Got to love USPS

That is an awesome story. And I bet there are a million similar stories. I regularly buy items from ebay (to sell on Amazon FBA) and ebay is tied into USPS so a lot of ebay sellers ship that way. It is rediculus how poor they post office is. They generally take about twice as long as other shipping methods ie: UPS and Fed-Ex. I don't have any stories as silly as yours but I did tack a package that was shipped in Sacramento CA then went to Stockton and then later back to Sacramento and eventually it started to travel in my direction. 5 days wasted right there.
They do not update their tracking information well at all. They should consider using computers to track their shipments because it looks like they do not do so.

Funny you should bring this up. I just received something from the post office that was shipped to me from 100 miles away. It was shipped over a month ago. SMH.... lol

RoD

Glad I don't have any USPS horror stories. I have both shipped and received chicks and mature chickens via USPS, all alive and well. I got a trio of mature chickens shipped from CA a year ago. They arrived the next day after shipping. Of course they are going Priority and it costs considerably more, but they are pretty diligent when they know it's a live package.

I think Australia Post can beat USPS.

When I lived in Sydney, I was sent an ordinary letter from a local business that went via Japan and took just over three weeks to get to me.

The reason it beats yours is that the company could've got someone in their office to hand deliver it to me. They'd have walked out of their office, dropped it in my mail box and been back in their office in the space of about five minutes. Yep, the company's office was about 200 metres away from my place.

OK! I will NEVER forget when I had a package shipped from NY to IL, via UPS! I picked the most economical TRACKED method, but the company had OTHER plans! It was shipped, and got closer, closer, closer, and then it waited! It was handed off to USPS, WITH THE INCORRECT ZIP CODE!!!!!!!

OK, there is a system that has been in use for about 52 years! It was called the "Zoning IMPROVEMENT Plan"! It boils down to a number today called the ZIP code! EVENTUALLY, there is a code called the ROUTE code. That breaks down to addresses, etc... But FORGET all that, there is that pesky ZIP CODE! A given ZIP code is for a particular city. EVERYONE knows this!

OK, OK, SOME companies neglect to deal with that, but ONE company *****ABOVE ALL***** is MANDATED to deal with it, and has been for over FIFTY YEARS! The US Postal Service, or USPS for short!

Anyway, it seems like many deliverers now use the USPS to finish shipping on some cheaper plans. As I was saying, the company I ordered from messed up ZIPCODES, and never checked! They handed it off to UPS, which NEVER checked! They handed it off to USPS which NEVER CHECKED! The USPS used the zipcode to route to the shippers route, and found THE CITY DIDN'T EXIST!!!!!!

THEN, I had them try again, and they said next time I should try one that could be tracked. I DID the LAST TIME! They tried sending it out AGAIN, with the correct zip code, but the postman said he delivered it and the people that were there to receive it said he DIDN'T! IT WAS LOST! People were spreading rumors about what must have been shipped that I cared so much about it. I had plans for this electronic component, and was going to get back into electronics as a hobby, paid over $100 for it, and the shipping companies were playing keep away. ALSO, I didn't know how long I was going to be there. It was to take THREE days to successfully get it,and it took over 2 months to attempt it twice, and I gave up.

BTW GUAM, as a US possession, should be on the ZIP code, and probably succumbed to the SAME garbage!

BTW a KID could EASILY create a program to compare the state and city to the zip, and kick it out if they don't match. The hardest part is getting the file, which the USPS created over 52 years ago and updates to this day! So WHY can't the USPS do it? WHY can't UPS do it? WHY couldn't SPARKFUN? What is SO hard about doing something that a person in programming class for more than a week should find EASY to do?

Steve

I had a similar experience with FEDEX when I ordered a mic stand from ebay. It shipped out of California, then "I forgot what other states" then finally arrived in Wichita Kansas which is where it was supposed to go before going to my local post office.

Well instead of going there it headed over to Oklahoma, then Arkansas, Then Texas after that wound up in Florida, back to Wichita and then over to Colorado, then back to Wichita again and finally they delivered it.

It took over a month to finally arrive. I didn't know if the tracking was wrong or what. lol

That mic stand sure took a trip.

My last experience with USPS was when someone on my website cut some rocks for me then shipped them back to me. The package, after 3 weeks, ended up back at his house and he called me for the "right address" - which happened to be the one that was on the package.

I can't remember any horror stories with USPS.

I just got a check mailed from Juneau, AK on Jan 30 to the wilds of Idaho in 4 days. I can't complain.

Remember that X-Files episode where a postal worker was the Devil?

USPS can be crazy sometimes. I've had packages sent from 50-ish miles away travel half-way across the country before finally reaching me. I've had tracking show a package as being 100s of miles away, when in reality it was already delivered.


I've found that usually they're pretty good with delivery and tracking, but sometimes they can be comically way off!

I live in Ontario Canada and had shipped out paperwork to a person about 200 miles away expresspost.When I tracked it showed it was stuck in Ontario California.And came back to Canada and was shipped once again to California.Had to call main plant and have them pull it when arrived back the 2nd time here.6 Weeks later it was delivered.Got my $12 worth.LOL

I've been using USPS as one of my primary shippers for over 2 1/2 years and have never had any trouble until recently - twice.

The first time the postal clerk accidentally entered a 9 instead of a 3 as the first number of the destination zip code and instead of going to Alabama, my package ended up in California! They shipped it back to me at their expense but I still had to get the order out asap and couldn't wait, so I had to pay an additional $17.90.

Now I have an order that had two identical medium flat rate boxes going to the same destination in Oklahoma. One arrived in two days (Friday). The other was supposed to arrive on Saturday, but somehow this one didn't get scanned in when it arrived in Oklahoma. USPS has record of it leaving Phoenix the night after I shipped it but now it's nowhere to be found. I may have to put in a claim and ship the order again.

Needless to say, I ain't very happy with them right now. Grrr...

Last October I shipped ahead a trade show display booth via Fedex for a conference I was exhibiting at in Las Vegas.

Yep. They lost it.

Made it all the way to Vegas, then disappeared into thin air.

It was awesome. Row after row of companies exhibiting their wares. And then me. A sad, empty space with a table. To top it all off, the stress helped push me over the edge into a full-blown sinus infection.

I estimated about $5k in expenses for me to be there. And I felt like crap. Stressed. Sick. Dejected.

I made a new friend in the Fedex rep who was charged with finding it for me. I spoke to her every day for weeks, even if it was just for her to tell me they hadn't found it.

Eventually, they did find it. Just a few miles away from the conference hotel, in a Fedex lost package facility.

The best part? They returned it to me. Then denied my claim. Because they returned it to me.