpicking in FOO somewhat bemuses me as well

JonnyHK 

The whole "Porch Pirate" thing really grates me. It's such a nasty thing to do. Criminals have no class or shame.

I always enjoy watching videos of people who prank these a holes with fake packages that have tricks or traps in them. I've seen glitter bombs, small pyrotechnics, boxes glued/fixed down, one that had an invisible line (fishing line?) securing it that ripped it out of their hands as they dashed across the lawn, speakers rigged up so the homeowner could shout things. etc.

coffeesnob

I saw one video where the Police planted a fake package on a porch and nabbed the girl as she walked down the street with the fake package

katerinakater

Every time I use usps delievery service, such **** happens. And it is not only about the slowness of their work, the last time I used this service the delievery hadn't even arrived.

ahsposo 

Well, pooh!

Say, don't you work for UPS?


(Don't you love these "individuals" that sign up for the forums just to revive an old zombie and diss or promote some weird ****?)

ahsposo 

And I suspect "they" are not even a citizen of the country that provides the service they deride. Sure doesn't look like they are typing in their first language - which was probably COBOL...

Dan Burkhart 

I've been tracking a package that was shipped Dec. 16 from Atlanta. It showed up at Carol Stream Il on the 19th and the next update was this morning in Rancho Dominguez Ca. Who can say if the next move will be in the right direction. It is supposed to come to Ontario Canada. Maybe somebody saw Ontario and thought California.

TejanoTrackie 

It's a mixed bag. I don't think it's any worse than before. I bought something on eBay a couple of months ago, and the seller marked it as shipped but USPS tracking showed that USPS had not received the package a week later. I contacted the seller who contacted their local post office, and it turns out it had gotten mislaid at the post office and never shipped. I eventually received it a week later. Amazingly, I've never had a package actually lost by USPS, although there have been very significant delays. And then there's my local post office delivering mail to the wrong address, but this has been a problem for decades.

Zinger

UPS drivers especially ought to be aware of when they're being followed and call it in. I've never had the problem with it since I'm retired and usually track expected packages and step out for any delivery as soon as I hear the distinctive exhaust of either UPS or USPS. But I hear about thefts in my area all the time on a neighborhood network I get through my email.

I wind up spending over $100 a month at Amazon, Wayfair etc. Sometimes twice that. More choices. Less searching by driving. My postal service is fine. Sometimes a seller is lost but I always get my refund. Once it hits a USPS facility it's here shortly. UPS is the longer wait for me at times depending on the package. Appliances are a wait. Seems like those go all over the damned country before they get here.
.

Kat12

I bought something from someone online (secondhand) about a year ago. Tracking never went past "label created." Okay, so they didn't scan it; no big deal, that happens sometimes. After a couple weeks it hadn't arrived. Well, it's a pandemic, the thing is coming halfway across the country, be patient. A month later I finally emailed the seller, who was baffled. A few days after that, the seller got a letter from a post office somewhere along the way between them and me, containing the shipping label from the item. So not only did they never scan the item either when they picked it up from the seller's house or anywhere along the way (however far it got), but they also managed to rip the label off the box. Perfect storm. Needless to say, that was the end of that item. (Fun trivia fact: there isn't really a "dead letter office" where unidentified things sit for years. I tried for a while to track this box down, thinking maybe some post office along the route had a mysterious label-less box sitting on a shelf somewhere, until someone at one post office I called gave it to me straight: if a label is lost and there's no identifying info inside, they trash it almost immediately. They *might* keep it for a couple days. Certainly by the time I got done being patient and understanding and contacted the seller, the item was long gone to the dump. Disappointing-- both for the seller who had a cool item to pass on that ended up in the garbage and had to fight with the post office to collect the insurance money {because, of course, since they hadn't scanned it they tried to say they wouldn't pay the claim}, and for me, who probably won't find such an item at such a price again.)

Life lessons: 1. if something isn't right, look into it immediately, and 2. always put a label inside the box as well.

But, yeah-- my local postal hub has had issues even pre-pandemic. (To be fair-- I've had fantastic experiences with a couple local post offices, years ago. But the hub itself, in the past 3 years or so? Issues. I tend to send Certified letters for work often so I've seen... maybe not "it all," but certainly a lot.)