I hauled mail as a contractor for over 8 years. I've seen mail sit in transport equipment on the loading dock for weeks and under conveyer belts for the same amount of time. Most of the people at the distribution and sorting facilities don't care. The biggest enemy to the postal service is itself.
@onlyrog5 that's true. The difference is if you offer the people doing the actual work a decent wage, you can attract people who care about their work. When you offer worse wages than your competitors, you end up with the people who couldn't cut it at fedex, amazon or ups, and their work reflects why.
Retired from USPS last year after 35 years. The poor quality of the last few people that were hired is part of what made me decide to retire. No work ethic, no drive to make the company successful, just people who wanted to clock in and talk on their phones all day. It’s a sad state of affairs.
Yep. Going on at my job too. It's causing me to have to work harder, and I constantly get stuck doing the crappy jobs while the slackers get the easy jobs. But the minute I say screw it and slow down or just go wander off and do nothing, managers are all over me-what's the problem? And I give them an ear full. 25% of the people doing 100% of the work and I"m sick of it.
media should also be unbiased meaning not political leaning and tell us the truth..Truth about health,climate etc..as we all know they lie and are biased..
@@RealHomeRecording I totally agree, the media cannot really be trusted ever again. I stopped trusting the media during Trumps first campaign. When they lied about him mocking a handicapped reported, it sent me down a rabbit hole. I criticize the media every chance I get. But when individuals do a good job like this, it deserves compliments. I never trusted politicians, was always skeptical of the medical community, and now we can add media. Be a skeptic, be cynical, don't be a sheeple everyone!
Fantastic reporting here. This is how stories should be delivered. With lots of facts and objective data. I don't even live in Texas but found this very interesting. I hope this reporter keeps doing this style of reporting.
I live in Oklahoma, last year, I had a package of medication come out of Ohio. It went all the way to Hawaii traveled back to Los Angeles went all the way to Georgia then to Texas, and finally came to my house in Oklahoma. When I received my medication, the tablets were powdered from all of the extra travel and had to be replaced! There are problems in the USPS
some years ago I had bought something from someone in Arizona and I live in Indiana.. that package went from AZ to Dallas to Houston then went MIA and showed up in LA(California) then went MIA again only to appear in Sydney Australia and from there went to Berlin Germany to London England to Halifax,NS to Toronto to Buffalo NY to Cleaveland to Columbus to Dayton to Indianapolis to finally my local area... took 3 months to get it.
You really should interview The Postmaster DeJoy. Three major postal rate hikes in one year & yet the improvement to service is NilI. I understand employee’s paychecks have increased though. eBay keeps their fees & sellers still have to pay postage for lost packages. Sellers are out money & inventory!
Employees don't get a bigger paycheck when prices go up, that's stupid. If your package is never delivered file the insurance claim for the item and shipping .
I live in southern Florida and mailed a letter to the Social Security off literally 15 miles away. The letter went from here to Miami, to NY, back to Miami, and ten days later arrived at the SS office. I should have just dropped it off at their door.
I live in SoCal. I bought something on Etsy from a guy ~25 miles from me. The package (USPS) went to Denver, CO and then back to me. Took a week. Next one he sent took just over one day and the proper route. It's insane, and when we get temp carriers, our mail is all effed up - we get everyone's mail sans ours, and the neighbors get ours. What a joke the US Gov't has become.
This is what happens when you make a campaign donor the postmaster general so that he can turn the usps from a public service institution to a for profit business that gives active service contracts to businesses you exclusively own.
I worked for FedEx and your first package was simply a miss-ship as we called them. It happens less these days with more automation in sortation facilities and less reliance on actual humans checking the packages as they're loading the trucks, but the technology is not infallible either if the barcodes are not read precisely.
@@gmoney4458 I find that an interesting statement as I have more issues with USPS than ever before. FedEx and UPS do pretty well by me, but the USPS has gone down the toilet.
Thanks KHOU for this kind of reporting! Reports like these help to highlight the problems we consumers face. Perhaps this will help to solve some of these problems.
@@demophys4883 hate to break your orange man bad bubble, the USPS has always been a disaster. You’ll find overtime isn’t possible because they cannot afford it. Think for yourself for once and stop regurgitating what you hear on MSNBC. If your hero Biden thought it was such a problem, why hasn’t he done anything about it now in year 4?
It is no wonder that the USPS is having staffing problems. I know someone who quit because they cut his pay twice. And he has been with them for years.
All companies are doing this I’ve worked for a company for 39 years and the people off the street now make as much as I do being a family business and taking care of the employees like family is an absolute joke.
Dont be fooled, this is a ploy to try to make USPS a privatized system. So many times USPS funding has been cut, trying to weaken it completely to make it a paid for private service.
Exactly, new employees make the same money as a McDonalds employee but have to deal with the weather, traffic and numerous factors. USPS cut the pay and added more work by hiring fewer people so new employees are overwhelmed and quit! They figure that they can work somewhere else with better conditions for the same amount of money!
I knew a guy that worked in a distribution center and he said as the packages roll down the belts, if one falls, they leave it and keep on going to the next one and eventually they pick it up, IF THEY REMEMBER, if they forget, that box can sit there for WEEKS and if the shipper or recipent does not inquire, it will sit there. If someone reports a lost package, then they will do a scan and find out it was last checked in there at that location, then they have somene LOOK for it and hope they can find it. If they can't find it and you DIDN'T pay for shipping insurance, you are out of luck and the person that suffers is the seller because of the post office negligence
Many years ago friend of mine ordered a motorcycle exhaust from California to be delivered Queensland Australia! Was told 6 to 8 weeks, ok! 9 months later it finally arrived, going by the labels and inspection stamps on it it went to Canada, germany, singapore, back to texas, california and finally cleared Australian mail inspection in Sydney a week before he got it! Crickey, it didnt even have a passport!😅
some years ago I had bought something from someone in Arizona and I live in Indiana.. that package went from AZ to Dallas to Houston then went MIA and showed up in LA(California) then went MIA again only to appear in Sydney Australia and from there went to Berlin Germany to London England to Halifax,NS to Toronto to Buffalo NY to Cleaveland to Columbus to Dayton to Indianapolis to finally my local area... took 3 months to get it.
I can get items delivered to my door, which is north of Sydney Australia, from Ireland and UK, and most Euro locations, within a week. The slowest are China and the US. In that order. Worse is that ALL from USA are 'airmail' !
@@Dratchev241 : Would absolutely love to see this route on a map. What a journey, beginning to end! Mind telling the origin city and destination city? I'm going try to map this route, if possible.
With the volume of packages and paper mail I can't believe half of it get delivered. I talk to my rural carrier often and he tells me how hard it is to find workers who will show up and actually work and that everyone at the facility is stressed out due to poor management, mostly managers and supervisors creating a stressful environment for no real reason other than that they can.
I do get a kick out of watching the tracking of some pkgs. If something has to go through Baltimore it usually loops back at least two times before escaping.
