[USA Shipping] That´s why USPS deserve to run out of business - FURIOUS RENT!

[Zucca]

Just a warning to everybody out there:

Expected Delivery Day:   Saturday, October 4, 2014

My A$$!

https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction?qtc_tLabels1=9405509699939271302462

October 4, 2014 , 8:52 pm
   

Departed USPS Facility


GREENVILLE, SC 29607

Your item departed our USPS facility in GREENVILLE, SC 29607 on October 4, 2014 at 8:52 pm. The item is currently in transit to the destination. No further information is available for this item.

October 4, 2014 , 8:09 am
   

Arrived at USPS Facility
   

GREENVILLE, SC 29607

October 2, 2014 , 9:00 pm
   

Departed USPS Facility
   

TULSA, OK 74141

October 2, 2014 , 8:40 pm
   

Arrived at USPS Origin Facility
   

TULSA, OK 74141

October 2, 2014 , 7:25 pm
   

Accepted at USPS Origin Sort Facility
   

STILLWATER, OK 74074

September 29, 2014
   

Pre-Shipment Info Sent to USPS

It was a beautiful FLUKE 375 True RMS Clamp Meter w/ iFlex i2500-18 Attachment... I will never touch it. It is lost in the stupid USPS no sense forest.

I screw up also the ebay protection since I was assuming it was just to protect against bad sellers, so I open a case and close it after I found out it was not a seller fault. BAD MISTAKE the ebay protection is also against USPS or shipping companies! So you thing ebay will reopen a closed case? FORGETABOUTIT.

My only card to play is now to wait and pray a little bit more and aterwards file a claim (warning you have 60 days time frame, so my last day is the 29th November 2014), I will get $50 back to buy me some ice cream in downtown. Ah, if you file a claim and get the money you package is taken out from the system so BYE BYE forever.   

I am so glad to read that USPS is just constantly losing money:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/12/business/USPS-reports-quarterly-finances.html?_r=0 

BECAUSE THEY CAN NOT DO THE JOB, AND IN USA somedoy like this need to go home and disappear from the market! Why USPS is still there? Let´s hire UPS and FedEx to replace thoose crooks!
I don´t want even to tell you how my local postal office is helping me... just throwing time in the garbage.

Anyway I suggest you to stay away from USPS and use other alternative.

Oh yes... now I feel a little better.

Interesting reading on the side:

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Packaging-Shipping/What-do-I-do-as-a-seller-when-USPS-loses-package/qaq-p/8109211

If you have any suggestion in this vale of tears, please do that. Now it is time for some home made Limoncello...

[Fraser]

I had an HF receiver worth GBP650 stolen from the USPS Bond Store last year....tracking showed it entering the USA customs en-route to the buyer.....it never came out the other side and was declared 'lost' presumed stolen.

UK Royal Mail did their best for me but were hamstrung by the appalling inefficiency of the USPS tracking system. R.M advised that USPS often do not scan the tracking bar codes of parcels passing through their system so parcels can just 'disappear' with no trace of where it occurred or who lost/stole it.

I was lucky as the parcel was insured for its full value but I still lost the GBP14 insurance premium as that is not refundable.

All this was of little consolation to the buyer of my receiver but he was very good about it. The receiver was a much sought after complete Lowe HF-150 receiving station with preselector and active filter speaker plus lots of other goodies for the HF-150 that I threw in as freebies. It was a Mint kit and unlikely to be found for sale again at GBP650. Both the buyer and I were very sad that such a receiver likely ended up in the hands of someone who would know little of its true value.


Aurora

[Artlav]

I'm so used to an average delivery time of 3 weeks, that i couldn't quite grasp the problem at first.
From what i heard, there are delays with mail going to Italy (customs-related?) - various Ebay sellers write about it in their estimation charts.
So, perhaps it's not lost yet.

Once, a few years ago, i ordered a 24-hour wall clock from UK.
The tracking ended at the export, and for weeks there was no sign of it.
Eventually, the seller filed a claim to Royal Mail, and supposedly the search began.
No idea what was actually done or not done, but 3 months later the package was found in St. Petersburg, and delivered within a week completely intact.
I don't know what sort of hiccup caused it, but that's the longest i had to wait for a package.

