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 Replies: 17 / Views: 4,077 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1291 Posts |
My ebay auctions always finish up on Saturday night. Those folks who pay on Saturday or Sunday get their merchandise mailed to them on Monday morning with delivery confirmation. Lately, however, when I trace a shipment through their system it's been showing that the USPS didn't receive it until Tuesday. I thought it might have something to do with me putting it in the collection box outsisde the branch rather than taking it inside, so on Monday the 9th, I took a handful of packages inside at 8:30 AM and fed them through the slot. I didn't think about it again until I received an email from a buyer on 3/15 asking "where's my coin?" When I did a trace on it, it showed that the shipment was accepted at my local post office at 6:12 PM on Tuesday!! What the heck...?!?! Adding insult to injury is that it was bound for the state of Washington as of 3/10, but on the 18th it surfaced in Springfield Massachusetts! My customer is not happy - and to make matters worse - when he looks at the tracking info it looks like I didn't even bother to mail it until Tuesday afternoon! Has anyone else noticed anything like this? A major delay between when you actually mailed it and when the tracking info shows it was accepted...?  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
797 Posts |
USPS is notorious for this. I work for a company where we have to track packages and I've seen some crazy tracking recently.
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
You handcarry your sales to the PO, right? Hate to say it, but it's time for you to start sending scans of the PO receipt to your customers instead of just the tracking number. 99.99% of them are decent people who will understand it from there. The receipt will have the tracking number as well.
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Valued Member
United States
157 Posts |
I don't mail often, but I have received quite a few packages in my time. I know that when people mail me things via USPS, I kind of frown, and it has to do with the way they update their tracking. They've gotten A LOT better, but it's still garbage compared to UPS or Fed Ex. I really don't know how they're still in use, unless the Government is keeping it a float.
I ordered something from oversea's one time and it took over what it was suppose to be taking so I checked tracking, and it said it had been delivered... which of course it hadn't. I had to make a ton of phone calls and somehow it got tracked down to the main hub where I live, and I had to go pick it up.... it had my address written on it, but it had something written on it to the affect of "couldn't find, return" or something.
I am guilty of using USPS to ship out some stuff, simply because right around the corner, the little store has a tiny post office. I would relay to your customer, or show him your receipt with the tracking number on it, that shows the actual date and time when you mailed it. Tell them, you've had some issues in the past with delayed packages, you apologize, but it will get to them and it was shipped when you said it was (I hope you kept the receipt).
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1949 Posts |
I got burned once just dropping off at post office- package NEVER got scanned the entire time...
Now, when I drop stuff off, I make sure I get the receipt with the tracking scanned in at point of origin
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1373 Posts |
I agree; sometimes things that happen at USPS just don't look right!
I've been waiting since 3/9/15 for a pricy coin to arrive in the mail. The seller shipped it within 24 hours, and it left Cleveland on 3/10/15. First off, it took three days to get from Cleveland to Detroit. Then last Saturday morning (3/14) it left the USPS facility and is now ?
The post office hasn't listed any updates for the tracking in five days!
I wrote the seller today and told him, even though I don't think it's his fault, that the coin hasn't arrived yet.
I never have problems with cheap purchases, but big delays on expensive coins drives me crazy.
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Valued Member
United States
157 Posts |
Attic, call your local post office, it may be in the lock box if it's insured and a sign only package. Better to be proactive, if you think it should've been at your house already. USPS is terrible.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7625 Posts |
Steev...
Try using the SCAN form if it's avalble to you (if you are shipping multiple packages). It might help. You could also bring it up with the station manager.
On misrouted pkgs there is not much that can be done. It's just part of what we get when we pay what we pay. I ship maybe 1000 to 1500 packages a year. Out of that maybe two will get misrouted/delayed along the way---I can live with that %.
It's like I tell everybody... Go check and see what FedEx or UPS will charge you to ship a small 3 ounce pkg 2000 miles and compare that to what USPS charges.