Common.... I had a package from Indiana coming to Las Vegas. It crossed the entire United States east to west then north to Alaska and in just over 2 weeks it made it to my location. Tracking all the way.
even priority mail an issue - especially for California - had a nephews birthday present sent on December 29 from Massachusetts and it did not arrive until January 17 in California; totally missing his birthday. Goodness could have driven it faster. Was stuck at California Post office for over 13 days with no updates in tracking system from when it left Massachusetts.
Sound like a first in, last out system. Which is why items shipped in November are still sitting in there, and will probably stay until the backlog is cleared.
Not exactly FILO, more like any problem/overload would be stacked up for solving later, after all, it's better to offend a few people than to offend EVERYONE becoz of 1 delay/problem. What the managers should have done was to hire extra gig doers to solve the delayed piles SEPERATELY! But, they're too cheap to do that. Where have all the money gone?
I ship dozens of USPS packages a day from DFW and 99.9% of them arrive quickly and safely. Apparently the Houston USPS has some issues with an equipment upgrade that is causing delays. I expect they will resolve the problem and restore good service soon.
I worked in the Post Office before and there are some things that surprised me. One of the most concerning things that we all have the ability to see is the incompetence of mail carriers.
That’s because the companies don’t provide the tools employees need to be confident and/or the company not following their own SOPs and confusing the employee’s. Ultimately, it’s on the company.
I’m able to read between the lines on your comment and I know EXACTLY what you mean and it’s both sad and hilarious at the same time but, the USPS wants to seem like they’re politically correct which means efficiency will only get worse.
Yeah our postal carriers are illiterate lazy trash. Every mail delivery, everyone in the neighborhood has to redeliver the mail to it's rightful recipients
We ship USPS Priority out of Fort Myers, FL every day, hundreds if not thousands per year, and have never had an outbound package delayed or missing. Even with many of our post offices having been washed away by Hurricane Ian and working out of temporary facilities, they still get the work done. Can't say enough good things about outbound USPS Priority Mail in Fort Myers, FL.
We have looping issues here in Australia. A package inside my state took an extra week mire than it does from one on my usual suppliers, it was 2 post office sorting centres from delivering until it suddenly decided to go interstate to a state 1500 miles north, then cone back again
Outstanding...you folks stay on top of the USPS. the service they are providing in Houston is garbage. There appears to be ZERO accountability with the Houston USPS.
@@ricksmith4736 Woah! Take it easy there Rick. You sure don’t want to tell them that that certain demographic also happens to meddle in elections by transporting bogus ballots.
I thought nine days for a letter to cross Houston was bad until it took twenty six days for a letter to be delivered less than two miles from the point of mailing within Pasadena, Tx.
This was a good report. I think more news agencies should try this in areas like this one. This might help the postal service realize that eventually they're going to get caught with more problems than answers and start working on the answer first rather than spinning about issues. You have employment issues? Pay some bonuses for some of your employees in areas that are well staffed to come in and catch up the problem while in the process of hiring and training more staff.
I’m retired from the P.O. as a letter carrier. We just mailed a package to my nephew 70 miles away from us. It took 14 days and was scanned 23 times at different facilities on different days. It took 2 days of calling until we finally got a number from a small P.O. that put us in touch with a human that was willing to help. It was stuck in a loop and went through a facility 100 miles away in the wrong direction 5 different times. UPS from now on.
I'm not in Texas but our mail used to run smoothly and we never had any issues until the last couple of months. we had 3 packages that were sent to us from other places that were supposed to be signed for by us. The 1st one, THE DRIVER forged our signature and LUCKILY at least left it in the mailbox. But they could have swiped it since they signed for it... The next one as soon as I noticed the truck I ran downstairs and opened the door to force him to let me sign for it. The last one they never even knocked or rang the doorbell. But they just left a sign saying they "missed us." They've done this to us several times, pretending like they tried to reach us when they absolutely didn't. There is always at least 1 person at our house 24-7 that would answer the door to sign but they literally pretend like they tried. Even if you actually knock or ring once it would be better than what they are doing..
I was supposed to receive a shipment from Missouri (I live in Oklahoma) within a few days from the shipping date. I tracked the package with the USPS tracking system. It arrived in Oklahoma City within a few days and sat there for about 1 week. Then it finally arrived in PUERTO RICO. It spent one more week or so there, arriving then in Florida (I don't remember the city) and finally to Oklahoma City. I was shocked that the package arrived without damage. It took about a month. Ridicolous
"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" . . . . . my oh my, we've made such great progress.
the problem is it wasn't snowing, raining, hot or a gloomy night, it was a sunny day, not a cloud in the sky, 72 degrees - they never made a promise to deliver when the weather is nice...
I recently ordered an item online from Texas... originally scheduled to be delivered in CA on 2/3. It got to Missouri City on 2/1..... tracking has been stagnant ever since. This explains it.
I still have a package sitting in San Francisco Since Jan. 26th. And all it has to do is go about 100 miles to get to me in Sacramento. I've been to my local P.O. and have called the USPS 800 number. The seller has done the same. We'll see where it goes. I feel the their pain.
I shipped a stemmed mug by USPS. Buyer emailed me weeks later he hadn't received the package. I refunded the money. Several months later I received the box flap with my return address back in a plastic envelope with a letter attached. The post office destroyed the mug and packaging thinking it was a grenade. I kid you not.
Cool story. Questions: 1) Did the airtag data match-up with the postal tracking data, or were there any inconsistencies? 2) Are you willing to repeat the process, but with regular (non-priority) service? Maybe one of your packages will get to hangout with some of those "November" packages.
Amazon will automatically refund the Buyer if the package is late so the Sellers on there are getting hit hard. Amazon reps do not care if it's not the Seller's fault because it's not Amazon's money. The Seller takes the loss. I've heard Ebay a little better but still, if the Buyer does not get his order in 2-3 weeks, Ebay will refund them also. The Seller takes the loss. Thanks to the disastrous USPS.
I’ve been blessed to have a very kind older gentleman as my regular mailman. He properly delivers my packages on time every day almost exactly at 10:00 am Pretty amazing I’ve only had one lost doing the rounds around the country like everyone is mentioning
The USPS used to be the best postal service in the world until Dejoy took charge. He is singlehandedly dismantling our system for personal profit. Look him up.
Those individuals that are left leaning tend to think more government is good and those on the right tend to think more government is bad. I think the USPS is an indication of how governments truly work and result in zero accountability for their missteps
I've seen looping aka misrouting of packages while tracking eBay purchases. LA to Salt Lake City to San Francisco, back to LA then back to Salt Lake and finally delivered in Idaho.
I had 12 cans of chickpeas delivered from New Mexico by USPS lost in the Mail. The other loss was a nutritional supplement purchased for almost $20 which made it up to a certain township and then lost in the Mail. Most deliveries from Amazon go through USPS. So far as I know Amazon does not have very much customer service communication such as a chat bot with service representative nor telephone customer service where it is possible to speak directly with a customer service representative.
The distribution hub will load new mail first so if your parcel is sitting in a cart in one of the delayed bins it will be more delayed. Saw this during the pandemic as the hubs became overwhelmed.
Im in oregon, and ive tracked packages that go past my city 1 to 2 times on a regular basis. I guess im between hubs, but its beyond crazy. Its not only USPS, but all carriers.
