How did it survive? (USPS rant)

[birminghambass]

Hey TB, my latest adventure with our fine postal service. Bass purchased 9/27, shipped the next day from NJ. I'm in Birmingham, AL. 9/30 it arrives in Atlanta, a 2 hour drive from my house. No update for TEN DAYS! I file a missing mail claim. 3 days later it resurfaces, back in NJ! The seller calls USPS, they said they were sending it back to him for reasons unknown. He redirected it back to me. 3 days later, 18 days after being shipped it finally arrived.

Somehow it survived unscathed. I've had nothing but bad experiences with USPS lately. Unfortunately I've had nothing but bad experiences with FedEx lately as well. UPS has been solid, but only recently. At this point I'm considering just going local for gear purchases/sales.

 

[JRA]

...but no damage to the instrument, right?

 

[Pdaddy1978]

Your tax dollars at work!
Just like the DMV, IRS, and others, they are honey badgers. They just don't give A/F.
This dosent mean there aren't good,honest, hard working employees among their employ.. there are...but, overall they are immune to accountability. Nobody's gonna lose their job, no matter how bad they goof up.
I've had much better luck with FedEx.

 

[Snibborwocky]

Guess I'm kind of lucky with shipping, although I don't buy much these days to have much shipped to me but, I really haven't ever had a problem with big boxes (instruments & amps) from FedEx or UPS in the past. The only slightly bad shipping experience I've had recently that I can remember was an effects pedal that was shipped through USPS and jammed so tightly in my mailbox that pulling it out literally ripped apart the sides of the box. The postman could have taken the extra 30 seconds to place it at the front door if it obviously didn't fit but it wasn't damaged in any case so I let it slide.

 

[Gusdfunk]

That's a poor packing job, what did they expect?

 

[birminghambass]

That's a poor packing job, what did they expect?

How so? Thick cardboard, lots of internal padding. The tape was purely for reinforcement. It's no less safe a box than any I've ever used. This was 100% on USPS.

 

[Shepsdad]

I buy a lot of guitar parts from eBay, and they always ship USPS. It seems that it’s either extremely fast and efficient, or absolutely horrible, nothing in between.

I seem to have pretty good luck with FedEx, especially when the package gets into the local system, we have several different FedEx drivers that all do a great job of getting packages to my door. USPS on the other hand, is almost always a different person every day and you never know if they will decide to deliver to us or not.

 

[birminghambass]

I will say that USPS Priority is ok. Their "Ground Advantage" service is hot garbage.

 

[buldog5151bass]

I ship close to 100 packages per year. I find USPS, especially priority, the best.

Remember, the number of packages everyone is handling has gone up exponentially because of Amazon, Ebay, etc.

 

[GKon]

Your tax dollars at work!
Just like the DMV, IRS, and others, they are honey badgers. They just don't give A/F.
This dosent mean there aren't good,honest, hard working employees among their employ.. there are...but, overall they are immune to accountability. Nobody's gonna lose their job, no matter how bad they goof up.
I've had much better luck with FedEx.

The USPS does not use any Federal money, including your tax dollars

 

[jTrolt]

the number of packages everyone is handling has gone up exponentially because of Amazon, Ebay, etc.

We just had a local UPS depot CLOSE, due to Slamazon's shift into the delivery business, so not sure that's the slam dunk statement it used to be.

Further, gone are the days of driving to the local PO for packages that won't fit in my super-sized mailbox. Man, those people were the Amazon warehouse before the new one opened up here, and it was clearly beyond overwhelming them.

I can say I see almost 100% Slamazon and U-Haul (fed ex) as of late, with plenty of crazy wierd delays. Thankfully, packages that they "loose" still seem to arrive on time....? I received a Home Depot item (63 Lbs!) via U-haul delivery on the day it was promised, while the Fed Ex system says "Sorry, we don't know what's going on, unexpected delays" and a shipment history that shows nothing more than "label created".
Good thing I'm honest, or I might ask for a refund on the lost Item I just recieved.

Nothing makes any logical, patterned sense any longer, and I'm inclined to believe any of them are a crap shoot. Give it a week, and it'll all be changed again.

Seems handing it all over to AI is going swimmingly well.

 

[J-Bass RMR]

For a Bass and other large-box items - not only is UPS the only shipping service I will use - I can't fathom why anyone would USPS for such a thing.
Not just because of cost alone, but their carriers aren't equipped to handle it.

I just received a bass from a member here. I offered to cover shipping by sending him the UPS Label.
Pirateship 50x20x8 35lbs (which doesn't matter)
UPS: $53.00 arrived in 2 days
vs. USPS $88.00 Ground Adv (no way!) $120 Priority

I've never shipped a box that looks like that. (and there's a few members here that will attest to that...)

USPS works fine for the small / relatively light-weight packages - but if it's a valuable or irreplaceable item - I'll use UPS.

 

[buldog5151bass]

We just had a local UPS depot CLOSE, due to Slamazon's shift into the delivery business, so not sure that's the slam dunk statement it used to be.

