It's starting again with the USPS...
 

Full disclosure, I have a lot of respect for our Postmen, it's a difficult job, one I would not want to do. The Shipping delays, that came with last holiday season though, seem to be starting again.

Case and point, I agreed to purchase a card from a member here on Net54. Card was shipped, tracking received, original, expected delivery date, was November 30th. Yesterday comes and goes, tracking gets updated to December 1st; no problem it happens. Today rolls around, tracking updates yet again, December 2nd.

Be advised, if you're waiting on something, you might have to keep waiting. Comes with the territory of ordering and shipping during the season. I might have to wait until after holidays to order myself a late Christmas gift!

Same exact dates for me, on something I shipped from MA just going to NY, via Priority. Hopefully it'll show up tomorrow as it now says, but I know this time of year can be challenging for sure!

Prepare yourselves. We are severely understaffed and PMG DeJoy has slowed down service standard times. Combine that with the season we are entering and, well, there you go.

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That's because PMG DeJoy was appointed into a position he is totally incompetent for, period, end of discussion.

I've got a bunch of cards I want to sell but am contemplating waiting until after the holidays to do so for this very reason. With that said, I have been meaning to list/sell the same cards mentioned in the first sentence for about 8 months now so my contemplation probably won't take long.

I couldn't agree more.

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Let's hold off a little. There is ALWAYS some seasonal slow-down. A couple days is standard this time of year.

Yeah, almost seems just avoiding selling this month if you can. Another shitshow.

Herritage claims to have sent my check last Monday first class. Still waiting...

At least in my neighborhood it seems like the “your mail carrier may or may not show up on any given day(s)” time of year has started again. Yay.

More than a *hitshow with USPS
 

From my end receiving cards via USPS from eBay has been a challenge in particular for three months. During this time frame I have received promptly and accurately approx. 30 parcels. I have not rec'd 7 USPS parcels promptly and accurately. 6 of the 7 have not EVER been recd. The other one was recd but was short packed OR was opened and part of the contents (multiple PSA slabs) were removed. That parcel, a SMALL USPS FLAT RATE PRIORITY BOX, appeared to maybe have been opened and carefully resealed. It was delivered and did not appear to be tampered with upon a glance and when opening.

Long story short, I have been contacted by the US Inspector General's office by a Special Agent who investigates postal fraud/theft.

Hmmm.

It seems the Special Agent is suspicious of internal fraud/theft at my local USPS branch. He let me know I am not the only "Card Geek" that has been targeted in my area. I know of at least TWO other high end collectors in my area that have this same issue. It is still ongoing as I now have yet another missing pkg. from eBay that when tracked, stated OUT FOR DELIVERY on one day, but the next day stated "AWAITING DELIVERY SCAN". This incomprehensible tracking info has appeared in this fashion multiple times now.

The IG Special Agent is attempting thru a "STING OPERATION" to catch this/these perpetrator's. I cannot talk about the details, but you can only imagine. It is bad. Very bad.

What we collector's endure just to get our cards........

And don't get me started re what one must endure now to get cards from PWCC's monthly NOT eBAY auction now.

I'm lucky. The people at my local Post Office know me by name. I have the same delivery person nearly every day. Sending and receiving have been smooth as silk. Zero problems with the USPS.

On the other hand...

FedEx has been awful, in my experience. I've dealt with too many incoming package nightmares. They've lost packages entirely, delivered them to my neighbors, returned them to sender because they claimed my house was a vacant lot, etc., etc., etc. I've spent countless hours over the years with their (ahem) "customer service" representatives. That's on the receiving end. I simply won't use them to send anything; they've obliterated my trust.

So, two extremes. Guess I'll take that and be happy with USPS.

The Post Office has underperformed for years. The idea that the current postmaster general is somehow responsible for a relatively minor delay in delivery or even loss of a package is laughable. The Post Office lost many of my packages under the tenure of Obama PMGs but I do not hold those PMGs responsible because they aren’t. Please spare us your overzealous partisan boosterism.

