Time to piss off everybody here: you are both right and wrong.

From my firsthand experience with working with the USPS, they are the most ass-backwards organization in the US government. They have antiquated practices and technology, and more importantly, leadership. They are slow to act, slow to change, and in general, have a don't give a shit attitude. They are one of the few US government agencies that are unionized (actually, two), which leads to a variety of issues you do not see in other government agencies. They are the very definition of bureaucracy, and a lot of their challenges are self inflicted. On the plus side, they are cheap and serve the public good. On the negative side, they lose tons of money on parcels, which is a horrible business model.

For the folks that have not paid attention to the USPS before maybe two weeks ago, a lot of the things that you see with shutting down machines, etc have been common practices for many years, regardless of administration. They have deep, systemic issues that throwing billions of dollars at right now will not fix, and definitely not before the election. Fundamentally, the USPS needs to be rearchitected to address the new economy of mail (first class mail is down, junk and parcels are up). Personally, I would love to see the USPS provide banking services again to help serve those that are underbanked and underserved. That is a relatively easy thing you can do now to help reorient the Postal service.

Now, with that being said, I am disgusted that they are doing these things now, during a pandemic, and leading up to the election. The optics of this are horrible, and anything that causes doubt about our election system is a bad thing. Regardless of which idiotic party you pull for, nobody is going to be happy that the vast majority of this election is going to be conducted via mail. The media stories are going to be either "voter fraud" or "my vote was not counted in time", or both. As with most things, the truth will be somewhere in the middle. Regardless, these shenanigans do have an impact on the election and as an American, I think that sucks.

Simple, between now and November 3rd vote like we have for the past several decades.

Plenty of opportunity via absentee voting OR early voting OR in person.

One person, one vote. NOTHING has changed in YOUR ability to cast a ballot.

North Carolina, New York, Iowa and Illinois elections are just recent examples of the shit show that ensues with this crap.

When there is NO enthusiasm and low voter turnout anticipated then let's just flood the zone with millions of ballots whether people want them or not.

Who wants this and why?

What "sucks" is trying to get dead people and dogs to vote is no bueno.

With this last post, my vote is that i'm now out.

Iceman - good to hear, but seems like you're missing the point of this thread.

Just sayin'. Our mutual political beliefs aside.

Hey man. I don't think I'm shutting down your opinion, I'm asking you to perhaps back up your opinion. NOt sure why that bothers you. My apologies if it offended you.

Fauci says wearing a mask, keeping 6 feet apart, and hand washing/sanitizer will keep us safe.

If that’s good enough to shop at wal-mart, pump gas, and gamble in casinos....then it’s good enough to vote in person.

Some countries take great pride in voting....

877CF06A-CF93-46BF-8403-3B6875C6BEFB (resized).jpeg

Do you not see the error in your logic?

Nope
3F808629-7D0E-48BF-90F4-F73332CD10E1 (resized).jpeg

Yet...

He can’t. He’s wrong on virtually everything. Take it to the bank! Buy buy buy!

We got screwed up here, don't get home delivery we have P.O. boxes instead.
Some companies use the postal program to verify addresses, my address doesn't exist to the P.O. therefore they won't sell to me because...well...my house/address don't exist.
Then there are those who ask for a shipping address then proceed to mail the item instead.
This is where Debbie comes in, she knows me and calls when anything with a street address shows up and I go to that P.O. to pick it up.
She enjoys her job so that makes a world of difference.
My billing P.O. is in another town so if it wasn't for her that stuff would be returned to sender.
If a sender gets something back and calls me I try to explain the difference between shipping and mailing, usually an exercise in futility.

This crap has gone on since before I moved up here in '79.
We raised enough hell to either deliver our mail or stop charging for our boxes so USPS threw us a bone and we get free boxes now with proof of residency.

From what I understand about the sort facility in Berdoo they are taking out letter sorters to make room for package sorters that are not ready and will be arriving late.
Also, FedEx and UPS occasionally leave packages at the local P.O. and tracking lets me know they are there so there is some sort of deal with them and the P.O.

What would you do if you lived in BFE and the USPS was shut down like you want? Who’s gonna pick up/deliver your mail? Won’t be UPS, FEDEX or anybody else. You’re just SOL.

I could certainly see why someone who has shares in the latter two would want to work to destroy first one. Having things as a "common good" hurts the profit margin.

I am reminded of Saturday afternoons in Detriot in 1986. I would go to my friends house every Saturday morning and watch peewee Herman and w w f.

Of course we would smoke weed and after a short time the mailman began to stop and partake every Saturday.

Think it was the Fourth of July...

Ding ding ding.

It's sad that people don't want to understand the problems to make their own conclusions.. instead they just want to decide whose conclusions they want to believe. The dumbing down continues...

Flynn.jpg

I don't think his issue are your points, more the massive, continuous text vomits.

Even if people might appreciate your input and research, it gets a bit much to follow, retort to, or find focus within them.

Just wanted to share I've received a lot of packages through the post office over the last 6 months and have not had one single issue. No issues sending anything through the post office either. I had one problem with UPS, but not the post office.

I think it's people seeking 5 second answers to complex problems.

I give people the 'if you read nothing else...' highlights like this after providing the real background - https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/anyone-else-having-problems-with-usps/page/4#post-5808415 - and people can't handle something that compares 3 basic numbers??

