An utterly insignificant but illuminating example of Government ineptitude

[ThomWV]

The United States Postal Service offers package tracking and receipt confirmation as do United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (FedX). Here is the difference between the services; with either the UPS or FedX service you can follow an items journey from start to finish with intermediate stops identified and times in and out noted to the minute. With the US Post Office system I have never seen an item so much as entered into the system until long after the item was actually received. It is the worst tracking system I have ever seen but unlike its commercial counterparts, which are a free service, you have to pay extra for it from the Post Office.

Oh, and those green "Return Receipt" slips that are supposed to find their way back to the sender after successful delivery of a package or letter and signature by the recipient - you'll see 1 out of 10 of those find its way back to you if you're lucky. Once again, an extra cost service that is horribly broken.

I give you this quote from a web site* I ran across when I got curious about postal rates:

"The Postal Service has little oversight, and virtually no accountability. It is an independent federal agency with commercial responsibilities. It has an annual budget of over $68 billion handling over 200 billion pieces of mail, yet it does not have to report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, comply with the Federal Trade Commission's truth-in-advertising rules, nor adhere to local government zoning and traffic regulations. It defines the scope of its own monopoly and, in some respects, regulates its competitors (such as mail receiving agencies).

Under current law we cannot effectively motivate the Postal Service to improve when service deteriorates for a particular mail class. The best we can do is to issue an advisory opinion which the Postal Service is free to ignore and generally does."

* http://www.cagw.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7773&security=1242&news_iv_ctrl=-1

[Old Codger]

1. Agree there

Have found this to be true, tried it once, never heard if package was delivered or not. Not again..

[sandnsea]

2. *sigh*

The Post Office is responsible for delivering many more millions of pieces of mail than UPS or FedEx, probably more than UPS and FedEx combined.

The little green return receipt slip costs extra because it can be attached to any piece of mail, even a letter, and is an extra service. UPS does not require people sign for every package and if you wanted a package signed for, you would have to pay extra. I have always gotten my return receipts, every time, for 30 years.

The tracking system is not good, true, but again, they are dealing with a system that moves many more millions of pieces. Can they scan every package and letter at every location? I'm not sure it's feasible.

The Post Office does a terrific job, considering what they do. I rarely have mail missing and it's usually cheaper. The workers are paid better as well.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. I agree with sandnsea!

[dysfunctional press]

6. "I rarely have mail missing..." apparently you've never lived in chicago.

when our regular mailman- mike, was on vacation or was out sick or otherwise, our mail service went straight to hell.

and the ravenswood 60625 post office was a cross between a nightmare and a joke.

[sandnsea]

7. When your mailman was on vacation?

Ah, so your mail runs so smoothly you notice when you have an unfamiliar postal worker. I don't judge the quality of any company by the efficiency of a new employee.

And certainly there are bad locations, just like there are some franchises that are worse than others. But I bet you couldn't put the local UPS people into that office and have them do any better.

[dysfunctional press]

10. "...so your mail runs so smoothly you notice when you have an unfamiliar postal worker"

no- i was friends with my mailman. and it wasn't always smooth sailing even when he was working.
i'm not saying that fedex or ups is any better- but the usps isn't uniformly efficient by any means.

and some of the people they have working the counters seem to be one notch away from the zombies in the living dead movies.

[tpsbmam]

13. I agree, though it has depended on where I lived......

I had two delivery people who were WONDERFUL! I loved them to death -- they were always looking out for their customers and got to know many of us pretty well. They went out of their way to be helpful. And my service was superb -- never had any mail problems.

I note someone else on the thread mentioned Chicago......OMG, my service when I lived in Chicago was abysmal! I had mail, including priority and overnight mail, not reach me at all and I had mail (again, including priority and overnight) that reached me a month after it was mailed. The service was just horrendous. IIRC, Chicago was the place where "they" discovered undelivered mail that had been sitting in a warehouse for years.

Where I currently live it's very mixed. I had one person call me and ask if I had moved -- she sent me a Christmas card about 2 years after I moved here and it was returned to her with a "moved, no forwarding address" stamp on it. I now live in a small, rural community -- they can pretty much easily learn everyone's names after they've been delivering their mail for a year or two. The mail in my town is pretty widely acknowledged to be fairly sucky, though my delivery people are sweethearts.

[Old Codger]

14. If so

Never said they didn't do a good job on regular mails but they offer the Tracking service and charge for the tracking service but do not deliver the tracking service as advertised...if they cannot deliver then don't offer the service, pretty simple really. They do indeed do a fairly good job otherwise.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. I think the USPS is one of the great values in America.

Maybe it's just me? :shrug:


Those free tracking services aren't free. Check the costs of the individual services.

[elfin]

8. Me too.

I switched from UPS to USPO years ago, mainly due to Saturday service. Even if that has changed since then, I will continue with the Post Office.

Cheaper and has always been reliable for me.

[MrsBrady]

5. the only time i have ever

NOT gotten a return receipt was when I sent a notice to my health insurance company.
Oh, they got my info, but they didn't sign for it somehow.
I send my taxes with a signature required...and also fines, citations, or letters to credit cards, etc.
When there are deadlines or possibly legal matters.


I don't think the post office should have to make a profit - it's a government agency designed to service the public.
Or at least it was.

[Ioo]

9. I have 100% of the green thigs returned to me... must be user error.

I send out (because of a side job I have) about 5 mails with green slips, and I have only not received ONE, and that is because the letter has not been picked up yet (refuse delivery). So you must not be doing it right.

[Fumesucker]

11. I sell a lot of stuff on ebay..

I use USPS Priority Mail exclusively and have been doing so for ten years.

With Priority Mail you get delivery confirmation at no extra charge and I have used it to in fact confirm when a package was delivered when there has been an issue, it has saved me trouble several times.

Not once have I had a package go missing.

USPS is far and away larger than Fed Ex and UPS put together.

[Hoyt]

12. My experience as well, even shipping guitars, etc.

I've had good luck with UPS and Fedex too; but, the postal service works great and is usually cheaper. Also, try shipping a guitar or something similar overseas and see what's the best deal -- Postal Service clearly. I do like FedEx for overnight business documents where time is critical.