FYI - ALL, and I mean ALL shipping companies, like DHL, Amazon, UPS, FedEx, eventually will go thru USPS for last mile delivery. Sure, they all have their own networks for the major hubs, but the rural areas, there's no presence there, due to cost. Eventually, Amazon, FedEx, UPS, DHL packages arrives at USPS facility, which the mail carrier has to deliver, or sometimes they come to the facility, grab their packages, & make the final delivery themselves. Used to work at USPS as a contractor. So just go thru USPS, even though they suck.
My experiences with Amazon have been very poor. I have paid extra for quick delivery, and received the usual Amazon "guarantees," only to find they're BS. I had one package that didn't even ship until the day it was due to be delivered, and Amazon just dgaf.
@@Vagabond_Etranger Yep, true. And to add, ALL shipping facilities have this same problem no matter the name. I live n a rural area and if my package has to go thru FedEx's Kernersville facility you can GUARANTEE you will never get it or it will be 'delayed' for weeks.
I shipped a Priority Mail package from NJ to FL last summer, it went from NJ, to Philly, to NY, to GA, to VA, then out to WS, then to IN, then back to NJ, then to FL, where it was delivered three days later. A few others went the whole way with never showing any tracking at all because the carrier's don't scan the package when they pick them up like they claim to. I've had packages going out that didn't get scanned until they were delivered. Worse yet, on the delivery end, I've had many days when my carrier never came, or they drove right by my box never stopping. I've called for package pickups only to have the carrier ignore the order, mark it as picked up, but never actually stop. Some packages have required me to schedule a pickup three times just to finally get them to show up. What happens here is that the regular carrier only works 5 days, on the sixth day, a temp driver gets the route, the temp drivers NEVER pickup packages, nor to those filling in when a carrier is sick or on vacation. The days of "Through rain, sleet, hail or snow" are long gone I guess. Now its more like "We'll get there sooner or later, Maybe". FedEx isn't much better, they've closed up nearly all their local depots here, the nearest now is over an hour away. If I ship via FedEx, the drop off point is a local supermarket, where they pile packages up out in the open where anyone can walk off with them. UPS is more expensive, slow, and they seem to break everything they touch regardless of how well its packed. If you ship UPS, you need to make sure your package can withstand being run over by a truck. My last two packages I received were crushed, with tire tracks on them.
FYI - ALL carriers, Ups, DHL, FedEx, Amazon, eventually use USPS for last mile delivery, if they don't have a presence there. It's pointless to use anyone besides USPS, bc everything eventually goes thru USPS, even if u drop it off at Amazon
I have two stories about the USPS. My sil wraps packages so well, you need a blowtorch to get into them. She sent me a box of stuff, priority mail, for my 50th birthday. I’m 68. Still waiting for it. I made my dad a bathrobe, sent it by mail. It apparently sat, on the tarmac, in the rain, for hours. When he finally got it, everything was soaked through. I had to wash the robe several times for it to be wearable. I’m surprised the box didn’t disintegrate. I wrap stuff in waterproof bags before boxing them since then.
PO problems with a flat rate, certified box from Stockton, CA to Tennessee a couple of weeks ago. Supposed to be delivered in two days. It got stuck in the system in Sacramento. Finally delivered after 10 days. The box was moderately crushed, but contents OK.
24 year retired veteran of the PO. It is only going to get worse folks. One of the reasons I retired early. I saw this coming with eCommerce dumping packages into the mail system. The PO is not designed to handle the level of packages like UPS is. UPS could not handle mail and all their packages either. Two major problems is the attempt to mechanize the system with new technology and the current problem with hiring. What few people that actually attempt to get a job at the PO generally bail in 3 to 4 weeks, sometimes shorter. Work is hard in all kinds of weather and most can''t handle it. Those that can are few and far between. There is no easy solution to the PO problems and those in control both on the management side and the union sides have no clue how to fix it.
All my meds are delivered from the Veterans Pharmacy in NH. Most show up within 7 days from the time I requested them. However there have been times, according to the USPS tracking app. that my meds have left NH, arrived in DC, sent back to NH, back to DC, then to my local PO. Taking 13 to 14 days.
The problem is the existence of distribution centers. Back in the 60s, there were just individual post offices. In about 1968 I put a letter to the governor of NC in my mailbox outside New Bern, NC, about 2 1/2 hours away. The mailman picked up my letter about 11AM. I got an answer back from the governor's office in my mailbox the very next day about 11AM. So the way this was managed is that my letter was taken to the local post office. They sorted mail and put my letter on the bus to Raleigh that evening. The mail arrived at the Raleigh post office and was sorted. My letter and some other mail was immediately taken to the governor's office. Someone there immediately answered my letter and put the answer in the mail. I suppose their courier took the mail to the post office. The post office sorted mail and saw mail that was going to New Bern (and perhaps other places along the way). They took the mail to the bus station where it waited for the next morning bus from Raleigh to New Bern. That bus arrived in New Bern early in the morning, the mail was taken to the post office, it was sorted and given to the mailmen for delivery. Now, the same letter would take a week or more, as mail from New Bern has to be taken to Kinston or Goldsboro to be sorted. The mail might go through two different distribution centers just to get a letter 120 miles down the highway.
I live in Houston. A few weeks ago a friend sent me a package from NY. I watched the package go from NY to Dallas to North Houston to San Antonio to North Houston to my house. The side trip to San Antonio took a full 9 extra days. The shipping box looked like it was dragged behind the truck for most of the trip.
I mailed a small box from FL to an RV park in Mesa AZ. The RV park post office delivered regular mail to the guy I had sent to but then marked the box as addressee unknown. The USPS then started the box on a return return trip to me. The return trip so far shows the box after 2 days making it to Memphis. One day later N Houston, then Beaumont TX, then Atlanta GA, then Palmetto GA, then N Houston again. It's now been 8 days. The USPS is really screwed up.
I live in a small town. The Post Mistress always says "you got your mail. There is no guarantee as to when it will be delivered". I'm on good terms with her and frequently, through the years, the lost package always shows up in 2 days after I've asked her about it. It gets hung either in Kansas City, MO or on very rare occasions Wichita, KS. She claims she doesn't have any pull, but she's been with USPS forever and I think she knows who to call and what strings to pull. Can't beat small town service.
I'm in Atlanta, GA. I bought some stuff in Italy yesterday. Tonight it was already in Germany with UPS. Should get it on Monday. USPS has a lot to learn from its competition!!
We sent 11 packages with Air Tags through priority mail last month. Here's where they went. The USPS continues to fail to deliver payment of bills. Two last month alone and three times before that. For as much as we pay for stamps we should not only get overnight delivery but also a song and dance. But we pay more and get less.
They seem to do the looping when they want to ease the load. In Nashville, 1/4 of my packages would get sent to Nashville, then sent back out of state, and then back, especially if it was going to be delivered on a Monday. It would be delayed until Wednesday or Thursday.
Its every where. I ordered from GNC 35 mi from my house. It went North 55 miles then went South approximately 200 MI and then back North another 180 me to my house instead of going from that City directly to my house which is a 31 minute drive I believe it took 4 days
stilll works well in spite of weather, love post office problems everywhere this is the least but check the employess and at home workers that don't work
Kansas City, MO to Clarksville,TN still enroute since March of 2020. Another one, same cities, arrived in Nashville in a timely manner but never made it to final destination after 3 months.
