Where's my Bass? USPS help needed

[Marley's Ghost]

My G&L L2000 was shipped USPS on 1/28 (a week ago). When I look online with the tracking #, the USPS web site still show the status as

"Status: Acceptance

Your item was accepted at 2:34 pm on January 28, 2006 in BERKELEY, CA 94702. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later."

Shouldn't the status have updated as the shipment moves across the country?

[klocwerk]

Originally Posted by Marley's Ghost

My G&L L2000 was shipped USPS on 1/28 (a week ago). When I look online with the tracking #, the USPS web site still show the status as

"Status: Acceptance

Your item was accepted at 2:34 pm on January 28, 2006 in BERKELEY, CA 94702. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later."

Shouldn't the status have updated as the shipment moves across the country?

only if it's an actual tracking number. Often it's a delivery confirmation number instead, and you'll see exactly what you're seeing.

[Chunk-O-Funk]

Originally Posted by klocwerk

only if it's an actual tracking number. Often it's a delivery confirmation number instead, and you'll see exactly what you're seeing.

+1

I was once told by USPS that the information that is updated on the web site will usually lag behind the actual delivery. In other word you will probably get your package before they update the information.

My guess it they simply don't scan packages in the fashion of UPS and FedEx.

I can only imagine a package that large for USPS would take more that one week from Berkeley CA to Delaware.

[Indiana Mike]

I have shipped USPS and they only show that it has shipped and that it has been delivered.Nothing in between

[jwsamuel]

This past summer, I got a Martin guitar from a guy in LA and he shipped it USPS to me, near Philadelphia. After two weeks, the guitar had not shown up and the postal service was being absolutely no help. So I called my Congressman's office. One of his aides took all the information. The next day, the guitar was delivered and I got a call from the postmaster apologizing.

Sometimes, you have to go to great lengths to get the postal service to do its job.

Jim

[Spector_Ray]

Because the USPS handles so many packages, including all other mail, it's virtually impossible to scan every piece of mail inbetween point a and point b. The only pieces of mail that are scanned everytime they change hands are Registered mail.

[Spector_Ray]

Originally Posted by jwsamuel

Sometimes, you have to go to great lengths to get the postal service to do its job.

So you called your congressman!?! That's like not getting your order fast enough at a restaurant, then calling the mayor to complain. There is such thing as a chain of command one can go through.

I don't know what transpired between the postal service being "no help" and you calling your congressman, but I can tell you that he didn't do a darned thing to get your guitar to you any quicker. Aside from voting themselves payraises and such, congress has much better things to do that track down lost mail. Believe it or not, we are capable of getting mail from one place to another and since we are human, mistakes do happen. When you consider we delivered over 211 million pieces of mail last year with a 96% delivery rate of overnight first class mail and over 803,000 employees handling all of it, it's quite a network but things are bound to happen. Sorry for the rant, but if people would ask questions starting with their carrier, I guarantee your problem will be solved without going to extremes.

[AFlyOnGeddysWal]

I sent USPS certified mail with tracking on the same day, the 28th, and even though I know the mail has been received, signed for, and my item has been shipped... I get the same notification online: Your item was accepted at 12:48 pm on January 28, 2006, blah, Information, if available, is updated every evening.

Their online system seems kind of useless.

[fatsobasso]

Originally Posted by Marley's Ghost

My G&L L2000 was shipped USPS on 1/28 (a week ago). When I look online with the tracking #, the USPS web site still show the status as

"Status: Acceptance

Your item was accepted at 2:34 pm on January 28, 2006 in BERKELEY, CA 94702. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later."

Shouldn't the status have updated as the shipment moves across the country?

It will show

[Fred312b]

i beg to differ with all of the previous posters- i've used this service many times in the past and it will give you updates of where your item is (approximately)- it's not as cool as the fed-ex/ups ones that give you a movement by movement account, but (in theory) at the end of each day there is supposed to be an update of which post office has received it... that being said, they do need to scan it when it's been received at a post office... also, since your's is going quite a distance, it might be on one of those usps contracted 18 wheelers driving towards a distribution center, hence the lack of updates...

[bongomania]

Ditto, they scan when it stops at a junction point, but not in between. If it's on a truck headed cross-country, and if it doesn't get unloaded or re-routed at any point, there will be no scan, and no update.

[Marley's Ghost]

Got it this afternoon. Sure enough, got the tracking email an hour later

[Spector_Ray]

Originally Posted by Marley's Ghost

Got it this afternoon. Sure enough, got the tracking email an hour later

That figures! Did it arrive in good shape? It doesn't exist if there aren't any pics.

[jordanm]

I had a bass shipped from Canada via USPS... it took a month USPS is way behind in tracking detail tech as well.. so unless its international I always use UPS if possible

[Marley's Ghost]

Originally Posted by Spector_Ray

That figures! Did it arrive in good shape? It doesn't exist if there aren't any pics.

It is unbelievable mint! Not a scratch! What a monster!

