The Post Office Express Mail, "Guaranteed" Next-Day Noon Delivery
In reality, the only thing that will end up racing is your pulse as your stress level climbs when you try to find your package and the person you're told to call at the local post office says it "might" be there tomorrow. Might. Even though the sender paid for it to be there by noon today -- "guaranteed."
To borrow from that Fedex line, the USPS should advertise like so, based on my unfortunate experience today:
When it absolutely, positively needs to be there by noon and you'd like to spend the entire day wondering where it is, whether it might get there the next day or sometime during the next week, and calling around to post offices and then being told to call back in a half hour because nobody's there.
I actually know never to rely on the Post Office for overnight mail, but the package had already been sent.
When the USPS came out with "Overnight Delivery" years ago, I thought that, based on its past reputation, there was no way it would properly be able to compete with FedEx or UPS.
Also, it seemed that before FedEx was getting off the ground with that slogan, people knew how to plan projects so that they could be properly shipped to their destinations on time. Afterward, it was like, "We can just wait until the last minute because FedEx will get it there overnight." And a whole new generation of procrastinators was born.
Fayd at August 2, 2013 1:24 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/08/02/the_post_office.html#comment-3834451">comment from Fayd"Sarah" in the Orange, New Jersey Post Office told the sender, "I don't have a computer" (to look up the tracking number) and that she has "no way of contacting the driver."
As the sender said to me, "Bullshit."
Amy Alkon
at August 2, 2013 1:54 PM
I'll bet when Ben Franklin was running the Post Office, they had some way of getting a hold of the delivery people on the road.
Fayd at August 2, 2013 2:40 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/08/02/the_post_office.html#comment-3834505">comment from FaydLatest is, "new employees didn't put it in the right spot." They "found" it -- with mail that had been collected to go OUT from the Orange Post office. It was NOT on a truck. Janet, at the Orange Post Office, who's been nice to me, sent it out with the driver. The guy it's going to finally had to leave the house to go pick up his kids at their class -- and is now racing home to try to get there before the driver comes and goes.
Awful, stressful, and a confirmation about what I already think about things run by the government.
Amy Alkon
at August 2, 2013 2:44 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/08/02/the_post_office.html#comment-3834513">comment from FaydI'll bet when Ben Franklin was running the Post Office, they had some way of getting a hold of the delivery people on the road.
I bet packages got there so they didn't have to do that.
Amy Alkon
at August 2, 2013 2:54 PM
/snarky comment
Remember to bring this up when a life-saving device is shipped by USPS 'overnight' to someone depending on Obamacare and their device doesn't arrive on time.
/snark off
I use USPS Priority for most everything I ship, but if it needs to be there by a certain day/time, I use FedEx or UPS.
Patrick at August 2, 2013 3:29 PM
I have had about the same luck with all of them. UPS being the most troublesome (e.g. blacking out my RMA number on package). Airborne was the real problem one - well not so much about the time, just in my company's experience at the time we had about 25% damage rate.
I am waiting for a check in the mail today that really should have been here yesterday and now it looks like it won't be here until tomorrow. Just first class mail so nothing I can do.
The Former Banker at August 2, 2013 5:51 PM
A friend embedded at USPS as a consultant for over a year has told me stories of rot. FWIW they're trying to get him back in because his fixes were the only ones that stuck.
DaveG at August 2, 2013 7:20 PM
"Awful, stressful, and a confirmation about what I already think about things run by the government."
I dunno if you knew this, but at least in some states the USPS offices are run by franchisees.
Radwaste at August 3, 2013 7:39 AM
I remember years ago watching a postman just walking across the grass from house to house to drop the mail. Then one day I see another one riding in his truck and he went up the sidewalk, then back down and to the next house.
I asked him about it the next day. Apparently he had been assigned an auditor/inspector and the rules were to go up and down the sidewalks, not on the lawn.
Jim P. at August 3, 2013 8:26 AM
No surprise. When I worked at Amazon, one of the things that was tracked was lost package complaints. USPS was far and away the worst offender.
I've ordered hundreds of packages from Amazon myself, and USPS is the only one to have ever lost one, despite most being shipped via UPS.
Just what I expect from a government monopoly run by union layabouts.
Jordan at August 3, 2013 8:35 AM
The mail I was waiting for yesterday finally came today...after the bank closed.
It was sent pre-sort so doesn't have a post time so I don't know when it was actually was sent.
The Former Banker at August 3, 2013 7:40 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/08/02/the_post_office.html#comment-3836746">comment from The Former BankerThis was a cashier's check -- sent to arrive at noon so it could be deposited. Unfortunately, the Post Office was temptingly across the street from the bank.
Amy Alkon
at August 3, 2013 10:29 PM
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