The problem is not just in Houston. I live in Magna, Utah and receive my diabetic meds from a mail-order pharmacy located 15 miles away, in West Jordan. Whenever the pharmacy sends my meds via USPS it can take between 3-15 days for it to arrive. I have tracked packages that have been sent to CALIFORNIA and back!
I'm glad that the press is looking into erratic package deliveries. Basically, I had all sorts of problems with packages that were mailed by different senders. In turn, one of the senders told me about issues that he'd had with packages that'd been sent to other customers, besides myself. Usually, I use online tracking to see what stage of the journey that my package is on. The most bizarre problem that happened was when my package was close to my area ... and was suddenly diverted out of state!
I worked for a large credit card issuer and Express Priority US mail was, it may get there overnight or it may not. It was only used for PO Box addresses, the rest we shipped FedEx.
These stories are nothing new, just covered differently now against a slightly different backdrop. I saw it when I worked 2yrs worth as a casual both clerk and mail handler during college in the early 90s. Then I drove semi for a mail contractor for 20years and it wasn't uncommon to bring a trailer back to our shop for maintenance and come up with a small bag of mail just from sweeping the trailer floor! That would help explain mail bouncing around. Say a letter or package shows in transit. It's in a trailer and since the trailer shows arriving somewhere, the tracking system shows arrival. But until that piece scans directly into a sort point at a new location, it still shows in that trailer even though the trailer may or may not have moved on, M/T or otherwise.
I bought an item from Amazon last August (2023). I live less than 80 miles from Vacaville, CA, the items origination point. USPS tracking showed the package went to Charlotte, NC, then to somewhere in Ohio (I don't remember the city), then to Sacramento, CA (40 miles from me), then finally back to Vacaville before FINALLY being delivered. Total delivery time was 10 days to travel what should have been less than 100 miles. instead, the item traveled close to 4,000 miles.
I'm in Australia and bought something online from a trader in California. USPS Priority Air Freight tracking showed it went to several States heading east, until it got to Kentucky. This took 5 days. Then it flew to the UK, Dubai, Singapore, Sydney, Brisbane and to my door. 14 days later it got to me. There are several flights from California a day to Australia.
I had a package that went to Nashville then West Virginia to Springfield Mass. and finally to Connecticut where I live. Oh I forget to mention the package was shipped from the NY Ny just a two hour drive from here I live. It took 16 days to arrive.
Happening in California, too. The number of packages that end up being "looped" or "delayed" is ridiculous. I've had packages shipped from Los Angeles to Portland then back down to Sacramento, then back up to Medford, then back down to my postal carrier in California. I literally could have taken public transit and got my package sooner
Not USPS story, but talking about "loop back" package reminded me about when I lived in Wilmington DE, I ordered a package which I noticed left out of Wilmington NC via FedEx. I was tracking it, and somehow it ended up in Wilmington OH, before turning around and shipped back to my place in Wilmington, DE. I thought this was interesting.
A friend in Austin sent pkg to me in So. California. It went to Alaska - twice - then finally thru Seattle, LA, San Bernadino and then to me. Total time: 21 days. And the post office has no explanation. I checked the box when delivered to see if there was some incorrect tags, etc on box. None. Just got sorted incorrectly.
outlier here I guess, but we ship dozens of packages per day via USPS and they generally do a great job! Without their inexpensive Ground Advantage shipping, small light packages would be unreasonable to ship. But both USPS and UPS make mistakes now and again. UPS just told us that a package we sent was damaged so they threw it out - as in they didn't deliver it or return it to us, they just said they disposed of it. I'm sure we'll get our money back eventually but its weird that they didn't even deliver an empty box for us to see what happened.
I ordered an item from Amazon 5 days ago. It is being shipped via USPS. According to their tracking # it has gone through 6 different facilities so far. The projected delivery date is still 4-7 days away!
I hauled mail as a contractor for over 8 years. I've seen mail sit in transport equipment on the loading dock for weeks and under conveyer belts for the same amount of time. Most of the people at the distribution and sorting facilities don't care. The biggest enemy to the postal service is itself.
With wages as low as $10.25 an hour... you get what you pay for.
@@BastiatCdo you have facts or proof, they make more than 10 dollars and hour stop you're lies .
@@BastiatCLaziness can be done at any wage...
@onlyrog5 that's true. The difference is if you offer the people doing the actual work a decent wage, you can attract people who care about their work. When you offer worse wages than your competitors, you end up with the people who couldn't cut it at fedex, amazon or ups, and their work reflects why.
@AndyF.525 source is ziprecruiter. And 10/h is still far less than good carrier work costs. Try 17-20/h
Retired from USPS last year after 35 years. The poor quality of the last few people that were hired is part of what made me decide to retire. No work ethic, no drive to make the company successful, just people who wanted to clock in and talk on their phones all day. It’s a sad state of affairs.
You are 100 percent right.
Gotta love those diversity hires! LOL
Must be those "DEI" hires. The USPS has been infected as well.
Yep. Going on at my job too. It's causing me to have to work harder, and I constantly get stuck doing the crappy jobs while the slackers get the easy jobs. But the minute I say screw it and slow down or just go wander off and do nothing, managers are all over me-what's the problem? And I give them an ear full. 25% of the people doing 100% of the work and I"m sick of it.
Some people work so that they could buy beer
This is one of media's most important jobs, consumer protection.
Oh, I thought it was election meddling.
media should also be unbiased meaning not political leaning and tell us the truth..Truth about health,climate etc..as we all know they lie and are biased..
Too bad they did such a bad job with the COVID pokes. Not warning the masses about their dangers.
@@RealHomeRecording I totally agree, the media cannot really be trusted ever again. I stopped trusting the media during Trumps first campaign. When they lied about him mocking a handicapped reported, it sent me down a rabbit hole. I criticize the media every chance I get. But when individuals do a good job like this, it deserves compliments.
I never trusted politicians, was always skeptical of the medical community, and now we can add media.
Be a skeptic, be cynical, don't be a sheeple everyone!
Soo why did all the sorting machines need to be replaced
This is just a waste of time complaining about. We knew this would happen.
Fantastic reporting here. This is how stories should be delivered. With lots of facts and objective data. I don't even live in Texas but found this very interesting. I hope this reporter keeps doing this style of reporting.
Pardon the pun!
Sadly it's not just a TX problem.
@@tamjeanell Yes, this is how STORIES SHOULD BE DELIVERED. :)
I live in Oklahoma, last year, I had a package of medication come out of Ohio. It went all the way to Hawaii traveled back to Los Angeles went all the way to Georgia then to Texas, and finally came to my house in Oklahoma. When I received my medication, the tablets were powdered from all of the extra travel and had to be replaced! There are problems in the USPS
Funny. Not true but funny
some years ago I had bought something from someone in Arizona and I live in Indiana.. that package went from AZ to Dallas to Houston then went MIA and showed up in LA(California) then went MIA again only to appear in Sydney Australia and from there went to Berlin Germany to London England to Halifax,NS to Toronto to Buffalo NY to Cleaveland to Columbus to Dayton to Indianapolis to finally my local area... took 3 months to get it.