USPS, however, never failed to deliver in my case (that is, about 50 cases).

[IanB]

I had an HF receiver worth GBP650 stolen from the USPS Bond Store last year...

I don't think I would send something worth £650 ($1000) through the mail. It may be more expensive, but FedEx would seem like a safer option. (UPS might also be considered. I've not had any personal issues with UPS, but I have heard horror stories about them. Also I think FedEx have more presence in the UK than UPS do.)

[Terabyte2007]

I have had many issues with the USPS. They are a joke! Lost a new multimeter last month, luckily the seller refunded my money quickly and I bought it elsewhere. Unfortunately, eBay has a deal with the USPS and if you want to use their automated shipping worldwide then you have no choice. I won't bore people with the details, but I have had so many missing, damaged and wrong packages over that last year it's ridiculous. UPS and FedEx are so much more efficient and better than USPS that it's not funny! Also, the USPS tracking is an utter failure also, it's so bad that I can get delivery confirmations days after it's been delivered and many times receive packages before the tracking is updated! Although it is a necessary evil we must live with, I try to avoid USPS when possible.

[george graves]

I ship with USPS 3-5 packages a day.  Only 1 out of 500 packages gets "lost" - and I suspect most of those are ebay scammers that claim their package never arrives, even though tracking shows it's delivered.

Best shipping dollar for dollar in small packages. 

[Marco]

Unfortunately, eBay has a deal with the USPS and if you want to use their automated shipping worldwide then you have no choice. I won't bore people with the details, but I have had so many missing, damaged and wrong packages over that last year it's ridiculous.

You sure it's USPS and not the reshipper? I had an extra box (with a plastic trolly which wasn't worth shipping back across the ocean) with my last delivery, which was clearly added at ebay's US reshipping center.

[Zucca]

1/500 is 2000 ppm! Praise Jesus USPS do not built cars or airplane... Please stop to use USPS. Don't go cheap... Is not worthy....

[Terabyte2007]

Unfortunately, eBay has a deal with the USPS and if you want to use their automated shipping worldwide then you have no choice. I won't bore people with the details, but I have had so many missing, damaged and wrong packages over that last year it's ridiculous.

You sure it's USPS and not the reshipper? I had an extra box (with a plastic trolly which wasn't worth shipping back across the ocean) with my last delivery, which was clearly added at ebay's US reshipping center.

In the US, Yes. Anything outside the US is reshipped depending on what country it goes to. My post was describing issues with the USPS here in the states.

[Terabyte2007]

1/500 is 2000 ppm! Praise Jesus USPS do not built cars or airplane... Please stop to use USPS. Don't go cheap... Is not worthy....

 

[Corporate666]

I ship about 10-20 packages per day with USPS.  They aren't the best, but infinitely better than they used to be.

It used to be that there was no tracking at all, just confirmation of delivery.  On 4 or 5 separate occasions, I'd drop off 20 packages at USPS, and only 2-3 of them showed up in the mail stream.  USPS would say "well, if there is no scan... you didn't drop the other 17-18 packages off".

I was trying to help them work out a problem - likely a thief in the local USPS who knew the packages weren't scanned and decided to try to steal them.  If you ship Express Mail, you have to call the postal inspector in Boston about a lost package/insurance claim.  If it was Priority, you call the 1-800 number.  If first class, you have to go to your local post office. 

It's a bit of a mess, but thankfully they only lose about 1 in several hundred now.  They used to average about 1 in 50.  The loss rate went way down with the full tracking.  The best thing about them is they are cheap, they deliver nationwide in 2-3 days, they have free supplies, they pick-up for free, and they deliver on Saturdays at no additional cost.  In my case, the savings makes up for the occasional package I have to refund to a customer.

[VK3DRB]

I would give it another two weeks.

I once waited 6 months for about $2,000 of rare books and some priceless documents. Its now been more than 2 years. I assume they were stolen under Australia Post's "care". Whoever opened it up knew what they had found.

However, most non-electronics people would not have any idea what a Fluke 375 is, or its value, so it is unlikely to be stolen.