The Post Office stinks sometimes but our economical shipping options are somewhat limited.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1291 Posts |
@Dave: No. Actually, I generally handcarry the packages with me to my day job, toss 'em into a plastic tub along with all the outgoing company mail and let our courrier take them to the post office. When I noticed that THOSE weren't getting scanned into the USPS system on the SAME DAY, I assumed the worst of the courrier. So I started dropping them off, personally, IN THE MORNING, but that didn't change anything. When you and Westernsky speak of "scans", what exactly are you talking about? Just visual proof of the fact that I created the shipping label...? Or is it something I have to get a postal clerk to do for me?
@Atticguy - that's really interesting that your wayward coin was in the Cleveland PO the same time as mine!! If you lived in Washington I'd be thinking that you're my customer!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7625 Posts |
Steev...
I think SCAN stands for Shipment Confirmation Acceptance Notification. After you print up all your labels you might be able to print out a SCAN form. (I use Stamps.Com). That SCAN form is a listing of all your packages, addresses and Delivery Confirmation Numbers. Those numbers are then all tied to one bar code that the clerk ends up scanning and it transfers all the information to the post office and shows when the shipment was accepted. The clerks like it cause they only have one thing to scan (the bar code on the SCAN form) no matter how many packages you have to ship. If there is a line at the post office I just pile the packages up on the drop counter and leave the SCAN form on top. Once they get to it, they scan the bar code and then put the SCAN form and receipt into my post office box.
I started doing it this way because the clerks would cringe when I would come to the counter asking for each individual package to get an acceptance scan.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7375 Posts |
That's why I make sure I bring them to the counter and watch them scan them in and get the receipt. Might not be practical for a large number of packages though, I know you sell quite a bit. There was a recent thread on crazy package routing. Still worst case scenario, even if you did mail them on Tues (which you definitely didn't,) it's still only 2 business days, which is totally reasonable. USPS is generally pretty good, but every once in a while  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7625 Posts |
Steev,
I know I had a package get hung up in Cleveland last year, too. It was only about 50 miles from it's destination but took several days to get there. I figured it was hung up in a mail bin in the back of a truck, fell off the conveyor or sprouted legs and took off running out an open door.
Ya never know!
Maybe there is a systemic problem with the Cleveland processing facility?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2077 Posts |
The sort facility isn't your local post office. It's a regional center where they aggregate and sort packages. There should be an acceptance scan by your PO on the day you drop them off. If they aren't, they're not doing their jobs.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3098 Posts |
I just had a coin delivered to a buyer where the tracking information was never listed. I emailed the buyer twice to let him know this and only knew he got the coin when he left positive feedback.
Another coin, dropped off at the post office lobby slot the same day, didn't have any tracking information listed until it was at the buyer's local post office.
Frustrating.
Paul Bulgerin
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1291 Posts |
Just as a follow-up to this:
A.) The coin that was supposed to deliver to Washington finally got there and the buyer was okay with it and seems to understand that the delay was no fault of mine. So I guess that's good.
B.) All 13 of the items I sold last Saturday (3/28) were paid for in time for me to ship them on Monday, the 30th. All 13 went out with delivery confirmation. Tracking shows that my local branch DID scan them in on 3/30. Only 1 of the 13 was going somewhere in my home state (Ohio). Of those other 12, NONE of them departed the state until 4/2! One departed on 4/3! But it's the one that went to Ohio that's the craziest of all...it STILL hasn't been delivered! It went from my branch to Akron to Pennsylvania and finally to Columbus. It's going to a customer in Marietta, Ohio, whom I've shipped to once or twice before. And we are talking about a nice, printed label out of the eBay/Paypal system, not some juvenile-looking hand-scrawled-with-a-Crayon address!
Sheesh!!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2335 Posts |
I've had a few that went the long way. The worst was one that went from here in Alabama to Florida, back here, reshipped & finally made it to New York....after 30 days in the mail, 2 postage fees, a full refund & a defect on my selling account.
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Replies: 17 / Views: 4,077 |
Posted 03/19/2015 12:02 pm