I agree. Postmaster DeJoy is the major problem at USPS!
Lol! @@Dratchev241
@@Dratchev241 You don't actually expect people to believe that bs, right?
This is a serious problem! So happy people are taking notice.
You really should interview The Postmaster DeJoy. Three major postal rate hikes in one year & yet the improvement to service is NilI. I understand employee’s paychecks have increased though. eBay keeps their fees & sellers still have to pay postage for lost packages. Sellers are out money & inventory!
Can't let the little guy on ebay compete with Amazon. That wouldn't be 'fair'.
sarcasm
Same with Etsy
@@RANDOMNATION907 postmaster DeJoy was hired to destroy the USPS not to help them.
Employees don't get a bigger paycheck when prices go up, that's stupid. If your package is never delivered file the insurance claim for the item and shipping .
@@mkat4271 So genius, what do You think the money from the postal rate increases goes to?
I live in southern Florida and mailed a letter to the Social Security off literally 15 miles away. The letter went from here to Miami, to NY, back to Miami, and ten days later arrived at the SS office. I should have just dropped it off at their door.
Why didn't you just drive 15 miles and take the letter yourself to social security office?
@@wiccasdream Traffic, but it would have been ten days faster.
I live in SoCal. I bought something on Etsy from a guy ~25 miles from me. The package (USPS) went to Denver, CO and then back to me. Took a week. Next one he sent took just over one day and the proper route. It's insane, and when we get temp carriers, our mail is all effed up - we get everyone's mail sans ours, and the neighbors get ours. What a joke the US Gov't has become.
This is what happens when you make a campaign donor the postmaster general so that he can turn the usps from a public service institution to a for profit business that gives active service contracts to businesses you exclusively own.
I worked for FedEx and your first package was simply a miss-ship as we called them. It happens less these days with more automation in sortation facilities and less reliance on actual humans checking the packages as they're loading the trucks, but the technology is not infallible either if the barcodes are not read precisely.
@@gmoney4458 I find that an interesting statement as I have more issues with USPS than ever before. FedEx and UPS do pretty well by me, but the USPS has gone down the toilet.
Thanks KHOU for this kind of reporting! Reports like these help to highlight the problems we consumers face. Perhaps this will help to solve some of these problems.
The problem is all about the Quality of the employee.
Nah, that dumb MF that Trump appointed FUKD the entire system up
You spelled government wrong.
@@WhiskeyTango68 You spelled "Louis DeJoy, trump appointee" wrong. He's the one who banned overtime for employees, among other things.
Yep but what do you have Katrina refugees to hire from?
@@demophys4883 hate to break your orange man bad bubble, the USPS has always been a disaster.
You’ll find overtime isn’t possible because they cannot afford it. Think for yourself for once and stop regurgitating what you hear on MSNBC.
If your hero Biden thought it was such a problem, why hasn’t he done anything about it now in year 4?
It is no wonder that the USPS is having staffing problems. I know someone who quit because they cut his pay twice. And he has been with them for years.
All companies are doing this I’ve worked for a company for 39 years and the people off the street now make as much as I do being a family business and taking care of the employees like family is an absolute joke.
Dont be fooled, this is a ploy to try to make USPS a privatized system.
So many times USPS funding has been cut, trying to weaken it completely to make it a paid for private service.
Exactly, new employees make the same money as a McDonalds employee but have to deal with the weather, traffic and numerous factors. USPS cut the pay and added more work by hiring fewer people so new employees are overwhelmed and quit! They figure that they can work somewhere else with better conditions for the same amount of money!
I knew a guy that worked in a distribution center and he said as the packages roll down the belts, if one falls, they leave it and keep on going to the next one and eventually they pick it up, IF THEY REMEMBER, if they forget, that box can sit there for WEEKS and if the shipper or recipent does not inquire, it will sit there.
If someone reports a lost package, then they will do a scan and find out it was last checked in there at that location, then they have somene LOOK for it and hope they can find it. If they can't find it and you DIDN'T pay for shipping insurance, you are out of luck and the person that suffers is the seller because of the post office negligence
Wow my comment about a government body's attempt at USPS privatization got magically deleted.
Many years ago friend of mine ordered a motorcycle exhaust from California to be delivered Queensland Australia! Was told 6 to 8 weeks, ok! 9 months later it finally arrived, going by the labels and inspection stamps on it it went to Canada, germany, singapore, back to texas, california and finally cleared Australian mail inspection in Sydney a week before he got it! Crickey, it didnt even have a passport!😅
some years ago I had bought something from someone in Arizona and I live in Indiana.. that package went from AZ to Dallas to Houston then went MIA and showed up in LA(California) then went MIA again only to appear in Sydney Australia and from there went to Berlin Germany to London England to Halifax,NS to Toronto to Buffalo NY to Cleaveland to Columbus to Dayton to Indianapolis to finally my local area... took 3 months to get it.
Has nothing to do with USPS if it went to all those countries.
I can get items delivered to my door, which is north of Sydney Australia, from Ireland and UK, and most Euro locations, within a week. The slowest are China and the US. In that order. Worse is that ALL from USA are 'airmail' !
@@Dratchev241 : Would absolutely love to see this route on a map. What a journey, beginning to end! Mind telling the origin city and destination city? I'm going try to map this route, if possible.
That car part is more traveled than most people.
With the volume of packages and paper mail I can't believe half of it get delivered. I talk to my rural carrier often and he tells me how hard it is to find workers who will show up and actually work and that everyone at the facility is stressed out due to poor management, mostly managers and supervisors creating a stressful environment for no real reason other than that they can.
I do get a kick out of watching the tracking of some pkgs. If something has to go through Baltimore it usually loops back at least two times before escaping.
My Brother and I when we need car parts. Packages leave a rather nearby zip code, and do the 150 mile + up and down the state cruise.
Common.... I had a package from Indiana coming to Las Vegas. It crossed the entire United States east to west then north to Alaska and in just over 2 weeks it made it to my location. Tracking all the way.
I had a package that was shipped from CA, it sat in Houston for 9 days.
That's why I use Priority Mail. For something to get there "eventually."
even priority mail an issue - especially for California - had a nephews birthday present sent on December 29 from Massachusetts and it did not arrive until January 17 in California; totally missing his birthday. Goodness could have driven it faster. Was stuck at California Post office for over 13 days with no updates in tracking system from when it left Massachusetts.
Sometimes
@@alanhughes5868 Because one out of six ain't bad.
When it absolutely, positively, has to be there… eventually.
yep, eventually it is a Post Office priority.
That’s how long it took to deliver when postal service delivers on horseback
Wouldn't mind the delay if it had been delivered by Kevin Costner on Horse back. "The Postman"🏇🏇
@EXREPUBLICAN
DEAD HORSE DELIVERY would be more correct.
This is good reporting and we need more of it around the country.
Sound like a first in, last out system. Which is why items shipped in November are still sitting in there, and will probably stay until the backlog is cleared.