They still want the catchy 'gotcha' punchlines of how all the complex problems in the world can be easily explained by a boogeyman. It's how people continue to repeat and regurgitate stuff that simply isn't based on truth. They hear something 'convincing enough..' and run with it.

Sorry, can't solve generational disfunction with 60 second tiktok videos and boogeymen fallguys.

Results still seem to be all over the place...

guy shipped me something priority package on Aug 20 (afternoon pickup) in Orlando. Original estimate was Aug 24.. was delivered Aug 22 morning.

I have a package that took two days to get from Phoenix to Minneapolis...and has been sitting there going on 15 calendar days.

I like to think of it as the USPS doing my covid package quarantine for me.

My wife likes to think of it as me forgetting her birthday.

I must be the exception to the rule.

USPS label created around 3 in the afternoon on Friday, which I figured was later than mail pick up. Tracking said label created but package not in their system yet.

So I figured I'd get it this week, maybe Thursday.

It came in this mornings mail.

I wish everyone's packages arrive fast.

LTG : )

USPS has been fine for me. Fedex rates are through the roof, and I just had a large order for a customer put on a delivery truck 4 days, with the driver lying each time saying the customer requested it not be delivered. By the 5th day it was beat to shit

UPS has shut down its customer service desk at a major terminal near us for pickups and drop offs to 4 hrs a day.

Both have announced they are going to hike rates during the holiday season because they’ll be so busy. Somehow they expect everyone to believe their costs go up when they make more money. They know they have the world over a barrel because of covid.

For better or worse, USPS can’t do these things. For anyone to suggest their problems are unique to them is completely disingenuous.

wait until you see the Covid thread...

This guys a real winner

I’ve sold at least 50 items on eBay since March and no problems yet. 1 item I purchased got lost in the mail for about a week but then showed up.

Do you somehow believe companies just grow without any new expenses?
Or that somehow because top line revenues are up.. somehow that just means everything is up?

Take UPS for instance
While consumer business was up for UP dramatically last quarter under covid... B2B shipping was down over 20% (bottoming out at almost down 40%). B2B is over 30% of their business.

Remember when all these employees were idled but still getting paid? That's an expense
Remember all those changes they have to make to employee working conditions? That's a drag on efficiencies, that drives up cost

Their margins in the US were actually LOWER this year compared to last due to these kinds of impacts.

I skipped that puppy months ago

I uhhhhh... ALSO left that thread by my own volition...

All this talk of sorting machines not mattering for packages is missing the point - they matter for mail-in ballots.

If I were Louis, I would have watched what she did to Jamie Dimon and possibly decided to learn about the post office over the weekend.

Then they should cite problems with handling that kind of mail... not late prescriptions, dead chickens, etc.

They aren’t making a valid argument when they cite “similar looking, but unrelated” problems.

Right now what we have is fear it could impact ballots - not examples. Truth is the machines were under utilized. They have other ones! They were reducing about 15% of their capacity in a space that is dropping almost double digits a year.

Even the stories about the USPS warning election boards about risky due dates... is the same concerns they have raised every cycle to the election boards.

here's my latest order coming from a company in Colorado. it's the second package that this has happened to in the past two weeks. the first one eventually arrived, this one is stuck, or at least hasn't been rescanned.

Here's another that has gotten jerked around. started in Mn made it to NJ where I live and now it went back to Mn. anyone's guess when or if it will ever arrive. USPS needs serious reform. If they want to raise the price of mail, I'm good with that if it means better reliability and faster service...what's happening now is pretty disgraceful and you can never get answers from them so it's pretty pointless to even try with a good 1 hour wait on the phone.

Tracking details
USPS tracking
Aug 25, 2020
4:04am
Departed USPS Facility
SAINT PAUL, MN 55131
Aug 24, 2020
12:00am
In Transit to Next Facility
Aug 23, 2020
3:08pm
Arrived at USPS Origin Facility
SAINT PAUL, MN 55131
Aug 21, 2020
8:02am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
NEWARK NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER
Aug 19, 2020
8:23pm
Arrived at USPS Origin Facility
SAINT PAUL, MN 55131
Aug 18, 2020
3:39pm
USPS in possession of item
DULUTH, MN 55804
Aug 18, 2020
12:41pm
Shipping Label Created, USPS Awaiting Item
DULUTH, MN 55804
Aug 18, 2020
11:41am
Tracking number provided

Capture2 (resized).JPG

Has anyone had an item stuck in ISC Chicago USPS terminal?

USPS has been pretty solid for me and my customers since about March.

It's still fubar. Blame Louis DeJoy, the Postmaster General. His policies have crippled the PO. Send him an email. You can guess his email address. He won't read it anyway.

I have had a box stuck in Chicago at the destination post office, but undelivered since April.

That is terrible right there. !

I thought I would update and say that after 17 days in holding, I did receive my part from the Netherlands.

Congrats... USPS is still managing to lose my shipments on almost a weekly basis. In the last two weeks four have gone missing.. and that is with tracking.

The lack of scanning is what kills me, why the hell have tracking as a feature if they don’t scan? F’ing stupid

Yeah. They keep bringing me bills.

Those never get delayed or lost.

LTG : )

I hope they can straighten out all of this. !!Very much a headache maker...

I had a small stretch in 2019 where a couple bills and a large order from Pinball Resource were on the run for a bit.