Had a situation last week where I send a small package (4 oz.) First Class Mail from central NJ to eastern PA. Shipped it on Monday, 11/22. Checked the USPS tracking site on 11/23 and it showed delivered. Then got a PM from the customer "Got it, thanks!". The next day Paypal hadn't released the money yet so I went back to USPS and it now showed scheduled delivery for Friday, 11/26! Crazy.

You already beat me too it. It's December and the usps busiest time of the year. Even before the pandemic they always sent out reminders in December to do you shipping early because it takes longer this time of year.

I have noticed my outgoing packages are taking unusual routes in some instances, and when that happens it takes 1-3 days longer to get delivered, but nothing drastic yet. Incoming feels like about half are as usual and half are 1-2 days late.

Maybe this is where they are.

I am very fortunate to have a super reliable and great mailman, and have had no issues whatsoever with the PO (other than a few dented packages). But nothing late or missing in transit, knock on wood.

UPS is the carrier that continually drives me nuts. Every time I receive a parcel from them, I'm reminded of this guy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b1aRop-UbU

I just had a great result from USPS. A large Priority package was mailed to me from San Francisco on Saturday, 11/27. I received it Monday, 11/29 in western NY. That's as good as it gets.

Agree they have always been lousy regardless of who is in charge. Nothing has changed it's to be expected. They do they best they can, so what if you have to wait a few more days or weeks for your cards...I'm good with it.

USPS has been great for me recently.

I do have 2 pieces of artwork with funny shipping. Artist emailed me Monday with pic of my artwork packaged ready to ship. Said he would ship Tuesday morning. USPS tracking until this morning said Label created waiting for package. Then a few minutes ago it updated to being one stop from my house with zero updates in between.

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when my '56 Yogi Berra from eBay showed up at 10 am. Tracking had him not due until Saturday, and it was just a First Class package. Thankful for that, as I know further into December this is not going to be the case with a lot of other stuff...

The current guy saw fit to "save money" by removing a lot of the automatic sorting machines, because the new ones supposedly have enough capacity.
Except they don't. And they're more than a but unreliable and now many places don't have the old machines for backup when the new ones are down.

That and the idea he can fix the business by charging more and reducing the quality of the service.... Which rarely works for any business.

It's a difficult job, and I'm not sure anyone would have the right answers or if there even is a right answer. But those two "solutions" are certainly not it.

The business I own and operate ships 15,000 plus parcels through the mail per year. The last two years have been the worst I have seen by far. I am really bummed out by this change because my past success rate with the post office was always great.

Scary to me that privatized delivery services at least thus far in our history (UPS, FedEx, DHL...) are hated nearly as much as the USPS for their propensity to make delivery mishaps. Makes me wonder how high the Post Office's ceiling to actually improve really is, no matter how much money is poured into it. I'm picturing the jackleg contractor who recently worked on our kitchen looking at me and deadpanning - "This is as good as it gets." No, really?

Total baloney (not the lost packages, the laughable support of a total maroon). This man is a freaking idiot. TOTAL incompetence. And not a very nice fellow, on top of that.

agree

One need not be partisan to acknowledge that Delackofjoy is less than competent.

I prefer "DeVoidofjoy" [emoji1787]

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The man ordered that mail sorting machines be destroyed just as the entire nation anticipated the highest number of mail-in election ballots in US history. Now he is intentionally slowing down services and charging more for it. Incompetence is the most generous (and least partisan) way to read his job performance.

Agreed. Regardless of the situation he inherited, the man was a political appointee with zero prior experience in anything related to the job he was given.

I've been pretty lucky thus far. Worst was last December when my parents sent down a couple of boxes of Christmas presents. They sent them out the first week of December and they arrived near the end of January.

Only card I've had an issue with was earlier this year when I sent a card to someone who lives no more than an hour away from me in Maryland. The card went from Virginia to Maryland, then Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio again, and finally at the destination in Maryland. Took about 11 days to get there.