Not exactly FILO, more like any problem/overload would be stacked up for solving later, after all, it's better to offend a few people than to offend EVERYONE becoz of 1 delay/problem. What the managers should have done was to hire extra gig doers to solve the delayed piles SEPERATELY! But, they're too cheap to do that. Where have all the money gone?
I ship dozens of USPS packages a day from DFW and 99.9% of them arrive quickly and safely. Apparently the Houston USPS has some issues with an equipment upgrade that is causing delays. I expect they will resolve the problem and restore good service soon.
All that means, nothing will change 😢
especially if democrats lose the WH again. Louis dejoy is the one dismantling the USPS. Vote Blue! 💙
I worked in the Post Office before and there are some things that surprised me. One of the most concerning things that we all have the ability to see is the incompetence of mail carriers.
That’s because the companies don’t provide the tools employees need to be confident and/or the company not following their own SOPs and confusing the employee’s. Ultimately, it’s on the company.
Thank goodness they are members of a union that will ensure they get to keep their job
they work well where I live, I never have any issues
I’m able to read between the lines on your comment and I know EXACTLY what you mean and it’s both sad and hilarious at the same time but, the USPS wants to seem like they’re politically correct which means efficiency will only get worse.
Yeah our postal carriers are illiterate lazy trash. Every mail delivery, everyone in the neighborhood has to redeliver the mail to it's rightful recipients
We ship USPS Priority out of Fort Myers, FL every day, hundreds if not thousands per year, and have never had an outbound package delayed or missing. Even with many of our post offices having been washed away by Hurricane Ian and working out of temporary facilities, they still get the work done. Can't say enough good things about outbound USPS Priority Mail in Fort Myers, FL.
Off topic: how bad is the summer humidity at Fort Meyers?
Loop mail is great, send mail across town and it does a 300 mile round trip
We have looping issues here in Australia. A package inside my state took an extra week mire than it does from one on my usual suppliers, it was 2 post office sorting centres from delivering until it suddenly decided to go interstate to a state 1500 miles north, then cone back again
Great investigative reporting, thank you!
Time to sue the USPS for breach of contract and subpoena Louis DeJoy!
Outstanding...you folks stay on top of the USPS. the service they are providing in Houston is garbage. There appears to be ZERO accountability with the Houston USPS.
Check out your local demographics of the USPS workers......
@@ricksmith4736 Woah! Take it easy there Rick. You sure don’t want to tell them that that certain demographic also happens to meddle in elections by transporting bogus ballots.
I thought nine days for a letter to cross Houston was bad until it took twenty six days for a letter to be delivered less than two miles from the point of mailing within Pasadena, Tx.
This was a good report. I think more news agencies should try this in areas like this one. This might help the postal service realize that eventually they're going to get caught with more problems than answers and start working on the answer first rather than spinning about issues. You have employment issues? Pay some bonuses for some of your employees in areas that are well staffed to come in and catch up the problem while in the process of hiring and training more staff.
I’m retired from the P.O. as a letter carrier. We just mailed a package to my nephew 70 miles away from us. It took 14 days and was scanned 23 times at different facilities on different days. It took 2 days of calling until we finally got a number from a small P.O. that put us in touch with a human that was willing to help. It was stuck in a loop and went through a facility 100 miles away in the wrong direction 5 different times. UPS from now on.
It all comes down to accountability. Are there any Federal, State or Local Government Agencies that are Accountable?
Nope
I'm not in Texas but our mail used to run smoothly and we never had any issues until the last couple of months. we had 3 packages that were sent to us from other places that were supposed to be signed for by us. The 1st one, THE DRIVER forged our signature and LUCKILY at least left it in the mailbox. But they could have swiped it since they signed for it...
The next one as soon as I noticed the truck I ran downstairs and opened the door to force him to let me sign for it.
The last one they never even knocked or rang the doorbell. But they just left a sign saying they "missed us." They've done this to us several times, pretending like they tried to reach us when they absolutely didn't. There is always at least 1 person at our house 24-7 that would answer the door to sign but they literally pretend like they tried. Even if you actually knock or ring once it would be better than what they are doing..
That package looped because it wasnt sorted correctly.
misdirected
I was supposed to receive a shipment from Missouri (I live in Oklahoma) within a few days from the shipping date. I tracked the package with the USPS tracking system. It arrived in Oklahoma City within a few days and sat there for about 1 week. Then it finally arrived in PUERTO RICO. It spent one more week or so there, arriving then in Florida (I don't remember the city) and finally to Oklahoma City. I was shocked that the package arrived without damage. It took about a month. Ridicolous
I live in Portland, OR! No complaints here; we have great deliveries!
Now you’ve jinxed it 😢
I had a package go from New Jersey to Birmingham Al. in two days, where it sat for a solid week, 40 miles from the destination.
Hey, it's the postal system...
Newman works there.
My guess is once the machines are installed they will start being better again
"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" . . . . . my oh my, we've made such great progress.
the problem is it wasn't snowing, raining, hot or a gloomy night, it was a sunny day, not a cloud in the sky, 72 degrees - they never made a promise to deliver when the weather is nice...
@@dinyarmaster2350 . . . . semantics . . . but, yes
I recently ordered an item online from Texas... originally scheduled to be delivered in CA on 2/3. It got to Missouri City on 2/1..... tracking has been stagnant ever since. This explains it.
I still have a package sitting in San Francisco Since Jan. 26th. And all it has to do is go about 100 miles to get to me in Sacramento. I've been to my local P.O. and have called the USPS 800 number. The seller has done the same. We'll see where it goes. I feel the their pain.
They should hire temps to work just on the backlog
The Al Tahoe post office can't deliver mail from the hospital down the street to my mailbox. Bills are past due because I haven't received them!
Every time I order something and they ship it USPS I’m expecting delays or no delivery.
What a DeJoy to see everything is working flawlessly!
I get a lot of packages and I'm very pleased with UPS
I shipped a stemmed mug by USPS. Buyer emailed me weeks later he hadn't received the package. I refunded the money. Several months later I received the box flap with my return address back in a plastic envelope with a letter attached. The post office destroyed the mug and packaging thinking it was a grenade. I kid you not.
People pay extra for priority mail too. You're paying for something they aren't giving you...delivery within a few days. That's theft.
I've paid extra for signature request. Never got a signature. Waste of $10+. Never paid for anything extra from USPS again.
Cool story.
Questions:
1) Did the airtag data match-up with the postal tracking data, or were there any inconsistencies?
2) Are you willing to repeat the process, but with regular (non-priority) service? Maybe one of your packages will get to hangout with some of those "November" packages.
Amazon will automatically refund the Buyer if the package is late so the Sellers on there are getting hit hard. Amazon reps do not care if it's not the Seller's fault because it's not Amazon's money. The Seller takes the loss. I've heard Ebay a little better but still, if the Buyer does not get his order in 2-3 weeks, Ebay will refund them also. The Seller takes the loss. Thanks to the disastrous USPS.
I’ve been blessed to have a very kind older gentleman as my regular mailman. He properly delivers my packages on time every day almost exactly at 10:00 am
Pretty amazing I’ve only had one lost doing the rounds around the country like everyone is mentioning
Somebody out there actually thinks the government is efficient.
