Post Office Failing: I mailed an important document from Fort Myers FL to St Petersburg FL on the 24th of May as Priority Mail with a Certified Mail add-on. It's now 31 May (7 days)...

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

I mailed an important document from Fort Myers FL to St Petersburg FL on the 24th of May as Priority Mail with a Certified Mail add-on.

It's now 31 May (7 days) and my tracking number says it is in St Petersburg but delivery has not been verified.

What the hell? Why offer a service if you can't complete the service.

Sarge69

BlokeOzz Loc: Morphett Vale South Australia

Hell Sarge, you have nothing to worry about, a person here in Australia, has just received a letter that was posted to them 41 years ago Go Figure

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

sarge69 wrote:

I mailed an important document from Fort Myers FL to St Petersburg FL on the 24th of May as Priority Mail with a Certified Mail add-on.

It's now 31 May (7 days) and my tracking number says it is in St Petersburg but delivery has not been verified.

What the hell? Why offer a service if you can't complete the service.

Sarge69

If no one got their mail, I would say there is a problem. I've had mail go missing, too, but the Postal Service delivered 177,000,000,000 pieces of mail in 2011. Their workers are under pressure to get things moving quickly. It's inevitable that items will get lost.

Relax and look at the bright side: all of your bills arrive on time, right?

dljen Loc: Central PA

Sarge, I live in Podunkville, Pa, away from most civilization and send for a lot and inevitably the post office takes it from Maryland to South Carolina or something. I've had lots of item from Harrisburg to St. Louis until they realized the mistake and begin sending it back to PA. They're the reason for any problems they may have.

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

dljen wrote:

Sarge, I live in Podunkville, Pa, away from most civilization and send for a lot and inevitably the post office takes it from Maryland to South Carolina or something. I've had lots of item from Harrisburg to St. Louis until they realized the mistake and begin sending it back to PA. They're the reason for any problems they may have.

The worse thing is that the distance from shipping to intended receiver is 111 miles. That's one hundred eleven.
Under 2 hours driving. WTF Post Office.

Sarge69

dljen Loc: Central PA

sarge69 wrote:

The worse thing is that the distance from shipping to intended receiver is 111 miles. That's one hundred eleven.
Under 2 hours driving. WTF Post Office.

Sarge69

Harrisburg is 2 hours from here and so your travel, like mine, should be overnight. Somehow the P.O. screws it up all the time.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Actually, I feel sorry for the post office. We've live in our house 37 years. I've never had a letter mis-delivered that I dropped at our post office. I used to look forward to the mail when good things used to come...like actual letters...and checks. Now I pay everything by computer or automatic withdrawal and there's no weekly writing of the bills and trooping to the post office, counting the letters to make sure I had them all, and making sure I had stamps on all of them. I kinda feel like the Post Office's demise is partly because of me, but then again, times change. I do love it when REAL birthday cards come in the mail. Keep up the good work, Hallmark!!

Billbobboy42 Loc: Center of Delmarva

dljen wrote:

Sarge, I live in Podunkville, Pa, away from most civilization and send for a lot and inevitably the post office takes it from Maryland to South Carolina or something. I've had lots of item from Harrisburg to St. Louis until they realized the mistake and begin sending it back to PA. They're the reason for any problems they may have.

I, too, get strange shipping routes via USPS. Just this past week I got a package that originated in NC and was shipped to NJ first, then to me on the MD Eastern Shore. Also, both Fedex and UPS have contracts with the postal service, where long haul packages are shipped to your local post office and then delivered by said post office. My experience (I do most of my purchasing on the web) is this method adds an additional day or two to the shipping times.

sarge69 Loc: Ft Myers, FL

Billbobboy42 wrote:

I, too, get strange shipping routes via USPS. Just this past week I got a package that originated in NC and was shipped to NJ first, then to me on the MD Eastern Shore. Also, both Fedex and UPS have contracts with the postal service, where long haul packages are shipped to your local post office and then delivered by said post office. My experience (I do most of my purchasing on the web) is this method adds an additional day or two to the shipping times.

I don't know if it's this PO here at Ft Myers. About 3 months ago we send mail via Priority Mail to my daughter in Portland Maine and it took 3 weeks to get delivered. Is this going to be standard for Priority Mail or should I go FedEx? Very disappointing since I worked just short of 5 years for the PO and we were very careful in our PO about Priority/Express/ mail and signature required goodies.

Sarge69

Fractured_Lens

jerryc41 wrote:

If no one got their mail, I would say there is a problem. I've had mail go missing, too, but the Postal Service delivered 177,000,000,000 pieces of mail in 2011. Their workers are under pressure to get things moving quickly. It's inevitable that items will get lost.

Relax and look at the bright side: all of your bills arrive on time, right?

does that figure address actual mail sent from one individual or company to another... or does that figure include all the junk mail they deliver... the junk mail outnumbers the regular mail probably 4 to 1 if not hire and he post office gives "discounted" rates to that waste of paper, time, and resources.

Fractured_Lens

I live in a small New England town of 9,000 and the local post office won't hold a special package, I may have coming in, so that I can pick it up before my 3pm mail delivery. They don't have time for that... however, I could go in and buy one stamp and they have time for that... go figure... maybe if they would charge $1 dollar for "special pick-up"... they charge for everything else. And how much money would they save or lose if they stopped being a "gift shop" and printing their own commemorative stamps just for collectors (which are actually totally worthless considering the millions they print).

SteveR Loc: Michigan

sarge69 wrote:

I don't know if it's this PO here at Ft Myers. About 3 months ago we send mail via Priority Mail to my daughter in Portland Maine and it took 3 weeks to get delivered. Is this going to be standard for Priority Mail or should I go FedEx? Very disappointing since I worked just short of 5 years for the PO and we were very careful in our PO about Priority/Express/ mail and signature required goodies.

Sarge69

That is disappointing, Sarge. I never bother with Priority Mail since it gets there in about the same time as first class mail. Whenever I've used Express Mail, it's been there the next day by the time promised. Again, I've been pleased with our post office.

Fractured_Lens

I was told, by my local postmaster, that Overnight or 2 day express mail doesn't mean it will be here overnight or in 2 days... it means they will try, but it's not "guaranteed" lol... so why are we paying extra for it?

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Flash_Your_It wrote:

I was told, by my local postmaster, that Overnight or 2 day express mail doesn't mean it will be here overnight or in 2 days... it means they will try, but it's not "guaranteed" lol... so why are we paying extra for it?

As I said, I've never had a problem with Express Mail, and at half the price of FedEx, it's been a bargain.

Fractured_Lens

SteveR wrote:

As I said, I've never had a problem with Express Mail, and at half the price of FedEx, it's been a bargain.

Not doubting you... just stating that there are problems with the system... whether or not they can be fixed is another issue altogether.