Stop it was never close to as bad as it has been unde this fraud some of you will excuse anything as long as it was done by someone you align with politically Come on

Ouch. That's insane. I've seen similar however. Here in Winston-Salem, NC - everything has to go to the hub in Greensboro, which is 25 mins away to the east. Even if you are mailing an in-city letter - yep. It goes to Greensboro first. I mean I get it (kinda...) but come on.

To be a bit contrary here, DeJoy spent decades in the logistics industry, which does give him significant experience applicable to the Post Office. I would also challenge the notion that he was incompetent for the job. He was perfectly competent for the job. But, that job wasn't to lead the Post Office; it was to destroy it. There has always been a faction of American politics that wants to privatize the Post Office and DeJoy can be viewed as their stalking horse.

Fair enough. He is the first postmaster in more than 2 decades without specific USPS experience. The rest I would agree with you at least probably on intention. I don't think it was a formally stated goal of the Trump administration to destroy the post office, even though that sounds up to snuff. His party has wanted to privatize it for years.

Because every thread needs a card, and people should keep political talk out of the card forum...

Only 2 packages but I got a new cable to go from my box outside to my modem and these 2 pieces of cut card art yesterday. Both in 3 days from when mailed.

Sold a T206 on ebay. Mailed 1st class 12/1, scheduled to arrive Yesterday 12/6, tracking says arriving late, buyer reported item not received today 12/7. No more selling this year and blocking him.

Not sure I understand the problem with a buyer telling you he didn't get an item when he expected to get it. Maybe he didn't see the update from the USPS? I've given sellers all kinds of hell in the past when this happens, although usually not until later. As a seller it's generally understood that the onus is on you to get the item to the buyer in a reasonable amount of time. The USPS service this time of year makes that extremely difficult, I'll give you - but doesn't change that fact.

He didn't send a message; He reported it. Tracking is attached to the listing.

On eBay? Ok. Frustrating, but they also won't do anything with it for awhile if it's a legit postal delay.

I'm confused about one thing. Did he give you a negative for this or just informed you about this delay in his receiving the item. If it's just telling you the item was delayed and as verified by the USPS then there is not much you can do at this point. If you got a neg you should be able to argue that one.

I have had a few problems with the ebay letter option. A few have never arrived to my customers and there is no way for the USPS to track them. They say the ebay tracking system is not in their system. I don't understand, then who scans the item ? Has to be USPS scans the item but it doesn't go in there system.

Yeah it's wonky at best. Somehow they get scanned, but every item that is sent to me like that is marked "delivered" by eBay before it actually is. Like they scan it delivered at the hub, and then it gets delivered in my mailbox the next day. I guess some tracking is better than none, but there are kinks in that system.

-Haven't received a negative
-he knows how to message and he knows i respond to messages.
-he opened a dispute because he didn't receive his package yesterday.
-he did not message about the mail running late.

Maybe i'm overreacting to his overreaction?

I'm not a big seller so maybe I'm not familiar with current ettiquette.

https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfi...%2C&tABt=false

I thought when you check tracking, it says "estimated" delivery date, doesn't it? I could easily be getting that thought wrong in my head but thought it did, or at least used to. I get the feeling that people just see the date and not the estimated part. Regardless, that buyer definitely jumped the gun on reporting as not received.

Yes, it initially listed Monday as estimated delivery. Now it says it's running late with no updated date. I believe he has much less experience with these things than we do.

Sounds like the new recruits at FedEx are former USPS employees. But like you Eric all the chicks at my post office can’t wait to get their hands on my package.

My last Fedex package needed a signature. It was actually thrown at my door. I went to sign as the truck was pulling away.

Mind sending me his ebay handle? I'd like to block him, too.

I once purchased a raw E90-1 Mathewson and it was sent with insurance, signature confirmation, the works. Our substitute mailman Johnny was an absolute moron who flew down the street, causing myself and my neighbors to exchange mail literally every time he was on the route. The whole entire neighborhood would call and report him - nothing changed.

Well, on the day this Mathewson was delivered to me, it was not delivered on my doorstep, yet a picture was uploaded with a signature. So, in other words, fraud. He signed it, and left it on the front porch of a random house and took a picture to confirm it was delivered. I called the Post Office and was given the run-around with claims that it clearly was delivered. I would ask, does that look like my name that was signed there?