The USPS used to be the best postal service in the world until Dejoy took charge. He is singlehandedly dismantling our system for personal profit. Look him up.
it works for me
Those individuals that are left leaning tend to think more government is good and those on the right tend to think more government is bad. I think the USPS is an indication of how governments truly work and result in zero accountability for their missteps
What a ridiculous statement. This problem is directly related to dejoy. He plans to dismantle the USPS and it's working! Congratulations republicans!
I've seen looping aka misrouting of packages while tracking eBay purchases. LA to Salt Lake City to San Francisco, back to LA then back to Salt Lake and finally delivered in Idaho.
I had 12 cans of chickpeas delivered from New Mexico by USPS lost in the Mail.
The other loss was a nutritional supplement purchased for almost $20 which made it up to a certain township and then lost in the Mail.
Most deliveries from Amazon go through USPS.
So far as I know Amazon does not have very much customer service communication such as a chat bot with service representative nor telephone customer service where it is possible to speak directly with a customer service representative.
Why chickpeas? Such a bland food ngl
@@Kylewraps
I like chickpeas sometimes, but not usually.
There are all kinds of recipes for chickpeas.
@@dandavatsdasa8345 like even store bought hummus is mid
I straight up just drink tahini straight out of the jar
You mean Scamazon 😂
Nobody likes chickpeas, anyway.
They're foreign! !
The distribution hub will load new mail first so if your parcel is sitting in a cart in one of the delayed bins it will be more delayed.
Saw this during the pandemic as the hubs became overwhelmed.
Im in oregon, and ive tracked packages that go past my city 1 to 2 times on a regular basis. I guess im between hubs, but its beyond crazy. Its not only USPS, but all carriers.
Amazon should probably step in as a competitor. Competition is always a good walk up
FYI - ALL, and I mean ALL shipping companies, like DHL, Amazon, UPS, FedEx, eventually will go thru USPS for last mile delivery. Sure, they all have their own networks for the major hubs, but the rural areas, there's no presence there, due to cost. Eventually, Amazon, FedEx, UPS, DHL packages arrives at USPS facility, which the mail carrier has to deliver, or sometimes they come to the facility, grab their packages, & make the final delivery themselves.
Used to work at USPS as a contractor. So just go thru USPS, even though they suck.
US Constitution makes USPS a monopoly. Lysander Spooner tried to complete and was crushed.
My experiences with Amazon have been very poor. I have paid extra for quick delivery, and received the usual Amazon "guarantees," only to find they're BS. I had one package that didn't even ship until the day it was due to be delivered, and Amazon just dgaf.
@@Vagabond_Etranger Yep, true. And to add, ALL shipping facilities have this same problem no matter the name. I live n a rural area and if my package has to go thru FedEx's Kernersville facility you can GUARANTEE you will never get it or it will be 'delayed' for weeks.
your taxes pay for the postal service, competition means they lose more money and you get to pay higher postage rates and more taxes.
I live in Houston and have not had any mail delays at all. But my area is serviced by the north station.
U S postal service is a total joke! This is what occurs when you let the government get involved!
I shipped a Priority Mail package from NJ to FL last summer, it went from NJ, to Philly, to NY, to GA, to VA, then out to WS, then to IN, then back to NJ, then to FL, where it was delivered three days later. A few others went the whole way with never showing any tracking at all because the carrier's don't scan the package when they pick them up like they claim to.
I've had packages going out that didn't get scanned until they were delivered.
Worse yet, on the delivery end, I've had many days when my carrier never came, or they drove right by my box never stopping. I've called for package pickups only to have the carrier ignore the order, mark it as picked up, but never actually stop. Some packages have required me to schedule a pickup three times just to finally get them to show up.
What happens here is that the regular carrier only works 5 days, on the sixth day, a temp driver gets the route, the temp drivers NEVER pickup packages, nor to those filling in when a carrier is sick or on vacation.
The days of "Through rain, sleet, hail or snow" are long gone I guess. Now its more like "We'll get there sooner or later, Maybe".
FedEx isn't much better, they've closed up nearly all their local depots here, the nearest now is over an hour away. If I ship via FedEx, the drop off point is a local supermarket, where they pile packages up out in the open where anyone can walk off with them.
UPS is more expensive, slow, and they seem to break everything they touch regardless of how well its packed. If you ship UPS, you need to make sure your package can withstand being run over by a truck. My last two packages I received were crushed, with tire tracks on them.
FYI - ALL carriers, Ups, DHL, FedEx, Amazon, eventually use USPS for last mile delivery, if they don't have a presence there. It's pointless to use anyone besides USPS, bc everything eventually goes thru USPS, even if u drop it off at Amazon
DEI is not supposed to ruin everything, but it does.
They must be improving at USPS. Normally the package would go to Hawaii, Alaska, Nebraska, Arkansas then to the posted address.
This is a problem for the entire postal service. They get a raise and the service gets worse!
look at their post master that gives you all you need for answers
I have two stories about the USPS.
My sil wraps packages so well, you need a blowtorch to get into them. She sent me a box of stuff, priority mail, for my 50th birthday. I’m 68. Still waiting for it.
I made my dad a bathrobe, sent it by mail. It apparently sat, on the tarmac, in the rain, for hours. When he finally got it, everything was soaked through. I had to wash the robe several times for it to be wearable. I’m surprised the box didn’t disintegrate. I wrap stuff in waterproof bags before boxing them since then.
Still haven’t gotten my Christmas card a friend mailed 2 miles away!
PO problems with a flat rate, certified box from Stockton, CA to Tennessee a couple of weeks ago. Supposed to be delivered in two days. It got stuck in the system in Sacramento. Finally delivered after 10 days. The box was moderately crushed, but contents OK.
24 year retired veteran of the PO. It is only going to get worse folks. One of the reasons I retired early. I saw this coming with eCommerce dumping packages into the mail system. The PO is not designed to handle the level of packages like UPS is. UPS could not handle mail and all their packages either. Two major problems is the attempt to mechanize the system with new technology and the current problem with hiring. What few people that actually attempt to get a job at the PO generally bail in 3 to 4 weeks, sometimes shorter. Work is hard in all kinds of weather and most can''t handle it. Those that can are few and far between. There is no easy solution to the PO problems and those in control both on the management side and the union sides have no clue how to fix it.
All my meds are delivered from the Veterans Pharmacy in NH. Most show up within 7 days from the time I requested them. However there have been times, according to the USPS tracking app. that my meds have left NH, arrived in DC, sent back to NH, back to DC, then to my local PO. Taking 13 to 14 days.
It sounds like the USPS is taking a page from Amazon’s playbook. What used to be 2 day delivery is now sometime this year.
Ditto that - paying for Prime and deliveries since last year are taking three to five days most of time
The problem is the existence of distribution centers. Back in the 60s, there were just individual post offices. In about 1968 I put a letter to the governor of NC in my mailbox outside New Bern, NC, about 2 1/2 hours away. The mailman picked up my letter about 11AM. I got an answer back from the governor's office in my mailbox the very next day about 11AM. So the way this was managed is that my letter was taken to the local post office. They sorted mail and put my letter on the bus to Raleigh that evening. The mail arrived at the Raleigh post office and was sorted. My letter and some other mail was immediately taken to the governor's office. Someone there immediately answered my letter and put the answer in the mail. I suppose their courier took the mail to the post office. The post office sorted mail and saw mail that was going to New Bern (and perhaps other places along the way). They took the mail to the bus station where it waited for the next morning bus from Raleigh to New Bern. That bus arrived in New Bern early in the morning, the mail was taken to the post office, it was sorted and given to the mailmen for delivery.