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by Spector_Ray

So you called your congressman!?! That's like not getting your order fast enough at a restaurant, then calling the mayor to complain. There is such thing as a chain of command one can go through.

I don't know what transpired between the postal service being "no help" and you calling your congressman, but I can tell you that he didn't do a darned thing to get your guitar to you any quicker.

Sorry, but you are dead wrong on that. As for the chain of command, I called my post office but the new setup routes all phone calls to a central number with a customer service department that covers the entire country.

The first person I talked to told me that 21 days after the package was mailed, they could put a tracer on it and to call back then. I called back after 21 days and was told that the person who had talked to me the first time was wrong and there was nothing they could do except wait for 30 days to pass, then the shipper could file an insurance claim. I asked that person for a phone number that would get me through to my local post office. She gave me one. When I called it, a recording said it had been disconnected.

So, since it was not possible to call the local post office, I went there instead and asked to speak to the supervisor. I was told it was her day off and there was no one there who could help me. They suggested I call the 800 number for customer service. Then they told em that there as no postmaster for that office but that there was instead a postmaster at the regional office. I called that postmaster but he was in a meeting and never returned my call. Two subsequent attempts to call him got the same result.

So, I called my congressman's office just to see if they could provide a telephone number I could use to speak to someone who could help. Instead, the person who answered the phone told me that they have someone on staff whose job it is to handle all the problems that constituents have with the US Postal Service.

The woman took all the information and said she would make some calls to see if she could get the problem resolved. The next day, I had my guitar and I received a call from the Postmaster, who told me he was calling at the request of the congressman.

So, don't tell me about chain of command or that my congressman did nothing to help because it only makes it clear that you don't know your rear end from a hole in the ground.

Does the postal service deliver a lot of packages without problem? Yes. But when they do make a mistake, they are impossible to deal with.

Jim

[Spacelordmother]

I'm in a bit of a quandry as to what I should do about a problem I'm having with my USPS deliveryman. I won a bass on ebay - it cost "enough" - and when it arrived, the mailman left it outside my door! Neither myself or my girlfriend was home at the time, and I feel I was extremely lucky that no one ripped it off. This same thing happened again last week when my Zoom B2.1u arrived - No one was home and it was left outside my door. I live in an apartment complex, not a house with a porch. There are people around here all the time, and although I don't live in a particularly shady neighborhood, I just don't think this is right.
Anyways, what can I do? I don't want to piss this guy off since that will only cause further problems for myself in the future. Any ideas?

[agreatheight]

I've had carriers (UPS, USPS, FedEX) all do horrible, horrible things to packages. So when shipping I always...

1) Always insure the item.
2) Take lots of good pictures of the item.
3) Take lots good pictures of me packing the item. And I double box and styrofoam peanut the hell of out expensive / heavy items.
4) Take lots good pictures of the completely packaged items. Steps 2-4 will assist in the reclaimation of insurance funds if a disaster is to happen.
5) Set up a signature form with the carrier. This step will insure Joe Delivery won't leave a $2000 preamp outside your door.
6) I pray to the mighty shipping gods that nothing will go wrong.

I used to play in a band with a guy who worked for a large shipping firm and what the told me about the way hadlers mistreat packages would send a shiver down your spine.

I am really very paranoid about shipping. I really prefer to buy something local, or drive to pick it up.

[toad]

Originally Posted by jwsamuel

Does the postal service deliver a lot of packages without problem? Yes. But when they do make a mistake, they are impossible to deal with.

+1. I'm glad you were able to get someone to help you.

I'm currently waiting for a package from Ohio to NYC and it's three weeks and counting. The last tracking information said that it left Jersey city (10mins from NYC) two weeks ago!!! No update since. I called USPS and after somehow getting to a real person, she hung up on me. I called again and went through the automaze. Again, the person hung up on me. Third time, hung up on me. Needless to say, I will never send a package USPS and I will never let a seller send me a package USPS. Seriously. I'll cancel the deal first.

[Maverick Blues]

Hey, at least you didn't have something shipped from that foreign country, "Massachusetts!"

Bought a second-hand bass from one of our very own TBers. When the estimated delivery day arrived and the bass didn't, I checked in with the UPS (not USPS) tracking system.

"Your package is being held for the required Customs inspections."

Wut da hey? Nobody told me Massachusetts had seceded!

Not only did UPS have no idea why a domestic package was going through "Customs," they actually tried to con me into believing that my "held" package that arrived later than the originally quoted date "is not being delayed" by the inspection.

I hear they have a bridge they want to sell, too.

Then there was the FedEx package that took nearly a week to get from Utah to... Colorado. (If you don't know US geography, check a map for the significance of that.) It, too, arrived here eventually.

Seems like all the carriers have their glitches from time to time. Nature of the beast given the massive quantity of stuff they move, I reckon. I think they all do an astounding job, considering.

Pack well, insure as appropriate, and cross yer fingers.

'rick

EDIT: Fixed a typo (give --> given). Yeah, I'm anal.