Their reply? Well sir, we dont know what your signature looks like.

Ebay wouldnt do anything because, again, it was signed for and delivered with a picture to confirm it. It didnt matter that I showed them a picture of my front yard which contained nothing that was in the picture.

This was a Friday, so Saturday I saw Nancy, our regular incredible postwoman, and literally ran down the street to catch her and asked her to be on the lookout for this package. She was well aware of Johnny. I showed her the picture of where he left it and she knew she had seen this house. The following Monday, she brought the package to me - saying she could see it from the road. Johnny was fired.

So, if anyone was ever wondering what it takes to get a USPS worker fired - this is it.


And thus ends the entertainment for the evening.


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well kids, the moral of the story is do not be like Johnny

After a real slowdown a couple weeks ago, the last week or so I have been receiving packages much faster (in some cases, faster than normal). Anyone else noticed this?

Yeah. It's very hit or miss. I got a '56 Berra about 3 days early last week, but today had a different card show up 2 days late. As long as they eventually get to you, you can't really complain this time of year. I find that stuff coming from the Northeast and New England tends to have the worst slowdowns for some reason.

We've been hit really hard with labor market problems. It's rough – jobs take forever to fill. I imagine the fact that USPS drug tests only exacerbates their hiring woes up here.

FWIW, packages are slow up here, but our postal workers are always pretty good at estimating how long the delays are. I've kept track of everything I've sent, and their projection is usually within a day's accuracy.

Since the pandemic began, I've had maybe a dozen packages where I couldn't sign electronically or waive the signature, and only on one (Fed Ex, a guy I had never seen before so probably new) has anyone actually rung my doorbell and asked for a signature. It's fine with me as my porch is perfectly safe.

My porch is just as safe as yours, but I had waited for 4 hours to sign when the package hit my front door.

I had pleaded with the sender not to require a signature to no avail.

FedEx "signature required" and them then playing the extremes of that (either throwing the package and not caring, or making it difficult and virtually demanding you sign in blood...) seems to be a thing that's gone on for some time now. What's with that?

We are lucky, no issues with any carrier...

Frank's wit is so sharp, the man uses it to open boxes.

And :
 

It's been said he sets off alarms entering the boarding area of airports.....

..

The USPS has been delivering packages in a timely manner in my area. The only problem that I've had recently is that I can still see the tracking on a package "out for delivery" that I received over 2 weeks ago.

I need this meme as much as anyone else, but wanted to share.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9a8407e9ef.jpg

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Two things in the card hobby that you can guarantee:

1) People will complain about buyers on Ebay and how "they're getting worse"

2) People will complain about USPS and how "they're getting worse"

These two things are as sure as the sun coming up. In my 20+ years online as a member of eBay and various card forums, those two things have ALWAYS been going on.

Last week, I had someone mail me a package that they shipped at around 2pm. I had it the next morning.

I mailed someone a package on Saturday. Dropped it off around 11am. It was delivered 800 miles away on Monday morning at 7am.

8, 000 miles , yes eight thousand
 

..***** ..An hour ago I received , literally this morning on December 14th , here in the blatant boondocks of the coal regions of Eastern Pennsylvania , halfway between Pottstown and Pottsville , a standard first class normal padded envelope of autographed '36 Chicle and Goudey photocard premiums , which was postmarked December 10th in "Haiku , HI. ", 96708 , which according to Googlemaps is in the blatant boondocks of Maui ......four days .......go figure......and why the cards were in Hawaii in the first place is another story , I'm sure.........so , Mele Kalikimaka to the USPS ......( Der Bingle's version of that song is far and away the best )

..


..

I refunded my guy because the package was MIA for several days. Requested he contact me if it arrived. Few days later it was delivered. He messaged me that he would send paypal. I replied with my paypal email and now waiting.

Tabe you're right; everything always goes smoothly. Thanks for sharing.

Nah, that's not what I said, as you're well aware.

Thank you!

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