Now, the same letter would take a week or more, as mail from New Bern has to be taken to Kinston or Goldsboro to be sorted. The mail might go through two different distribution centers just to get a letter 120 miles down the highway.
My small package moved through 4 different facilities in Texas. It took 23 days to get delivered.
Here in southwest Ohio we rarely ever have problems what USPS, and if possible I request them over other outfits.
do business online - I actually prefer USPS also.
I live in Houston. A few weeks ago a friend sent me a package from NY. I watched the package go from NY to Dallas to North Houston to San Antonio to North Houston to my house. The side trip to San Antonio took a full 9 extra days. The shipping box looked like it was dragged behind the truck for most of the trip.
Good to know.
I mailed a small box from FL to an RV park in Mesa AZ. The RV park post office delivered regular mail to the guy I had sent to but then marked the box as addressee unknown. The USPS then started the box on a return return trip to me. The return trip so far shows the box after 2 days making it to Memphis. One day later N Houston, then Beaumont TX, then Atlanta GA, then Palmetto GA, then N Houston again. It's now been 8 days. The USPS is really screwed up.
I live in a small town. The Post Mistress always says "you got your mail. There is no guarantee as to when it will be delivered". I'm on good terms with her and frequently, through the years, the lost package always shows up in 2 days after I've asked her about it. It gets hung either in Kansas City, MO or on very rare occasions Wichita, KS. She claims she doesn't have any pull, but she's been with USPS forever and I think she knows who to call and what strings to pull. Can't beat small town service.
I'm in Atlanta, GA. I bought some stuff in Italy yesterday. Tonight it was already in Germany with UPS. Should get it on Monday.
USPS has a lot to learn from its competition!!
We sent 11 packages with Air Tags through priority mail last month. Here's where they went.
The USPS continues to fail to deliver payment of bills. Two last month alone and three times before that. For as much as we pay for stamps we should not only get overnight delivery but also a song and dance. But we pay more and get less.
They seem to do the looping when they want to ease the load. In Nashville, 1/4 of my packages would get sent to Nashville, then sent back out of state, and then back, especially if it was going to be delivered on a Monday. It would be delayed until Wednesday or Thursday.
Its every where. I ordered from GNC 35 mi from my house. It went North 55 miles then went South approximately 200 MI and then back North another 180 me to my house instead of going from that City directly to my house which is a 31 minute drive I believe it took 4 days
stilll works well in spite of weather, love post office problems everywhere this is the least but check the employess and at home workers that don't work
The mail is sitting stuck in Portland, oregon.
Kansas City, MO to Clarksville,TN still enroute since March of 2020. Another one, same cities, arrived in Nashville in a timely manner but never made it to final destination after 3 months.
I live in Vegas, no problems here. More and more it sounds like a Texas problem, having lived in Texas for a year, I'm not surprised.
The problem is not just in Houston. I live in Magna, Utah and receive my diabetic meds from a mail-order pharmacy located 15 miles away, in West Jordan. Whenever the pharmacy sends my meds via USPS it can take between 3-15 days for it to arrive. I have tracked packages that have been sent to CALIFORNIA and back!
I'm glad that the press is looking into erratic package deliveries. Basically, I had all sorts of problems with packages that were mailed by different senders. In turn, one of the senders told me about issues that he'd had with packages that'd been sent to other customers, besides myself.
Usually, I use online tracking to see what stage of the journey that my package is on. The most bizarre problem that happened was when my package was close to my area ... and was suddenly diverted out of state!
I worked for a large credit card issuer and Express Priority US mail was, it may get there overnight or it may not. It was only used for PO Box addresses, the rest we shipped FedEx.
There was in the 1990's a trailer full of mail "lost" left sitting in the Denver distribution center parking lot for 5+ years.
These stories are nothing new, just covered differently now against a slightly different backdrop. I saw it when I worked 2yrs worth as a casual both clerk and mail handler during college in the early 90s. Then I drove semi for a mail contractor for 20years and it wasn't uncommon to bring a trailer back to our shop for maintenance and come up with a small bag of mail just from sweeping the trailer floor! That would help explain mail bouncing around. Say a letter or package shows in transit. It's in a trailer and since the trailer shows arriving somewhere, the tracking system shows arrival. But until that piece scans directly into a sort point at a new location, it still shows in that trailer even though the trailer may or may not have moved on, M/T or otherwise.
I bought an item from Amazon last August (2023). I live less than 80 miles from Vacaville, CA, the items origination point. USPS tracking showed the package went to Charlotte, NC, then to somewhere in Ohio (I don't remember the city), then to Sacramento, CA (40 miles from me), then finally back to Vacaville before FINALLY being delivered. Total delivery time was 10 days to travel what should have been less than 100 miles. instead, the item traveled close to 4,000 miles.
I'm in Australia and bought something online from a trader in California. USPS Priority Air Freight tracking showed it went to several States heading east, until it got to Kentucky. This took 5 days. Then it flew to the UK, Dubai, Singapore, Sydney, Brisbane and to my door. 14 days later it got to me. There are several flights from California a day to Australia.
I had a package that went to Nashville then West Virginia to Springfield Mass. and finally to Connecticut where I live. Oh I forget to mention the package was shipped from the NY Ny just a two hour drive from here I live. It took 16 days to arrive.
Happening in California, too. The number of packages that end up being "looped" or "delayed" is ridiculous. I've had packages shipped from Los Angeles to Portland then back down to Sacramento, then back up to Medford, then back down to my postal carrier in California. I literally could have taken public transit and got my package sooner
Not USPS story, but talking about "loop back" package reminded me about when I lived in Wilmington DE, I ordered a package which I noticed left out of Wilmington NC via FedEx. I was tracking it, and somehow it ended up in Wilmington OH, before turning around and shipped back to my place in Wilmington, DE. I thought this was interesting.
A friend in Austin sent pkg to me in So. California. It went to Alaska - twice - then finally thru Seattle, LA, San Bernadino and then to me. Total time: 21 days. And the post office has no explanation. I checked the box when delivered to see if there was some incorrect tags, etc on box. None. Just got sorted incorrectly.
outlier here I guess, but we ship dozens of packages per day via USPS and they generally do a great job! Without their inexpensive Ground Advantage shipping, small light packages would be unreasonable to ship. But both USPS and UPS make mistakes now and again. UPS just told us that a package we sent was damaged so they threw it out - as in they didn't deliver it or return it to us, they just said they disposed of it. I'm sure we'll get our money back eventually but its weird that they didn't even deliver an empty box for us to see what happened.
I ordered an item from Amazon 5 days ago. It is being shipped via USPS. According to their tracking # it has gone through 6 different facilities so far. The projected delivery date is still 4-7 days away!
Not just a problem in Houston or big centers. Problems also exists in small town florida with local delivery people