Further, gone are the days of driving to the local PO for packages that won't fit in my super-sized mailbox. Man, those people were the Amazon warehouse before the new one opened up here, and it was clearly beyond overwhelming them.

I can say I see almost 100% Slamazon and U-Haul (fed ex) as of late, with plenty of crazy wierd delays. Thankfully, packages that they "loose" still seem to arrive on time....? I received a Home Depot item (63 Lbs!) via U-haul delivery on the day it was promised, while the Fed Ex system says "Sorry, we don't know what's going on, unexpected delays" and a shipment history that shows nothing more than "label created".
Good thing I'm honest, or I might ask for a refund on the lost Item I just recieved.

Nothing makes any logical, patterned sense any longer, and I'm inclined to believe any of them are a crap shoot. Give it a week, and it'll all be changed again.

Seems handing it all over to AI is going swimmingly well.

How many people no longer go to stores, the mall, music stores, shoe stores,even supermarkets? Brick and mortar retail is dead on dying in many industries. The clear fact is, far more packages are being delivered every day than even a few years ago. These people are overworked, and held to schedules that simply do not allow careful handling.

 

[Pings Bass]

Your tax dollars at work!

The USPS does not use any Federal money, including your tax dollars

Came here to say this. USPS is 100% self-supported, which is why the mail is still getting delivered during the govt shutdown.

Also of note is that USPS and UPS are the only shippers with union contracts, which means better pay and benefits for the workers, which theoretically means they have more reason to give a hoot about the packages they're handling.

Damage happens during shipping; it's inevitable. That's what shipping insurance is for.

 

[TrevorOfDoom]

Your tax dollars at work!
Just like the DMV, IRS, and others, they are honey badgers. They just don't give A/F.
This dosent mean there aren't good,honest, hard working employees among their employ.. there are...but, overall they are immune to accountability. Nobody's gonna lose their job, no matter how bad they goof up.
I've had much better luck with FedEx.

This is also slightly disingenuous considering that DeJoy, the previous Postmaster General, cut funding and resources to the USPS in an effort to drive customers to private shipping companies.

 

[micguy]

I haven' thad any real damage to anything in a long while. I did have a package coming via USPS from California to Illinois that got about 10 miles from my house, and then...ended up taking a side trip to ....Guam for a few days. Luckily it wasn't something I really needed right away, but I had a half built bass sitting on my bench for a few days waiting for it.

UPS and Fedex regularly deliver one of my neighbor's packages to my door, and occasionally mine go to the neighbor on the other side. It's a townhouse community, so within 50 feet is OK, once you know that you may have to retrieve your package, or deliver your neighbor's package that last 50 feet.

 

[Dana R Gregory]

USPS has been very disappointing lately. Recently, it took over 10 days for a letter to go from Philadelphia, PA to Boston, MA. As a retired truck driver, I have done this drive in 6.5 hr! FedEx is terrible now. They won't even come on the property where my apt is located. Driver claims that no one was there to sign for the package and I am sitting at the window watching him drive by. They never ask for a signature! My solution is, if I purchase something and they ship via FedEx, I have it sent to a FedEx store near me. This works just fine. Someone is there to sign for the package and I can pick it up at my convenience. UPS has been fairly good over the last few years, though I have had major problems with them in the past. My feeling is now, when I need something, I will purchase at a brick and mortar store if at all possible. I don't mind driving a fair distance as I can look at the item and if I like it, buy it and bring it home with no hassles. If it is not in stock then I can have it sent to the store and I will pick it up when I can. I am really sick of the overpriced, unreliable, undependable shipping services available today.

 

[rogerbmiller]

I never use USPS for shipping instruments save for the rare occasion m when I ship outside the US. They are expensive, careless and archaic in their lack of ability to track your package.

In my experience FedEx is the best but priced accordingly and with prices getting out of control I now use UPS via Pirate Ship.

 

[scuzzy]

For me, it's changed over the years. FedEx was my choice early 00's. But recently they are delaying everything by many many days.

UPS has broken the most, but that was back in the early 00's. They have been better lately. I have a new bass being delivered on Monday, hopefully. And hopefully their positive streak continues.

Never shipped a bass USPS. They are my favorite carrier for smaller items, as long as priority is used

 

[gidbass]

Hey TB, my latest adventure with our fine postal service. Bass purchased 9/27, shipped the next day from NJ. I'm in Birmingham, AL. 9/30 it arrives in Atlanta, a 2 hour drive from my house. No update for TEN DAYS! I file a missing mail claim. 3 days later it resurfaces, back in NJ! The seller calls USPS, they said they were sending it back to him for reasons unknown. He redirected it back to me. 3 days later, 18 days after being shipped it finally arrived.
View attachment 7346947View attachment 7346948

Somehow it survived unscathed. I've had nothing but bad experiences with USPS lately. Unfortunately I've had nothing but bad experiences with FedEx lately as well. UPS has been solid, but only recently. At this point I'm considering just going local for gear purchases/sales.

Pics of the bass or i don't believe it did survive...