[sweesiong78]

zucca, how good is poste Italiane? would be interesting to compare the national post carriers

[GreyWoolfe]

I also try to avoid the USPS like the plague.  All of us remote field techs here in Florida have UPS campus ship accounts through our company.  Everything from a signature pad stylus to much larger, heavier and expensive items goes through UPS.  The tracking alone is worth it.  We had an expensive printer "disappear" "in transit" between 2 technicians.  It eventually ended up on eBay.  We had to buy it back but UPS settled with the company (probably due to the amount of shipping the company does across the country).  If I am personally shipping small and cheap, I will use the USPS.  If the item has any value, I will pay the additional shipping through my personal UPS account.  Besides, UPS ground within Florida is next day delivery-an added plus.

[SeanB]

You never met PX services ( now only a memory), who had a very efficient tracking system. They could tell you when your parcel was lost, and where, but for some reason they never were able to fix that.

One parcel in three would go missing, but as they always would refund you the insured value, plus the waybill cost, and insurance was 1% of declared value ( and was part of the waybill cost so refunded as well), along with giving a free waybill.

We used them as they delivered where other couriers did not, and were about 2 weeks faster than the post office ( still on strike, but hoping that Monday has them back at "still life with postie" instead of missing in inaction), and generally the parcels were lost in under a day. So send, get lost notification, send again the next day and this would get through. One extra day was good, and we actually were paid out by them some months instead of paying in. No wonder that Spoornet eventually closed them, they were losing more money than the rest of the whole railways and SAA combined.

[TopLoser]

generally the parcels were lost in under a day

Efficiency you normally wouldn't want to boast about, but impressive nevertheless!!

[SeanB]

Yes, very impressive. Collected at around 4PM, scanned at door. Loaded onto truck and off to the local PX yard 2km away. Scanned in again at around 5PM, and they should have been containerised and scanned for despatch on the 10PM overnight goods train to Germiston. No scan and the next morning an email in the inbox advising of the missing parcel, and that afternoon they come with the free waybill already printed to collect the stuff again. The insurance was self insurance, and was built into the price.

[miguelvp]

No complains here with USPS as a whole in here, they are very efficient moving the parcels, it does fall apart a little depending of your local USPS office. But the backbone is extremely efficient and they do move parcels on weekends too.

Of course that doesn't beat same day delivery, I ordered a cable and for $6 it was delivered in under 24 hours, and my wife didn't place the order until way past 11pm, I wasn't home when it got here but it was before 6pm next day. It was like the courier had it on his house ready to deliver it to my place.

[SirNick]

Cheap, Fast, Good.  You don't get to pick them all. 

[george graves]

Well, you also just can't sell something inexpensive, say under $20 USD, and charge for UPS ground - buyers won't have anything to do with you.  Plus, UPS ground shipping seems to beat the living daylights out of packages.  Not to mention all the times UPS/FedEx will knock on the door once, and then leave a note for you to have to drive and wait in line to pick it up.      That just adds to a negative experience for your buyers.

And as someone mentioned, 2-3 day delivery, and free Saturday delivery starting out at $2 is an outstanding deal. At that price, I don't care if I loose 1 in 500 packages for low cost items.  It's just the cost of doing business.  If it's a price item (say $200 or more) I insure it at the buyers expense.  It's not rocket surgery.

[bills]

Out of millions of parcels they are bound to loose a few,I work for UPS If you want to know where your parcel is in real time there tracking is the best. you get what you pay for.

[Falcon69]

Just last month, on the news here, a mail handler working for the USPS was arrested for stealing mail/packages while working/delivering the mail for the USPS.

[bills]

yes there are bad people every ware.
we just have to be prepared and not fall into that temptation.
bill   

[Macbeth]

I've noticed a lot of overseas sellers will ship to the EU, but exclude Italy, just like they exclude Nigeria. This seems insane to me, I mean a first world EU country vs a third world utterly corrupt nation in a state of civil war?

But these are Chinese / Hong Kong sellers and have statistics to back them up and no axe to grind. I don't know if the Camorra, Calabria, et. al. are something to do with it?

[miguelvp]

European sellers avoid Italy as well, I've seen it even in the buy/sell in this board. I Don't know the reason why.

Edit: Google turns up that customs in Italy are hard to get products in, so maybe there are a lot of loss sales sitting in customs that never get delivered and the customers get their money back.